Heart for Jerusalem

Nehemiah 2:12
I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on.

Nehemiah's night ride into Jerusalem. Picture the scene. Moon and stars shed a pitiless white light with harsh black shadows on the broken stone and burned gates. Though Nehemiah has his posse, he hasn't shared his heart for Jerusalem. Only after he has seen it does he speak of God's hand and the king's favor.
In a perfect case of God's provision, his companions immediately agree: "Let us start rebuilding."
We should never be afraid to say what God has put in our heart. Because he's probably put it in other hearts too.

Sad Heart

Nehemiah 2:2
so the king asked me, "Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart." I was very much afraid,

Nehemiah, one of my favorite books. In the short first chapter, the Jewish cupbearer to the Persian king, still living in Susa, learns of the crisis in Jerusalem. Shocked, he spends days in fasting and prayer.
The king is named in the second chapter--Artaxerxes. The proud Nehemiah had never showed him a sad face before, and maybe it is an unguarded moment when he does this time, because the king's notice causes him fear. Or perhaps he fears to be honest about the reason, but he speaks up anyway.
And Nehemiah's excellent adventure begins.
What can I take from this heart? What is in my heart will come out, whether it be anxiety and sadness, or the purity of heart Jesus spoke of. Yet here God launches a mission from a sad heart. So there is no point in faking it. Pray constantly, and let the heart show.

King's Heart

Ezra 7:27
Praise be to the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put it into the king's heart to bring honor to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem in this way.

I'm not sure what happened between Cyrus and Artaxerxes, his great-grandson, who is the king of the hour. King of kings, he called himself in the letter to Ezra, the teacher well-versed in the Law of Moses. I will research those chapters later.
The important thing here is that God put it into this king's inmost thoughts to honor the house of God. He offered Ezra everything and reminded him to buy animals for the sacrifice.
Maybe (without looking at the particular facts of the case) I need to be less worried about the moment. God has it in his hand. What about the generations who suffered in Europe till the time came to go to the new land? God works in the big picture. It's all present in one glance to him, and he touches up here and there. Speak to a king, then speak to his great-grandson. Nothing is lost. The train is right on time.

Moving Hearts

Ezra 1:5
Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.

I love Ezra because it is such a story. Things happen rapidly. One day the Jews are living their lives in exile in Babylon, like Esther and Mordecai in her book. Suddenly God is moving, in the heart of Cyrus the Great, and then in the hearts of the sons of Judah and Benjamin and Levi, and their neighbors begin giving them supplies for the trip home. The gold and silver from Solomon's Temple is going home too. Like iron shavings to a magnet, everything that belongs in Jerusalem is drawn home.
God moved. From one moment to the next, everything changes. I have to take courage from this. It may seem that nothing will change, or only for the worse if it does, but that is only hardness of heart talking. When God moves our hearts, nothing can stop Him.

Cyrus the Great Heart

2 Chronicles 36:22
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:
Ezra 1:1
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:
2 "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
" 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Anyone of his people among you—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.

Good transition. The last verse of 2 Chronicles is the same as the first verse of Ezra. A few verses earlier, Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, hardened his heart. Here, the magnificent Cyrus, self-proclaimed king of the world, yielded to God moving in his heart.
I tend to read over the names of these ancient kings and emperors rather quickly, and they become a blurred backdrop to Israel's story. Here is what I learned about Cyrus in a few minutes of research. He is called Cyrus the Great, and he is huge in Persian history. It was when he liberated Babylon that his path crossed the Jews in exile. His appreciation of gods foreign to him was one of his trademarks, as was his policy of ending slavery, rather than enslaving. He is thought by some to have been Zoroastrian, but it is not certain.
What matters here is that God moved his heart, and he became part of Israel's story. He encouraged Jews to go home, and, more than that, rebuild their Temple. Perhaps he didn't see Yahweh as the one true God, since he calls Him the God who lives in Jerusalem.
And so begins the excellent stories of Ezra and Nehemiah. When God wants something done, he looks for listening hearts.

Zedekiah's Hard Heart

2 Chronicles 36:13
He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him take an oath in God's name. He became stiff-necked and hardened his heart and would not turn to the LORD, the God of Israel.

He is Zedekiah, uncle of Jehoiachin, a grandson of Josiah. The prophesied ruin has come fast. Since Josiah, the kings have been evil and detestable. Adding to his other sins, Zedekiah hardened his heart. This has happened before; when Pharoah hardened his heart, I reasoned from the surrounding events that it involves a refusal to acknowledge God. Here it is spelled out. He could have listened to Jeremiah, and he could have bowed to God's will in placing Nebuchadnezzar over him. But he refused to see God at work.
The rot proceeded from the head of the fish on down. The Temple was looted and burned, and so were the palaces.
And the next book is named "Ezra."

