Join us as we attend a special gathering commemorating the Feast of Tabernacles, where stories of faith and unity are shared among God’s people. This episode highlights the importance of community, the enduring influence of the Bible, and the leadership lessons drawn from the story of Nehemiah. Discover how the historical journey of rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls serves as an inspiration for overcoming present-day challenges within the church and beyond.
SPEAKER 01 :
that the events of the past two weeks are on everybody’s mind and every bit as much on everybody’s mind are the events of the weeks to come. As I prepared to talk to you today, I had no way of knowing what the world would be like today. I had no way of knowing how many of you would be here today. I thought perhaps that As a result of some of the problems, our attendance could be down somewhat this year because of people deciding to go to a feast site closer to home if they were able to go at all. But as every day has passed over the past two weeks, I’ve been more and more reassured that whatever is going on in the world around us, God’s people have a festival imperative. We want to be here, and with God’s help, we always will. How many of you, by the way, flew here for the festival this year? May I see? Wow. Thanks for coming, folks. You’re the ones I was worried about, and I want you to understand, I prayed about it. I prayed for you, prayed for your safety, and I know many people here have, perhaps all of us have, that you’d get here safe and without harm. I’m especially heartened this year by the presence of one gentleman and his wife. His name is Herbert Magoon. I’ve known Herbert Magoon, I don’t really know for sure how long, close on to 40 years though I think. Herbert had a stroke a few years ago and some of you will remember him at first coming to services with a cane and then later coming with a wheelchair. It’s become more and more difficult for him to travel. And I, as I went out a moment ago, encountered Herb and Marilyn on the back row back there. And I’ll tell you, the courage that it took for him to be here and the strength for his wife to bring him here and to be with him at this time is an incredible inspiration to me. and a symbol, frankly, of what the Feast of Tabernacles means to us as a people. It isn’t just some religious Holy Day symbolism. It has become, for so many of us, a family reunion, a time when we get together with God’s family, not just our own, a time when we share the love that we have and share hugs back and forth with one another, enrich our lives by the things that we learn, the things that we can be taught. But Herb and Marilyn flew. from Denver, and it was not easy for them to be here. Thanks to both of you for the encouragement that you have been to me down through these years. I pray that God will grant a special blessing and definite encouragement upon all you people who made the effort to be here this year. May God bless you. By being here, we make a confession, a confession along with people down through generation after generation after generation, from Abraham and Sarah to today. that we’re strangers, that we are pilgrims, that we are not at home, that we seek a city that has foundations. We seek a better kingdom. But while we are here, we have jobs to do and things to get done. Jesus said on one occasion, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. Because the night is coming when no man can work. One of the great characteristics of God’s people in any age is that they have a will to work. And if there’s one thing that’s clear right now, it is that the night is coming. I don’t know if the events of the last two weeks are the harbinger of the last days, Or if they’re a chastisement from God to give us a time to repent, to turn around, to get our lives squared away, to do the things that we really ought to do. I don’t know the answer to that. Only time, in fact, will tell. If God really meant for us to know that, he’d have told us, and he hasn’t. You know, I’ve learned something, though, that over the years, the reading of the Bible… conveys a great advantage upon men and women who attend to its words. It really does. It makes a difference in people’s lives. That’s one of the reasons why CEM has this strong commitment to youth education. Because if we feel if we can implant the Bible into the lives of young people, we can change their lives, and then through their lives can change other lives, and perhaps ultimately change the world. You do realize, don’t you, that every one of the founders of this country, every one of those men were readers of the Bible. They were men who took the Bible seriously. And they were men who in the founding document of this country said, we hold these truths to be self-evident. We think everyone knows this. That all men were created equal. And were endowed by their creator with unalienable rights. Life equal. liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The knowledge, the awareness of the Creator was important to them, and it was upon the foundation of that statement that this nation, with all of its freedoms and all that it means to us, was built. And these men in their speeches would often quote the Bible, and it was clear from the way they quoted the Bible that they knew the Bible. They knew what it said, they knew the context, they knew what it meant. And that their lives, their directions were informed by the Bible. Now I know that they didn’t always do what the Bible said. I know they did not always understand everything that the Bible said. But their conscience and their value system was informed by the Bible. And by the awareness that it is our creator that guarantees our rights. And one of the things that I feel encouraged by today as I stand before you is that we have a man sitting in the Oval Office who reads the Bible and takes it seriously. It means a lot to me to know that. I believe I heard, was