Neh 2:1-3

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clarkthompson

Senior Member
#1
Jul 8, 2012
624
7
18
#1
[h=1]Nehemiah 2:1-3 King James Version (KJV)[/h] 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.
[SUP]2 [/SUP]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,

[SUP]3 [/SUP]

And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?


[h=1]Nehemiah 2:1-3 Living Bible (TLB)[/h]


2 [SUP]1-2 [/SUP]One day in April, four months later, as I was serving the king his wine he asked me, “Why so sad? You aren’t sick, are you? You look like a man with deep troubles.” (For until then I had always been cheerful when I was with him.) I was badly frightened, [SUP]3 [/SUP]but I replied, “Sir, why shouldn’t I be sad? For the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins, and the gates have been burned down.”



Living Bible (TLB) The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.


These are my thoughts, please share yours.



1 This is April. This was Nehemiah’s job to bring it to him as cup bearer. Nehemiah even if he was sad went through work in front of the king without letting him know if we are sad we can go thru work but it is a matter of time that people may know something is work.



2 The king notices his sadness and he is frighten because he was not to bring the sadness to the king, people being down can often times bring other people down as well.



3 So Nehemiah is sad because of his home being bad but is happy with his king.



 
JFSurvivor

JFSurvivor

Senior Member
#2
Jan 20, 2015
1,184
25
0
#2
So how do we know we have faith without works? If we have no works how do we know we have faith? When you drive a car you drive it because 1) you need to get somewhere and 2) you have faith it will run and not blow up.

You do works because you have faith.
 
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FreeNChrist

Guest
#3
#3
JFSurvivor said:
So how do we know we have faith without works? If we have no works how do we know we have faith? When you drive a car you drive it because 1) you need to get somewhere and 2) you have faith it will run and not blow up.

You do works because you have faith.
Click to expand...
No, you do works because you have Christ. At least if you are doing works that have eternal value. It is the object of our faith, not our faith itself that produces what God desires.

I am reminded of another car analogy by Major Ian Thomas that would seem applicable:

"Faith is like the clutch in a car with manual transmission. Imagine a young driver in a convertible sports car, with a friend at his side, as he takes off down the highway, shifting through the gears, then zooming along at seventy, eighty, ninety miles per hour (no police in sight).

With the wind blowing through his hair, the driver turns to his friend and says, “Man, what a clutch!”

Is that what he would say?

Of course not. He would say, “Man, what an engine!” All that the clutch does is enable the driver to engage the power under the hood and apply it to the wheels on the road.

Sometimes we say, “What a man of faith!” or “What a woman of faith!” Never congratulate people on their faith, however, because in itself faith does nothing. If people exercise faith, and anything marvelous happens, it is not because of that faith; their faith is only the clutch. The activity that is released through our faith is God’s, and He is to be congratulated. He is the power under the hood."
 
V

valiant

Senior Member
#4
Mar 22, 2015
8,025
124
63
#4
clarkthompson said:
Nehemiah 2:1-3King James Version (KJV)

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.
[SUP]2 [/SUP]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,

[SUP]3 [/SUP]

And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?


Nehemiah 2:1-3Living Bible (TLB)




2 [SUP]1-2 [/SUP]One day in April, four months later, as I was serving the king his wine he asked me, “Why so sad? You aren’t sick, are you? You look like a man with deep troubles.” (For until then I had always been cheerful when I was with him.) I was badly frightened,[SUP]3 [/SUP]but I replied, “Sir,why shouldn’t I be sad? For the city where my ancestors are buried is in ruins, and the gates have been burned down.”



Living Bible(TLB) The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.




These are my thoughts, please share yours.



1 This is April. This was Nehemiah’s job to bring it to him as cup bearer. Nehemiah even if he was sad went through work in front of the king without letting him know if we are sad we can go thru work but it is a matter of time that people may know something is work.



2 The king notices his sadness and he is frighten because he was not to bring the sadness to the king, people being down can often times bring other people down as well.



3 So Nehemiah is sad because of his home being bad but is happy with his king.
Click to expand...
Being sad was Nehemiah's deliberate policy. He wanted the king to see it. It was the only way in which he could get the king to ask the right question. A direct approach would have meant instant execution. By looking sad he could look to the king's mercy.

Looking sad in the presence of the king risked instant execution for making the king miserable. It was a risk he took. But at least it gave him a chance.
 
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