Redeemed to Represent

The following is an extract from Nehemiah For You by Eric Mason. Mason explains the book’s context, gives plenty of application for our lives today, and shows us what it looks like to get involved in God's work to build his kingdom.

As we look at the first few verses of Nehemiah, I want to explain how the story connects to the grand theme of what God has been doing, has done, and will do.

The fewest of all people

Nehemiah is nestled at the beginning of what’s called the Second Temple Period, when the temple was being rebuilt in Jerusalem and the people of God were returning from exile. Long before that, God had chosen the Israelites to be his own people, to show off who he was to the world. Deuteronomy 7:6-7 explains this:

“The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all people”.

As we know, Jerusalem was always about something bigger than just being a beautiful city or a well-defended one. It was the dwelling place of God.

God likes to choose people that have nothing—that are unimpressive. They are “the fewest of all peoples”. Paul says a similar thing about the Christian church in 1 Corinthians 1:26: “Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth”. 

God hasn’t chosen just the cool people. Some of us are geeks. Some of us are awkward. All of us are sinful. But God is going to use these weaknesses, because people know we’re like that, and so, as God transforms us and makes us look more like himself, people will realise that there’s something about us that is beyond us.

Representing his reign on earth

All Christians are God’s people now, but initially God chose the people of Israel to display who he was to the other nations (Isaiah 49:8-9; 60:1-3). Jerusalem was the place where God’s presence dwelt. This was why being sent away into exile, away from Jerusalem, was such a terrible thing. God had given his people this mission, and they had failed him by becoming idolaters.

Whenever anything gets in the place where God should be in the life of his people, he first calls them to repentance. But if they don’t repent, he disciplines his children because he loves them. The Babylonians, under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, besieged Jerusalem during the reign of Jehoiachin—around 597 BC. Later, the Persians came in and took over.

God hasn’t chosen just the cool people. Some of us are geeks. Some of us are awkward. All of us are sinful. But God is going to use these weaknesses.

Even in the midst of this discipline, however, God’s people were still to represent his name. He told them through the prophet Jeremiah, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7). 

In other words, God’s people are redeemed to represent. “Redeemed” means “bought back”. He saves us, and then he anoints us to represent him. That’s a broad Bible principle; the mission of God through his people is rooted in our identity in him. God’s people of all times have always been called to represent his reign on earth.

Back to Jerusalem

The word Nehemiah means “Yahweh comforts”. Isn’t that beautiful? Who else gives you a whipping, and then comforts you? Through Nehemiah, through Ezra, and through the prophets God sent at this time—Malachi, Haggai, Zephaniah and Zechariah—God was encouraging his people and giving them hope. He was saying, It’s all right now. It hurt, didn’t it? But I just did it because I love you”.

The mission of God through his people is rooted in our identity in him.

That’s the way God is; he comforts his people after he disciplines them.

As we know, Jerusalem was always about something bigger than just being a beautiful city or a well-defended one. It was the dwelling place of God. The reason why there was such pain among those who had returned from exile was that the representation of God by his people had waned. The book of Nehemiah is the story of how it was built back up again.