passage before us. It is not a Hebrew word but comes from the ancient Akkadian sha

"bride" and gal, "great". It would exactly fit Esther's position as the foreign bride of the

great king. God sometimes answers our prayers years before they are breathed, and the

coming together of the two passages--"So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said unto

the king" and the parenthetical clause "the Queen also sitting by him"--throw light upon

a neglected aspect of this vital subject.

The prayer of Nehemiah was granted. Leave of absence from the court, together with

letters addressed to the governors "beyond the river" guaranteeing safe convoy, together

with instructions to the keeper of the King's forest, or park, (pardes, a Persian word that

gives us, through the Septuagint, the word "paradise") to provide the necessary timber for

the work of restoration which he was about to undertake. A man of prayer need not be

unpractical: the special providence that placed Esther on the throne, did not necessarily

mean that beams for building would come "out of the blue". These necessary things,

though provided by the king, were nevertheless the answer of God as Nehemiah

recognized when he said,

We shall learn by the record that follows, that answered prayer and providential

interposition do not render us immune from attack. Like Paul at a later date, Nehemiah

could have said regarding this work to which he had been led,

The story we are about to follow is one largely made up of these two elements. They

are features that are associated with all true service, our own included, and if we study

this record of Nehemiah aright, there will be brought to light that which will encourage us

to persevere, as well as reveal the perennial methods of spiritual opposition, and the spirit

in which all such animosity must be met.

We commence this study with the words that immediately follow: "Then I came to

the governors beyond the river" (Neh. 2: 9) with which our next article must open.