Covenant Heart

2 Chronicles 34:31
The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD -to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book.
Verse 30 speaks of the Book of the Covenant that Josiah read to everyone crowded into the Temple--all Israelites, from the least to the greatest. I looked up that phrase itself: "Book of the Covenant." It appears only 4 times total. The first is in Exodus 24:7, when Moses reads it to the Israelites. Matthew Henry suggests that Moses had himself just written it, so as to be sure it is exactly as God said it.
The other 3 times are this occasion, when Josiah reads it, and it is as if it was just written. I am struck here that it is the king who renews the covenant. If any one person should, I suppose it would be the king. The next verse says he had all the people do it as well, and they did.
As long as Josiah lived, the people served

Responsive Heart

2 Chronicles 34:27
Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD.

This is good King Josiah. Between him and good King Hezekiah was the bad King Manasseh in chapter 33. The interesting thing I find about him is that he did start out very bad, undoing all of Hezekiah's reforms and re-establishing idol worship, but then he made a turnaround. After being taken away to Babylon, shackled, hook in nose, he humbled himself and pleaded with God. My thought is, who wouldn't? God's mercy is dazzling. With no details given, Manasseh returned to Jerusalem and showed himself a changed man, reversing much of the pagan worship he'd brought in himself.
His son, another bad king, was so bad that he got only two years.
And that is the background for this, Josiah's responsive heart. Again, I find the sequence of events very intriguing. Josiah was the boy king, only eight when he started. At sixteen, he began to seek the Lord. At twenty he went out and purified the land physically as Hezekiah had. Six years later he began to repair the Temple. This work went well, but it was only as they brought out money from the Temple that the Book of the Law turned up. In the same afterthought way, Shaphan brought Josiah an update on the Temple work and the finances, and then, oh yes, they found this book.
How did Josiah know where to start without the Book, without even knowing it existed? God Himself must have led him...
I picture these elite men of Judah, staring for a few minutes at a dusty scroll, knowing before they opened it that it was worth more than all the silver and gold, more than the whole Temple, that it was the very Word of God. And when the good king heard the words, he tore his robes.
Josiah's reward was for him and his generation--(v.28) "Now I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here." There wasn't enough mercy for the future idolaters, who would indeed live through disaster.

Tested Heart

2 Chronicles 32:31
But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart.

I think, without researching it, that this probably has to do with the time(s) Hezekiah gave away all the silver and gold from the Temple in an attempt to save the country and himself. But isn't this how it's going to go most of the time? Testing time comes, and it's all flesh, all of the time.

Sifting. That's what Jesus called it. And I would define it pretty high up there, as a situation that puts you in fear of your life. This is not whether or not to give back the extra change at the store. Nevertheless. I think this kind of heart test can be passed, with sufficient study and practice.

Proud Heart and Repentance

2 Chronicles 32:24-26
24 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. He prayed to the LORD, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign. 25 But Hezekiah's heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the LORD's wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. 26 Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the LORD's wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.

I'm including two hearts here. . .well, one heart, one proud heart belonging to Hezekiah. I'm in awe at the story of this king. It's a big, bold, colorful story of a charismatic son of Judah. It goes on for several chapters, and the book of 2 Kings may have still more detail. It gives, for example, his prayer when he thought he was going to die. This version only recounts briefly the journey of his heart.
I feel guilty at the statement that Hezekiah did not respond to the kindness shown him. How often has this been me? When my kids drive off, I beg God to take care of them, but I am less consistent about thanking him when I hear they arrived safely. Am I putting myself in line for wrath with my prideful heart? How different would my life be if I could always be aware of God's kindness?

Wholehearted Work

2 Chronicles 31:21
In everything that he undertook in the service of God's temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.

After the Passover, the revival spilled over the land, as the attendees took it on themselves to purify the countryside from the evil of false worship. Then the spirit of renewal circled back home, where the people gave to the Temple until the Levites were all provided for and the storerooms were full.
This whole thing began with the godly leadership of Hezekiah. He sought God and worked wholeheartedly. I like that. I want to work wholeheartedly, not half-heartedly. He prospered! I admit it, I want to prosper!

Seeking Hearts Are Healed

2 Chronicles 30:18-20
18 Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone 19 who sets his heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of his fathers—even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary." 20 And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

Following the initial worship at the newly-opened Temple, Hezekiah decided to celebrate the Passover, though it wasn't the right day. Some people scoffed at the idea, but some "humbled themselves." I like that. We go around full of pride, ready to scorn any plan that wasn't our own. In Judah, they had a richer revival experience yet, as the very hand of God touched them with unity.
This is a nice foreshadowing of the end of Jewish ritual in favor of spiritual worship. Some of those who came had not been able to achieve ritual purity, but God honored the king's prayer that God would look on their hearts.