Today I read the majority of the book of Nehemiah (I skimmed most of the last 2 chapters). I am falling in love with this book. It’s so applicable to our lives! I want to pull several verses from Nehemiah and show how I find them to relate to us individually and how they relate to a church body as a whole.
First, before I share the verses, though, you must understand some of the context prior to this book. Israel had been defeated by the Babylonians and then Persia came in and conquered Babylon. The land of the Israelites had been destroyed and it laid in rubble. Also, the people had been in exile.
“Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.“ (Nehemiah 1:3)
When I heard these things, I [anytime it says "I", it is Nehemiah talking] sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said:
“O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, Who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands, let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before You day and night for Your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against You….
Remember the instruction You gave Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to Me and obey My commands, then even if your exiled people are at the fatherst horizon, I will gathem them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for My Name.‘” (Nehemiah 1:4-6, 8-9)
Nehemiah is the cupbearer to the king and when he is taking some wine to the king, this happened…
…so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”
“Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
“What is it you want?”
…I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.”
I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? And may I have a letter to Asaph, keepter of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel…?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. (Nehemiah 2:2-5, 7-8)
I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days I set out during the night… examining the walls of Jerusalem…
“Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned down with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” (Nehemiah 2:11-12a, 13b)
So they went to work rebuilding the walls.
When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed [enraged]. He ridiculed the Jews, and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble–burned as they are?”
So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked will all their heart.
But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”
Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put and end to the work.”
Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.”
Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Dont’ be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.
From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked….
So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out.
Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water. (Nehemiah 4:1-2, 6-18, 21, 23)
When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the walls and not a gap was left in it–though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates–Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.”
But they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer….
Sanballat sent a messenger with a 5th message to try to get Nehemiah to come down. (Nehemiah 6:5-8)
They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”
But I prayed, “Now strenthen my hands.” (Nehemiah 6:9)
Sanballat sent a man to intimidate Nehemiah into sinning (Nehemiah 6:10-13).
So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. (Nehemiah 6:15-16)
After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors in place, the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed. I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most men do. I said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot. While the gatekeepers are still on duty, have them shut the doors and bar them. Also appoint residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their posts and some near their own houses.” (Nehemiah 7:1-3)
…people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive returned to Jerusalm and Judah… (Nehemiah 7:6)
Later on in chapters 8-10, the Israelites come together for public readings of Scripture, worship, fasting, confession, etc. Day after day they read aloud the Bible, worshipped, fasted, and confessed. They remembered what God had done for them. (Nehemiah 9:5-37) They remembered all the times God had rescued them, drawn them back after they had turned their backs. Over and over and over again they rebelled against God, they turned their backs, they placed themselves in bondage, and yet over and over and over again God heard their cries and pulled them back to Him.
Okay, so this was a lot of reading… but here’s a serious practical application I take away from this individually. We have walls and gates in our own lives (our hearts, our minds, our wills, our souls). At this moment, mine are in rubble. Mine are in rubble because I left one gate (or many gates) unguarded and the enemy (Satan) captured those parts of the wall. Satan has come to kill, steal, and destroy. He stole those parts of the walls in my life and destroyed them.
Once the enemy finds and entryway, He will not stop at taking just one gate. He will proceed to steal as many other gates as possible until he has destroyed all the walls in our lives. We are left bare, defenseless. We are stuck in our sin because we have no walls to protect us from the sin, from the temptation, and from Satan prodding us at every corner.
My walls are in rubble. I have no walls to protect me and I am susceptible to every fleshy breeze that comes to me.
Are your walls in rubble?
Here’s my application: rebuild the wall. This is going to be a hard process, as it was clearly hard for Nehemiah and the Israelites.
First, recognize that the walls in my life are broken (Nehemiah 1:3)
Second, weep, mourn, fast, pray, confess my sins, and ask God to aid me in my endeavor to rebuild the walls (Nehemiah 1:4-11)
Third, Acknowledge the areas of sin in my life where I struggle and no longer allow Satan to dwell there. Say no any time he tempts me to sin. Do not give him part of my wall and never be intimidated by his anger. He will be angry, but don’t give in when he makes it hard. Don’t give in to his discouragement. I have all power over Satan (Luke 10:19). Post guard day and night over my actions and thoughts. (Nehemiah 4:1-2, 7-9, 13-18, 23)
Fourth, My strength may give out when I realize all the rubble in my life. Is it possible to build such a wall to kick Satan out of my life? Pray. Prayer is a key in all steps of rebuilding my wall. (Nehemiah 4:10, 6:9)
Those are pretty much a sum of all the steps I find applicable to rebuilding walls in our personal, individual lives. It’s really important to remember, thought, that once we have it built, and there are no gaps (which can take a LONG time), we must always keep guard stationed to ensure the enemy has no way of entering into our walls. We must make sure there are no gaps.
I find that these verses are applicable on a much larger level. I think it would be really important for us a church body to follow all these steps: confess our sins, confess the sins of the church body, together post guard against Satan getting into our church body, etc.
