Fortified

 I’ve been in the book of Nehemiah this week. It’s a great read that I highly recommend, but it has to be read with the understanding of where God’s people were before Nehemiah commissioned rebuilding the wall. And if you ask “What wall?” You’ll need to go back to the original wall.

Long before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, the Jebusites lived securely within the walls of Jerusalem. The city was blessed with natural valleys around it that made it easy to defend. The city walls and its fortress provided additional protection. 

But God had different plans for that wall. God was with David and allowed him to capture Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Later, he built additional walls to fortify the city. The city would become known as the City of David.

 

2 Samuel 5:6–10: And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off”—thinking, “David cannot come in here.” 7 Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. 8 And David said on that day, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David's soul.” Therefore, it is said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.” 9 And David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built the city all around from the Millo inward. 10 And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.

 

But this scripture begs the question…. "what happened to the wall that they had to rebuild it?”

 

That would bring us to (2 Kings) where we would learn the Babylonian captivity or exile refers to the time period in Israel’s history when Jews were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. It is an important period of biblical history because both the captivity/exile and the return and restoration of the Jewish nation were fulfillments of Old Testament prophecies.

King Nebuchadnezzar demolished the royal court and tore down the wall as well as taking the Jewish people into captivity. (2 Kings 25)

 

My point to all this, is that in order to truly understand the character of God we have to know His story. In order to learn from scripture, we have to understand the big picture. In order to have a heart that aches for the work of Nehemiah and understand his frustration at times, we have to understand the whole story. When we do that, we see a picture of Nehemiah’s faithfulness to God; in a time when many others had lost that faithfulness.

 

One of the lessons of Nehemiah is of course the building of the wall…but it wasn’t built for simple monumental purposes. That wall represented the protection of what was sovereign and the fortification of what had been instructed by God. The wall was not just a physical structure build for protection and might; it represented the way in which we are to guard our hearts. In a world pulling us in different directions God calls us to be faithful.

 

As the story of Nehemiah unfolds, we see a people who continually put down their guard and forsake God over and over again. These are a people who had been given the provision of God yet strayed so far from His words that God allowed them to be taken into captivity. These are a people that God restored after that captivity and provided a home once again. These are people that even after God’s forgiveness and restoration, began to stray once again. A people who had continually forgotten the character of God.

 

The name Nehemiah means “The Lord will comfort”. God commissions Nehemiah to attend to the suffering and the chaos in Jerusalem. Nehemiah is to reconstruct the wall, increase its population, and once again create a holy space for God among His people.

 

My question for us as a church today is are we doing that with our own hearts? Are we fortifying a holy space within our hearts so that we can be in holy relationship with God? In this world we too often put our guard down and forsake God over and over again. We too are given provision and love, yet we too often stray from God and allow the world to take us into captivity.

 

God wants to heal our hearts, to pull us close to Himself; the one who has created and sustained us. When these people were reminded of their covenant with God long ago…they wept.

They had forgotten and allowed the world to become their guide rather then following the guide of their heavenly father.

 

Let’s weep today for the ways we have forgotten about God in our lives; but then lets wipe the tears from our face and fortify our faith.

 

It starts with knowing His word; Gods character. It begins with strengthening and fortifying our knowledge of God so that when the world offers us something that seems good….we know we have something far better.

 

The meaning of Nehemiah’s name isn’t accidental here. “The Lord will comfort”. The story of the fortification of the wall holds powerful symbolic meaning for the hearers. It speaks of a community in solidarity, committed to accomplishing God’s plan. Let’s come together as a community of believers to do the same. To accomplish God’s plan for the glory of God and the sake of the world.

 

-Pastor Patti