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 were part of the
Jewish 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!
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