Chapter 1

Nehemiah is in Susa, the citadel (also called Shushan?  YES) when his brother (don't know if he means blood kin or just a person he knows well) comes from Jerusalem.  The brother reports that things are in a bad way for the exiles in Jerusalem as they have no walls and the gate has been burned.  (I note that though written by Ezra, this is written in first person, as if Nehemiah were writing.)  Nehemiah prays a heartfelt prayer.  He addresses God as the highest.  He asks to be heard.  He says he is praying for Israel.  He confesses his sins and the sins of Israel.  He reminds God of His words in the Mosaic Covenant.  He acknowledges that God has brought them home from exile in Babylon, and then he prays for success in his plans that day involving "this man".  Then he tells us he is cupbearer to the king.  (The covenant promises are not from a single place.  Nehemiah knows of promises from various places in the Book of Deuteronomy, for the most part, and he strings those together.  This is a good reason to read the whole Bible.  Sometimes, the whole picture is like a puzzle in various places, and only "learnable" if you find the pieces.)

2024 - We might also pattern our own petitions for intervention by God after this prayer of Nehemiah.  Most of Chapter 1 is his prayer.  Note that he begins with fasting.  Fasting to "afflict himself before God", not to lower his hbA1C.  He addresses God, and praises the greatness of God, and his attributes.  He requests God's attention to his prayer, asking for both eyes and ears to be turned toward him.  He confesses sin, both the sin of those in Jerusalem on whose behalf he is praying, and his own sin.  He goes into more than a little detail, in a sense acknowledging and accepting responsibility for the actions that God has taken that resulted in the present distress.  God did it, because they earned it.  Then he reminds God of his promise to gather them back if they repent.  It is specifically about Israel, and they are specifically gather to the Promised Land.  This is not a promise for Gentiles.  And last of all, Nehemiah asks for a specific thing - the point of the whole prayer - and that is for success before "this man".  That's a pretty good model for a prayer of petition to God.