Behind The Walls
Recently, Dave and I watched the latest spider man movie. Every few years there is a new Batman or super hero movie out. Maybe the super hero movies are meant to counter the zombie apocalypse movement that’s so popular today.
I wonder if people are fascinated with zombies and apocalyptic movies because it’s easier to focus on things that aren’t real, than face the difficulties that are real and every day.
January 27, 2013
Nehemiah 8, Behind The Walls
Mary Sheer
[vimeo 58735204 w=500&h=375]
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I watched a news clip yesterday about the Syrians who are crossing into Jordan to escape the civil war in Syria. These desperate refugees are mostly women and children. They left their homes, which are in ruins, in the middle of the night to escape. The UN said over 30,000 people arrived in January and another 6,000 in the last two days alone.
And we have people around this country with homes in literal and relational ruins. As you know, there are people on the cape coping with the realities of economic ruin. The church receives calls for help almost every day. Some days it’s multiple people.
How do people get through todays challenges and tragedy’s? One of the ways Christians meet life’s challenges is by developing a faith that’s strong and resilient.
What if I told you that there is sure fire a way to increase mental, emotional and spiritual strength, would you want to hear more about it? The Bible holds a powerful tool to help us.
This provision was first talked about 450 years before Jesus was born, there was a man named Nehemiah, whose name means “comforted by Yahweh,”
The Jews had been taken as captives out of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar, who then destroyed the temple, the city walls, burned down its gates and took the people back to Babylon, which was about 55 miles south of Bagdad in Modern day Iraq.
Years later the Persian king, Cyrus the Great, captured Babylon. A decree was made saying any Jew who wanted to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple could go. Several thousand Jews took him up on his offer and returned to Jerusalem with resources for the building project.
Later still, under the watch of a new king, Artaxerxes, more money and supplies were sent to Jerusalem for help with the temple and authority given to set up a new legal system according to Jewish law.
So one day when Nehemiah asked how the building was going, he expected to hear good news. Instead, he heard how the city was in ruins and the walls around it were crumbled, leaving them sitting ducks for any enemy nation who wanted to invade. He had to be thinking, “you’ve got to be kidding me?
Why have 90 plus years gone by since people began moving back and there’s still no wall? Why? The Bible said he was heartbroken by the news, he sat down and wept and mourned, fasted and prayed. He asked king Artaxerxes if he could return to Jerusalem and help with the rebuilding.
It took Nehemiah 4 months to walk back to Jerusalem, and when he got there, he rallied people to help rebuild the walls.
But as they started building, they were attacked by opposing forces, including the armies from Samaria, the Ammonites and Ashdodites, who did not want to see the walls built. The people were mocked, ridiculed, and threatened.
Nehemiah had all the people working on the walls line up, and then every other man took a defensive position to stand guard, while his partner worked. This is how they built the wall by trading between work and guard duties.
You might think this would slow down their rebuilding process but it did not, they rebuilt the whole wall in just 52 days. The walls and gates were finished, but there was more that needed repair than just the walls.
During the process he learned why the wall hadn’t been rebuilt. The people had been demoralized. They had been turned into slaves, they were burdened by unfair taxes, and had their houses, property and children taken as payment for debt.
So Nehemiah demanded that officials forgive all outstanding debt and ordered them to return all land, money and whatever had been taken for their debts.
There are times in our lives when we are in a personal period of rebuilding.
In Nehemiah’s day, it was a physical wall, but there are all kinds of walls, walls we live behind, walls we find ourselves up against, and walls we work to rebuild after major losses, life transitions and other life events.
While digging through remnants and rubble, the Israelites found a copy of the Law (probably the Torah, the first five books of the Bible).
Nehemiah gathered everyone in front of the water gate, which provided an area big enough for a large crowd.
Nehemiah 8: 1-3; 5-6; 8-10
All the people assembled with a unified purpose at the square just inside the Water Gate. They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had given for Israel to obey. So on October 8 Ezra the priest, brought the Book of the Law before the assembly, which included the men and women and all the children old enough to understand. He faced the square just inside the Water Gate from early morning until noon and read aloud to everyone who could understand. All the people listened closely to the Book of the Law. Ezra stood on the platform in full view of all the people. When they saw him open the book, they all rose to their feet. Then Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people chanted, “Amen! Amen!” as they lifted their hands. Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. They read from the Book of the Law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage. Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were interpreting for the people said to them, “Don’t mourn or weep on such a day as this! For today is a sacred day before the Lord your God.” For the people had all been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. And Nehemiahcontinued, “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”
Don’t be dejected and don’t be sad, the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Have heard that phrase before, “the joy of the Lord is your strength?” Have you ever wondered specifically what that means? There’s a lot of things that lead to strength, aerobics, weight training and such…but joy? What is this joy that leads to strength?
I began to understand this a little differently this past Christmas when we were reading the story of Jesus birth. Listen to it again, “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord.
In the birth of Christ, on that holy night, the joy of heaven was revealed.
This joy revealed at Christ’s birth was also with Nehemiah and the people of Israel in the Word that was being read.
John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Jesus, who is joy, is the Word who became flesh!
Nehemiah’s statement, “the joy of the Lord is our strength,” can be translated, “Jesus is our strength.” But Jesus birth was just the beginning of the revelation.
