REBUILDING THE WALLS

“In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.” (Isaiah 26:1).

 

I have been building a wall this summer.  It’s a retaining wall that borders the north side of a very large flower and shrub garden in our backyard.  We have a lilac bush, forsythia bush, spice bush, magic lilies, peonies, tulips, hyacinths, crocuses, daffodils, and irises all planted there.  The ground in this bed falls away about a foot or a foot and a half toward our backyard, so I thought a retaining wall would allow me to add dirt and level the surface to create better moisture retention and less erosion. 

 

Some of the lessons that I have learned from this project are: a.) at 73 years old I don’t have as much stamina as I did when I was 53, or even 63;  b.) my body protests when I overexert it with too much lifting and digging by manifesting pain in muscles and tendons that I didn’t even know that I had;  and c.) building walls isn’t for sissies!

 

My wall does remind me of a man in the Bible who was moved by God to build a very important wall.  The man’s name was Nehemiah, and I am inspired by his story and the lessons that we can learn from him thousands of years later.

 

About 587 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated the forces of Judah, besieged the city of Jerusalem, and ultimately captured and destroyed it.  Solomon’s magnificent temple was plundered and pulled down, and the walls of that great city were leveled, and its gates burned.  As a result of their defeat, many of the Jews were carried away captive from their homeland and scattered among many of Babylon’s towns and cities.  Later on, Babylon was defeated by Cyrus the Great and became part of the Persian Empire.

 

Nehemiah was one of the many Jews that had gone into captivity.  He was neither a priest nor a prophet, but simply a lay person who had a burden for the Holy City and knew how to pray for the LORD’s will to be done.  Word came to Nehemiah about the desperate state of things in Judea.  He was told that the Jews who were left there were in great affliction and in reproach and that they had no defense because the walls and gates of Jerusalem were broken down.  The news so affected Nehemiah that he “…sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.” (Nehemiah 1:4).  God is the One Who lays true burdens on our hearts.  When we feel a burden from the Lord, it is because we have been touched by the heart of God in some measure.  When this happens, and we truly understand God’s heart in the matter, we will respond in four ways.  We will first WEEP.  The things that break God’s heart should break ours if we are walking closely to Him.  We will also MOURN.  The act of mourning is to grieve over the loss of something or someone that is precious to us.  As we look honestly at the state of the Church today, we see much to be distressed about.  We must be able to see what has been lost to the Church in order to mourn for her.  Like the people of the captivity in Nehemiah’s day, we see Christians who are in great affliction and reproach.  Instead of being full of faith and joy in believing, they are discouraged, oppressed, and entangled in the things of the world rather than occupied in the things of God.  They lack the power and witness of those who know they have been redeemed and who have committed their lives wholly to the Lord.  The walls of salvation have been broken down to the point where many believers are unaware that their salvation has set them free from sin and is a defense against the temptations of their enemies.  The gates of praise also have been burned and many have lost the joy of the Lord and their heartfelt praise has been replaced with murmuring and depression.  God may also call us to FAST.  Fasting is always a proper response to a burden that the Lord places on our hearts.  It is a means of focusing our full attention and our desire toward God in order to seek His will.  It doesn’t have to be forty days and forty nights.  It can be as simple as one meal, or it can be a whole day, or longer.  God will direct you and give you grace no matter how long, but do it in secret and keep it between the Lord and you.  Most importantly, we must PRAY.  Every great move of God begins with someone having a burden for the work of the LORD, and then praying fervently for God’s will to be accomplished.  Many miracles have been wrought and great revivals have been forged out of such burdens and humble beginnings.  Scripture tells us, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16).  Nehemiah prayed for four months.  He confessed his sins and the sins of his people.  He reminded God of His promises, and that these were the people whom He had chosen and redeemed for Himself. 

 

Sometime after the Persians had conquered the Babylonian Empire, King Artaxerxes I of Persia came into power.  During the king’s reign, Nehemiah was selected to serve him as his cupbearer.  In this capacity Nehemiah learned to wait upon the king and to be a servant.  It was necessary for him to stay near the king so that he would know immediately when he called for wine.  You don’t keep a king waiting!  It was during this time that Nehemiah heard about the state of the Jews that were left in Judea, and of the condition of the city of Jerusalem. 

 

We, too, have an opportunity to serve a great King!  We must learn to wait on the Lord if we hope to know His heart and His will.  To live in the presence of Jesus Christ is the greatest blessing that we can enjoy in this life.  If, instead, we are focused and distracted by our own lives and our own things, we will miss the Lord’s will, and He will use someone else.  We need to start and end our day with Him, and we need to learn to walk with Him all the hours in between.  We are called to follow Jesus, not lead Him!  Also, we need to learn to feel the burdens that are close to the Lord’s heart.  Then we will know how to weep, mourn, fast, and pray for the Lord’s will to be done.

 

What is God speaking to you?  Are you grieved by things that you see in your church or in the Christian community in general, things that don’t seem right?  Rather than simply complaining or criticizing, perhaps God is calling you to pray.  In four months, Nehemiah saw a miraculous answer to his prayer.  We may need to pray longer, or perhaps God will do a quick work and it won’t be that long.  If God has given us a burden to pray, however, He will fulfill His desire in His time.

 

God made an opportunity for Nehemiah to express his burden for Jerusalem to Artaxerxes.  Nehemiah found favor with the king and was straightway commissioned by him to return to Judea as its governor and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  The king even provided all of the wood that would be necessary for the gates and for the walls.  Isn’t this just like our God.  When He sends us, He also provides for us!

