2 vv 4-5. The king asked, “Well, how can I help you?”
With a prayer to the God of heaven, I replied, “If it please the king, and if you are pleased with me, your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried.”
If you read back into chapter 1 you will discover a longish and eloquent prayer voiced by Nehemiah. He had received news about the plight of Jerusalem and his response was this: ‘When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.’
(v 4). Nehemiah was a passionate and committed pray-er. But when the crunch came as he served wine to the King there was no time for such prayer. In fact, the reading doesn’t tell us what he prayed – it was probably little more than ‘Help me God!’ It was what some of us might call an arrow prayer; it was a sticky situation demanding an almost immediate response to the King, no time for eloquence, just ‘Help!’ It speaks of a man who was accustomed to dealing with God and expressing his concerns. He was about to ask the King for a huge favour, so no wonder the bible records
‘With a prayer to the God of heaven, I replied’. Some situations call for the