Nehemiah has proven himself to be a gifted leader as he has organized people, equipment, and materials for the task of rebuilding the wall around the city of Jerusalem. He and a few chosen men had secretly inspected the entire wall at night, at which point I'm sure they then realized just what an overwhelming task this would be. But Nehemiah knew his mission and went about it strategically and with resolve. A bit about this wall: It was about 8 feet thick, 40 feet high, and 2.5 miles long. Imagine the enormity of such a project. And remember: Nehemiah was a cup-bearer. Not an engineer. But God always chose the right people for His projects. The leaders of such projects were seldom qualified other than faithfulness.
Chapter 3 - Building Assignments
This chapter tells of how the project work was distributed. The wall itself was in complete shambles to the point of being mostly just piles of rubble, and its gates were all burned away. In this wall there were ten gates, all of which served a specific purpose, most of which is indicated by their names. These ten gates by name were:
Sheep Gate (Ch 3 vs 1,32)
Fish Gate (vs 3)
Old Gate (vs 6)
Valley Gate (vs 13)
Dung (Refuse) Gate (vs 14)
Fountain Gate (vs 15)
Water Gate (vs 26)
Horse Gate (vs 28)
East Gate (vs 29)
Inspection Gate (vs 31)
As you read this chapter, it is easy to see that Nehemiah would have been an encourager of people, having built a high level of enthusiasm among all of the Israelites in Jerusalem and all of Judah. The project involved almost all Israelite citizens. And, as we will see, he must continue to encourage these people as the task does not get any easier as the project progresses. Note in these verses some of the people who were assigned the work. Verse 8 indicates gold smiths and perfume-makers worked on sections. Verse 12 says that young women did some of the work. In verse 22 we see that priests and Levites came to Jerusalem from all of Judah to assist in this project. Bear in mind that this was entirely voluntary. I don't believe anyone got paid or were coerced in any way. {If you take on a project that involves work for God and His kingdom, and find yourself coercing people to help, you have either chosen the wrong people or you are not the leader God has chosen.}
Chapter 4 - More Opposition
So the project was under way. Everyone had his/her assignments. Nehemiah was making certain all supplies, materials, and equipment were where they needed to be. As one gate or wall section was finished, he relocated the workers to assist in other sections. And his most important duty was to give encouragement and keep all the workers focused. But in this chapter we hear from Sanballat again. {As mentioned in the last post, Sanballat knew he must be careful not to allow the king to know he is being an obstructionist to the royal order.} In the first verses Sanballat and Tobiah ridiculed the quality of the work, saying in verse 3 that their work was so shabby that the wall would collapse if a fox ran onto it. Nehemiah fought back with prayer. Verse 6 tells how hard the people worked and at that point the wall was half way done. But Sanballat and his cohorts would not give up so easily. They continued to taunt and make threats. In verses 10-12 we see that fatigue and fear started to have a negative impact on the workers. {Fatigue has its affects on us. We need rest as we proceed in our efforts to do God's work. Also, fatigue casts a wide net, as in this case, it contributed in making the workers afraid.} Nehemiah dealt with this by structuring protection into the work schedule as we see in the remaining verses of this chapter.
Next post - The Work Continues
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