365 Reflections

The Lord's people have a bad habit of not supporting each other. Many times throughout history, they have exploited and taken advantage of one another. Such was the case in Nehemiah 5. Having had great success against the external threats toward them from the Samaritans and neighbors, the internal threats begin again. This time in a matter that aggravated families. Jews were enslaving each other. The result was poverty and outcry: Nehemiah 5:1–2 (ESV) Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. 2 For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.” The text continues to lists what had transpired as a result: Nehemiah 5:3–5 (ESV) There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” 4 And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our ...

It's a refrain familiar to us from one of Pixar's most beloved films. Dorey, the absent-minded fish tells Nemo's father to "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" through the ocean. Why? Because that's all you really can do.  Well, for Nehemiah, we see that his decision was very similar. No matter what he faced, no matter what he heard, no matter what people said, he just kept building, just kept building the walls around Jerusalem.  Nehemiah 4:1-2 (ESV)  Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” Notice the context of the opposition here. Sanballat attacks them "in the presence of his brothers and of the ...

Nehemiah 3 picks up the story of a building project seemingly underway instantaneously. Just before, in chapter 2, Nehemiah was only inspecting the walls and hearing the threats of his enemies. He had just finished calling upon the men to join him in the work and declared that God’s hand would be upon them and they would prosper. How was it that this man got the people to work so fast after decades of inactivity?  Nehemiah 3:1 (ESV) Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel. This is how the chapter begins and ends… a long list of men who rose up to build. But there is a consistent refrain in the passage and a consistent reality that runs through the text like a thread yielding an insight into this building project we should learn well.  First, the phrase, “next to” appears repeatedly among the ov...