The Wall

I was asked to teach our Sunday School class today.  Instead of coming up with my own theme, I continued in Nehemiah where our regular teacher had left off.

Nehemiah is one cool dude.  In fact, from here on out we're going to call him Neh, because he would've probably really liked that.  If you've never studied the guy, I highly recommend it.  Like many stories in the Bible, you start to read it and can't put it down thinking the whole time, "Who needs Twilight?  This stuff is great!"  You have the lead guy, Neh, a couple of thugs, lots of suspense, adventure, and intrigue.  Spoiler alert........God and Neh win in the end.  

Neh was chosen by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  Honestly, it makes me happy God just asked me to work in Women's Ministry.......I don't know that I would be a good wall builder.  In fact, I'm giggling right now just thinking about it.....yikes! 

There were a couple of guys that had been giving Neh all kinds of grief when he started.  Insulting him, his mother......they were all up in his grill.  (I'm paraphrasing a little....and throwing in some ghetto to spice things up.)  Neh took it all in stride, never stooping to the level of hurtling insults back at these guys.  He would just pray and ask God to get 'em.

When the thugs got tired of insults alone and had gotten enough people worked up into a frenzy to back them up, they started talking about fighting the Jews working on the wall.  Not verbal fighting, the kind of fighting that will have me plugging my ears and squeezing my eyes shut until it is all over.  

Neh was smart enough to know they were serious so he prayed.  Then, he started forming a plan to protect the walls that were already built.  You know what he did?  He placed entire families in position along the wall to guard it.  Many times these families were at the lowest place in the wall.

I spent a lot of time thinking about that.  Why in the world did he do that?  What was he trying to accomplish?  

I came up with a couple of thoughts.  

1.  You want to motivate a man to fight, you put his family right there in harm's way.

2.  You want to motivate a woman to fight, you put her babies right there in harm's way.

3.  It was far less distracting to the man to know his family was all there, not in the city where they could be in danger.

The thing that hit me was that it was an incredible opportunity for men to show their family how to protect and fight for what they believed in.  He had his family there to back him up, encourage him when he didn't think he could go on, love on him if he was wounded, and watch him so they could take his lead in fighting.  

Suddenly this story became more real.  I was hit hard with this truth.  Scot does not have to stand at the wall alone fighting for our family.  We can stand there together, each of us bringing our own strengths to the battle.  We have been given the opportunity to show our children how to stand in faith and the knowledge that we serve a mighty God and to fight the enemy that is determined to destroy us.  

Scot, you will not stand alone.