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“¹ all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.” NIV

‘’They told Ezra…to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses…’’

‘About a week after the wall was finished, all the people assembled in Jerusalem. The physical restoration of the city’s defences had been completed; now the time had come to focus on the spiritual restoration of the people.’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied OT Commentary, p.761.

God’s Word lay at the centre of this renewal.

I have set myself to not only read Nehemiah, but pray through the book. It’s not always easy to turn what you’re reading into prayer, but I have found it a powerful thing to do, and it is also an aid to meditation. I believe it helps to get the Word of God into your heart – and that’s where you want it, as a safeguard against sin (Ps.119:11).

As I read this verse, it prompted me to pray, with some conviction, for spiritual hunger among us. Here the people were asking for God’s Word (‘’…which the LORD had commanded for Israel’’). I think the implication is that they both wanted to hear and do what God said.

How much do you want God’s Book? How keen are you to hear it, read it, study it, and live under its authority?

The psalmist wrote: ‘’Oh how I love your law!’’ (Psalm 119:97). A practical implication of such love has already been stated in verse 16: ‘’I delight in your decrees: I will not neglect your word.’’

PRAYER: Lord, please forgive us for any complacency, or lukewarmness towards your Word. May we love it as we should, and give our attention to it in order to obey it.

“⁶ These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town, ⁷ in company with Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum and Baanah):The list of the men of Israel:…………(please see list in your Bible) …..⁶³ And from among the priests:the descendants of Hobaiah, Hakkoz and Barzillai (a man who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by that name). ⁶⁴ These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. ⁶⁵ The governor, therefore, ordered them not to eat any of the most sacred food until there should be a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim.⁶⁶ The whole company numbered 42,360, ⁶⁷ besides their 7,337 male and female slaves; and they also had 245 male and female singers. ⁶⁸ There were 736 horses, 245 mules,^[ 69 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys.” NIV

Reading this chapter caused me to think of a Christian lady who said she loved to do ‘boring’ jobs. By this she meant that she was happy to work behind the scenes, doing certain things some people might regard as ‘boring’. But such work is always important in the church, and certain vital things that need to get done won’t be achieved without it.

As I indicated yesterday, you may not find this to be the most inspiring part of Nehemiah, but it underlines for me the importance of lists, of names, of numbers, of record keeping and book keeping (financial recording) – of administration and organisation. Church life would be chaotic without it. Everything should be done ‘’decently and in order.’’

PRAYER: Thank you Lord for all the work done faithfully behind the scenes to make the public ministry of the church possible. Thank you for those who do it.

“⁴ Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt. ⁵ So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the common people for registration by families. I found the genealogical record of those who had been the first to return. This is what I found written there:” NIV

You may not find what comes next in Nehemiah 7 to be the most inspiring part of the book. (On the other hand, some people might). But remember, Nehemiah was carrying out what His God had put into His heart. So it’s important; it matters.

I simply want to say that God still speaks to the hearts of His people, and I wonder, what has God put into your heart? Also, what are you going to do with it? It may well be wise, in some cases, to keep on praying about it, if you’re not quite sure it is God’s voice you are hearing. It’s nearly always a good and prudent thing to talk it over with another mature Christian (or leader), but I do know God does drop things into His people’s hearts, and what an adventure life can become when we respond to His promptings.

I am in Boston Spa today because of something God ‘’God put…into my heart…’’ as I prayed and walked around an empty church building in Leeds 30 years ago. God’s promptings can alter the whole course of your life.

PRAYER: Lord God, I long for such a relationship with you that I can feel your tiniest nudges, and hear your faintest whispers. Help me, Lord, to respond with full obedience.

“³ I said to them, ‘The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot. While the gatekeepers are still on duty, make them shut the doors and bar them. Also appoint residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their posts and some near their own houses.’ NIV

We have seen previously that there was wisdom in getting people to build near their homes. Equally, how motivated they would be to stand guard near their homes.

Fathers, husbands, parents, how seriously do you take the responsibility to stand guard over your home in prayer? We cannot guarantee that we will always be protected from every negative experience. Nevertheless, God’s protection is very real. I believe it is important to pray for protection on our families, homes and lives. This should not be thought of merely in physical terms. Spiritual protection is necessary and important. There are so many threats and dangers to spiritual health. Not least, we are bombarded through media in its many forms, living, as we do, in a hyper-connected world.

Standing guard over your home may be first and foremost a prayer task. But it is not only about prayer. We must do more than pray. There are times when we have to lock the gates, bar the doors, and keep out what should not come in.

PRAYER: Lord, please help us. This is not easy. But with your help all things are possible.

“After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors in place, the gatekeepers, the musicians and the Levites were appointed. ² I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most people do.” NIV

Nehemiah did not put his brother in charge of Jerusalem (alongside another man, as it happens) because he was his brother. This was not nepotism. It was ‘’because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most people do’’ (2b). If only we would require similar qualifications for high office today. Character will always matter more than charisma. It’s been said that your gifts (talent) can only take you as far as your character can sustain you.

PRAYER: We pray for all in leadership, in church and state, that they may be people of integrity who desire to honour you and your ways over everything else.

“¹⁷ Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. ¹⁸ For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shekaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. ¹⁹ Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.” NIV

You might expect this chapter to end on a triumphant high with verse 16. But in a sense we travel from mountain top to valley bottom. The positioning of this is interesting. Whether or not it was the writer’s intention, it reminds me that as long as we live in this world, we will never be so ‘successful’ that there are no more battles to fight.

Furthermore, the most difficult struggles for the church are always those which arise from within. There always have been ‘false bretheren’ who, whilst appearing to be part of the true faith community, actively work against it from inside. They are a fifth column – potentially, a wooden horse in the city of Troy.

So, there will never be a single day in your life when you can afford to drop your guard, or leave your armour hanging up in the closet.

As I heard a Scottish preacher say years ago, ‘It’s a fight all the way, but fight on brother!’ By the grace of God we will.

“¹⁶ When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realised that this work had been done with the help of our God.” NIV

This is what we want is it not? For the world to look at the church and be able to say, ‘This is the finger of God.’ What they are seeing, as they peer in, is more than a natural, human institution. There has to be a God to explain what is going on.

The wall had lain in ruins for almost 150 years; it was rebuilt in fifty two days. This was clearly due to more than great leadership and strenuous effort. It was a work of God.

What may be applied to the church community can also be applicable to individual Christians. I think about the author, Edgar Wallace, referring to a sincere Christian man who lived in his street. Apparently he said, ‘As long as I live in the same street as that man, I cannot doubt that there is a God.’

What a testimony to carry in the world. I often pray for Jilly and myself, and our home, that we will bear the ‘’aroma’’ of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14ff); that we will ‘smell’ of Jesus; that His fragrance may be upon us:

‘To me, ‘twas not the truth you taught, to you so clear, to me so dim; but when you came to me, you brought a sense of Him

And from your eyes He beckons me, and from your heart His love is shed; till I lose sight of you, and see the Christ instead.’

PRAYER: Lord, may people in the world come to believe in you because they see your work in the church; may my friends, neighbours, relatives, colleagues come to believe in Jesus because they see Him in me.

“¹⁰ One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, ‘Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you – by night they are coming to kill you.’¹¹ But I said, ‘Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!’ ¹² I realised that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. ¹³ He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.¹⁴ Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me. ¹⁵ So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.” NIV

I remember one Christmas morning, when we opened the fridge door. Something didn’t quite smell right. Sadly, the something was our frozen turkey that we’d bought in advance, being assured by the shop assistant that it would keep until Christmas Day. Thankfully, our sense of small warned us off before we, and grandad and grandma, got food poisoning!

Once more in this story, spiritual discernment kicked in (12,13). Nehemiah sniffed out yet another ruse. Sometimes your ‘nose’ just tells you something is awry. This doesn’t smell right. Under the clothing of seemingly spiritual talk, there may lurk the b.o. of ungodly intentions. If Nehemiah could be successfully discredited, the Jews would no longer have a leader to look up to.

So the attacks kept coming in on Nehemiah’s goal mouth. Here another shot was fired from another angle. But it was all designed to frighten Nehemiah (and the people), and bring the work to a halt. It did not succeed (15). Nehemiah repeatedly defended his goal.

As we have to navigate our way through this putrid world, with its numerous temptations and pot-holes, may we always remember who we are (11) and live accordingly. The Duke of Windsor, the uncrowned King Edward VIII, recalling his boyhood as Prince of Wales, said, ‘My father (King George V) was a strict disciplinarian. Sometimes when I had done something wrong, he would admonish me saying, ‘’My dear boy, you must always remember who you are.’’ ‘

Nehemiah certainly did.

⁹ They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.’ But I prayed, ‘Now strengthen my hands.’ NIV

Again, we see Nehemiah uttering a short prayer; shooting up an ‘arrow’ prayer. He’s in a desperate situation, and He prays. What should you do when fears press in? ‘Take it to the Lord in prayer.’

Once more I want to underline the point that it doesn’t have to be a long prayer to get God’s attention. It just has to be real and sincere. (I’m not saying there isn’t value in praying for long periods if you can. But that’s another matter). A drowning person doesn’t have much time or strength for anything more than ‘Help!’ (See also Matthew 6:7,8).

Nehemiah doesn’t ask for the trouble to be removed, but for strength to continue the work. It reminds me of the prayer of the church in Acts 4:29: ‘’Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.’’

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, please help me to grasp that short prayers from the heart, in your Name, please you, and reach the heart of God.