Nehemiah 1:1 Commentary and Bible Study

The month Chisleu was something like November and December, in the 20th year, which is clearly the 20th year of Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, emperor of that great Medo Persian Empire, as we call it. The Medes and the Persians had effectively taken over from the Babylonians, who also taken over from the Assyrians, so empires rise and fall, and now it is the turn of the Persian Empire. Artaxerxes is the king of Persia, and kings or emperors were very powerful in those days. With the vastly increased population of the world and the might of nations in our day, and the sophistication of weaponry and communications, we imagine that our rulers, especially of greater or large nations must be the greatest rulers ever. But we only have to follow a little the political affairs of the principal nations of the world, to observe how little power our presidents and prime ministers and so on really have. Whereas in those days, the ruler of the world's greatest empire was a despot who had absolute power. Artaxerxes was a very powerful man, and extraordinarily, as we shall see from the record, Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer. Now that doesn't sound much. It sounds like a kind of superior servant, but in fact the king's cupbearer would have been, in all probability, his most trusted adviser. Yes, he was the taster of anything that the king drank; yes, the principal person in ceremonial at banquets and all state occasions, but also the person closest to that despotic emperor. So a Jewish man, by the providence of God, had been placed in such a position, like Daniel before him, a man of considerable influence. What work he would have been able to do for the well-being of the children of Israel. Many, many things he would surely have been able to accomplish in their interests and in their favour, as he occupied such a position in the ruling court of the mighty Persian Empire. Here is Nehemiah in the palace at Susa, in our King James version Shushan the palace. He doesn't tell us in this first verse – and the old commentators would make much of this – ‘he doesn't tell us about his office. It's almost an incidental thing at the end of chapter 1, the last sentence: ‘for I was the king's cupbearer.’ It is absolutely necessary for him to say there, to explain what he was doing. The narrative cannot hang together without that piece of information. But he doesn't announce himself or state his position at the beginning of the book. He puts himself across as an ordinary person who just happens to be in Shushan the palace. The old writers used to make much of the fact that he had a humble view of himself, in spite of the fact that next of the emperor he was probably one of the most privileged people in the realm. This is how he introduces himself.