Q1. Prayer and Mourning

[Pastor Ralph]

Q1. (1:1-6) Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months? Why does he fast and weep? Isn't that excessive?

[pickledilly]

I think his burden and grief about the state of Jerusalem was so deep and so profound that every moment of every day must have been affected by it. His heart must have been totally broken and crushed with this anguish. He knew God would have to act in order for anything to change, and perhaps he determined to do the only thing he could do - pray - until God chose to intervene in the circumstances. Maybe he was strongly impressed that there was something he should do to help restore the security and honor of the beloved city and reputation of God Himself among the surrounding nations, so he was imploring the LORD to show him what steps to take. Maybe he was also wrestling with the danger he could be in if he obeyed what God was revealing to him about speaking to the king.

As Nehemiah continued to fast and weep, he remained in an intensive state of grief, humility, repentance, and petition over this shameful situation as he waited on the LORD for direction. Excessive? Certainly passionate and persistent! Well, I know I've been burdened and prayed for years about something before seeing the full answer.

[Nancy Decker]

Nehemiah'prayer and mourning reminds me of the depth of passionate love one can have for your children who are not saved...who like Israel , have not even bothered to look for God's face or His love or help. The length of time ...four months.... may have been controlled by his instincts, what was going on with Israel, or perhaps God gave him Peace for their needs. I only know my own children and a sibling who have not turned to God for their soul's sake have been a burden on my heart for about 43 years. My prayers are not yet answered that I know of, but I dare not stop, for I may be the only one praying for them? Sometimes, I wonder if I know how to pray aright for them, and if not, pray my Lord will take up this burden and carry it for me and continue to pray for them with me or without me when I die. That is a good thought or hope to have, for surely HIs Goodness and Mercy will attend me for I am one of His children....He has promised He will never forsake or leave me, and I have an eternal soul blessed with HIs Life.

I feel almost as much depth of passion for my country and pray we will as a nation wake up and repent of our sin, and be delivered from ourselves. God's plans are too awesome and immense in their purpose for me to grasp, but I feel His Kingdom will come soon on earth as it is in heaven...and I think many Christians are uniting in their spirits to really believe and pray..."Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". His desires are put in our hearts by His Spirit and the Holy Spirit is in unity with His.

[RonS]

Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months?

I think he prays until he gets an answer to his prayer. His answer is to go to the king and ask to go to Jerusalem and help to rebuild the walls and gates of the city

Why does he fast and weep? Isn't that excessive?

God wants us to pray with passion and commitment. God is all powerfull and we need to be in awe before Him.

The phrase, "great and awesome God" is striking. As mentioned in our study of Daniel 9:4, "awesome" (NIV, NRSV) or "terrible" (KJV) is y

[TennLady01]

Q1. (1:1-6) Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months?

He is heart broken for the place where his fathers are buried is being totally destroyed and he feels for the people his left behind family that are trying to return to the home land. He has it in his heart and wants to have God move for them so he does not let up with his praying. He wants God attention and is willing to keep on praying until he receives the answer from God and his help.

Why does he fast and weep?

Fasting has always got Gods attention. He does this to stay in before God day and night so he will be able to repent for the ones that have turned from God and done that which was wrong in the eyes of the Lord. We need to do a lot more of this now in our lives so that we can get the favor of God moving in our lives and those that we love also.

Isn't that excessive?

No even Paul said to pray without ceasing and he told us to do the same. We do not pray enough and when we do so many times it is bless ME help Me and give Me. Lord forgive us and help us to love others the way that Nehemiah loved his country and family. Help us Lord to learn from this man and to become as in love with others as he was to pray this way for them.

[Lorraine Wright]

Q1. (1:1-6) Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months? Why does he fast and weep? Isn't that excessive?

He was concerned about the condition of Jersuelum because it was the Jew's holy city. He broke down and wept when he heard that the walls had still not been rebulit. These walls offered safety from raids and symbolized strength and peace. His weeping was aloud as was the custom of the Semites.

[maggiemuggins]

Q1. Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months?

Because he has much disobedience by the Israelites to confess to God. He prays for forgiveness, for strength, for courage to face the king.

Why does he fast and weep?

Because if he is to ask God for these things, after they have been unfaithful, then he must let God know that he is truly repentant. That the Israelites are truly repentant. To make sure that God knows the extent of his heart prayers.

Isn't that excessive?

No. God wants us to be repentant for our sins. He wants us to come to Him with a heart that is ready to obey and be forgiven.

[Lisa Rupert]

Q1. (1:1-6) Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months?

NEHEMIAH PRAYS BECAUSE OF THE CONDITIONS SURROUNDING JERUSALEM, THE WALL IS BROKEN DOWN ALONG WITH THE GATES BEING BURNED WITH FIRE. JERUSALEM WAS IN GREAT TROUBLE AND DISGRACE.

