Let's Build A Wall!

Nehemiah was one of the exiled Jews living in Babylon. At the time he was the cup bearer of King Artaxerxes of Persia that had defeated the Babylonian king. He receives a report from his brother and his friends, about the state of the exiled Jews who returned to Jerusalem. Things weren’t going well. Jerusalem was in shambles. The walls had been torn down and the gates destroyed by fire. (Nehemiah 1) Nehemiah is moved by the Lord to go back to Jerusalem and organize its repair. God gives him favor with the King to be given anything and everything he needs and even above what he asked for. (Nehemiah 2)

As Nehemiah is able to gather the Jews together to rebuild, it was not without opposition. Namely there were 3 main opposers that caused constant issues. They looked for ways to stop the Jews from rebuilding; Sanballet, Tobiah the Ammorite, and Geshem the Arab. They tried many tactics to discourage the Jews such as mockery (Neh 4:1-3), threats of violence (Neh 4:7-13), plots to ambush and propaganda. (Neh 6:1-13) However, none of that worked. God gave Nehemiah strategies, wisdom, and discernment to ward off the enemies schemes. In just 52 days they were able to rebuild the walls and gates. Now it was time to celebrate!

Eventually Nehemiah had to return to his position as cup bearer, but not before he restores order. He registers the people. (Neh 7) Ezra the scribe finds the book of the law and reads it aloud to the people. (Neh 8) They now know exactly what God said and are now being held accountable. In the next chapter the people confess their sin and repent. In chapter 10 the Jews make vows before God. Nehemiah cleans house and reorders it. You would think everything would be roses now and this story would have a happy ending right? Issues immediately creep up. This brief recap brings me to two points I want to discuss. You must guard the wall and you must deal with the sin within the wall.

1. You must guard the wall

In Nehemiah 13, Nehemiah returns to find the Jews weren’t keeping the Sabbath holy. They were actually doing business by buying and selling goods on that day. Nehemiah locked down the gate the night before the Sabbath so no one could leave or enter. Then he actually went out and confronted those who were loitering outside the gate and threatened to arrest them. Nehemiah was guarding the wall.

When we are successful and gain victory or accomplish something, the devil may try to camp outside our gate. He is looking for that point of weakness to get back inside. Instead of sitting around and waiting for his attack, we need to be purposeful by strengthening and defending our wall. One way is by reflection. When Nehemiah confronted the Jews for trading on the Sabbath, he reminded them that their behavior is what led to their exile in the first place. He was challenging them to learn from their past and learn from their mistakes. Reflection is a valuable tool. Reflect on what caused you to struggle. Reflect on what caused you to sin and avoid repeating it at all costs. Reflection strengthens the wall.

2. You must deal with the sin within the wall.

Additionally in Nehemiah 13 we are reminded that even though we confront the enemy outside the wall, he may already be inside it. Remember those 3 antagonists to the Jews rebuilding the wall? In verses 4-6 we find out the priest Eliashib was in charge of the store rooms in the temple, but he was also a relative of Tobiah. This is the same Tobiah the Ammorite who tried to stop the wall being built. Eliashib allowed Tobiah access. He allowed the enemy to dwell inside. Then towards the end of the chapter we find out another one of the 3, Sanballet, is already inside. In verse 28 it says “One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest had married a daughter of Sanballet the Horonite, so I banished him from my presence.” The enemy didn’t disappear, but just found another way in. In both cases the way in came by Eliashib the priest. The priest, or the “man of God” let the enemy in. It shows no matter our title we all can fall to the enemy’s schemes.

Many times we wonder “Well how did this happen? How did I get back here? How did this sin get control and grip me again? Didn’t I already deal with this?” The “how” is by compromise. When we make compromises with sin no matter how great or small, we are giving the devil a point of entry. Eliashib allowed compromise to come in by way of pleasing a relative and allowing his son to become unequally yoked. Sin sometimes tries to creep in by way of another person; by an ungodly influence we allow in our lives. I think of times I’ve done things I shouldn’t to not have to offend or hurt someone’s feelings. I let the fear of man allow sin to get a foothold in my life. Let me be blunt and say, the devil is never polite! He never considers our feelings when he’s trying to attack us. If anything he plays off our feelings as a point of weakness. We need to stop allowing sin to come in because we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Matthew 10:28 says “Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Don’t fear man more than we fear God. Fear of man leads us to sin and death. Fear of God leads us to life.

Remember the devil is an opportunist. Luke 4:13 says, “When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.” The devil will not give up. He will come back looking for another point of entry. We have to play offense and defense. By reflection we play offense. We purposefully chose to grow and learn from our mistakes. It was George Santayana, philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist who said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” There couldn’t be a truer saying about the children of Israel. They constantly repeated the same mistakes. Nehemiah in his fervor confronted them and challenged them on this. Reflection helps us avoid sin. Reflection can break the cycle.

We must deal with the sin within our walls. We have to weed out those things that will cause us to falter and fail. Eliashib the priest letting Tobiah have a room at his disposal was so much more. He symbolically let the devil have a place in the “church”. He was allowing the enemy access that would affect all the Jews. When we allow the devil access he doesn’t just seek to harm and afflict only us. He wants to spread like a cancer. Our sin never affects just us. It always has ripple effects. Even more so why we need to be aware of the sin within our walls and not allow it to stay and grow.

We can learn from the book of Nehemiah valuable lessons. We see what happens when our wall isn’t protected. We also catch a glimpse of what happens when sin is within our walls. Reflection and confronting sin strengthens us. Additionally, reading and meditating on God’s word is a vital part to this. Psalm 119:11 says “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Following God’s word always draws us to God and away from sin.