After he grew up, he went through 40 days of testing in the wilderness. where he was tempted by Satan. He responded to temptation by saying, “man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”
After this, he went back to Nazareth, where he was raised. He went into the Synagogue, and read from Isaiah 61, where it says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the Lord anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed…and…They will rebuild and repair what was destroyed. (from Ps 61 NLT)
Although the people were amazed at how well he read, the last part of his statement didn’t sit well with them. They started asking questions. They were like, “wait, isn’t this Josephs boy? Didn’t he grow up right here among us? You know, the guy that used to live over there, remember? The carpenter? He came to help those living in the ruins and rubble of life, but couldn’t get past their own walls of doubt and disbelief. Jesus said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like you did in Capernaum.’ But I tell you the truth, a prophet is never accepted in his own hometown.
“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the drought that lasted 3½ years, caused a terrible famine that devastated the land. Yet, Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.” It was a way of saying, I offered you help, but you could not believe me or trust me. And, you’re not the only ones, there is a history here of non-belief, and also a history of non-Jews receiving God’s help.
Those were fighting words, “When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd.”
They were focused on feeling insulted and defensive and missed the good news and great joy in front of them.
- Through reading and understanding the word, joy is made known.
- Through the birth of Christ, joy is revealed to the world.
- Through serving others, joy is experienced.
Joy or some form of the word is mentioned more than 500 times in the Bible. There are about 15 Hebrew and 8 Greek words for joy. We may think of joy as happiness. Joy can make you happy, but it doesn’t depend on happiness. The word happiness is derived from the word happen and is something that is felt when something good is happening to us right now.
This type of happiness is only temporary until something bad happens, then we are unhappy.
Joy is satisfaction, relief, and gladness. It’s more than a feeling though, it also describes actions;
It rejoices in right (1 Cor. 13:6)
It gives
It finds (Mt 18:13)
It makes glad
It brings peace
It enriches
It makes pleasure
It frees the heart
It hears (Rom 16:19)
It displays love
It exalts and praises
It shouts and glorifies
It overcomes and makes strong
Nazareth needed this good news and the offer of help. Among them were the poor, the captive, the blind and oppressed. They rejected the offer and the joy that could have been theirs.
If only the world could get this. Can you imagine how freeing and mending and nurturing and helping and loving this news could be?
We need this news? We need it on the Cape, and in our churches and in our homes. You never know when we might come in contact with someone coping with poverty, poor in spirit or resources, friends or opportunity, someone being held captive or oppressed. Or someone who can’t see their way out of a situation and could use the encouragement that Jesus recovers sight to those walking in darkness? We might know someone who is grieving or challenged by something they can’t fight alone?
Even as a man in the desert who is dying of thirst needs water, there are folks around us who need to know there is a joy that leads to strength and they need to know how to get it.
The Israelites did 3 things as they received the joy of the Lord; They listened, they worshipped and they worked.
- They listened to God’s word until they understood, believed and trusted what they were hearing. In order for there to be joy, there must be trust.
- Joy is one of the fruits of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22. And the more time we spend in the word, the more that fruit is nurtured.
- Listening and understanding also led to worship, and worship led to a spirit of gratitude, giving and work. Along with the skilled labor, part of the first waves of people that went back to Jerusalem to help rebuild, was a 250 person choir. Music draws us deeper in worship and goes a long way to encourage our spirits.
We have been called to share the good news of Jesus message and partner with him in his work to help people in their rebuilding efforts. Rebuilding and Repairing are part of our heritage. Do you think Nehemiah experienced joy when he saw the finished walls? There was joy because of what it represented for the people who lived behind the walls. His actions said to the people, you are special and loved, you are worth protecting, you matter.
Like Nehemiah, we too can make a difference in the lives of people living behind walls of fear, walls of shame, walls of poverty, or prejudice and oppression, grief and illness.
We’ve talked about this experienced this on mission trips. I remember well the year we went to visit with people living behind walls in a Leper Colony in the Dominican Republic.
I have heard from people who worked at the;
- Holiday Fair,
- from those who cooked and served meals at the Calvary Nutrition Kitchen
- and a variety of other ministry settings,
talk about the joy they experience in serving others. I saw it in the faces of our youth when we went on the mission trip to Washington a couple years ago. Every night they shared stories of what they had learned or experienced during the day’s work. And they always shared how good it made them feel to know they were helping and making a difference in someone’s life. Through serving others, joy is experienced and we ourselves are strengthened.
When we partner with God, even great challenges, like building a wall in 52 days becomes possible.
- When we listen to and understand his word, our trust for God grows and his joy becomes our joy.
- When our gratitude leads to worship, our worship leads to gratitude, his joy becomes our joy.
- When our faith leads to outreach and outreach warms our heart, his joy becomes our joy and his strength becomes our strength.
We could summarize this as; Listen to the Word; Lean on God; Lend and hand.
Listen; Lean; Lend.
Then there will be no limit to the ways we will experience this truth that, “the joy of the Lord is our strength”.
Let’s Pray:
Dear Lord, thank you for your word written and revealed in the person of Christ. Thank you for showing us that you see behind the walls, that you have a heart for people struggling to see their way, that you have good news for the poor, that you came to comfort those who grieve and free the oppressed. Help us to be aware of those around us and be ready to share the good news of great joy as we look for ways to help. I pray for every heart here this morning. If there are any who feel like they are standing in the personal ruins of a life that’s been changed by tragedy, I pray for their comfort, I pray your joy would give them the strength they need day to day. And I pray for your blessing with us as we listen, lean and lend. In Jesus name. Amen.