Nehemiah was a cupbearer for King Artaxerxes. In those days, one of the best ways to dispose of a ruling king was to poison him. To prevent this, the cupbearer's tasted the wine before the king drank any. If the wine had been poisoned, then the cupbearer would die and the king would be saved. It was a very admirable, yet risky profession.
One day Nehemiah had some visitors from Judah, and he asked
them about the Jews who had escaped exile and about Jerusalem. They told Nehemiah, "The survivors
there in the province who escaped exile are in great trouble and shame; the
wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and
its gates are destroyed by fire." (Nehemiah 1:3).
Upon hearing this, one would understandably have a
sorrowful reaction, but Nehemiah’s reaction seemed to be somewhat extreme. When he heard this he sat down and
wept. Then he mourned for days and
continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. (Nehemiah 1:4) Why would Nehemiah respond like that over a
broken down wall and some gates that needed repair?
Whenever there is an unusual or an extreme response to a
situation found in Scripture, it is a good practice to stop and pause to
meditate and ask the Lord why that response occurred. In this case, it is because Nehemiah understood the importance of
the wall and gates around the city of Jerusalem, and his sadness resulted from
the knowledge of their poor condition.
A wall is an
upright structure made of wood, stone or brick constructed to enclose, divide,
support or protect. An example of this
is the Great Wall of China. Built in
the seventh century, this 1500-mile structure is the longest fortified wall
ever built. The wall is tapered and is
approximately 25 feet high, 25 feet wide at the base to 15 feet wide at the
top. Every 200-300 yards there is a
tower 25-35 feet high. The top of the
wall is paved with bricks set in lime forming a roadway for horsemen. The structure was built entirely by hand and
took hundreds of years to complete. A
city with walls will have one or more gates.
Gates are heavily guarded and used to allow restricted entrance to or
exit from the city.
The purpose of a wall surrounding a city is to separate it
from the rest of the world, strengthen the city in time of attack and provide
stability against the enemy. The gates,
of course restrict entrance, keep the enemy out and only allow those who belong
inside. With this understanding of the
importance of the wall, Nehemiah’s response to the condition of the wall
surrounding God’s holy city seems entirely justified.
Jerusalem was the location of God’s holy temple, and was
the one place his chosen people were to offer their sacrifices for the
atonement of their sins. In the Holy of
Holies sacrifices were offered and God’s presence filled the temple. The wall surrounding Jerusalem served to
protect this sacred city from outside enemies and the gates provided a way to
control entrance.
It is interesting to note that as Christians our bodies are
the temple of the Holy Spirit. The
apostle Paul asks us, “ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God
in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Our temples are holy places dedicated to God. We need a wall to protect us from the influences of the world,
the flesh and the devil. These walls of
course are not physical, but we can visualize them using our spiritual eyes. We see this concept in Scripture. For example, in Job 1:7-12 we see Satan’s
frustration. God has placed a hedge
(wall) around Job and Satan could not touch him. Also, starting at Psalm 91:1 we read, “ He who dwells in the
shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty,… When we enter into the "shelter of the
most high," we are protected from all danger.
All that enters our holy temple comes in from the five
sense gates. Our senses of sight,
hearing, smell, touch, and taste all feed our minds and thoughts. For the Christian, spiritual walls provide a
way to restrict that which enters our minds and thoughts. It is these sense
gates that we must guard to prevent the enemy from entering. While invisible, these gates provide us with
the option to filter out what should not enter in and allow only that which is
good to enter. The Apostle Paul
encourages us to make use of this ability.
In Philippians 4:8 he says, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true,
whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy
of praise, think about these things.”
Spiritual walls have three main characteristics: they
provide separation, strength and stability.
First of all, our spiritual walls provide separation in the
sense that they provide a way to set and keep us apart from the world. In Titus 2:11-14 we are encouraged to
“renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and
godly lives in this world.” And again
in I John 2:15-17 we are told, “Do not love the world or the things in the
world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of
the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father
but is of the world. And the world
passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for
ever.” While we are in the world, we
are not of it. Our citizenship is in
heaven (Philippians 3:20), therefore, we must filter out what is not of God.
In John
14:30 Jesus tells his disciples, “ I will no longer talk much with you, for the
ruler of this world is coming. He as no power over me…” Here Jesus speaks of Satan and his influence over this
world. Jesus, however was able to say
that Satan had no power over him. As
children of God, we are to imitate Jesus.
We do not have to let Satan have power over us, and we need to be on
constant guard over the gates of our spiritual walls to ensure that we do not
allow the enemy entrance. Remember that
Satan constantly tempts God's children to sin.
The apostle Peter reminds us of this in 1 Peter 5:8-9 where he says, “
Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring
lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist
him,…” Our spiritual walls help separate us from worldly evil.
Secondly,
our spiritual walls strengthen us and provide us with the ability to resist the
attacks of the enemy. Remember that,
“though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the
weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy
strongholds. We destroy arguments and
every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to
obey Christ,” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
Our
spiritual walls provide us with the protection to accomplish this, but we must
stand guard and be strong. We must do
our part. Our Heavenly Father is there
to help us. Scripture reminds us that, “the
Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from evil,” (2
Thessalonians 3:3). He also promises us
that, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is
faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the
temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure
it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13). We need to learn to depend upon God's faithfulness
and to seek after and to follow the way of escape God provides for us.
And finally, spiritual walls provide stability. Stability is the state or quality of being
resistant to outside change, deterioration, or displacement. In the case of a walled city, it is the
ability to protect against outside forces like weather, wild beasts or a
warring enemy. For the Christian, our
spiritual walls provide the ability to resist when under attack by the world,
the flesh and the devil. We are to
stand firm upon the solid rock of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Pharaoh's army was in hot pursuit of the
Israelites at the shore of the Red Sea, Moses encouraged his people by saying,
"Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will
work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see
again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be still."
(Exodus 14:13). We need to "fear
not," and to "stand firm" and the Lord will take care of the
rest.
The rest of the book tells how Nehemiah rebuilt the wall
surrounding Jerusalem and restored the damaged gates. He gained victory over opposition and great obstacles through
prayer, planning, and perseverance. He sought the Lord's guidance and was
obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
When we apply the book of Nehemiah
to our lives, it encourages us to examine the condition of our own
spiritual walls and to follow the same process to repair, rebuild and replace
any sections or gates that have been damaged by the enemy.
In reading about the Great Wall of China, I discovered that during the first one hundred
years the wall existed no enemy was able to penetrate it. It was too high to climb over and too thick
to break down. However, during that
time China was invaded three times. The
enemy succeeded by bribing a gatekeeper to let them in.
We need to be concerned about the condition of our
spiritual walls. They must be fortified
through prayer, praise and Scripture study.
Our gates must be in good repair as well. With these two conditions met, we will be able to constantly
stand guard against worldly influences and allow nothing of a corruptible
nature to enter in through our spiritual gates.
I leave you with the following question, "what is the condition of your spiritual walls and gates? Are they in good repair? If not, what do you plan to do about it?"