Infectious faith
Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies
waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.” And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to this good work (Nehemiah 2:17-18).
So often God works in the heart of one person, but in doing so, he ignites the hearts of many. When my daughter, Anna, was very young, I sometimes used to read her Aesop’s Fables. One of these was about a cat that was very effective at catching mice. The mice had a long discussion about how to deal with the cat. In the end, one mouse proposed placing a bell around the neck of the cat so they would know when he approached, and they could hide. All the mice thought this was a brilliant idea. But then one of the mice asked who would put the bell around the cat’s neck. Everyone fell silent. The plan was never carried out, and all the mice eventually died.
Nehemiah was not a mouse. He was a man of courageous faith. The task before him did not daunt him. He began his conversation with King Artaxerxes with fear in his heart, but that is not how it ended. He asked the king for everything he needed: the time, the authority and all the resources. In Daniel 1:9, God brought Daniel into the favour and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. In today’s passage, King Artaxerxes and his queen were anxious to know how long Nehemiah would be away. It is clear to see how this man who served so well in his faithfulness to God endeared himself to the monarch. Never let us underestimate the value of living out Christ in our professions, however mundane they may seem.
I wonder what Nehemiah felt when he saw his beloved Jerusalem in ruins. I suspect he wept over the city as the Lord would do, many years later. But he was a man of vision, and I also suspect he saw in his mind and heart a city rebuilt to the glory of God and the blessing of His people. Nehemiah doesn’t rush to tell the good news to his people. He waits. Nehemiah first absorbs the extent of the destruction of the walls. He had heard about it from his brethren, but now he saw the appalling damage for himself. Faith does not underestimate the challenges it faces. It counts the costs and then sets to work.
Only after surveying at night the ruins of the walls of Jerusalem does Nehemiah speak with the people. He starts at the beginning: “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire.” Then he lifts their hearts: “Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.” He tells them of the hand of God which had been good upon him, and also of what the king had said to him. Nehemiah’s faith was infectious. The people immediately responded to his appeal: “Let us rise up and build”. And so the work began.
It only needed one heart to respond in courageous faith to God. Our weakness is never an obstacle to God’s power; it is the means by which it is manifested. Nehemiah’s faith was recorded for our learning. “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