 

When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem with his company of Jews, he secretly went around the city by night to view the condition of the walls and assess what would need to be done in order to restore them.  They were broken down and in desperate condition, and the gates had been severely burned.  As yet, Nehemiah had told no one of his plans except for the king, but that was about to change!  After surveying the damage to the city, Nehemiah met with the Jews, shared his burden with them, and encouraged them to rise up and repair the walls of the city.  “Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me.  And they said, Let us rise up and build.  So they strengthened their hands for this good work.” (Nehemiah 2:18). 

 

One major challenge that Nehemiah and his people faced when they surveyed the damage to the walls and gates was all of the rubble that littered the building site.  This had to be collected and hauled away before they could even begin to build.  “…there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.” (Nehemiah 4:10).  There is also much rubbish that has been deposited in the Church which hinders the work of restoration.  Rubbish in the form of false doctrines, humanism, man worship, and idolatry of various kinds all prevent the true work of rebuilding and must be identified and hauled away.  We need to go back to the solid foundation that was established by the Apostles and the prophets.

 

A man by the name of Sanballat was the governor in Samaria in 445 BC at the time when Nehemiah led his company of Jews back to Jerusalem.  Sanballat opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the return of the Jews to their homeland.  His very name means “bramble bush” and “a secret or hidden enemy.”  Scripture tells us that when Sanballat and his colleagues heard what Nehemiah was up to, “…it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.” (Nehemiah 2:10).  Nehemiah’s words to Sanballat and his crew were simple and direct.  He said, “…ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2:20).

 

As I read these verses, I can’t help but think of Israel and the desperate situation that it finds itself in today.  At the end of WWI, Britain took over control of Palestine from the Ottoman Turks.  In 1948, however, Britain agreed to cede part of this land to Israel so that they could form a Jewish state.  Thousands of Jews from Europe and Russia had been pouring into Palestine before that time.  The day after Israel declared statehood, Arabs from several surrounding countries attacked, intending to destroy the newly formed Jewish homeland.  Surprisingly (miraculously), Israel was able to defend itself against all its enemies and drive back the Arab forces. 

 

The Jews have been ill-treated and persecuted in most of the nations that they have migrated to during their long dispersion.  Hitler would have annihilated them altogether if he had had his way.  In Palestine, though, the Arab nations have a special hatred for the Jews. Their goal is to eradicate them completely from “the river [Jordan] to the sea [Mediterranean].”  It grieves them exceedingly when anyone comes to “seek the welfare of the children of Israel.”  America is despised by the Arabs because we seek the welfare of the children of Israel.  Those Arab nations, however, “…have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.”  This is land that God promised to Abraham and to his seed forever, and only God can take it from them or allow it to be taken.   

 

Sanballat, the Samaritan governor in this story, is a type and shadow of our adversary Satan.  Truly, Satan is a hidden and secret enemy.  He operates in the background, behind the scenes, walking about stealthily like a lion to catch some off guard and devour them if he can.  It grieves Satan when anyone has a burden for the truth, and for God’s work.  The walls of Jerusalem represent salvation and her gates represent our praise.  As the walls of Jerusalem were meant to protect God’s people, so do the walls of salvation protect us from the hand of the enemy.  “Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.” (Isaiah 60:18).  As Nehemiah assigned people and families to work on specific sections of the wall, so does God assign each of us to labor in different ministries, all to the glory of God and all to the benefit of the entire Body of Christ.  “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12). 

 

As the work progressed, opposition became greater from the Jews’ enemies.  They tried every tactic to try to make the work cease, but the people continued to pray, and they continued to build.  It got to the point that the people who were building held a sword in one hand and a builder’s tool in the other.  They could then continue to work but still fight when and if they must.  “They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.” (Nehemiah 4:17).  We must never lose sight of the fact that the work and ministry of the Lord will always involve spiritual warfare also.  Satan hates God’s work and will use any means to try to discourage it.  We must always be vigilant, therefore, lest he catch us unawares.  In all their plotting and planning to foil the work of the builders, the enemy’s purposes were discovered every time because of the Jews’ caution and watchfulness.  Thankfully, it never came down to bloodshed.  “After all, if God gives authority for a thing to be done, who is he that can oppose it?  Nehemiah said, “…we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night.” (Nehemiah 4:9).  In Gethsemane Jesus taught the disciples the importance of praying AND watching!  Nehemiah had also encouraged the people by saying, “Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” (Nehemiah 4:14).  We are fighting this fight of faith not for ourselves only, but for our families and for our brothers and sisters in the Lord.  In just 52 days, Nehemiah and the people with him completed this monumental task of refortifying Jerusalem.

 

At one point, Nehemiah told the people working on the walls, “The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another.  In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for us.” (Nehemiah 4:19, 20).  There are times when God’s people may find themselves isolated and without fellowship, and it may seem like they are alone and separated from the Body; but God’s children are never alone.  He is always present in our lives.  It is only a season in our lives that will soon transition into another.  Our task is to keep building, keep growing in Christ, and stay grounded in the Word of God.  Oh, and listen for the trumpet!

 

After the walls and gates were rebuilt, the people held a solemn assembly and asked that the Book of the Law of Moses be read before the whole congregation.  When they heard the words of God, the people wept and mourned out of conviction.  Nehemiah, however, encouraged the people to rejoice, saying, “this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10).  This is when revival really broke out among them.  They were filled with a hunger for God’s Word and a desire to know His ways.  They entered into a holy covenant with the Lord at that time and promised to keep His laws and precepts forever.

 

The Church as a whole needs just such a revival today.  Will you be one to help build in this great work that God has planned?  Will you pray for the restoration of the Church to the former glory that it enjoyed in the first century?  God has never changed.  If the Church today does not possess the power that it had in ages past, it is we, its members, who have changed.  Our Father is standing with arms wide open, offering us His mercy, power, and Spirit to accomplish the work He has for us to do.  Let’s grab our sword and our trowel and help in the task!

 

“Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.” (Psalms 51:18).