Read Nehemiah chapters 4, 6, 7
We read last time how Nehemiah had began to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. Sanballat, who was one of the men who previously was rejected by Nehemiah when he requested to be allowed to take part in the rebuilding project, became incensed when he learned that the rebuilding of the wall had started. He, along with Tobiah, quickly began to mock the efforts of Nehemiah and his people. They in turn pray to God to silence them. Sanballat, Tobiah, along with the Arabs, Ammonites, and the people of Ashbod became angry as the gaps in the wall were being closed. They planned to attack the city, but Nehemiah posted armed guards at the sites of construction to protect the workers. The amount of rubble seemed to be too much for the Jews to handle and the Jews’ enemies expressed confidence that they could catch the Jew off-guard and kill them while they worked.
However, Nehemiah put many of his people at the most vulnerable places of the wall with weapons next to their families who worked on building..He encouraged them to keep their faith and God and to fight for their families. He had half his men stand watch while the other half continued to build with everyone being armed. Nehemiah stayed with the men who had the trumpets, which would be used as a warning to others in case anyone was attacked. He reminded his people that God would fight for them as well. Some men worked during the day while others worked at night. They stayed armed all the time, even when they would get water to be refreshed.
The enemies of the Jews asked Nehemiah to come meet them in the valley of Ono when they learned that the walls were completely built although the gates weren’t added yet. Tobiah and Geshon asked to meet Nehemiah there four times but he realized they planned to hurt him. So Nehemiah responded every time he didn’t have the time to do so because he was doing an important work. The fifth time Sanballat’s message accused Nehemiah of planning a revolt and making himself a king; thus he would notify the king of Persia of this plan. Nehemiah stated that this was a plan that his enemies were just making up. He stayed in prayer the whole time. Nehemiah was figured out that Shemaiah, (whom he was visiting in his home) was hired by Sanballat and Tobiah to convince Nehemiah to hide in the temple in order to stay safe. But Nehemiah knew such an act would only cause him to sin, discredit his leadership and stall the efforts of rebuilding the wall. He prayed to God to remember the wrong Sanballat and Tobiah had done as well as the false prophets led by Noadiah had done. Nehemiah and the Jews finished the walls in only fifty-two days.
Once the walls were done, all the nations became afraid because they knew the re-construction of Jerusalem was done by God’s power. Once the doors were put in place, Nehemiah had his brother Hanani and Hananiah put in charge as to when the doors should be opened and who would be guarding them. The city was largely empty with no homes in it so Nehemiah assembled the nobles and officals in Judah to gather the records of all the exiles who had returned so he could prepare to bring in people eventually to repopulate the city.
Food for thought; What Nehemiah demonstrates during the time of rebuilding Jerusalem is pure perseverance in the midst of not only dealing with the difficult task of putting the walls up in the midst of a lot of rubble, but in dealing with constant threats from enemies who wanted the whole operation to fail. With amazing leadership and dedication, it took the Jews under Nehemiah’s leadership less than two months to build up and entire city’s walls! That’s impressive! Of course, Nehemiah stayed in tune with God, which made the re-building possible in the first place. As God’s people today, we too can achieve such acts of restoration in our lives if we stay connected to God. It is expected that the enemy will rise up and throw everything at us in an attempt to derail our efforts to achieve complete restoration but a child of God who continues to pray to the Lord and who sticks to a God-directed plan will overcome every plan of the devil to get us off track!
Up next: A nation comes together to remember the past and to move foward…..
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