Nehemiah 2:4-5 …So I prayed to the god of heaven…and I said unto the king…
Whom do you ask for help when the chips are down, when you need wisdom, money, or strength and you don’t have it? As a child you ask Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma, or maybe a sibling. Children ask someone whom they know to be reliable and whom they know to have what is needed. As we grow older, that sometimes changes. Perhaps you no longer have parents or you find out you are just as smart as your siblings, so now you are asking a bank, lender, or some person you believe to have what you lack.
The one you ask indicates the one you trust. If I am asking Dad, it indicates that I think he’s got the money and the goodwill to give me what I need as a ten-year-old. If I ask a bank, I am thinking essentially the same thing on a different scale.
Nehemiah was a man who had great needs. He had a burden to go to Jerusalem, but he had to have permission to do that from the king whom he served. He had to have money in order to make any repairs at all on this city of his ancestors. And, he had to have help from people who were able to do the things that needed to be done. All these things were obviously within the purview of the king of the known world.
So, whom did Nehemiah actually ask? The Bible tells us in Nehemiah 2 that in a certain month, Artaxerxes the king was being served by Nehemiah, and the king said, “Why is thy countenance sad, seeing as thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.” Nehemiah said, “Then I was very sore afraid.” The reason he was afraid is because regardless of your job description, everyone’s job in the palace was to make the king happy. You weren’t sad in front of the king. You didn’t do anything to bring the king down.
Nehemiah’s response was, “Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my father’s sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?” He said, “Jerusalem, where my ancestors are buried is just a vestige of what it once was. It is just in ruins.” Then verse 4 continues, “Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request?” The king is saying, “You are asking for something. What is it?”
Nehemiah’s response is very telling. “So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king.” He asked God, then he asked the king. The gap between the two requests must have been mere seconds, so I don’t think the king even knew that he was praying. So, Nehemiah asked God. This is interesting. There are seasons of prayer and Nehemiah was obviously a man of seasons of prayer. He fasted; he mourned. He didn’t just skip tritely into God’s presence. He asked for things very specifically and over a prolonged period of time. But in this particular case, he prays like a drowning man in the ocean. “Help!!” It was undiscernible by anyone outside of himself. He didn’t close his eyes, raise his hands to Heaven, or begin with some great oration. He just prayed in his heart, “Dear God, help!” Then instantly he said to the king, “If it please the king…”
Verse 8 says, “And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.” Whom did Nehemiah ask? Nehemiah asked God, then he replied to the king. Who provided for him? Well, the king did as far as anyone could tell, but the king did because there is a God in Heaven. So, there is a relation between seasons of prayer and the snap prayers that can and should be part of our day every day throughout our situation. We may not have time to have some long prayer meeting, but we can be in conversation with the God of Heaven all day.
Now, Nehemiah is going to have many problems that unfold as time goes on, but when he had problems, even with people, he brought them to God. So, do I think it is wrong to ask a father, a person of power, or a mother, a person of nurturing, for help? No, but don’t ever count God out. You see, the one you ask indicates the one you trust. God is certainly worthy of your trust.