The Nehemiah Model Responding to God without experiencing him

Estimated reading time: 7 minute(s)

In recent readings of the book of Nehemiah, it has struck me that God is not present in that text. Oh, he’s mentioned, and he’s even the primary motivation of all involved, and Nehemiah (and others) mention how they sensed that God was involved in arranging circumstances for them, and in a sense, he is even present through the Book of the Revelation of Moses that they possess and all read from.

But God does not speak.

What I’m working through is whether this matters.

It’s possible that this touches on a subject that my son, Ian, is currently working through, also. What role does the Bible play in our life with God? He knows people who cannot separate their understanding of life with God—or even who God is—from the texts of the Bible. Meaning, in essence, that they are placing the Bible above God himself. That doesn’t seem right.

Then on the other hand there are people who base their entire belief system on their experiences with God. Healings, words of knowledge, prophecies, and other very real manifestations of God’s presence in our lives through his Holy Spirit (or direct encounters with Jesus or Father). I don’t think this is wrong, but the obvious danger is that our senses and our emotions can certainly mislead us.

The Nehemiah Model

The book of Nehemiah follows the man Nehemiah, an exile from Judah living in Babylon, and working as a cupbearer to the king. When he learns of the condition of his home land (ruins) he feels a compulsion to go and help restore it. He is well thought of, and the king is favorable to his request, so Nehemiah is sent with the blessing and resources of the king of Babylon for his endeavor to restore Jerusalem to its former (and rightful) glory.

Look at the way God is involved in many parts of the story Nehemiah tells:

• “The generous hand of my God was with me in this and the king gave them to me.” (1:8)
• “I hadn’t told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem.” (1:11)
• “I sensed that God hadn’t sent this man.” (6:12)
• “They knew that God was behind this work.” (6:16)
• “God put it in my heart to gather the nobles, the officials, and the people in general to be registered.” (7:5)
• “That day they offered great sacrifices, an exuberant celebration because God had filled them with great joy.” (12:43)

Nehemiah credits God with many direct interactions with himself and the people of Israel. There are also many occasions where he prays to God, including once silently¹ before making his request of the king.

The Importance of God’s Written Revelation

The other piece of Nehemiah’s story that is very clear is that he and his people revered the written words of God that they refer to as The Revelation, or The Book of the Revelation of Moses, or The Book of the Revelation of God. It is referenced frequently in Nehemiah’s text, and long sections of his book are devoted to the priests, or Ezra the priest, reading to the people from the Book of the Revelation. They exuberantly implement practices described in that text, including a feast/festival that had not been celebrated in Israel since the days of Joshua!²

All of this reminds me of how many Christians live today. Each week we attend some service which includes singing, praying, and hearing someone read and teach from the written and preserved (and translated) revelation of God. The people are dedicated to God, want to do what he says (that which has been recorded in writing), and rigorously continue in this same pattern, week after week, year after year.

This is my point. Does it matter if we know of God and live for him, as we learn through experience of others who really interacted with him, or do we need to have a real and personal experience with him ourselves to fully know and understand life with him?

Some would argue that there must be some personal, experiential encounter with the living God before we can truly say that we know him.

But what do we do then with Jesus’ words in John 20:29?

“So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.”

Or Peter, echoing the same general sentiment in 1 Peter 1:8-9

You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.

The Holy Spirit

There is one more dimension to our knowledge of truth—the Holy Spirit. John records Jesus’ words about him: “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”³ And then in his first letter, John says this: “But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.”⁴

In this sense, it would seem we do have him as God’s direct voice in our lives. So this would fall more under the experiential knowledge category. But not everyone would say that they have “heard” Holy Spirit “speak” to them. Does that mean they know less?

In Conclusion

I don’t have an answer here. Sorry. I hope you weren’t just reading this so that you could find a neat and tidy conclusion at the end of these thoughts. I’m not certain that there is one.

What I do know is that both can be true. Certainly we can all agree that experiential knowledge and understanding is extremely useful in knowing something. Or someone. It’s a much deeper knowing. And, we can also all agree that the Bible is special, containing the story of God’s interaction with us through all of history up to Jesus and his first-century church (and of course, prophecies of what God is planning to do in future history). Having an anchor to (and from) the past that we can rely on for intellectual knowledge, facts, and as a source to glean from the understanding and experience of others is also an invaluable piece of our understanding of truth.

Both are good.

So is that my conclusion? I suppose. But one thing I would note is even in my talking through here the positives of both ways of knowing, there is an underlying understanding that truth is experienced. Learning from something recorded in writing (or these days in other media) is learning from the experience of others. Of course, sometimes reading/hearing/viewing someone’s thoughts on some topic may only be their transmission of their own non-experiential knowledge, but most likely there is a source up river which did have experiential knowledge of that subject.

I guess I do have a conclusion: live what you believe. Spend time with Jesus, however that looks for you. Believe that he is with you, listening, responding. And quietly, patiently, look for all the ways he is interacting with you through your day. Whether sensed or inferred, as Nehemiah modeled, or talking to you from a blazing, burning bush! He is. And he does. With you, and me. (And everyone else.)

I pray you will know that.