Why does he fast and weep?

THE NEWS OF THE DISTRUCTION TO JERUSALEM DEEPLY AFFECTED NEHEMIAH THAT HE BEGINS TO WEEP ALOUD. HE WEEPS, MOURNS, AND FAST AFTER HEARING THE NEWS. "THE SUFFERING AND SHAME OF HIS COUNTRYMEN IS ALSO HIS SUFFERING AND SHAME."

Isn't that excessive?

NO, HE WANTED TO GET GOD'S ATTENTION AND TO SHOW HIM HOW HIS HEART WAS FEELING AFTER HEARING THE NEWS ABOUT JERSALEMS CURRENT STATE.

[ekila]

Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months? Such is a committed man to God, and display true commitment and communicates to God his plans, supplications for his people and prepares for presenting a case to the King. But prior to that he has to present his case before God.

Why does he fast and weep? Isn't that excessive? Fasting builds your spiritual mucsles. Weeping signifies the sorrow he feels for his people and his homeland. God sees the heart and acts with compassion for anyone who truly comes before him in revenence. Prayer fasting is a sign of preparadness and readiness. Develops attitude, power and confidence ( Attributes of great faith) in God and being presentable in the eyes of God. The spiritual strenght must be developed in order to tap in the sipritual realm and communicate with God.

Convincing God you are truly sorry and ask for his forgiveness.

Thank you

[Helenmm]

I believe that God puts prayers into the hearts of his intercessors at the right times. Intercessors are willing to receive God's burden, whatever that may be or cost. When great changes are required it is preceeded by great moves of God, and this required a adeep change in the hearts of God's people who had accepted the state of affairs for many years, as well as favour in the site of the King of Persia. The prayer was as much for change in the heart of the Jewish people as for permission to return and rebuild the temple. It was as much about repentance and a new attitude as about the state of Jerusalem, because the state of Jerusalem depended on the relationship of the Jewish people with Yahweh.

God hears prayers prayed in Spirit and in Truth, when He is worshipped with all one's heart, mind, soul and strength. A passionate God is the Father of passionate men who take responsibility. Men who worry whether they will be criticised for tears and weeping are not after God's heart. It is only Western tradition that suggests tears and weeping are inordinate emotion. God gave us our emotions to pour out upon righteous causes, not to be put in a cupboard and left there to wither and dry up!

O that we should never limit the emotion that God's righteousness arouses in us. Set us spend all our feelings in abundance upon the Christ who spent himself without limit, withholding nothing, on us!

[Rebekia]

Nehemiah Prayed for the sins of Jerusalem, it was in a terrible state not only with sinful people but broken down wall

what better way to get answer from God than to fast and pray,we are then giving up something to hear fron God. No it is

exessive.

[Rebekia]

Nehemiah Prayed for the sins of Jerusalem, it was in a terrible state not only with sinful people but broken down wall

what better way to get answer from God than to fast and pray,we are then giving up something to hear fron God. No it is

exessive.

[Alicea]

Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months? Why does he fast and weep? Isn't that excessive?

Because he is serious about his desire to see Jerusalem restored. He loves his people and he loves God. He wants his people back in Jerusalem where they can worship God. This effectual prayer by a righteous man. No it is not excessive, it is real.

[s8nfighter]

8 "Please remember what you told your servant Moses: 'If you sin, I will scatter you among the nations. 9 But if you return to me and obey my commands, even if you are exiled to the ends of earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.'

Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months? Nehemiah had a great love for his people but more than that he had a great love for his LORD. "The place I have chosen for my name to be honored." The place where God had chosen for his name to be honored was in ruin and this, I believe, was what burdened Nehemiah and why he prayed day and night for four months?

Was his greif excessive? The answer to this question is best answered by the question, "Was his love for God excessive?"

Faith, and worship are closely related and the place where God was to be worshiped was in complete ruin which caused the Jewish people to lose faith. Without faith in a savior people begin to prey upon each other, scrambling for their own salvation with disregard for others. "5:8 At the meeting I said to them, "The rest of us are doing all we can to redeem our Jewish relatives who have had to sell themselves to pagan foreigners, but you are selling them back into slavery again. How often must we redeem them?" And they had nothing to say in their defense."

Let's face it, the wall was not thier protection, the wall was not their savior, God was. By rebuilding the wall it just gave the people something to do while their faith came around. There is a saying, "If you cannot save them, give them faith, if you cannot give them faith, give them something to do until they regain thier faith. And we know that without faith there is no salvation.