it his mother or his dad, made the statement that George W. has read through the Bible entirely at least twice in his lifetime. and is consistently, apparently, a Bible reader. And there was something about that speech. Nowadays, when we say the speech, everybody knows what we are talking about. That speech that the president gave, there was something about it that made me think that he was familiar with a Bible story that has informed my actions at key points in my past in my ministry, and I think should inform our plans for the future of the church. The story begins with bad news. Most of the Jews at the time this story took place were in captivity over near the Euphrates River in the region that today we would call Iraq. Those that had been left behind in Jerusalem and those that had already trickled back toward Jerusalem were in a very bad way. They were living in abject poverty and part of the reason for it was that they were at the mercy of bands of marauders and pirates and bandits and they couldn’t protect themselves adequately. And their circumstances with the wall broken down, the city defenseless were pretty miserable at this time. The bad news for us begins with an entry in a diary of a man named Nehemiah. Nehemiah was the wine steward to King Artaxerxes. He was a man who was supposed to be there all the time. He would just taste the wine ahead of the king. He would select wines for the king. And in the course of time, they developed a relationship, a give and take. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a friendship, but it’s evident as this story develops that the king cared about this man who was nothing but his wine steward. You’ll find the story beginning in Nehemiah, the first chapter, and I’ll begin reading in verse 2 with this entry in Nehemiah’s diary. Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down. Its gates have all been burned with fire. The people are absolutely defenseless. The news was devastating to Nehemiah. It’s almost impossible for us today to understand the impact of these events on the lives of the people who went through these things. It was so much worse than anything you and I have experienced or anything we have gone through in our lives in the modern world, even in World War II, that we cannot grasp what it meant. for the Jews to be taken into captivity to Babylon, for that remnant to be left behind in Jerusalem, and with all of the symbolism of the temple and of the city that was a part of their lives, to know that it was in disgrace, in ruins, and that the people were helpless there. When I heard these things, Nehemiah wrote, I sat down and wept. He just cried. And for several days, he said, I prayed before the God of heaven. And I said, O Lord God of heaven, great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commands. Let your ear be attentive. Let your eyes be open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins all of us have committed. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, the decrees, and the laws you gave to your servant Moses. Remember the instruction you gave to your servant Moses. You said, if you are unfaithful… I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if you’re exiled people at the furthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen for a dwelling place for my name. Nehemiah is calling out to God and saying, you promised that even though we were driven to the outermost parts of the heaven, That if we would turn, if we would call upon your name, if you would repent, you would come out here and get us and bring us back. Here’s a good man claiming a promise of God. Over the days that he was fasting and praying, a plan was developing in Nehemiah’s mind. And he said in verse 11, Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant. and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name, give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man. This man was Artaxerxes because Nehemiah was wine steward to the king. As an answer to this prayer, And this is an interesting way this whole thing develops because Nehemiah didn’t take the initiative. He didn’t say anything to the king at first. He made no request, made no comment. The problem was he could not hide the way he looked. He could not hide the devastation that had taken place in his life and his heart, and his heart was down. And so the king took the initiative. He noticed that Nehemiah was an unhappy man, and he cared that he was unhappy, and he asked him about it. He says this can’t be anything except profound sorrow of heart. Now this was a delicate moment for Nehemiah. Because the wine steward was supposed to be happy. The wine steward was there to make the king feel good about life. He wasn’t there to go around with a long face and create depression where he went. But he seized the moment and he spoke. Nehemiah was nothing if he was not a courageous man. He continues his story in chapter 2, verse 3. I said to the king, may the king live forever. Why should my face not look sad when the city where my father is buried lie in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? Notice this. He just answers the king’s question. He makes no request, makes no demands, nothing. But the king will not let it lie. And this is where the answer to the prayer apparently comes rolling back into the picture. The king said to me, what is it you want? A king to his wine steward who looks sad. He says, what’s the matter with you? He says, my city lies waste. He says, what do you want? Why would he ask this question? You would think maybe he might just have sent him off to the dungeon, but he didn’t do it. Nehemiah then prayed a quick prayer. He says, I prayed to the God of heaven. He doesn’t give us the words. It was just this quick before he spoke out to the king. And he said, if it pleases the king and your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so I can rebuild it. This is a breathtaking request. I