“Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” I was cupbearer to the king. - Nehemiah 1:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 16, 2014): Nehemiah 1

Good King Wenceslas was never a king. The official title of the good king was that of a Duke – of the Duchy of Bohemia. There would be no Kings of Bohemia for another 260 years after the death of Wenceslas. The first king of Bohemiah was Ottokar I, and he became king in 1198 (Ottokar rose to the position of Duke in 1193). And in 1212, Frederick II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, granted Bohemia the Golden Bull of Sicily. The document allowed the King of Bohemia to be a hereditary office for the descendants of Ottokar from that point forward. Ottokar had not only won the kingship for himself, but also for the descendants that would follow him.

But maybe the real honor that the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire gave to the kings of Bohemia was that he made them the cupbearers of the Empire. A cupbearer was a high office and it involved bearing the cup to the king and protecting the king from poisoning, but it was also an office of high influence because of the amount of time that the cupbearer spent with the one who he served. Therefore, the cupbearer needed to not only be someone who could be trusted absolutely, but also someone who was wise and able to give good advice. To be chosen as the cupbearer was a great honor. In practice, the King of Bohemia was actually made Arch-cupbearer or supreme cupbearer – and therefore he was only used as the cupbearer during the coronation of an Emperor.

Nehemiah prays that God will grant him favor in the presence of this man. The man in question was Artaxerxes I, the son of Xerxes I. Artaxerxes was the King of the Persian Empire. But Nehemiah recognized that the King was in the end just a man. And on this day he would once again enter into the presence of the man who held so much power over his life. But Nehemiah was the cupbearer. This was nothing new; he had entered into the presence of Artaxerxes many times before. He was a trusted advisor who spent many hours with this man who was king. But on this day there would be a difference. Where in the past Nehemiah would have been the sounding board and the advisor to the king for the decisions that kings must make, today he would want the king to listen to him on a personal matter. Today the advisor needed advice. And so before he entered into the presence of the man who was king, he prayed to the God who was king.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 2 & 3