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Daily Devotion: Nehemiah 2:1-2

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Nehemiah 2:1-2    "And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. (2)  Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid"

Some wonderful and important thoughts are found in the following two verses, but my mind was taken this morning to a beautiful thought that is contained in these first two verses. Last time, we saw that Nehemiah was a servant to the king. Though it was a cushiony job in comparison to the other bond servants, it was a very dangerous job. He tasted the king's food and drink before it was served to the king. He then presented it to the king. If the food or drink had been poisoned, Nehemiah would have died instead of the king.

The king would not usually pay any attention to the servants other than receive from them. The servants were not to show any emotion when in the presence of the king. We see the king noticed something different about Nehemiah so he began to question him as to why he looked sad.  Again, in that day, the king would not have normally paid any attention to the countenance of the servant, but on this day he did just that.

Why is this important? Why should we take notice of this detail?  For me, it shows God had already begun setting things in place for Nehemiah to be able to go back to Jerusalem. We may sometimes be guilty of overlooking this important fact. When things take place in our lives, we can know that God is constantly working on our behalf. We can know that God is active behind the scenes placing everything in order.

God moved the king to question Nehemiah and we will see that God will move Nehemiah in his answer. What would be considered humanly impossible is always possible with God.
Jesus spoke these words of affirmation, "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)

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