Issue 439
Have you noticed that it is impossible to get out of trouble if you refuse to admit you are in trouble? Picture a company that refuses to accept that the market has changed. Look at a team that was successful, but will not see that others have overtaken. Consider a sector that will not realize that it is now irrelevant. Watch an individual ignoring their damaging behaviour. We are talking about blindness – but there are none so blind as those who will not see, according to the old proverb. Visualize the red-faced, yelling man raging at the nearest person in a loud voice “I’m not angry!”.
Corporately or individually, this can sometimes be labelled the disconnected ego, by psychologists, who are describing the syndrome of separation between your inner world and outer reality. Less fancy words for it are “burying your head in the sand”.
After months of meticulous preparation and fact gathering, the young Nehemiah starts the speech of his life to leaders, priests, nobles and people of Jerusalem and the surrounding region with a wake up call to open their eyes and see. He wants them to see the trouble in front of them. Now as he was standing next to the ruined walls, he is not just offering to be a tour guide giving them a history lesson.
Nehemiah wants them to see the broken walls in a new way. He wants them to see what they have not seen before. He wants them to see in such a way that it stirs them in their souls. He wants them to see as he has seen and, dare he say it, as God sees.
We may be looking at a few words (36 in fact) but they are windows into his mind. Nehemiah knows his first oratory step is to inspire people to see differently.
Here is a suggestion for you. If you want to move people, show them something they have not seen. Show them something they cannot see till you show it to them. Show them something you have seen that they have not.
What is the point of showing people something they can already see? It may be an interesting reminder but it will not inspire them.
Let’s be specific here. Nehemiah is inviting people to look, not at something new, but something old in a new way. He wants them to see the broken walls, burnt gates and ruined city, not as they have seen it before, but as it could be.
We, however, are not looking at those walls as such, we are looking at his mind via his words. His mind is insisting they see as never before.
So now see his words “you see the trouble we are in” (Nehemiah 2:17). You are not just reading his summary but the Spirit’s edit. The Spirit of God has left this phrase for you. Nehemiah is revealing his mind and the Spirit is revealing His priority.
Watch carefully as Nehemiah uses the word “we”. First, he means himself and his audience, of course. But anyone can see that. Look deeper and you will remember that Nehemiah’s prayer style of confession when he used “we” to mean “we Israelites including me and my father’s house” (Nehemiah 1:6). He means all of us, now and the generations before us. Keep looking and you will realize that if they as children have suffered because of their parents and grandparents, then they as parents can inflict suffering on their children and grandchildren. “We” now means all of us, past present and future.
Don’t stop looking. Nehemiah has already spent months or perhaps years of his life, feeling that his inner architecture lies in ruins. Things get in that should be kept out. Things leave that should stay. His eyes burn with tears – the gates to his soul. His ears burn with rumours and shame – the gates to his mind. His nostrils burn with the stench of shame – the gateways to his feelings. His mouth burns with bitter regret – the gateway to his body. “We” means every part of him.
So the call at the opening of his speech is a call to see trouble, but it is not just trouble out there, it is people trouble, it is the trouble “we” are in.
It is blindingly obvious that he does not say “the trouble you are in” or “the trouble we inherited” or “the trouble our enemies put us in” even though that may be true. It would be simply not true enough. Nehemiah’s mind is concerned with the whole truth. Notice however that it is possible that his hearers do not yet realize the depth of his speech. Nehemiah is teaching them all they can see but not necessarily all he can see at this point.
Nehemiah stands with his people, past present and future, identifying himself as being in trouble with them and being part of the trouble.
Consider how different your business, your work, your church, your family would be and indeed your own life would be, if you spent more time seeing the trouble you are in, identifying with it and admitting your part in it. It is no accident that the New Testament tells us that if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. You may also like to reflect on the fact that what you do now will affect generations to come.
The more you look into Nehemiah’s mind via this speech you can begin to see how he is moving the whole nation to act.
There is more to this speech than meets the eye – as we will see.
Nehemiaih Chapter 2:16-17
16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work.
17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. ”
Nehamiah 1:6
6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you.
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Geoff Shattock
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