Reflections from Nehemiah: A Present Work and a Lasting Hope
“There is a great work”
By this point, the C&YA and FOI Bible studies have made their way through the book of Nehemiah over the course of the school year. When asked to reflect a bit on Nehemiah 4-6 for this post, I could feel how those times spent studying those early chapters in Bible study already started to feel hazy in my memory. I looked for my notes for those chapters, only to discover that I could not find them (if they had been written at all, which was doubtful). Let that be a quick takeaway for you: prepare for your Bible studies, and keep your notes. Left without notes as a crutch, I had to tackle this the old-fashioned way — reading the Word and comparing scripture with scripture.
Prayerful and a bit desperate, it did not take long to light upon a passage that stuck out. In Nehemiah 4:19-20, we read: “And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another. 20 In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye hither unto us: our God shall fight for us.”
Contextually, these verses come from a point in the book where the wall of Jerusalem is nearing completion. Full of ire at the sight of God’s people succeeding in the place appointed for them, Israel’s enemies mock them and plot as to how they will violently overthrow the work. Warned of this, Nehemiah arms the people and sets a watch on the wall. Half of the people are appointed as guards, while the other half remain armed in one hand while they work with the other. I would hazard that most in C&YA are more familiar with those passages, especially Neh. 4:17, which says: “... every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.” My former Bible study leader, Uriah Guenther, even has a representation of that verse tattooed on him.
However, for all the martial preparation that is put in place, we never see these weapons employed. The builder holds his hammer and his sword, yet one is used for building, and the other stays dormant at his side. The enemies make no attempt to storm the city (we will see how they go about their wicked work upon reading chapter 13), and Scripture provides us with no word of physical warfare in this time. Perhaps that would be a bit disappointing to some; we are left with no opportunity to exegetically imagine ourselves performing some great, figurative act of righteous derring-do in defense of our churches. Yet upon reading verses 19 and 20, I think we can see how, even were the enemies to come, the matter would be dealt with.
The two verses communicate four essential points: there is a great work, the work requires the people to be spread apart from one another to accomplish it, the people must respond and gather to the sound of the trumpet, and, finally, that God shall fight for them.
“As I read the words of these verses, I could see how handily they applied to our experience corporately and individually”
There is, of course, a very literal, historical reality to this. The work of building the wall, laying stone on stone, was great and covered a great circumference around the city of Jerusalem. According to verse 18, there was a trumpeter that accompanied Nehemiah with the serious task of raising the alarm in case of attack. Last, God protected his people Israel and the person of Nehemiah from the schemes of the strangers without.
What of us? What of our scores of diligent Bible-studiers turning through pages of preserved scripture night by night during the school year, learning passage after passage through the Discovery Bible Method and opening the Word with the lost souls that they invite to their studies? Your guess is as good as mine. We could just look at this as a couple of verses outlining some ancient version of run-hide-fight.
I am no more an authority of Scripture than I am of ballet or Peruvian basket-weaving, but thanks be to God I‘ve been given the Holy Spirit and access to a wealth of wisdom surrounding the Word. As I read the words of these verses, I could see how handily they applied to our experience corporately and individually.
First from verse 19: “And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another.” The building work of our vocation is less of brick and more of souls, as we are commanded to preach the gospel of Christ (see Mark 16:15). Yet in that verse in Mark, the command is given a location, “all the world.” Certainly a larger area than the city limits of Jerusalem. What a great work, and what a large one! If there is a greater work, I am as of now unaware of it!
“The mission demands movement, spreading, separating”
In such a vast and great doing, separation is a necessity. This is as obvious as reading the titles of Pauls’ letters in the New Testament. Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, etc., all indicating different people in different churches in different locations. There were souls in many places, which required preachers to reach them. The initial church at Jerusalem could not reach Judea, Samaria, and all the world moving as a homogenous mass. The Word of God is compared to a seed, one that is sown and spread, not as a network of interconnected fungi (Mark 4:14). The mission demands movement, spreading, separating.
