Rubble

And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it. Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.

And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst of them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. 

 Nehemiah 4:8-11

The enemies of Nehemiah and those rebuilding Jerusalem want to stop the work on the walls, while the builders themselves are discouraged because of the amount of work that is before them.

Many hindrances and weaknesses may come against us, tempting us to give up building our walls against the Deadly Three: Satan, our sinful flesh, and the world. In my last post, I discussed how we are to fight against the opposition from outside our walls The burning arrows are an obvious threat and we can usually see them in time to get our shields up, whether we are alone or in a group (testudo), and protect ourselves. I touched on another danger that we face, the nearly-silent flights of arrows that rain down upon us out of the night. However, the danger does not only come from outside our fortifications, it can also come from within, and often it is when we are preoccupied with these inward perils that the stealth arrows arrive from without. Even though we have set a watch against such sneak attacks, the guards are tired, distracted, or just plain curious, peering down into the castle to see what’s going on there.

Nehemiah and his companions were experiencing this problem. In Jerusalem, the builders are willing, but their first “wind” is gone. They are tired and sore– “The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed”–and the job is enormous! Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem is no mean feat, but a monumental task—literally. Jerusalem is the capital city of Israel/Judah(the tribes are at this point split into two nations, each with their own king) and an ancient city at that, one that had been present when Israel arrived out of the wilderness to conquer Canaan. It was also the site of the glorious Temple of God built under King Solomon, and as one would expect such an important religious centre to do, Jerusalem had grown over the centuries. The Babylonians had torn down both the Temple and the city walls, and now a relatively small group of people were attempting to rebuild (see Nehemiah 3 for a list of those involved).

The builders are tired, particularly the bearers of burdens, who carry the stone and brick, and “there is much rubbish”–as one would expect when a city has been destroyed. It seems that there was so much rubbish, that it got in the way of the builders, delaying the work: “[A]nd there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.”

This is a great discouragement, but it also comes at a bad time. Judah’s enemies, and therefore Jerusalem’s, are mustering to stop the rebuilding entirely.

And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst of them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. (vs.11)

While Judah has inward trouble, their outer enemies also conspire against them. These enemies want to sneak in and surprise the workers, killing them and thus stopping the building.

However, the builders are not taken unawares. They have friends outside Jerusalem who know what Sanballat and his allies are planning.

And it came to pass that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you. Nehemiah 4:12

The warning of these Jews is emphasized– “[T]hey said unto us ten times”.Commentators agree that these were Jews who were not helping in the work rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, but remained in their homes among the heathen. Yet they still had enough fellow-feeling with their countrymen in Jerusalem that they came to give urgent warning: Sanballat and his allies will attack any place they can, therefore, beware!

Nehemiah doesn’t take this warning lightly, even though these other Jews were not helping in the building.

Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, theirs spears, and their bows. (vs 13)

In every place that Sanballat’s men could gain access, Nehemiah places heavily-armed families (probably including the women) to keep them out. It is interesting that Nehemiah first writes that he set a guard in the lower places, the most likely places of attack, and also on the higher places. Nehemiah is not going to give Sanballat opportunity to scale the walls.

We too should be setting guards all along our walls, in the more vulnerable places and in the more secure places—nowhere should there be an opportunity for any of the Deadly Three to breach our defenses. In a variation of the well-known saying, “The best offense is a good defense.” Even after the walls are complete, they must be guarded to prevent the enemy from sneaking in and working us ill from within. What good are walls if the enemy is not kept out?

Notice that it is after Nehemiah has prayed to God and set a round-the-clock watch that this warning is brought to him. An application can be made here: Staying in relationship with God and calling on Him in times of attack and temptation, whether it be a full-out assault or an insidious one, will be our best bet for victory. We need to have the Lord on our side if we want to win.

But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. Ps. 94:22