Darrell

[ajtmaestro71]

Q1. (1:1-6) Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months? Why does he fast and weep? Isn't that excessive?

Nehemiah truly emphathizes with the Israelites and wants very much to interecede for them. I don't believe his praying day and night for four months is excessive. On the contrary, I think this shows his commitment to the cause of the Israelites and how much he wanted them to be restored and put back in right standing with God.

[Elder9]

Nehemiah prayed because of the dreadful news that he had received earlier concerning the city of his God. Nehemiah's love for his people and his God was over whelming. He identified himself with them in their struggle for survival. News of this type cannot just be shucked off, he felt the pain deeply inside, and it brought him to tears, mournful tears, the kind that gets God's attention.

His fasting and weeping was a result of the emotional trauma that had just occured. I believe that it was an involuntary instinct for him to do something in association with this tragic news. Fasting represents the seriousness of the situation and weeping represents the nearness.

For Nehemiah, not excessive enough, he needed to get a hold of God, and that right early. This was a very troubling situation, and if any resolution was to come, God would be the one to enact it.

[Roberta]

Q1 Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months? Why doe he fast and weep? Isn't that excessive?

He wanted to return to Jerusalem to reunite the Jews and to remove the shame of Jerusalem's broken-down walls. This would bring glory to God and restore the reality and power of God's preesence among his people.

Nehemiah prayed and fasted for several days, expressing his sorrow for Israel's sin and his desire that Jerusalem again come alive with worship of the one true God. Nehemiah demostrates the elements of effective prayer. (1) praise (2)thanksgiving (3) repentance (4) specific request and (5) commitment. No it isn't excessive? Heartfelt praers like Nehemiash's can help clarify any proble you may be facing, though God's great power.

By the end of his prayer time Nehmiah knew what action he had to take.

[lee trainor]

NEHEMIAH HAS TAKEN ALL OF THE BURDEN OF THE ISREALITES UPON HIMSELF, JUST LIKE DANIEL DID. HE FEELS THAT IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT HE FAST AND PRAY IN THE WAY THAT HE DID. HE KNOWS THAT HE IS A TRUE SERVANT OF GOD, AND TO SHOW GOD THE RESPECT AND REVERENCE HE DESERVES, IT IS NECESSARY FOR HIM TO SUFFER FOR THE SINS OF HIS PEOPLE. NEHEMIAH IS HEART BROKEN WHEN HE FINDS OUT ABOUT JERUSALEM. HE KNOWS THE ONLY WAY THAT HIS CITY WILL BE REBUILT IS THROUGH GOD.

[June]

Because the Jews had lost power and Nehemiah had a burden for the people. Israel was destroyed. The king had halted the rebuilding of Jerusalem's defenses. They were in great trouble and were disgraced because the gates were burned and the walls broken down. He is devastated for his countrymen in Jerusalem because he knows of the covenant God made with the people of Israel. He wanted them to turn from their evil ways and worship Yahweh. He had such a love for Yahweh, he wanted others to feel the same way he did. He knew that only God could do the rebuilding. I don't think his intercession for four months is excessive at all. When you know you are in God's will all things are possible!! He needed a breakthrough and until he was sure of it, he continued. Praise God!!

[godsanointed523]

Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months?

It is because he is in anguish and will not stop unitl he gets an answer to his petiton before God. He wanted to return to Jerusalem and reunite the Jewish people and rebuilt the wall so it can bring glory to God. He was doing what Daniel did and prayed and fasted and took the burden of the isrealites.

Why does he weep and fast?

It shows that he is grieving for the Israelites so that they can stand in favor again in front of God. It is notexcessive cause Daniel did the same

[winevine03]

I am really unsure how to answer this question as I do not know, I can only speculate why Nehemiah's prayer lasts four months. My best guess is that he is far away from Jerusalem, maybe feeling helpless to help physically, BUT, he is able to pray. Perhaps he is given strength from the Holy Spirit to pray through until he gets clear direction from God.

Again, fasting and weeping because he is so deeply affected by the news. Nehemiah must have had a strong sense, and respect for his heritage and love for his God.

[Bob E Jones]

Nehemiah has taken upon himself as an intercessor the sins and burden of his people Israel. The opposition that has arisen against him is overwhelming. He begins to empty himself out through prayer and fasting to remove any issues in his heart and mind over those who are contending against the command God has given him

[Candygoo58]

Q1. (1:1-6) Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months? Why does he fast and weep? Isn't that excessive?

Why does Nehemiah pray day and night for four months?

He knows that there is sins in the lives of his country men and he feels bad about it. So he prays and confesses the sins before God in hopes that he will fogive them.

Why does he fast and weep?

He knows it touches God when we take the time to fast and to weep. It shows him how sorry we really are.

