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Good morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends.
When you think about protecting yourself and your family from those who would do you harm, what specific protective steps come to your mind, or have you actually already taken some? Probably you have locks on your doors and windows, maybe even dead bolt locks, and perhaps a security alarm system for your home. Increasingly popular, in some parts of the world, are video camera monitoring systems linked directly to a person’s cell phone!
Security has always been a priority for all people living anywhere in the world in any generation, am I right? But let’s go back to a less sophisticated time when city walls were essential for the safety of city residents.
Join me again in 445bc in the city of Jerusalem as Nehemiah is leading a remarkable community wide effort, as the people of Jerusalem are taking matters into their own hands to rebuild the protective wall around their city. They have not contracted the project out to professionals, nor have they brought in heavy equipment! This is a bare hand, all hands-on deck project as we saw in Nehemiah 3.
We arrived at Nehemiah 4:6 yesterday which proclaims a major achievement: “So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half of its height, for the people worked with all their heart!” You’ll recall I told you the wall they were building would eventually reach a height of about 30 feet and thickness of perhaps 10 feet! Remember, no dump trucks hauling rocks, no cranes, no cement trucks! Raw, hard, manual labor with very creative but crude engineering!
Once again Nehemiah reports opposition to this grand project arose and was gaining momentum, attracting others who did not want to see Jerusalem rebuilt. “But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people 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.” (Nehemiah 4:7-9) Now friends if we take out a map, the names given here represent almost a 360-degree opposition. People from every direction outside Jerusalem were rising up in opposition!
And do you recognize the town named Ashdod? Yes, that is the very same town today, straight west of Jerusalem on the Mediterranean coast, which has often been in the news over the past few years. It was one of the key Philistine cities, in ancient Israel times, to which the Ark of the Covenant was taken when captured in battle by the Philistine army. (1 Samuel 5:1) In the days of Nehemiah, as we see here, it was a city opposed to Jerusalem’s success. But did you notice the opposition has intensified from the RIDICULE strategy we saw yesterday, to a plan for an outright ASSAULT on Jerusalem! Did you notice Nehemiah’s strategic response? “But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.”
I’m greatly encouraged and fascinated by Nehemiah’s priority on PRAYER, seeking God’s guidance and inviting God’s involvement, no matter the strategy of their enemies! Let’s pause and look closely at how we respond to opposition, especially organized opposition. What can you and I learn from Nehemiah?
Have you found that discouragement in the face of opposition can be contagious undercutting progress? Nehemiah reports: “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 an end to this work.’ Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us 10 times over, ‘Wherever you turn, they will attack us.” (Nehemiah 4:10-12)
Do you see discouragement and looming defeat at every turn? Discouragement within the ranks of the workers; a scheme to infiltrate and disrupt from within; and fear from those Jews living in the town around Jerusalem feeling threatened by those opposed to the Jerusalem wall project? Seems to me Nehemiah had many good reasons for throwing in the towel, calling it quits, or at least calling for a re-strategizing pause in the work, and if possible recruiting some new people into this outrageous endeavor.
But instead, Nehemiah did his ‘due diligence’ again and identified the most vulnerable places where the wall was least developed and he posted them there as armed families! Now don’t rush past this wise defensive strategy. There is power in unity, especially family unity isn’t there? Can you and I apply this to the challenges of family life in our day?
In our day professional specialists are often called in to help family dysfunction rather than the family rallying together, under the leadership of a God honoring, spiritually mature grandfather or father who can rally the family to unity together using the powerful spiritual resources God has made available to us in defending against the schemes of our dark world which may be attacking any one member or relationship in the family!
That’s what Ephesians 4:17-32 & 5:3-18 & 6:10-18 and Colossians 3:1-17 are all about! It’s why I spend time in Psalm 119 often equipping myself to battle on behalf of my family!
I love Nehemiah’s admonition, and I urge us to claim it for ourselves as we join with our families to fight the darkness of our world attempting to rip us apart or draw us away from Jesus into the suffocating darkness. Nehemiah said: “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the LORD who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes!” (Nehemiah 4:14)
Let’s pause right here and reflect on the battles your family faces and what application of these important truths would be like in your family situation. Look up those Scriptures I mentioned and see how they pertain to your family challenges, and here’s a great worship song for this moment as we battle for our families:
Today’s Scripture: Nehemiah 4:7-17.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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