Nehemiah | by Tessa Hershberger

Themes to track: God’s character and nature, prayers and leadership of Nehemiah

In elementary school, recess was usually the best part of the day. My school’s playground had a big field next to it, where we liked to play the game Red Rover. As innocent a game as it is, Red Rover must be played strategically in both offense and defense. On the defense, the objective is to add one of the other side’s players to your side, and the smartest thing to do is call over the people believed to be the weakest and most unlikely to break through any of your links. On the offense, if the other team has called your name, you must pinpoint what you believe to be the weakest link in their wall and then—run as hard as you can! Although Red Rover is just a fun and harmless children’s game, it is actually a perfect picture of the spiritual game of Red Rover we play every day, whether we realize it or not!

A battle is going on for our lives in the heavenly realms, and Satan constantly tries to send over the strongest players on his team to break through what he perceives to be the weakest links in our spiritual walls. Our team, or “wall”, is made up of Christlike qualities we seek to acquire and grow in—humility, patience, love, modesty, joy, spiritual disciplines, etc. Satan “calls over” the weakest ones in an attempt to steal them away from us. And when that happens, the strength of our own wall crumbles, unable to hold back the strongest players of Satan’s team—lust, pride, compromise, insecurity, depression, ungodly fear, and the like. But the only way Satan is able to break through our walls and add strength to his own is if our walls are too weak to restrain him, and the Christlike “players” on our own team are not potent enough to break through even the strongest links on Satan’s side.

If our lives are a spiritual game of Red Rover with Satan, the question thus becomes, How do I add to the strength of my own team rather than Satan stealing from me and adding strength to his team? The book of Nehemiah, the sequel to Ezra, is a perfect illustration of the answer to this question.

In the book of Ezra, we saw the Israelites return from Jerusalem after seventy years in exile to rebuild the temple. God used Ezra, also the likely author of both Ezra and Nehemiah, to bring spiritual reform to the people after the temple was rebuilt. (Note: Nehemiah speaks in first person for a large portion of the book, making it sound as though he was the author. One likely explanation is that the text came from Nehemiah himself and he was a “co-author” of the book. An additional explanation is that Ezra used Nehemiah’s personal diaries, and yet a third option is that he authored the entire book himself.) The book of Nehemiah takes place fourteen years later, when an honorable Israelite named Nehemiah, also cupbearer to King Artaxerxes of Persia, gets some bad news about the Israelites living in Jerusalem—“The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire” (Neh. 1:3).

It is obvious from Nehemiah’s response to the news that although he lives in Persia working an honorable job for its king, Nehemiah’s heart is with his fellow Israelites in Jerusalem who had set out to rebuild the city and see it prosper once again under the hand of the Lord. He weeps. He mourns for days. He fasts. He cries out to God. Nehemiah’s prayer in 1:5-11 is significant. Nehemiah does not begin by asking God to watch over the people and help them rebuild Jerusalem. Rather, he prays a prayer of heartfelt confession to God—confessing his own and the Israelites’ sins that he likely perceives to have contributed to the sorry state of Jerusalem. In order to fortify our spiritual walls against the enemy, we must first ask God to show us the things in our lives that are not right, confess and ask for His forgiveness, and then repent and walk the opposite direction. Unless we confess our sin and turn from it, our attempts to build a sturdy spiritual wall will be like building a wall out of cracked bricks.

In His great sovereignty, God puts it in the heart of the King of Persia to allow Nehemiah to go to Jerusalem to help rebuild the wall, even granting Nehemiah’s request to provide the resources for it (see 2:5-8). Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem and informs the officials of his intentions to lead them in rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall, entirely confident that God will make the work successful (see 2:17-20). Let us dare not try to build our spiritual walls without God’s help and leadership!

The repairs and rebuilding are going along great (see chapter 3), when suddenly opposition arises. A man named Sanballet becomes very angry that the Israelites are trying to rebuild the defense of their city and along with his followers, tries to discourage them with mocking taunts. But the Israelites simply tune them out and continue in forward movement. Likewise, when we begin or continue in the process of rebuilding our spiritual walls, the enemy of our souls is likely to rise up and do whatever he can to hinder it. But we must not let his feeble attempts make us shrink back in fear, discouragement, or complacency!

Nehemiah and the people know that in order to go forward in unhindered resolve, they need more than clenched fists—they need the help of their God: “So we prayed to our God, and set a guard as a protection against them day and night” (4:9). Prayer is the most effective tool we have in order to build a strong spiritual wall! Nehemiah also has the wisdom to know that if the building is going to be successful against the plans of their enemies, they must build with weapons in hand. In case the enemy was ever to suddenly come against them, they needed to be ready at a moment’s notice to drop their hammers and nails and wield their swords effectively! (See chapters 3 and 4.)

