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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever spent much time not just watching but actually working at a major construction site? Have you ever helped with the hard work of building a wall? Working with heavy stone or concrete blocks and mortar will wear out even the strongest men very quickly, right? It’s exhausting, back-breaking work, especially in the hot sun. Come with me, let’s join such a project, but not with modern equipment.
Let’s go back, 2400 years ago, to a great wall building project in Jerusalem during the hot summer of 445bc.
We find the record of this remarkable project in Nehemiah 3. The project manager of this huge undertaking was Nehemiah, the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. Nehemiah had been sent to Jerusalem by the king to make a plan and accomplish an almost impossible task, the rebuilding of the city wall all around Jerusalem. Nehemiah kept detailed records of who was working where, and what they were doing.
I find it fascinating that Nehemiah begins his record with the most unlikely of all the people in Jerusalem who would soil their hands with this hard work of wall construction: “Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They dedicated it and set its doors in place, building as far as the Tower of the Hundred and as far as the Tower of Hananel. The men of Jericho built the adjoining section, and Sakur son of Imri built next to them…” (Nehemiah 3:1,2) Now that, my friends, is nothing short of amazing! WHY?
The High Priest was supposed to be a ‘holy man’ whose role was leading the spiritual momentum and activities of Jerusalem, especially in the great Temple area. He watched over the many priests who daily served the people helping them with the sacrificial worship system and praying in the Temple. The High Priest resolved moral and ethical disagreements by teaching the Laws of God. His hands were most often holding the scrolls of God’s laws, not heavy rocks for wall building. His eyes were studying God’s Word, not evaluating where to put the next big rock in the wall. His mouth was teaching God’s Laws not calling for more mortar. Yet true leadership leads by action not only by words, do you agree?
God expected the High Priest to lead God’s people in living life practically, every day, as a God honoring people! And on this day the most God honoring thing to be done was building the wall around the city God loved, Jerusalem! Oh my, there’s an important lesson here my friends! Can you and I discern, EVERYDAY, what God wants to accomplish in the face of what is most needed by the people where we live? And do we put our hands to the task, as God leads us, for accomplishing God’s purposes where we live?
Oh we need to ponder that for a few moments don’t we, my friends? Are you and I ‘sideline observers’ or in the trenches getting our hands dirty with whatever is needed to accomplish God’s vision for your city and mine? Do we know God’s vision for our cities?
By the way I think it’s significant WHERE the priests started their portion of the wall rebuild, did you notice? The “Sheep Gate”. WHY is that important? Because just outside that gate were the pens of animals ready for purchase to be brought into the Temple area and offered as sacrifices before God! Sheep were the animal most often sacrificed. And did you notice the priests built not only the Sheep Gate but a significant portion of the rock wall on either side of that gate, to reinforced places in the wall where watchtowers were built on top of the wall?
What a wonderful example of both spiritual and very practical leadership by the High Priest and his fellow priests. May I ask, as you look at the spiritual leaders of your community, are they engaged in practical, ‘making a difference’ leadership in your community as these Jewish spiritual leaders were in Jerusalem?
Did you notice the heavy lifting leadership of Eliashib the High Priest and his fellow priests became contagious and a catalyst for community action? Immediately others rolled up their sleeves and energetically engaged in this monumental project of transforming burned debris, from the demolition of 140 years before, to a new, strong, very high city wall? Nehemiah named them: “The men of Jericho built the adjoining section, and Sakur son of Imri built next to them…” As you read through the remainder of this remarkable chapter, you’ll notice that little phrase “BUILT NEXT TO THEM” is repeated over and over and over.
Have you ever seen a long line of dominoes fall after just the first one is tipped over. That is called the ‘domino effect’ and it’s what was happening here all around the circumference of the city of Jerusalem as people worked shoulder to shoulder in rebuilding their city wall. In fact I’ve circled in my Bible, in this chapter, every time those words or a similar phrase is used to describe the exciting momentum that was building up an entire city wall!
Nehemiah 3 is one of the most exciting chapters to read in the entire Bible if you like to watch momentum accomplish the unimaginable! And Nehemiah wants us to know it wasn’t only men working, for he records this: “Shallum… ruler of a half district of Jerusalem, repaired the next section with the help of his daughters.” (Nehemiah 3:12) I love that! Evidently Mr. Shallum was blessed of God with daughters, not sons, yet this dad made sure his girls joined in this massive project, perhaps especially because he was a community leader raising girls with both a strong work ethic and wise understanding of true leadership.
By contrast Nehemiah also records: “The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would NOT put their shoulders to the work…” (Nehemiah 3:5) Fortunately, at least in this great project those types of arrogant, worthless leaders, like these of Tekoa, were few.
Did you notice that often people were working on the portion of the wall closest to their home or business? (Nehemiah 3:28,31) This was hard, back breaking work, day after day. But the enthusiasm of so many people working, all within sight of each other, each portion attached to the next, was building a strong community of mutual support and interdependence, with everyone involved in accomplishing the unimaginable!
Rubble and Ruin was being transformed into HOPE, and a secure future with a huge protective wall! Are you part of something like that these days?
Let’s pause and just walk around and watch this incredible sight. Have you ever seen or been a part of such a movement, a momentum that would change an entire city? Tomorrow we’ll see what happened next and here’s a great worship song for this rare occasion…
Today’s Scripture: Nehemiah 3.
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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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