BE101OL 20190603 Observation Activity 4
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Dallas Theological Seminary *
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101
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Date
Dec 6, 2023
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6
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OBSERVATIONS FROM NEHEMIAH 1:4-11
___________________
A Paper
Presented to
Dr. Mark Bailey
Dallas Theological Seminary
___________________
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Course
BE101OL Bible Study Methods and Hermeneutics
___________________
by
Blake Martin
June 2019
File #1006577
1
OBSERVATIONS FROM NEHEMIAH 1:4-11
Nehemiah 1:4-11 (NASB)
–
When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and
mourned for days; and I was fasting and
praying before the God of heaven.
I said, “I beseech
You, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and
lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, let Your ear now be
attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You
now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons
of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned.
We have
acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statues, nor the
ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.
Remember the word which You
commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among t
he
peoples; but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you
who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heaves, I will gather them from
there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My
name to dwell.’
They
are Your servants and Your people whom you redeemed by Your great power and by Your
strong hand.
O Lord, I beseech You, may your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and
the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and make Your servant successful
today and grant him compassion before this man.
2
Observation Activity #4
1)
The paragraph opens with “When I heard these words…” which establishes a
temporal relationship, pointing to the report Nehemiah has just received
regarding Jerusalem.
2)
Nehemiah prepares us for his prayer by noting his physical posture (I sat down)
and emotional state of mind (wept and mourned for days).
3)
He uses continuity to show his posture “before the God of heaven,” noting again
a physical posture (fasting) and the act of prayer (arguably emotional, though
more relational).
4)
“I beseech You” introduces the prayer, establishing that Nehemiah has a
n
urgent request.
5)
Nehemiah’s
uses particularization when describing God, moving from
“
Lord
God of heaven,
” to “
the great and awesome God,
” and then to “preserver of the
covenant [and lover of]
those who love Him.”
6)
Vs. 6 begins with “let
,
” which
appears to link the description of God to the
logical result that he would pay attention to Nehemiah’s
request.
7)
“Let Your ear now be attentive (open)” and “Your eyes open” provides
emphasis through continuity; Nehemiah is imploring God to be especially
attentive to his prayer.
8)
Vs. 6 moves uses interchange combined with particularization/generalization:
Neh
emiah generalizes “Your servant” to “the sons of Israel Your servants,” and
then particularizes “the sons of Israel” to “I and my father’s house.”
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3
9)
Nehemiah emphasizes the extended timing of his prayer
; “for days” in vs. 4 is
continued in vs. 6 as “day and night.”
10)
Vs. 7 uses a comparative list to emphasize their utter disobedience (have not
kept commandments, statues, nor ordinances).
11)
Vs.7 notes that they “have not kept the commandments” which stands in
contrast to Nehemiah’s description of God as faithful to those who “keep His
commandments” in vs. 5.
12)
“Command” and “commandments” are repeated multiple times, especially in
vss.7-9.
13)
Vs.8 is arguably the climax of Nehemiah’s indictment of himself and Israel,
especially since what he describes is the actual state of Israel at this time (during
the Exile).
14)
“But” at the beginning of vs.9 tells us the following statement is contrast
ing the
unfaithful disobedience of the previous verses.
15)
Vs.9 is arguably the pivot of the prayer, moving from scattering the faithless to
a gathering of the faithful.
16)
The crucial principle is “return to me and keep my commandments.”
17)
The gathering is conditional on following the above principle.
18)
Vs.9 substantiates the extent to which God will go to gather the scattered who
return to Him (from the most remote part of the heavens).
19)
God’s promised gathering is particularized from “the most remote part of the
heavens” to “the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell,” which
likely refers back to Jerusalem.
4
20)
Vs.10 contrasts God’s redeeming work in His faithful servants to the sinning
servants of vs.6.
21)
Nehemiah uses repetitive phrases to emphasize his earnest desire that God hear
him:
“I beseech You,” and “may Your ear be attentive.”
22)
Nehemiah contrasts his and his countrymen’s attitude now (
we delight to revere
Your name) with their former attitudes (we have sinned).
23)
A desired result is that God make Nehemiah successful in what he is about to
do.
24)
Furthermore, the compassion of “this man” appears to be instrumental to
Nehemiah’s success.
25)
The end of vs.11 reveals Nehemiah’s current profession, and that “this man”
refers to King Artaxerxes (some context from ch.2 required).
Outline
1)
Nehemiah
’
s Repentant Prayer (Nehemiah 1:4-11)
a.
Nehemiah
’
s humble posture as he makes a request 1:4-5a
b.
Acknowledgement of God
’
s goodness 1:5b
c.
Acknowledgement of Israel
’
s failure 1:6-8
d.
A reminder of God
’
s faithfulness 1:9-10
e.
Nehemiah
’
s request 1:11
Contrasts and Comparisons
A lot of the contrasts and comparisons are noted above in my observations, but the
biggest contrast is between Nehemiah/Israel
’
s previous faithlessness and Nehemiah/Isreal
’
s
5
renewed faithfulness.
Many of the comparisons drive point God
’
s goodness, and Isreal
’
s
failures.
Also, the contrast of the scattering and God
’
s re-gathering is front-and-center.
Suggested Caption
Nehemiah
’
s prayer of repentance in light of God
’
s faithfulness.
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