Thoughts on Nehemiah 3

Today’s reading: Nehemiah 3; John 4

My thoughts on Nehemiah 3 are really an extension of what we talked about yesterday from Nehemiah 1-2, but it’s worth pointing out that few to none of the people accomplishing the work of rebuilding in Jerusalem were particularly “qualified” for the work.

Just as Nehemiah, in chapter 2, would not have inherently known how long the project would take or what materials to request from the king, and so obviously got others involved who would, the people executing on the project are not all stone masons and carpenters. Surely there were some “experts” among them helping to direct the work and give instruction where it was needed, but as we read through the list of people rebuilding the wall, none of the professions we see listed have anything to do with construction. We see noblemen, priests, goldsmiths, governors, perfumers, etc. doing the work, not a list of hired construction crews. And the result of so many “unqualified” people working together is incredibly quick and effective construction of Jerusalem’s wall!

What this tells me is that the potential to repair the wall was largely there all along, but there wasn’t the vision or direction to rally everyone behind the project. Yes, Nehemiah brought with him the right to requisition timber from the king’s forest, but given the timeline of the project, it really doesn’t seem like they even had time to do that, and were instead rebuilding with the original stones and timber they had on hand (or cut down nearby).

If one man looked out his front door at the wall and thought, “That really should get fixed…” it would seem too daunting a task to do himself. If he went and started trying to restack the stones on his own, how much progress would he really be able to make? But, what I think would have been more likely, is that the man would look at it, and even if he thought to work on repairing it, he would think, “I’d like to, but I wouldn’t even know where to start. I’m a perfumer, not a mason.”

I call this out for the same kind of reason I called out what I did yesterday. If God puts a burden on your heart for an issue or a need, it’s easy to see it as so big, daunting, and/or out of your area of expertise that the only “right” answer is to lament that it’s a problem and then ignore it, moving on with your life. But Nehemiah was not a stone mason, nor was he a construction manager, and yet he was able to organize a great project when God put the burden on his heart. And in similar fashion, the people doing the work were not individually equipped for the work, but coming together as a community, they were able to accomplish a task that was otherwise way too large for them to accomplish.

This is how God wants His people to operate. When He places a burden on someone’s heart, He is not expecting, or even desiring, that they would take it upon themselves to see something accomplished, but is wanting to see the Body of Christ come together to accomplish the work as a community.

Any task may seem daunting when we face it alone, or when we lack the experience or expertise to see it through to the end, but when we take it on as a community it becomes something else entirely, and that which previously seemed impossible often becomes light work shared among the Body.

So has God put a burden on your heart that you have been brushing aside or ignoring? It may seem too great a task to accomplish on your own, but this is exactly what the church is for, so that we, together, might be the hands and feet of Christ in a broken and hurting world, bringing the light of His kingdom where it is most desperately needed.