mean, the king could have sent him straight to the dungeon where he’d never see the light of day again. The request is breathtaking. It’s the opening gambit in the return of Judah from captivity. And it came at the initiative of a king who cared and an answered prayer from God. And it’s one of the things you should know about it. It was time. Well, instead of sending Nehemiah to the dungeon for his impertinence, the king made an even more astonishing reply. The queen was sitting by him and he said, how long will your journey take and when will you get back? No arguments, no questions. No, are you crazy? Nothing. How long will the journey take? How long will you be gone? When will you be back? He wanted him back. He wanted him back, he wanted him back happy, and so consequently the king was happy to let him go. It pleased the king to send me, so Nehemiah says, I set a time. This king was a remarkable man. His heart had been touched by God. But you know, there’s something else about this I think is worth noticing. He liked Nehemiah. I don’t think this would have been possible unless this had been probably this by-play that existed between a king and his wine steward, and who knows for how long it had been. He liked the man. He cared about the man. And he wanted him to come back when it was over. You know, when I started CEM, I didn’t think about Nehemiah at first. I really didn’t. He never really even crossed my mind. When I resigned from the CGI, where I’d served for 17 years in 1995, I seriously considered retirement. Allie and I worked hard and made sacrifices for many years so that if the time ever came when we had to retire and had to take care of ourselves, we could do it. And we were there, and we thought, well, maybe that’s what we ought to do. But, of course, the problem is a man needs something to do in his retirement, right? You don’t want to just sit there and watch the grass grow. I wanted to have a ministry, a tape ministry, a writing ministry, and reach out to people. And so we started Christian Educational Ministry as a vehicle for doing that. And CEM just got out of hand. I was profoundly disturbed by the scattered and shattered state of the church, and I wanted to do what I could to minister to people. Whatever level I could, I felt also that by being inside of an organization like CGI, I really could not reach out to people across all kinds of boundaries and touch people’s lives in all places. And I felt I really needed to be outside of that environment to where I could do that. I didn’t start another church. Because I didn’t feel the church needed another competing split to add to the mix that was already out there. I thought that would just create more confusion, and I didn’t need to do that. I didn’t want to divide the church that I was resigning from because, you know, there was no reason to turn brother against brother if I could help it in any way. There was another reason I didn’t do it. You know, it’s hard to rebuild while the stones are still falling around your ears. Sometimes you have to wait for the dust to settle and the air to clear to where you can see what you’re doing and make certain decisions about beginning to rebuild. Well, in the days that followed for us in C.E.M., Nehemiah came very strongly to mind as events began to unfold. Notice that Nehemiah and the king worked out the details. Nehemiah went off to Jerusalem. In chapter 2, verse 9… Nehemiah’s diary continues. He says, You know, this statement is utterly astonishing. Why should they care? Why? He wasn’t coming down there to fight with them. He wasn’t coming down there to create an army and take their cities away from them. All he was coming down there for was to seek the welfare of the children of Israel that were in and around Jerusalem where the city was busted up and where they were being plundered, probably by the likes of Tobiah and Sanballat, if the truth was actually known, that some source of their wealth might well disappear. But nevertheless, they were grieved that Nehemiah was there. Now, I’m no Nehemiah, but I really identified with this particular passage of Scripture when, much to my surprise, I learned that my modest attempt to build a service ministry in retirement actually disturbed some people. And that there were some people who really thought I probably shouldn’t do it, probably wished I hadn’t done it or wished I wouldn’t do it, that actually they didn’t like it. Now, I hope that the President of the United States has read this and that it registered on him when he read it. Because there are leaders out there who are grieved that the President of the United States would take strong measures to defend this country. You know, the patterns and the things and lessons that can be learned from the Bible are more than you can ever imagine. And I can understand how the President might sit in the Oval Office and find these words coming back from… Well, now you want to be careful not to offend the Islamic people. I can halfway imagine this president sitting in the office saying, when is somebody going to be worried about offending the United States of America? When is somebody going to worry about that? Because this is where, you know, the United States has not wanted anything these people have. And I was really struck by Charles Krauthammer, who pointed out that over the years going by now, the United States has intervened in Bosnia, we’ve intervened in Somalia, we’ve intervened in one other place he mentioned, three major ones and one minor one, where the United States has intervened on behalf of Islamic peoples, on behalf of Muslims, to save Muslim lives. And this, he said, is the reward we get for it. Well, this is the way it goes in this world. And it’s again, one of the reasons I am glad that there is a man who is informed by the Bible is because I think the founding fathers were informed by the Bible. And many of the decisions that we made were made on the basis of decisions that