(Continued from yesterday)

For once I felt like a teacher when talking with Nehemiah. Or a forensic Bible student. “I realized that both you and Daniel were in positions of significant trust with foreign kings. Your book starts about 100 years after Daniel’s finishes, but we don’t know how many years passed between you. And then the appearance of Mordecai in a position of responsibility in the court of your king’s predecessor suggests that there were people a baton pass apart who served the king and followed God.

[NOTE: Mordecai was a relative of Esther, mentioned in the book by that name. At the beginning of Esther, Mordecai is serving in the court of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes). By the end of Esther, he has a senior leadership position.]

“Is it a spiritual support group for those who would otherwise feel alone in leadership?”

“I’m not going to say more than the story says,” Nehemiah replied eventually. “But Jeremiah told us very early in the exile to ‘seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.’ (Jeremiah 29:7.)

“Daniel, Mordecai, and I took that instruction seriously. Serving the king well was obeying God. The same phrasing doesn’t have to mean that we were connected in the way that you suggest. However, it is a good model for praying which I probably heard from others, just as you pick up phrases that are helpful. I will give you this, just as I wasn’t the only one praying for Jerusalem in my time, Daniel wasn’t alone in his time.”

Nehemiah smiled at me. “But you are missing much in Daniel’s prayer, and mine, if you stop with the wording of the first sentence. Look at the whole prayer.” 

I looked. “You both talk to God about disobedience. You both include yourselves by saying ‘we’ but you point to your ancestors.”

“That’s a good start.” Nehemiah said. “When talking to God about wrongdoing, it’s wise to not focus just on what ‘they’ have done. That feels like blaming. Both Daniel and I owned up to being part of the community that had sinned. What else do you see?”

I hesitated. “It seems like Daniel is focusing more on the people who did wrong. You are focusing more on wanting God to keep a promise.”

“Very good. That’s what happens when two people look at the same warnings and promises from two different places.”

I must have looked confused.

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More on Thursday

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Reflecting on Nehemiah 1. Taken from A Great Work: A Conversation with Nehemiah for People (Who Want to Be) Doing Great Works.