CHAPTER ONE

Contents: Nehemiah learns of distress in Jerusalem. His prayer.

Characters: God, Nehemiah, Hanani.

Conclusion: The desolation and distresses of the church should deeply concern the Christian and move him to earnest prayer, for there is no other method for bringing relief to God's people, or directions for ourselves as to the way in which we should render help.

Key Word: Fasting and prayer, v. 4.

Strong Verses:   10.

Striking Facts: v. 8. Our best pleas in prayer are those taken from the Word of God on which He has caused us to hope through Jesus Christ. If God were not more mindful of His promises than we are of His precepts, we would be undone.

CHAPTER TWO

Contents: Nehemiah's visit to Jerusalem by permission of Artaxerxes.

Characters: God, Artaxerxes, Nehemiah, Sanballat, Tobiah, Asaph, Geshem.

Conclusion: The Christian should be concerned in the sorrows and desolations of others, having a deep concern for God's honor. When prayer is sincerely offered, it is sure to be seconded with serious endeavors to render aid.

Key Word: Arise, build, v. 20.

Strong Verses:   18, 20.

Striking Facts: v. 4. We are not limited to certain moments in our addresses to the King of Kings but have access to the throne of Grace in every time of need, being emboldened by His invitation, who has, by His blood, made possible our approach into God's holy presence.

CHAPTER THREE

Contents: Wall of Jerusalem built.

Characters: God, Artaxerxes, Nehemiah, Sanballat, Tobiah.

Conclusion: What is to be done for the public good, everyone should have a part in and further to the utmost of his place and power. It is good to be zealously affected in a good cause.

Key Word: Repaired, v. 4.

Striking Facts: v. 10. If everyone would sweep before his own door, the street would be clean. Do your part.

CHAPTER FOUR

Contents: Opposition by ridicule, anger and discouragement.

Characters: God, Nehemiah, Sanballat, Tobiah.

Conclusion: God's people are often a despised people, loaded with contempt, but the reproaches of enemies should rather quicken them to duty than drive them from it. Those who cast contempt on God's people, in reality despise God Himself and prepare for themselves everlasting shame.

Key Word: Opposition, v. 1.

Strong Verses:   6, 9, 20.

Striking Facts: v. 13. Having prayed, they set a watch. We cannot secure ourselves by prayer, without watchfulness. Matt. 26:41. Prayer without watchfulness is presumption. Watchfulness without prayer is hypocrisy.

CHAPTER FIVE

Contents: Opposition by greed and heartlessness. Nehemiah's example of unselfishness.

Characters: God, Nehemiah.

Conclusion: Nothing exposes Christianity more to the reproaches of its enemies than the worldliness and hard-heartedness of its professors. Followers of Christ should be careful, lest by these means, they bring a reproach upon their religion.

Key Word: Usury, v. 7.

Strong Verses:   19.

Striking Facts: v. 15. Let us remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts. 20:35.

CHAPTER SIX

Contents: Opposition by craft. Nehemiah's manly firmness. The wall done.

Characters: God, Nehemiah, Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, Gashum, Shemaiah.

Conclusion: Christian fortitude will always be sharpened by opposition. Every temptation to draw us from duty and into a snare, should drive us to God and so quicken us the more to duty.

Key Word: Craftiness, v. 8.

Strong Verses:   3, 11.

Striking Facts: v. 3. Let those who are tempted to waste time from Christ's service by attending idle affairs with vain companions, make use of this answer "We have work to do and cannot come down."

CHAPTER SEVEN

Contents: Jerusalem put in charge of Hanani and Hananiah. Genealogy of the first remnant.

Characters: God, Nehemiah, Hanani, Hananiah.

Conclusion: Those who fear God will evidence it by being faithful to all men and universally conscientious.

Key Word: Register, v. 5.

Strong Verses:   2.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Contents: The law read and explained. Feast of tabernacles restored.

Characters: God, Ezra, Nehemiah.

Conclusion: Reading the Scripture in religious assemblies is an ordinance of God whereby He is honored and the church edified. It should be delivered distinctly, for it is a requisite that those who hear the Word should understand it, else it is to them as an empty sound of words.

Key Word: Bible, v. 8.

Strong Verses:   6, 8.

Striking Facts: v. 14. The feast of tabernacles was a memorial of their dwelling in tents in the wilderness, a representation of our tabernacle state in this world as followers of Christ, and a type of the Gospel church.

CHAPTER NINE

Contents: The people feast and repent. Confession of the priests and Levites.

Characters: God, Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Shebmah, Bunni, Chenani, Hash-habaliah, Hodijah, Pethahiah.

Conclusion: When we are seeking to God for mercy and relief in time of distress, it is an encouragement to faith to look back upon our own and our fathers' experiences, noticing how all glory belongs to God and all shame to ourselves. When confessing our sins, it is good to reckon up God's many mercies that we may see how ungrateful we have been.

Key Word: Confessed, v. 2.

Strong Verses:   6, 17.

Striking Facts: v. 33. It becomes the Christian when he is under the rebukes of God's providence, no matter how sharp and long they be, to justify God, being assured there is no mistake on God's part.

CHAPTER TEN

Contents: The covenant and the signers.

Characters: God, Nehemiah.

Conclusion: Conversion means a separating of ourselves from the course and custom of this world and devoting ourselves to the conduct of the Word of God.

Key Word: Covenant, v. 29.

Strong Verses:   29.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Contents: The dwellers at Jerusalem and the cities.

Characters: Joel, Judah, Zabdrel, Shabbethai, Jozabad, Mathaniah, Uzzi, Pethahiah.

Conclusion: Those who take care of the outward concerns of the church, the common service in connection with it, are as necessary in their place as those who take care of the inward concerns, giving themselves entirely to the ministry of the Word and prayer.

Key Word: Dwellers, v. 1.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Contents: Priests and Levites who went to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel. Dedication of the walls.

Characters: God, Nehemiah, Ezra, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Seraiah, Jeremiah.

Conclusion: Great mercies call for the most solemn returns of praise in the courts of the Lord's house.

Key Word: Dedication, v. 27.

Strong Verses:   43.

Striking Facts: v. 30. The purifying was a type of the blood of Christ (Num. 19:9) by which our consciences are purged from dead works, making us fit to serve the living God. (Heb. 9:14.)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Contents: Cleansing the temple. Nehemiah's second visit to Jerusalem and his further reforms.

Characters: God, Nehemiah, Eliashib, Tobiah.

Conclusion: Nothing grieves a godly man more than to see the ministers of God's house practicing things contrary to God's Word. There is sure to be a general decay of religion and corruption of manners when the people forsake the sanctuary and profane the Sabbath.

Key Word: Cleansed, v. 30.

Striking Facts: v. 8. Those who would expel sin out of their hearts, the living temples, must throw out its household stuff and all the provision made for it, taking away those things which are fuel for lust. Let the blood of Christ be then applied by faith, that it be furnished anew with the grace of God's Spirit.