were made by men like Nehemiah, who is a remarkable people. There are people today who will tell us, how dare you strike back? They are people who were silent when we were being struck, and our people were being killed by terrorists in days gone by. And now they tell us, how dare you strike back? Just like Sanballat and Tobiah, they want our people to sit quietly while they kill them. And if we protest and resist, they are shocked. Shocked. Well, Nehemiah came to Jerusalem. And without telling anybody what he was doing, and sometimes this is precisely what you need to do. is you don’t need to tell anybody you’re doing it. You don’t need to blow any trumpets. You don’t need to make any announcements. You just need to go do it. You know, years ago I read a book in which a fellow made this comment. He said, if you figured out, if you discovered in the basement or in your garage, a solution to actually do away with pollution throughout the United States, get rid of it completely in all cities, and it would only cost about 50 cents a state to do it. Cheap remedy to it. He said the best approach, the best thing you could do with this is just take whatever money you need there, because you’ve got that much, and go out and do it. Don’t tell anybody about it, because if you tell anybody about it, there will be 100 people trying to find reasons why it can’t be done, shouldn’t be done, who will interfere with it and cut your legs off while you’re trying to do it. Don’t tell anybody. Just go do it. So here comes Nehemiah into the city. He doesn’t explain to anybody. He doesn’t say anything to anybody. The first thing he does at night, gets on his animal and wanders around the city and through the things by the light of the moon, seeing what damage has been done and the scope of the work he’s going to have to do. The officials did not know where I had gone. They did not know what I was doing because I hadn’t said a word to the Jews or the priests or the nobles or to any others. Even the people who would be doing the work hadn’t said a word to them. Then I said to them, finally, you see the trouble we’re in. Jerusalem lies in ruins. Its gates are burned with fire. Come on. Let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so we will no longer be in disgrace. And I told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. You know what their response was? Let’s do it. Let’s start rebuilding, they said. So they began this good work. I love these people. I admire these people. All they needed was somebody to say, let’s go to work. Now I want you to understand one more thing. It would be a mistake to think that they were not afraid. They were afraid. Courage is what you show in the face of fear. These people had a lot of courage. Courage is what you do when you overcome fear and work anyway on the job to be done. Now, bear in mind, there was no intent here to wage war. They were not going to engage in any offensive military actions. They just wanted the security that the walls and the gates would provide, because this is a rough land and a rough time, and it was dangerous to be all by your own out in a tent somewhere in the field in these days. That’s all they wanted. What kind of a reaction did they get from the people around them? Well, verse 19. But as for you… You have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it. You know, you may not agree with me on this, but I hear echoes of the speech in this. We’re not going to negotiate. This is nothing for us to talk over. We don’t have to make allowances for you people. We don’t have to do anything. This is Jerusalem. This is our city. We are going to defend our city. And we don’t care what you think about it. It is none of your business. And they went to work. I admire a man like this. And I admire the leaders of Judah that stood behind Nehemiah at this very hard, difficult, and frightening time of their lives. Then Elisha, the high priest, went up with his brethren, the priests. They built the sheep gate. They sanctified it. They set up the doors even to the tower of Maia. They sanctified it to the tower of Hananiel. Next to him built the men of Jericho. Now this starts getting interesting. It’s the kind of thing that your eyes glaze over when you read it. It only makes sense to you, though, when you start thinking about what they’re talking about. Next to him built the men of Jericho. Next to them built Zakur, the son of Emery. And so on around the city. Next to him built. Next to him built. Next to him built. What is interesting about this is… Everybody had a job to do. And everybody worked at his job. You didn’t have to go working on the whole wall. You didn’t have to make the whole thing by yourself. You built your section of the wall and you trusted your brothers down the line to build their sections of the wall and build it well just like you were building your section of the wall. Actually, a rough count shows 39 to 40. Work teams, each of them working on the piece of the wall or working on a gate or working a tower. When I look back on the beginnings of CEM, what I was thinking at the time, although I hadn’t put it quite this way, was that we would kind of be like those building the Sheep Gate. And there would be somebody on our right hand building that portion of the wall. And on the other hand, there would be somebody building that portion of the wall. And so on down around the church that people would build, that ministries would rise up to take care of the different kinds of needs that the churches of God would have. It was my hope that we would do one kind of ministry while someone else would do another kind of ministry and so on and so on. Because all of the talents and the gifts… of the membership of the Church of God would create a synergy and a power that could conceivably even exceed anything we had ever done in the past. I really believe that, and I believe it to this day, that it’s possible for that to happen. In days to