Surveying the Damage: Getting prepared

Careful. Watch out for that . . . “OUCH” . . . that prickly bush. Sneaking into the palace is not as easy as we thought it would be. We came to report the situation to Nee and the other exiles. We thought he would moan and complain with us about being deserted by God and about God not protecting us. He took the higher road; he outclassed us; he schooled us.

Nee drop to his knees, and lay with his face in the dirt, to praise God, to plea for forgiveness for himself and for all of us, and to prepare us to do God’s work according to His desires. Nee asked for God to show what He wanted the exiled people of Jerusalem to do, and he asked to be shown what he was supposed to do as God’s faithful servant. Still on our knees in Nee’s room, we heard bells ring. Nee jumped up and grabbed the King’s wine cup, and ran off. We followed him as far as we could. We inched our way behind the curtains and tapestries until we were close enough to hear.

The King noticed that Nee was troubled as Nee, his favorite cupbearer, poured his wine. He asked Nee what had him so down, so miserable, that he was unable to be happy in the presence of the King. That behavior could get a cupbearer executed, but the King was moved by Nee’s account of the state of things in his homeland. The King did not call for his execution, which he knew he deserved; instead the King asked Nee what he needed to make the journey to Jerusalem, and what he needed to make things right.

We watched all this in awe. Not of the King whose fame and might are legendary, but of God’s power and provision through a faithful servant. Faithful to the God of Heaven. Faithful to his captor King. So the King trusted him with great wealth of materials, tools, and workers; and he wrote letters to the surrounding governments asking them to give Nee’s convoy safe passage. As a final “blessing” for Nee’s mission, the King gave orders for an armed escort to go with Nee all the way to Jerusalem.

Watching, unbelieving but seeing it all unfold, we were amazed (and not a little ashamed that our faith was so very tiny compared to Nee’s). We argued among ourselves about who could’ve done it better, or who could have been a better, more competent, leader than Nee. Focused on ourselves with our idle arguing we almost missed it. Nee’s rapidly assembled convoy was ready and left on the appointed day. We had to run to catch up having no animals given to us by the King. Nee was such a big shot having won over the enemy king. We wanted to be there to see Nee’s plans fail. We will continue running and hopefully not miss anything . . .