Nehemiah has completed this part of his written record. With these concluding words, Nehemiah opens his heart to reveal how he is thinking about what he had recorded in Nehemiah 2:1–8. He had prayed persistently over the weeks past in the confidence that the Lord God was able to open the doors needed for the city’s reconstruction. In the events described in this paragraph, Nehemiah sees God’s answer to his petitions. Notice Nehemiah’s use of the phrase my God.
The name is personal. God had said to Abram that he would be your God
and the God of generations to follow (Genesis 17:7; Exodus 20:2). Nehemiah lays claim to that promise and so boldly claims God as my God.
Because of that claim, he dared to pray as he did in Nehemiah 1:5–11. And he saw God’s fulfillment of that promise in how things transpired in the conversation that followed his handing the king his wine (Nehemiah 2:2–8). This God was clearly the God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love
(Nehemiah 1:5).
8 and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.