In the process of building our own spiritual walls against the enemy, two very powerful weapons we have are prayer and the Word of God. The enemy gets weak at the knees when he hears us speak the truth, and thus it is so important to cultivate the effectiveness of the Sword of the Spirit through memorizing, studying, and meditating on it until it is deeply rooted in our hearts and minds.

Just when the wall is about finished, the enemies of the Israelites devise a rumor about Nehemiah (6:1-7). Rather than fretting over the situation, Nehemiah’s response was, if I may paraphrase it, “Whatever—it’s not true and you know it.” Nehemiah responds the same way to a second scheme against his life in 6:10-14. He is clearly confident that God’s hand is all over the rebuilding process and no plot of man can be successful against it. Likewise, as our walls become stronger and stronger against the enemy, we will grow to be more aware and discerning of his attacks. He will try to use new tactics against us, but we will only be quicker to gain victory over him, ready to refute him with truth.

So the wall was finished ... in fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem; for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.
—Neh. 6:15,16

God is faithful to complete what He begins! Nehemiah and the Israelites persevered in building until the work was finished. When God is the one working through us, we too can be confident that when we set out to build strong walls against the enemy, He will be faithful to complete the work.

So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel settled in their towns. —Neh. 7:73

The wall is finished, the people are settled, and the physical labor has ceased. But there is still work to be done—the Israelites now need to work on their spiritual wall. In chapter eight, the people come together and listen to Ezra (remember—Ezra had a big heart for God’s Word! See Ezra 7:10) read the books of the law of Moses that God had first commanded Israel to follow hundreds of years prior. Israel’s spiritual leaders help the people to interpret the law, and the people rejoice at their ability to understand it and obey it. One way they responded in obedience was by celebrating the Festival of Booths, which God commanded of Israel in Leviticus 23:33-36. Oh, might we too rejoice at the opportunity to understand and obey God’s Word!

In chapter nine, the Israelites make a large stride in strengthening their spiritual wall by coming together for a time of confession on sin, worship, and reading God’s Word. Ezra’s prayer in 9:6-37 is a beautiful prayer of remembrance of God’s steadfast love and mercy towards Israel since the days of their Egyptian slavery, despite their many rebellions. In chapter ten the people humbly and wholeheartedly respond with a recommitment to their covenant with God, promising to obey His law. This spiritual wall-building well prepares them for the dedication of the physical wall of Jerusalem in chapter twelve. The people come together and dedicate the wall with much rejoicing, thanksgiving, and singing to God, and the temple workers are also assigned to their services according to the law.

It would be great if chapter twelve ended with, “And the Israelites lived happily ever after.” But there is a chapter thirteen, and it reveals that even in the midst of true repentance and heartfelt devotion, our sinful human natures are “prone to wander,“ and mistakes will be made. (Note: We must be careful with this concept. Being human is not an excuse to go on struggling with habitual sin. When we abide in Christ and let His nature live through us, sin will not be a normal struggle.)

After having returned to his job as cupbearer of the king, Nehemiah gets the news that the Israelites have taken a few wrong turns and have disregarded certain parts of the law. Nehemiah’s response is again a wonderful example to us. He immediately returns to Jerusalem and, if I may, “takes care of business,” sternly correcting the Israelites and ordering their wrongs to be made right.

Thus I cleansed from them everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work. —Neh.13:30

Some of Nehemiah’s actions in chapter thirteen may appear a bit harsh (check out verse twenty-five!), but Nehemiah acted out of concern for Israel. He saw her “wall” begin to crack, and he knew that if he didn’t fix it, Israel would continue down a destructive path. If any area of our wall begins to crack, we have the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us. But what really matters is the response to the awareness. If we undermine the cracks, justify them, delay their repairs, or ignore them completely, those walls will quickly turn into piles of rubble.

Consider your own spiritual “team.” How has it been doing lately in the game of Red Rover? Which side seems to be winning? Which team players do you need to take back? Which players on Satan’s team do you have a hard time restraining? What cracks do you need to repair? Remember, we’re not playing this game alone. We’ve got the MVP on our team—“Our God will fight for us” (Neh. 4:20).

Father, let us be as resolute and victorious as Nehemiah was to build, protect, and look after the condition of our spiritual walls—and let the enemy tremble!

Chapter six in Leslie Ludy’s book, Set Apart Femininity, is an excellent resource if you want to learn more about the concept of spiritual fortification. I highly recommend the book!