This is evident even in our own church. We can see it as the new fellowship Good Ground is established, as peers and leaders separate from C&YA to join this new endeavor. Why do they go, why leave, even to such a small degree, their old fellowship? Because there are others to be reached! Because our God and his mission are greater than any comfort we might find in standing still.
There is a vulnerability felt with separation. Our numbers are thinned, some are far away, communication is met with interference. There is an unfamiliarity, maybe a loneliness. The men of Israel could feel it, as they watched on the wall, the presence of their enemies invisibly felt in the dark distance and their mocking laughter almost audible. No doubt some can feel it in Good Ground, in reality not at all separated from their fellows at MBT, but tried still by a new and yet unproven work. Some of those in C&YA as well, may feel some measure of it. I know that I, watching my own leader leave to head that fellowship, can feel it in part.
And the work itself is great. What greater weight is there than that of a soul, much less of many souls? What words are of greater import than the words which bring life, the words formed and inspired by God? What more unworthy stewards of such treasures are we, our lives characterized so often by a failure to match the task given, so often vessels not quite meet for their master’s use?
“Their God would fight for them”
I can imagine this is felt all the more by the team preparing to embark to Vietnam. The cold and iron-wrought realness of all this will be felt all the more as they settle in an unfamiliar and unfriendly land to minister to souls there. I cannot imagine how that must feel. Overwhelming, to say the least. Dangerous, by any man’s judgment.
A heavy picture is painted here, certainly. Yet there is a grace, and a hope, and a power that are greater than all these doubts and fears.
In verse 20 we read: “In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye hither unto us: our God shall fight for us.” Of all things, the word “trumpet” immediately caught my eye upon reading this. There is a historical precedent to it. In Numbers 10:1-10, we see God command Moses to make two silver trumpets that will be used to gather the people, assemble leadership, make alarms, and begin battles. One of these verses are particularly relevant in reading this verse in Nehemiah.
Numbers 10:9 And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the LORD your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies.
In setting the trumpet as their signal, Nehemiah calls back to God’s law, the law which he strives throughout the book to communicate to the people of Israel. We must note, though, what Nehemiah says will follow this trumpet-led assembling of the warrior-workers: “Our God will fight for us.” Not that they will fight for themselves, that they will employ the weapons they have carried, that the guards posted on the wall will enact their special plan of defense, that the people would evacuate to a place of greater safety. No. Their God would fight for them.
The trumpet did not signal Israel’s doom at the hands of the enemy, nor offer them a chance to prove themselves in battle. It signaled the entrance of their hope, of a time that their God, their Father, would fight for them, like they never could.
“We may be separated along the wall, but he is present in every part”
If we are referring to trumpets, there is a trumpet sound that serves as a signal to us as well. It signifies the Rapture of the church, the gathering of those saved by Christ to himself, and the realization of our eternal life becoming fully evident in the putting on of incorruption (1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thess 4:16). It is then that the church will be spared from the coming wrath of God, and the great suffering that will take place on the earth. That trumpet will sound in its appointed (and for us yet unknown) time. It is a proof of our secure hope.
We know our God will fight for us. That warfare may not be realized in the overthrow of armies, but it may be seen in his working in the souls of men to save them from the grasp of sin, death, and the devil. We may be armed with the Word and at work in God’s mission, yet deliverance is found in him. Like the men under Nehemiah, it is not a time for us to prove our prowess or our ability. We could start a hundred fellowships, plant a thousand churches, and except God fight the battle, we would be powerless. We can only rely on Him. If we do not, then our separation will truly be vulnerability, and we will rightly have cause to fear. But it is not so, because the hope of the resurrection is real, and the strength of God’s strength is sure, enabling the building work.
There will be many feelings prompted by the changes they have occurred and are yet to come in C&YA. There will be separation, new responsibility, unfamiliarity, as well as all the old struggles and perils that accompany true ministry. In all this, despite the natural temptation to do so, we cannot forget that our God fights for us. We may be separated along the wall, but he is present in every part. And the language is not figurative, it is fantastically true. He will neither leave us nor forsake us.
Sam Bellefy is a member of Midtown Baptist Temple and is a part of C&YA. He serves on the C&YA blog team and other ministries. He leads a men's Bible study at UMKC.
