visions: rebuilding the wall, part 1

Recently, my thoughts have returned once again to the topic of vision. Where is God leading us, not only as a collection of ministries, but as a church body? A man named Nehemiah faced questions of a similar, pressing nature. And his memoirs offer us some invaluable wisdom.

 

Nehemiah was a retainer in the court of Artaxerxes, King of Persia. A Jew, he had been born into the captivity of his forebears. One day he received word from a friend who had visited their homeland. His report was grim; “great trouble and disgrace” had befallen their people. The wall surrounding Jerusalem was reduced to rubble, and its ten gates had been consigned to flames (Nehemiah 1:3).

 

The news brought Nehemiah to his knees. His life to this moment had passed entirely beneath the shadow of Persian sovereignty; he had never set foot on Judean soil. Yet his heart broke. Reduced to tears, he fasted and prayed for several days.

 

We might rightly wonder why this information was so devastating to Nehemiah. After all, it was not a new problem; the destruction of the Holy City, its Temple, and its walls happened some 140 years prior at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Surely Nehemiah had heard the tales, passed down as oral history for more than three generations. But what disturbed him was that it remained that way. The debris and charred timbers lay there for over a century, bleached by the Palestinian sun and drenched by rains, and no one took notice – that is, until Nehemiah.

 

Yet the question remains: Why did he show such concern for a wall? The Temple had been rebuilt under the leadership of Zerubbabel, completed nearly 70 years prior. There was no question that as the center of faith and culture, the Temple – and not the wall – was the heart of Jerusalem. Still, the report was emphatic that the people were troubled and shamed. The reason for this lies in what the wall represented. Structurally, it was independent of the Temple complex; but psychologically and functionally, the two were intertwined. Not only did the wall insulate the city from attack, it also delineated it, imparting identity by marking its parameters. It was a symbol of the future, sending the statement that, “We are here to stay.” And perhaps most importantly, in protecting the Temple, it helped to ensure the continuity of worship from generation to generation.

 

This explains why Nehemiah was crushed, as if a sucker punch had knocked the wind out of him. He was deeply moved and grieved over the future of his people. Vision begins with recognizing a need. This man understood just how high the stakes were. He saw vulnerability and a hindrance to God’s work where others saw only ancient history or an eyesore. Do we see what others cannot? Do we look past norms and the status quo to the spiritual depths of our circumstances?

 

However, he didn’t linger in the impotence of mourning. He took his burden and convictions to God, took time to align his heart and priorities. In doing so, Nehemiah avoided the extremes of cowardice and foolishness. Cowardice laments a fact but does nothing about it; foolishness rushes in ahead of God without planning and preparation.

 

Nehemiah’s prayer reveals several additional reasons why walls collapse and remain in ruins (we have already covered lack of vision). The second destroyer is sin. God scattered his people because of their infidelity to him. When they began to worship other gods, committing spiritual adultery, he ceased in practice to be their God. Tolerance of sin, whatever the form, will kill a church. Often, it is not the highly-visible, “big ticket” offenses like extortion and extramarital affairs, but insidious ones like bitterness, mistrust, pride, and refusal to change. Note that God will not only allow a church to die but, as in case of Judah, he will actually close the doors.

 

A third wrecker is apathy: “Listen to the prayers of those who delight in honoring you” (1:11 NLT, emphasis mine). Sometimes the fatal blow is not sin of commission, but sin of omission – that is, not what is done, but what is not done. In this case, God’s people simply stopped caring. The covenant and Temple worship became mere ritual, on par with every other daily task and social obligation. This complacency not only led to the destruction of Jerusalem, it was also partly responsible for the wall remaining in disrepair for so long.

 

Nehemiah stepped past the surface issue and penetrated to the heart of the matter. By the grace of God, let us do the same. What “walls” lay in ruins among us? What is God calling us to build? What have previous generations begun, leaving to us to complete?