The Promise -Nehemiah 1:8-9

8 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:

9 But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

Nehemiah 1:8-9

Nehemiah was praying in vs 5-11. In vs 8-9, in his prayer, he recalls a promise that God had made to Israel through Moses. God had said that if Israel sinned and, as a result of that sin, was carried away into captivity, if they would repent and return unto the God that had redeemed them, He would bring them back into the land again. That day came!

Seventy-some years had passed, and a group had returned in the Book of Ezra to rebuild the temple. Although the temple was built, the walls of Jerusalem were still down, and the gates had been burned. Nehemiah gets a report from Jerusalem that the remnant living in Jerusalem was under great affliction and reproach. Hearing the report, Nehemiah sat down, wept, mourned, and fasted. He was broken over the condition of his brothers. Nehemiah was living in Iran, far away from Jerusalem. What could he do? He could have shaken his head and said that it was a terrible report and went on about his business. But instead, he chose to pray and to put his faith in the promise that God made, written down by Moses one thousand years earlier! In spite of a distance of 900 miles and a 1,000-year-old promise, a “king’s cupbearer” (vs 11) embraces the promise of God and does a great work for his people and brings glory to his God, and 2,500 years later, we are still talking about him!

Today, we have the promises of God that were written down and preserved in our Bible. As we hear the reports like Nehemiah heard in vs 1-3, there is “great affliction and reproach” in our world, towns, and churches. It looks hopeless, and we can become like many; just shake our heads and go on about our business, and do nothing.

But there is another way to approach our problems. We can read our Bible and seek out the promises of God for His people, the church, today! The Bible is full of promises that God has made to us, and we need to be modern-day Nehemiahs who will believe them and be used of God through them.

Find your promise.