Nehemiah 1 – 4
Ezra and Nehemiah were from the same period in history and both worked with restoring the temple and Jerusalem. Verse 1:5 has Nehemiah praying for help in convincing his occupying king to allow him to rebuild Jerusalem:
And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,
How many times do we start our prayers with acknowledgement that God is above all and to be revered? Or do we start them like a conversation with our best friend, more casual? Nehemiah is asking God to grant him favor in talking with King Artaxerxes who was the occupying king about rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple.
Verse 1:9 references verses we recently studied in Deuteronomy:
but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’
God has punished the people of Israel and exiled them to foreign lands. Nehemiah is trying to gain favor with God and return the people to their lands. When he finally has an audience with the king, which since he was the kings cupbearer was not uncommon, he gains favor and is granted his request to return. He actually is place in a position of authority as governor and immediately starts rebuilding the city.
His first order of business is to rebuild the city walls, but once other nations realized what was happening they stated to oppose the construction. This disrupted the construction since they had to take a defensive stance and arm themselves. Once the initial threat was subdued they had to remain ever vigilant and keep guard.
Verses 4:16 & 17 describes the new working conditions:
16 From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, 17 who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each laboured on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other.
This threat immediately cut the workforce in half to guard the construction. It also hindered the laborers who had to work with one hand. This is significant since it limited progress, but even through great opposition the Israelites moved forward. They honored God and guarded their progress, at the cost of progress.
Think about this and how it applies to your life. We need to constantly be vigilant in building walls for our protection. At the same time we must guard ourselves from potential “breaches” over the weak parts. The main way we do this is not just attending worship services, but extending into small groups and individual studies. You need to work at fortifying your relationship with God, at the same time guarding attacks from evil. Like the Israelites we need to work hard rebuilding the “wall” while at the same time protecting ourselves from evil getting in.