Cupbearers

 

I started Darlene Schacht’s new Bible study Nehemiah and the Holy Spirit’s Work of Restoration this week. I’m excited for this study because I’ve never crawled slowly through the book of Nehemiah before, so I have much to learn.

                I’m already learning, actually, and I want to share with you today one of the things that stood out to me in the first lesson.

                I’ve read the book of Nehemiah before, because I’ve read the whole Bible through more than once. But I haven’t paid close attention like I’m doing now.

                At the end of chapter one, just after Nehemiah shares a beautiful, guttural prayer for God to hear and receive his prayer, and just before he goes before the king to ask permission to go work on the destroyed wall of Jerusalem, he says this one little sentence: “Now I was cupbearer to the king.”

                It’s such an odd sentence, sitting there all by itself.

                As I studied, though, I began to understand that Nehemiah’s position as cupbearer to the king gave him a place of trust with the king that he would need to get permission to go work on the wall.

                I also realized that as cupbearer to the king, he was unlikely to own a bunch of power tools or the skills to do the sort of work he walked straight into.

                Yet…

                …he had the burden and the heart for the project and didn’t let his perceived lack hold him back.

                And…

                …he recognized the gift he had as cupbearer to the king and allowed God to work through him to do a greater work.

                We’re all cupbearers to the king in some way. I believe that each of us, at some point in life, has the chance to do something for the Lord that we wouldn’t be able to do if we weren’t positioned in some particular way. It might be a job or a relationship. It might be a skill or an experience. Something we have or have done or know of lived through makes us cupbearers, ready for something God prepared for us.

                He wastes nothing, you know.

                And just because we aren’t experts doesn’t mean we can’t be used of God to do a thing.

                I don’t know what this might look like in your life, but I encourage you to look for it. What is your cupbearer moment!?