Nehemiah 2:2 Commentary and Bible Study

He is challenged by the king. ‘Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid.’ The fear of Nehemiah – this is interesting. Why should he be sore afraid? Because he knows the king. He is a chief counsellor to the king; he knows the mind of the king, and the special favour that he is going to ask – that he should be released from the king’s immediate service, and that he should go as an emissary and as the king’s representative to Judah, and that he should rebuild it – there are a number of problems with this. To begin with the king is going to be somewhat angered by the fact that Nehemiah thinks there is something in this world more important than the king of Persia, and his service. Also he considers what he is going to ask: that he should go in order to rebuild a wall around Jerusalem! What does that mean? That Jerusalem will once again claim to be an independent nation, no longer under the Persian empire? Does it mean there's going to be a rebellion, there's going to be a failure to pay homage, and a breakdown of the rule in Judah? Won’t that inspire other nations to follow suit? Is the king seriously going to agree that one of his chief officers of state should go and re-establish a city wall in a very dangerous region of the empire, and potentially reignite local pride and patriotism and nationalism? The king is hardly likely to agree to that. Furthermore, this is another religion. Artaxerxes seems to tolerate at Persian court a number of Jews in high office, but the idea that they should want to go and glorify, in his eyes, their faith, by way of distinction from the faith of the Persian empire and Persian gods and Persian worship: that's going to be offensive! God has moved him to do this, and Nehemiah is going to do it with great courage and faith in his God, but at the same time he is a human being, and so he is very anxious about this. We put ourselves in Nehemiah’s shoes. The servants of God so often are called to do things which place them in great danger, or make them unpopular at least, so they have to go forward by faith and obey the Lord. Nehemiah is afraid not simply that the king would be displeased that he looked unhappy in his presence, but because he intends to make this great request.