Isn't that excessive?

No, it just shows that we are are sorry and want to come back to God.

[alisicia]

The children of Judah, were under Persian rule, after being taken into captivity by Nebuchadneezar, the king of babylon. (Remember where Daniel was?)

Nehemiah means (consolation of the Lord). Son fo Hachaliah, and from the tribe of Judah. Nehemiah was at Shushan, in the high office as the cupbearer of King Artaxerxes Longimanus. From 445 to 433 B.C., (12 years.) Certain Jews came from Judea, and gave Nehemiah a deplorable account of the state of Jerusalem. Nehemiah knew this was God's most favorite place in the world, and he understood that the reason why the children of Israel, were sent into captivity, was because of disobedience to God. God sent ten tribes to the North. The tribe of Judah and Benjamin remained near, and in Jerusalem.

The king and his wife loved Nehemiah, because he was loyal, and he was chosen to drink from the kings cup, before the king drank out of it. You had to be in pretty goood standings with the king, in order to be in that position. God saw to it that Nehemiah was in that position. God is always in control. Nehemiah's prayer was history, and prophecy, his prayer is also for us today. Israel became a nation again, in 1948, and the same things that where going on then, is still going on now!

The wall in the latter days is God's wall, being built up around his children today. Take a look around you, is God's wall around us in the nations today? Are we proud to say that we are Christians? with out being embarrased, made fun of, ridiculed, and just simply ignored? We are letting the word "God" be taken out of schools, the church's are teaching anything but God's word, being a Christian has become a bad word. Christianity, has become a taboo. We are having to have, more respect, for other religions, and not our own.

God is not pleased with his children at all. This time when he rebuilds Jerusalem, we are not going to be in flesh bodies, we will be in spiritual bodies. But first he is going to let Satan himself, come and deceive as many of these so-called christians, as he can.

NEHEMIAH'S PRAYER IS FOR THIS GENERATION, THE GENERATION OF THE FIG TREE!!

Take a look at who was giving Nehemiah, such a hard time! Sanballat, and Tobiah, we still have the same type of people today giving God's children, a hard time. They are in the four hidden dynasties, of today, Religion, Politics, Finance, and Education. We know that today, it's the Kenites, (the sons of Cain), who are behind all of the turmoil. Jesus warned us about the tares in Matthew chapter 13. The Kenites are the Tares!

Matthew 13:34, All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:

(You have to be one of God's Elect to understand what Jesus is talking about). Are you one of God's Elect? Do you have eyes to see? or ears to hear? Or are you going to stick with the traditions of men?

(35) That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

(You must know what happened in the very beginning, how satan has been at work trying to take over the God's throne, he drew a 1/3 of God's children away from God, and (God destroyed the FIRST earth age)that old serpent tried to destroy the seed line, through which Jesus, would come, by seducing Eve in the garden, and producing Cain, then he sent his fallen angels to mix with the daughter's of Adam, and produced Giants, God brought about the flood of Noah to get rid of them, then Satan continued to try to pollute the seed line by trying ever trick he could to decieve God's children.

Remember how he tried to take JOB? He wasn't afraid to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. He just wants to win a loosing battle. He knows he has been condemed to death, he could care less about your soul or mine. The minute we rebuke him, he goes to work. He uses his children to bring about his work, along with his evil spirit! BE ALERT!

Satan and his children, the Kenites are still at work! Jesus is telling us to pay attention!

(36) Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came to him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.

(37) He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;

(38) The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; (The Kenites). Cain's offspring!

(39) The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

(40) As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

Nehemiah is praying for this generation. because a lot of God's children, don't know who the kenites are, they don't study God's word. They just listen to what man says. God is trying to reach his children, but they are not listening, to him. This is what Nehemiah had to say them.

Nehemiah 2:18 Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.

(19) But Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?

(20) Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.

Our Father is calling a people to stand against the firey darts of satan, are you one of them? Will you fight against Satan and his fallen angels, against his children, the Kenites?

The enemy was in God's house trying to run things, and Nehemiah had to straghten them out! He prayed to God, and God said this is what I want , I'm behind you 100%.

[revking88]

I think that he is in agony over the state of Jerusalem. Nehemiah realizes the wickeness of is people and prays for forgiveness and the will to help the people of God. He knows that all the sin of the people and their shame is also his as he is a part of the Jewish community.

He mourns for his countrymen. I think he is crying out to God, pleading with Him to help his countrymen.

No, in a way I think it can be related to a loved one pleading to God, crying out for God, for someone who they just found out has cancer, for someone who is destitute and ready to end it all. Fasting and weeping and crying out to God shows the dedication that one might have to reach God.

TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART!