What Is This You Are Doing? (Nehemiah 2:19)

 


Monday, October 28, 2024


Psalms 143; 146

Nehemiah 2:9-20

2 Peter 1:1-11


Observance: Simon and Jude, apostles and martyrs


What Is This You Are Doing? (Nehemiah 2:19)


Secretly stealing out of his quarters in the middle of the night, Nehemiah takes a little donkey and starts taking stock of the situation. The walls are in ruins! And some of the ruins are so bad the donkey has to go around them. Walls mean protection, and a lack of walls is cause for “disgrace”. This is the task that everyone must now work on.


When we consider what these walls are speaking to in our lives, it is difficult not to think about the power of God: when was the last time you sang “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”? The Lord is our protection; he is our fortress wall. And to be without God is to be in a state of disgrace.


Yet there are fellow-governors that would keep Nehemiah from this work: scoffers, mocking and ridiculing Nehemiah, trying to leave those walls in ruins. This is where it starts for the Christian: try and go public with your faith, by showing everyone the walls of protection you have in the Lord, and the mocking and the ridicule closely follows. Jesus heard these words, too, when he hung on the cross; “He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him”. (Psalm 22:8)


Yet look at the two sides of the argument. On the one, you have the governors of various regions of Arabia, worried that a new local power might interfere with their lucrative spice trade, amongst other things. On the other, you have Nehemiah, who is on the side of the God of heaven. If you are not with God, you are against him (Matthew 12:30), and, as Nehemiah prophecies, those who stand against the restoration of Jerusalem have no share or any claim or historic right to it. Money, or God. Power, or God. Being in with the cool kids club, scoffing and mocking, or God. Being a Christian in public comes with consequences, but “the God of heaven will give us success.”


When have you faced opposition for your faith? Who opposed you? If they have no share in the kingdom of heaven, how might this shape the prayers you make to God about it?


God of heaven, in your word you promise that every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Give me the grace to endure the scoffers and their mocking, so that even they will see your truth, beauty and goodness.

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