come, we might be able to link up all the sections of the wall and create a renewed, strong, effective, admirable Church of God. And in fact, there are other ministries building. But there are gaps and holes in the wall, and I find this problem is that we haven’t been able to solve the problem yet of how to link up. We haven’t been able to solve the problem of the gaps that are still there where no one has taken up the challenge and begun to do the work that can be done and meet the challenge and the responsibilities that can be carried out there. I feel that Nehemiah is a good role model for us, even though there are still gaps in the wall. Because God is going to have to lay it on the heads of people and on their hands to go out and do some of the things that need to be done. We can’t do it. Each of us has got to look where we are and look to the portion of the wall that we’re working on, and we’ve got to work. But we’ve also got to think in terms of how are we going to link the sections of the wall together as we build. Now there’s a really interesting little note in the verses that follow. Follow me with this. Next to them repaired Merimoth, the son of Uriah. Next to them repaired Meshulam, the son of Berechiah. Next to them repaired Zadok, the son of Bena. And next to them the Techoites repaired. But their nobles put not their necks to the work of the Lord. Their nobles put not their necks to the work of the Lord. They were willing to have the walls built. They were willing to live inside of them. They were willing to accept the protection of them. But they were not willing to do the work. And ain’t that the way it is with people down through history? You know, we have a parallel in the church today, actually two of them. One, there are too many of us who want to claim the benefits of citizenship in this wonderful country of ours and who are not willing to carry the responsibilities that go with it. He wants you to think that over. Too many of us want the benefits of our citizenship in this great country, and we are not willing to shoulder the responsibilities of citizenship. What are those? Think about it. Secondly, when it comes back to the church again, there are too many people who want the benefits of the church, but they aren’t willing to put their necks to the work of the Lord. Think about that. They are consumers, not builders. Spectators, not workers. One of the great failures of the church today is that we have too many people who want to talk and not enough people who want to work. At first, Sanballat and Tobias ridiculed the work they were doing, but the work went on with prayer. Here’s the prayer. So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to the half thereof, for the people had a mind to work. Boy, I love that. The people had a mind to work. You’ve got to admire these people. They were ridiculed, they were abused, they were in disgrace, but they had a mind to work. Not all of them. Some of them wanted the benefits of the work, but didn’t want to share in it. This time was not without its bad moments. When Sanballat, chapter 4, verse 7, told them, Nehemiah’s response? I guarantee you, they posted this guard 24-7, seven days a week, around the clock, every day. Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, the strength of the laborers is giving out. There is so much rubble, we cannot rebuild the wall. And here’s the problem. Our enemies have said before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and we’ll kill them and put an end to the work. Do you have the picture? There was all kinds of rubble around here, big pieces, chunks of rock and stone. They’ve been thrown down from the original walls of the temple. And it was easy then for an enemy to creep up among those rocks and be right in among the people who are working on the wall who had nothing but tools for building while they had swords to kill them with. This was bad and they were very concerned about this. Then the Jews who lived near them, that is, lived near these other people, came and told us ten times over, wherever you turn, they will attack us. It doesn’t make any difference what we do. It doesn’t make any difference our turnings. It doesn’t make any difference our tactics. They’re going to try to do whatever it is, no matter which way we turn. Therefore, he said… I stationed some of the people behind the lowest parts of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by family with their swords, spears, and bows. And you know, I look back on this. Our problems are very different from those of Nehemiah in the modern world, but they are strangely analogous in a way. One of the greatest problems we have in doing the work at hand is that there is so much rubble around. So much rubble and confusion that it makes it very difficult sometimes to do the work. People who have read a few books and whose sole exposure to Greek and Hebrew is Strong’s Concordance are now beginning to instruct us in arcane matters of Hebrew roots, Hebrew names, calendar issues, and every other imaginable issue that afflicts, inflicts, afflicts the church. This is going on. This is, in my mind, analogous to all the rubble lying around that makes it difficult to work and difficult to build. And some of them are like people who, you’re working on a wall, you’re one of Nehemiah’s boys, and you got there and you got a difficult spot here, and you find a stone that more or less fits the spot. You and two or three other guys get there to get together, do all the hard work, get this stone in place, and along comes somebody and says, you can’t put that stone there, it’s got a chip in it. And takes it down. The situation is analogous, you know, of people who are trying to build, trying to get things done, trying to look at the real work that God has given to his church. And if you don’t know what that is, you really need to start finding out. Some people are trying to do the real work of getting these things done. Other