After resting from his journey for three days and discussing his ideas with a few trusted people, Nehemiah set off on his first secret mission. To look at what needed doing, and to make his plans about how to proceed. Life with The Lord can be interesting and often exciting!!

It seems throughout life for many that whenever there are good things happening, there is something bad lurking in the background trying to spoil our joy, and ruin the project. Right from the beginning of time in Eden Satan has been trying to ruin things for the children of God.

Nehemiah asked not just for leave of absence, but that the king send him. He would then travel under the authority of the king, just as someone travelling today would gain entry to a foreign country, because they carried papers saying they were an emissary of a foreign power.

This verse is often used in teaching on prayer to say that panic prayers, arrow prayers are OK. Lord help me! or Oh My God! are arrow prayers. It is interesting that in a moment of crisis many who do not even believe in God will call out to Him.

King Artaxerxes seems to have been a good king, he reigned in Persia for 40 years, and the question he posed to Nehemiah shows that he noticed (and was concerned for) his servants. Nehemiah looking downcast was not normal. This King had great respect for the Jewish nation and for their God.

I was cupbearer to the king. This last verse of the first chapter is almost a throw away comment. But Nehemiah obviously thought he should give some short explanation of what he was doing, the responsibility he had, and why his visitors thought he could help the situation back home.

All through the desert wanderings of the Jews, God was teaching them that obedience would lead to prosperity and blessings, and disobedience would lead to struggles, loss and suffering. The Israelites had been exiled because they were unfaithful to their Heavenly Father. Many of them had turned to other gods.

This prayer is a good model to follow. It begins with praise, declaring who God is; not for God's benefit, He knows who He is! But by praying in that way, we remind ourselves who He is. Consequently, we can take our rightful place as believers in His Almighty Power.

The return of the exiles to their homeland had created wonderful images in the minds of those who were not a part of it. They thought that everyone had gone back to their family home and taken up their work as before. That would be the work of their fathers.