{N}1,{/}1: Nehemiah served in the palace of King Artaxerxes as cupbearer, a high position at a time when kings were afraid of being poisoned.
He is a man whose future is assured: yet, he leaves everything to serve God.
Nehemiah's vocation comes from:
- His great trust in God's promises.
- An understanding of history which only a believer can have: Jews need not blame anyone else for their difficult situation. Their own sins are the cause of their misfortunes. They must not expect their national restoration to come from the kindness of more powerful countries, but from their own conversion.
Nehemiah is an example of all those who are able to recognize the voice of the Lord through events and who do not wait for a special call to get to work. There is no doubt that every Christian, trusting in God, is called to discover and achieve what God expects for the salvation of the world, just as Nehemiah did.

{N}2,{/}1: Nehemiah asks and receives because he is not a nuisance, and his years of loyal service have earned him affection and esteem. His discretion and initiative are underscored and his fervent words encourage skeptics whom he persuades.
Was it necessary to build the walls of Jerusalem? In fact, more than the restoration, the Bible stresses the way it was achieved: by calling for everyone's cooperation, Nehemiah builds up the morale of the Jerusalem community.

{N}3,{/}33: Later, Nehemiah's work arouses jealousy and suspicion. Nothing unusual in that. The firmness of this man alone was enough to inspire everyone. At that very moment, building the Jerusalem walls was the specific task which, if not done, would have stopped sacred history. Had the Jewish people given in and delayed, they would have lost the means to their independence and the meaning of their mission. Similarly today, although the mission of the Church is mostly spiritual, our fidelity to the Lord depends upon our attitude in the face of violations and betrayals of the truth in very specific aspects of social life.

{N}5,{/}1: {C}We are of the same race as our brothers.{/} The rulers keep saying that the reconstruction requires sacrifice. The Jewish people demand that the sacrifices be really shared by all. Those who have enough for today must cancel the debts of those who have nothing.
{C}Are you now buying your own brothers?{/} Nehemiah defends the most humble, and denounces the sin the rich have committed without realizing it: driven by the logic of debt and credit, they have come to submit their own people to slavery.
{C}Do you want to imitate our enemies' customs?{/} We rightfully seek liberation from exploitative and anti-social governments. Finally the exploitative spirit in each one of us may be the last vice to be uprooted.

{N}6,{/}1: Sanballat uses every means to discourage Nehemiah:
3:33 - mockery and insults.
4:2  - threat of attack.
6:2  - psychological warfare.
6:6  - accusations.
6:14 - bribing false prophets.
There will always be people who take advantage of God's word to support governments or to deceive the people.
Note the expression in 6:13 -{C} to frighten me and lead me to sin.{/} Quite often, fear is a slippery way leading to sin.

{N}8,{/}1: This first public reading of the Law marks a very important date of sacred history. Until that time, the people of Israel lived their faith through praying and taking part in the Temple ceremonies. Decisions and preaching came to them through priests and prophets. They did not feel the need to read a Bible.
Several books of our Bible were already in existence but they were kept in the Temple or the kings' palace: they were not within reach of the people nor were they the foundation of their faith. Now, however, new demands are made and they no longer have prophets as before. Ezra understands that in the future, the Jewish community will grow through the reading, meditation on and interpretation of the sacred book. Ezra himself tries to gather and complete the sacred books, and a new age begins wherein the Bible will be everyone's book and the basis of their faith.
This religious and cultural transition is similar in the Church in recent years. People went to church; they prayed and they were taught, but the Bible was foreign to them. However, now the Christian faith can only become strong through the word of God read and heard in the community. Indeed we are behind time: this renewal should have started four centuries ago when Protestantism began.
The assembly gathered by Ezra will serve as the model for the religious life of the Jewish community. The solemn worship in the Jerusalem Temple is not suppressed, but, from that time on, in every city the Jews will have a synagogue, that is, a meeting place where they will gather on the Sabbath to hear God's word and to sing psalms.

{N}9,{/}1: We must relate this penance ceremony with chapters 9 and 10 of Ezra. It deals with asking forgiveness for the sins which separate people from God's law and are harmful to the race of Israel. They stress especially the sin of marrying women of another race and a different religion: the Bible knows that marrying someone of another religion often brings a person to move away from their own religious community. This was Solomon's sin.
After publicly confessing the faults of the community, they remember God's mercy: it is useless to know the sins if feelings of inner repentance are not aroused in remembering how God always forgives generously. Following, we have a summary of sacred history showing God's mercy towards his people.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, several commitments are made: these are necessary to counter the weakness of the will, and to aid the struggle against laxity. It is not merely a question of rules; the risk consists in paying more attention to external observance than to the spirit of the Law whose goal is to form a people always ready to serve God.

{N}10,{/}1: The following chapters combine various documents. Among them, note the text referring to Nehemiah's first mission: 12:27-43. It complements chapters 1 through 7.

{N}13,{/}10: In this last chapter Nehemiah intervenes so that the law adopted by Ezra will be respected, and thus he takes new and more drastic measures (observance of the Sabbath, racial and religious purification, etc.). This attitude had great advantages; thanks to organization and solidarity among the Jews, the people of God were able to survive and not wander away from their faith.
However, we can also see the problems on which the Gospel will stumble: attachment to the past, fanaticism for sacred places, and aggressive action against non-conformists. It is a fact that in the following centuries, the religious consciousness of the Jews developed more through contacts with the Greek culture than through their efforts at inner organization.
If we want to be faithful to the biblical message, Christian communities and the Church at large will have to seek growth by opening up to and facing the world.