people come along and say, well, there’s a chip in that stone. There’s a little crack in that one over there. This one’s not quite the right shape. We need to get another one that fits it better. And people are putting stones into the wall while other people are taking them out. Unless or until the church of God stops that nonsense, we’re going to continue wandering around in circles. And I’ll tell you something else that concerns me. I’ll talk about that later in the week. There does come a time when our time runs out. There does come a time when God says, if I have to, I will raise up stones to do this work. If you’re not going to lay the stones on the walls, the stones might get themselves up there. I will do what has to be done. And I think it’s time that we in the church of God begin to think a little more seriously about that. Because we can’t or won’t clear out the rubble. We work in a confusing environment. The Jews who live near us came near and told us ten times over, whatever you do, whichever way you turn, they are going to attack you. And every little doctrine, every aspect, every policy, everything that we do, is attacked by somebody. And sometimes, somewhere along the line, some of us need to decide whether or not we are with God, or whether we’re Sanballat, or Tobiah, or Gish in the Arab. You know, we need to decide whose side we’re on. Are we on God’s side? Or are we just pursuing our own interests and our own ideas in these things? Whatever direction we turn, there’s always somebody telling us, well, you’re wrong. You don’t know how to do that. You should do it my way and not your way. Now, I want you to get me wrong. I do not think disfellowshipment and getting rid of people is the answer. Because somebody differs with you, because somebody has a difference of opinion, I don’t think getting rid of them, throwing them out of the church, I don’t think this is the answer at all. What is the answer is we have got to be single-minded and avoid distractions. Always build. Always move forward. If somebody takes the stone back out of the wall, you put it back up there again. And if they take it down again, put it back up there again. Our job is to move forward, to build, and to continue to build, regardless of the distractions that come our way. The one thing I’ve learned, and I believe this to the core of my being, it’s important to do. It’s important to do now. Because one of the things that people that have trouble figuring out which way to go cannot stand is to be left behind. So move forward. Maybe somewhere along the line people will begin to try to catch up. Nehemiah says in verse chapter 4 in his diary, Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest parts of the wall in exposed places, posting them by families. And I looked these things over, and I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your homes. When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot, that God had frustrated it, that we’d all return each to his own work, They were posed with an enormous problem. Verse 19, I said to the nobles, the officials, the rest of the people, the work is extensive and spread out. We’re really separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us. So we continued the work with half the men holding spears from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. And I also said to the people, have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night so they can serve as guards by night and workmen by day. Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes. Each had his weapon even when he went for water. These people were serious about what they were doing. They had their problems they had to work out. The story of that’s in chapter 5. I’m going to pass over that and come to chapter 6, verse 1. When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, and Gishab the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, there was no gap left in it, although up to that time we had not set the doors and the gates, Sanballat and Gishab sent me this message. Hey, come down here. Let’s meet in one of the villages on the plain of Ono. Now what do you suppose they had in mind? He sent messengers with this reply. And I love this. And this is one of my mantras. This is one of the things that I try to live by and I really hope. In fact, I have good reason to believe the president’s living by it as well. He replied, I am carrying on a great project and can’t come down. Why should the work stop when I leave it and come down there to talk to the likes of you? I am doing a work. Why should I leave it to talk? If we can only get that message through. Four times they sent the same message. Four times I gave them the same answer. This man was consistent. What he said, he stood for. I heard echoes of this in the President’s speech. There will be no negotiating. Period. Even Jesse Jackson got the stiff arm on this one. Then the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aid to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written this. It’s reported among the nations, Geshem says it’s true, that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. And according to these reports, you are about to become their king. You’re setting yourself up as king. You’ve appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem. There’s a king in Judah. We’re going to tell the king about this. Now come down here and let’s talk it over. They tried to put him in fear. Completely false story. Took maybe a fragment of a rumor. Probably nothing at all. They sat down and around the table and made it up. And came up with this. Now the temptation when you get this kind of thing thrown at you, and I know I have nothing that’s ever happened to me like happened to Nehemiah, but I’ve had little things and I’ve tried to be informed by the actions of this man. That when he heard this, he just simply said, there is nothing that you said. This man… There is nothing of