THE TRUTH CLINIC Let Us Rise Up And Build (Neh. 2-18)
Background
When the Israelites entered The Promised Land under Joshua, they were the “superpower” of their day. The Lord was with them because they were with the Lord. Over time, however, they became corrupt in the structure of their society and in their obedience to God. The Lord then left them vulnerable to the attacks of the many enemies that surrounded them.
“Now on the seventh day of the fifth month, which was in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,(586 BC) Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard of the king, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire. So all the army who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Then the rest of the people who were left in the city were carried away into exile.” (2 Kings 25:8-11 KJV) Jerusalem lay in a state of desolation and ruin for almost 100 years.
The Book of Nehemiah is the story of the rebuilding of the walls of decimated Jerusalem, which took place in the fifth century before Christ. It is part of the long history of that troubled city, which is in the news even today because of the perpetual conflict.
But Nehemiah did more than rebuild a wall and a city.
His is also the story of restoring a people from despair and desperation to a new vigorous relationship with God and renewed self-respect. Perhaps this model, created some 500 years before Christ, can be used by Black America as a guiding template to overcome it’s own 400 year battle against oppression.
Consider the correlations between Nehemiah’s Israel and Black America. They both suffered a period of slavery, both gradually were tolerated as second class citizens, both experienced wealth inequality, both had selected citizens who held high status, and both failed multiple times in attempts to achieve equality status.
Nehemiah Hears the News:
In the month of Kislev (December) in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, Nehemiah had visitors from Judah, a close friend, and a few other men. Nehemiah questioned them about the Jews that survived the exile and also about the current state of Jerusalem.
They told him, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble, living in poverty, and are disrespected by all around them. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” (Nehemiah 1:1-3 NIV)
Do you get the picture? Jerusalem was still a virtual ghetto, broken down, devastated, and messed up almost 100 years after the Babylonians had conquered it. There had been many attempts to rebuild Jerusalem following the destruction of the city, but with no success.
If we take the Jerusalem situation as a proxy for ghetto like conditions today in Black America, there are places throughout where the walls are broken down. Understand that a wall does not have to be a physical wall but can be anything that results in despair, frustration, and turmoil.
Boarded-up houses, burned-out buildings, trash, and weeds have taken over. Many residents have fallen into practices that they know are wrong but have difficulty stopping them. They may be addicted to drugs or hooked on tobacco or alcohol. Many have embraced a bitter spirit. Their normal defenses are gone. Hopelessness seems to be the prevailing attitude.
Nehemiah Reacts To the Bad News
Nehemiah was touched when he heard of the terrible situation in Jerusalem. He sat down and wept. “For days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven” (Nehemiah 1:4 NIV)
Nehemiah clearly has a deep sense of personal concern. He is willing to face the facts, to weep over them, and to tell God about them. He prayed.
Notice the four key elements that define the structure and context of his prayer.
First, he recognized the character of God:
“Oh 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.” (Nehemiah 1:5b-6a NIV)
The ruin of Black American’s personal lives and our communities should make us feel like Nehemiah, and make us want to weep and mourn and tell God about it. That is always the place to start. He gives attention to the prayers of his people. And he is a God of power and ability, and, above all, a God of love.
The second thing Nehemiah did was: he repent of all personal and corporate sins:
“I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.” (Nehemiah 1:6b-7 NIV)
This is an honest acceptance of his own guilt. Notice the absence of self-righteousness. He does not say, “Lord, I am thinking of those terrible sinners back there in Jerusalem. You be gracious to them because they have fallen into wrong actions.” No, he puts himself into this picture, saying, “I have contributed to this problem. There are things that I did or did not do that have made this ruin possible. I confess before you, Lord, the sins of myself and my father’s house.” There is no attempt to excuse or to blame others for this. It is a simple acknowledgment of wrong.
If you try to excuse yourself for what is wrong in your life or environment, you block your own recovery. Just admit it, declare it. While this may be contrary to the modern age we live in, it is still God’s way, and it is the first step in the process of recovery.
Then, third, Nehemiah reminded GOD of HIS gracious promises:
“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 farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.”
“They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand” (Nehemiah 1:8-10 NIV)
The fourth thing Nehemiah did was request specific help to begin this process:
“O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this, your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” (Nehemiah 1:10-11a NIV)
What man? He goes on to tell us:
Nehemiah Speaks to the King
Nehemiah got the news in December, but it was not until four months later that an opportunity presented itself for Nehemiah to act:
In response to the King asking, What do you want?.. Nehemiah answered, “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.”
Observe how tactful is Nehemiah’s presentation. Twice he refers to Jerusalem, not as the capital of Judah, or even by its name, for it had a reputation as a troublesome city and had been the source of revolt in the empire before, but he designates it as “the city where my fathers are buried.”
That is an accommodation to the King’s own concerns. These ancient kings were greatly concerned about their burial. This king would be immediately sympathetic to Nehemiah’s desire to go and restore the city where his fathers were buried. Nehemiah wisely plays upon that interest and presents his case in the best possible light.
This suggests to us that if we are truly concerned about rebuilding parts of our life, we need to think seriously about what it will require. We must assess what we will actually need, what steps we should take, and what may be involved in changing our habits so that we can be freed to be what God wants us to be. Nehemiah teaches us that we need to face the reality of our situation, no matter how bad it might be.
Nehemiah Travels to Jerusalem
Nehemiah also beseeched the king, “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, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. The king also provided army officers and cavalry to travel with me.
Notice that at this point, Nehemiah did not send messengers all over the empire announcing that he was on his way to rebuild Jerusalem. Nor did he convene any town hall meetings to proclaim how the King had so honored him with safe passage letters and other kingly authorizations. His total game plan was not publicly acclaimed (self-aggrandizement), so his enemies could not undermine the plan even before it started.
With the king’s permission, Nehemiah and his entourage embark on the arduous 1,000 mile journey to Jerusalem.
Inspection of Wall
After arrival in Jerusalem, Nehemiah takes three days to recover from the journey, and then he begins to personally examine every aspect of the devastating conditions that exist in Jerusalem. He viewed the decay, the ashes, the holes in the walls, the burned gates, and the places most vulnerable to attack.
He did not tell anybody what his detailed plan was until he had personally determined exactly what needed to be done.
After the thorough inspection and analysis, he was ready to inform the people of the specific work that would be required to build the wall because he was going to need their help.
Shares His Plan
Nehemiah then convened a town meeting and said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be held in contempt and disgrace.” He also told them how GOD had answered his prayers and how the king had favored him and supported the project. He reminded the people how strong and mighty their forefathers had been.
The people replied, “Let us rise up and build.” So they began this good work. (Nehemiah 2:17-18 NIV)
This is a wonderful example of good leadership. First, Nehemiah appeals to their pride: “You can see the ruin around you,” he points out. The ruins had been there for almost one hundred years.
He is saying, in effect, “That is long enough. It is disgraceful that nothing has been done until now. Let us begin to act.” He puts it to them plainly that now is the time because, as he suggests, “God is with us.” God had already helped them. He had moved the heart of the king, setting up the possibility of repair. Now was the time to act.
When leadership steps out like that, it is almost certain to find a following. Nehemiah galvanizes the Jews to action, to begin the process of rebuilding. He appeals to their sense of self-respect and supplies an encouraging motive to begin.
Read How The Work Was Shared (Neh. 3:1-32)
The details of how each family in Jerusalem contributed to the rebuilding of the wall is provided in Neh. 3. They participated in accordance with their respective talents and resources. Some did and gave a lot. Some did and gave little. But the collective mindset of all the people was, “We are going to rebuild this wall.” Nehemiah had given them a single well-defined objective to focus on and a detailed plan to accomplish the objective.
External Opposition
However, Nehemiah discovered that when you actually start to do something positive, there will always be some resistance.
Whenever anybody says, “I will arise and build,” Satan always replies, “Then I will arise and oppose.” You can count on it! It is an inevitable part of the process.
When you begin to move with God to change things in your life for the better, you will find that you are met first with derision, and if you keep persisting, someone is going to get very upset with you and attack you in a vicious, perhaps physical way.
But see how Nehemiah reacts. He still uses prayer as one of his tools.
But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. (Nehemiah 4:9 NIV)
He augments his prayers by posting guards as well to prevent physical attacks. Prayer and preparedness! This blending of the resources of the spiritual life with those of the material world is a marvelous picture of how believers ought to face threats, recognizing that we need action on both levels.
Meanwhile, the people in Jerusalem said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall” (Nehemiah 4:10 NIV)
Internal Opposition
In Neh. 5, the Unseen Enemy tries yet another approach. Nehemiah has successfully handled the threatened external attack, but now he runs into a problem from within his own ranks. There are many internal conflicts that could derail the rebuilding.
Nehemiah carefully analyzes the concerns, arrives at a solution, and presents it to the people at a mass meeting. Nehemiah’s God based power assuages those in conflict.
The whole assembly accepted. Said, “Amen,” and praised the LORD. The rebuilding continued and the people did as they had promised. (Nehemiah 5:12b-13b NIV)
Finish the Work
So, the wall was completed fifty-two days after the work started.
“When all our enemies heard about this and all the surrounding nations saw it, our enemies lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God” (Nehemiah 6:15-16 NIV)
Even their enemies had to admit that God was at work in these people’s lives. He was what accounted for their amazing success. This entire project was finished in just 52 days! Nehemiah had left Persia in April, and it took him several months to journey to Jerusalem. Yet on October 2nd in the year 445 B.C., the wall was completed. They finished the work in 52 days because they put their minds and their shoulders to the task and looked to God for wisdom and power to achieve. They did not depend on the oppressor to create and finance a rebuilding program for them.
Summary
Black America, we need the type of ACTION Nehemiah took. Churches, Civil Rights Organizations, Fraternities, Sororities, and Community Activists Black America needs you to plan and direct the ACTION.
Black America does not need more marching, play-acting, talking tough on TV sound bites, or prolific proclamations. It needs you to stop Playing Church and be the Church that demonstrates “If God Be For You Who Can Be Against You? Black America does not need the constant publicity of internal strife and conflict within its organizations. It can certainly do without the continual power struggles that waste valuable time and resources.
Black America does need new Nehemiah’s to come forward to show us how to RISE UP AND BUILD so we can control our lives, our communities, and our destinies.
Prayer:
Thank you, Father, for this practical book of Nehemiah, which sets out a cohesive guideline to recovery and rebuilding. Thank you that when we fall and go astray to any degree, you do not leave us all alone; you make a way back. We pray that many today will be determined to begin where Nehemiah began: to tell you the whole story and thus begin the process of recovery. We want to rise again and begin to rebuild our lives and our communities and our temples in your name, in your glory, and in your honor. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
JAMES W. BREEDLOVE
email: thebreed@swbell.net
