Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Nehemiah 3 -- The Plan Comes Together

Nehemiah 3 is a detailed description of how individuals and groups of people came together and started the repairs and in some places the rebuilding of the walls around Jerusalem. They filled in the gaps. They repaired and re-hung the gate-doors. Nehemiah even records the repairs of the hardware on the gates. What I find amazing about this portion of scripture is that each group worked and tied each section of the wall together. It reminds me of the meeting of the two railroads across the U.S. When the time came to tie the tracks together – they met perfectly. When it came time to close the gaps and tie the wall together, it came together perfectly and supernaturally. God brought this to pass because the people were being obedient to Him. He blessed the work of their hands and the project was a success.

The scripture 2:18 reminds us that “set their hands to the work.” In other words their focus was to complete the work that God had called them to do. The huge task of rebuilding the wall was comprised of many smaller projects. The smaller projects were part of the larger project and calling of God – the rebuilding and refortifying of the city of Jerusalem.
• Our projects must always point to the larger focus and vision of God. Notice that they were all focused on different projects, but for the purpose completing what God had called them to do.
• None of the projects recorded by Nehemiah were a distraction from the vision given to Nehemiah – they all worked together. They all pointed to the greater vision/project--REBUILD THE WALLS!
• Everyone bought into the vision – the priests, the common laborer, the common citizen and women. Everyone had a place in the work.

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