what you’re saying is happening. You are making it up out of your own head. They were all trying to frighten us, saying their hands will get too weak for the work and it will not be completed. But I prayed, Lord, strengthen my hands. And you realize what’s going on in our country today. An effort is being made to weaken us by fear, to make us afraid, where we’ll turn aside from our goals, where we’ll stop doing the things that we’re supposed to do, and where we will all cower in fear. God help us not to fall into that trap. Then another event happened. One day, I went to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Deliah, the son of Mahatabil. He was shut in at his home. I gather he was one who was trying not to get hurt. He said, let’s meet in the house of God inside the temple. Let’s close the temple doors because men are coming to kill you. By night, they’re coming to kill you. And I love this one. Try to live by this one. Should somebody like me run away? Should a man in my position run away? What are you saying? Should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go. This was a man with a clear conscience, a clear idea of his responsibilities, a clear idea of what God wanted for him, and he was going to do it, so help him God. And the evidence is that God really did help him. He wrote in his diary, I realized that God had not sent him, that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so I would commit a sin by doing this and they would give me a bad name to discredit me. You realize this old game of discrediting your people you don’t like or your enemies goes on all the time. It’s going on down through all generations of man. It’s as old as the hills. It’s one of the oldest tactics ever used. And it is used all the time in religious organizations among people who name the name of Christ. They will actually use false rumors to discredit people. They will say, well, I heard that it was true. The only thing about that is that they heard it might be true. But they never checked, they never asked, and they repeat false rumors and they repeat lies without so much as even taking the time to pick up the phone and call. This is evil. It is rotten. And God will not forget it any more than he forgot Sanballat and Tobiah. Write that down in your book of notes and book of remembrances and don’t ever forget it. That he who serves those discord among brethren is somebody that God hates. He writes your name down in the wrong book. Well, he said, I didn’t do this. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done. Remember the prophetess Noadiah, the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me. So the wall was completed on the 25th of Elul in 52 days. 52 days! You know, I haven’t focused in on that until now. 52 days, they repaired walls that were in complete ruins. How did they do that? They did it by dividing up the work, each person taking responsibility for himself and his people, and driving the job through to completion. That wall went up everywhere at the same time because the people had a mind to work, and everybody was involved. except as a handful of nobles in one tribe that wanted to have the benefits without doing any of the work. Nehemiah wrote in his diary, When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence because they had to admit this work had been done with the help of our God. You know, I know that our president has read over this because he has read the Bible through according to his mama. And I hope that it’s registered on him because the realization of the importance of focus, of single-mindedness, and of driving toward the goal and of meaning what you say is everything in a world of lions and tigers where there are people who would want to destroy everything good, everything wholesome, everything that you could build. They want to tear it down. I hope he has read this story. There are a lot of people right now who are trying to make us afraid, who are trying to talk us out of doing anything, of taking any kind of action. And this president seems to mean what he says. In addition to that, I hope and pray that our churches will take a lesson from Nehemiah as well. The lessons I think we need to take from it are, in a general way, more can be said specifically later, our singleness of purpose. We know what it is we’re trying to do, and we’re single in that purpose. That we stay focused on that purpose. And we don’t allow ourselves to be distracted by things that are non-essential. That we realize the important thing is to get the wall up. Not whether or not there might be a crack here or there at a given stone or a chip off of a stone. Or maybe the stone isn’t the right perfect shape. We can put some other stones in the crack. We can put a little mortar in the crack. We can do something. But the first thing we’ve got to do is get this wall up. We can improve on it later if we have to. To stay focused on the goal. I think the thing that we have to understand also from this example is dedication to a work. Dedication to the work that is in front of you, that is before you. And having a mind to work. We cannot be where we should be. We cannot go where God wants us to go with 10% of us doing all the work. Everybody has got to put his neck to the work of the Lord. And this means that we involve everyone in both building and in defense. These are the broad things that I would say that the church needs to take from the lessons of Nehemiah. And I would hope that you would take a little time to read through it. Meditate on it. See how it applies to you so that the days could come when you meet new challenges, when unusual things happen to you. You will have a basis. You will have an example. You’ll have a person you can look to as a role model and say, this is the way a man of courage, a man of dedication, a man who loved God carried through with the job that was in front of him. What the church needs to do is to work for the night is coming.
