Today’s reading was from Nehemiah.
I didn’t want to read Nehemiah. I didn’t feel like it applied to me. I don’t really have a reason, I just had a very strong aversion to starting it. However, I had just finished Ezra, so it just felt unfair to Nehemiah to leave him hanging.
Good choice.
Here are two of the things that I have thus far encountered.
1. The walls were rebuilt…twice. Both times met with great opposition, but both times God intervened and miraculously brought about the restoration of Jerusalem. Only to be torn down again. Why? God doesn’t need proper walls to know the hearts of his people; the walls are for the people to understand the heart of God.
2. Everyone, from the son of a local ruler to the gold smith, pitched in to help. Everyone. That includes daughters (the daughters of Shallum to be exact, and these women carried swords. Fierce, fierce women of God). All members worked on their own sections of the wall. Everyone worked together: building, repairing. A reminder that my section of the body, of the wall, isn’t the only one destroyed. A reminder that we are all constantly working out our salvation, allowing God to make repairs and renewals. We rebuild as a community, even though enemies attack. And sometimes we take turns keepng guard, watching over those who are building, helping defned them from all evil, from attacks. And when they finish, we switch. There is a balance, an equilibrium. We are never alone. We are all part of the soma, the body of Christ. Hallelujah.
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