Intermediate Level, Block 8—Recovery
Week 76
Nehemiah the Cupbearer—His Unselfish Care for God’s People
Point to Emphasize: We can volunteer to help others instead of being selfish.
Reference Reading: Nehemiah 1—2
Memory Verse: What is desirable in a man is his kindness… (Proverbs 19:22a)
Story Sample
We have heard how many of the children of Israel returned to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the house of God. But not all returned to their homeland. Many like Ezra stayed in the Persian Empire for a time. Nehemiah was such a one. He knew many who had gone back to rebuild, and among them were even some of his close family. Through them, he received reports of how the rebuilding work was going. Even though he had not returned, he cared deeply for his God, his homeland, and the rebuilding work.
Nehemiah was the cupbearer of the king. As a trusted cupbearer, He served the king for many years and took drinks to him multiple times a day. So, even though he was not a counselor or an official to the king, he saw the king all the time. The king thought of Nehemiah as a pleasant person, because he was never sad in the king’s presence.
For a while, the rebuilding work went well, so Nehemiah received good reports from those he knew in Jerusalem. But one day, some from Jerusalem returned and told him horrible news. Things there were in a terrible state! The wall of Jerusalem had been broken down, and its gates burned with fire by people who opposed them. When Nehemiah heard this, he sat down and wept, and he prayed to God! Some grown men may cry now and then, but for a man to weep means that the most awful thing has happened! This horrible news made Nehemiah weep!
Nehemiah had to carry on his service to the king in this condition. He stopped weeping, but in his heart, there was such a sadness that his face and countenance showed the pain he felt. When he went to bring the drink to the king, the king asked him, “Why is your face sad, since you are not ill? This is nothing other than sadness of heart.” Then Nehemiah told the king the terrible report he had received. The king said, “What do you request?” Nehemiah took this opportunity to ask the king to send him back to Jerusalem and join the work of rebuilding the wall and its gates, and the king granted his requests.
Once, I was with a group of teenagers who volunteered for some hard work. There had been an earthquake and a lot of brick buildings had come down. The bricks were valuable for rebuilding but all the cement that held them into the wall of the building had to be chipped off. So, a group of us volunteered to sit in the sun all day and chip cement off bricks. Does that sound fun and exciting? NO! It was hard work and we had volunteered to do it all day when we were off from school. Can you believe that? Instead of being teenagers who slept in late and hung out or did fun things with friends on Saturday, we volunteered to chip cement off bricks. No one gave us an award or came from a TV station to show what great kids we were…No one even provided lunch for us. We brought our lunches from home. We did not even have the thought that we were super kids for doing this. We just wanted to help those whose homes were ruined by the earthquake, and this was the small thing we could do. [Storyteller, tell your own story of volunteering.]
Nehemiah took the opportunity to volunteer to help in the hard work of rebuilding! He was not a lazy or selfish person. He knew that going would include hard physical work. A selfish person would have remained in the comfortable life at the king’s palace. But Nehemiah loved God, his country, and Jerusalem with its temple more than himself. Don’t you want to be like him? I do! And even now we can be those who volunteer in the little things. Who volunteers to clean up the house when people are coming to dinner? Who volunteers to help set the table? Who volunteers to go to bed on time? See, there are so many ways that we can practice to be like Nehemiah today. And if we practice now, we will grow up to be teenagers who volunteer to help others. We won’t have a habit of being selfish but instead, we will grow up to be Nehemiahs.