Day Thirty-Five -- Adding the finishing touches?
Nehemiah 1:1 to Nehemiah 13:14
The Book of Nehemiah finishes off the work in Jerusalem that had begun with the rebuilding of the temple as reported in the Book of Ezra. Nehemiah is not among the returning exiles but is the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes of Persia. He is obviously favored for he is allowed to return to Jerusalem after he tells the king that "the city where my ancestors are buried likes in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire." Nehemiah never directly names the city as Jerusalem, which had a reputation as a rebellious city. That is actually the charge made by later opponents as Nehemiah directs the rebuilding of the fortifications of the city. After the job is completed and the city restored to holiness by the reading of The Law and the proper observance of the religious festivals, Nehemiah oversees the repopulation of Jerusalem with all the right people.
Walls can be decorative or functional, something that the poet Robert Frost muses about in his poem Mending Wall. Where the intent is function the question arises as to whether you are trying to keep things out or to keep things in. The wall and gates of Jerusalem were certainly meant to be defensive, to keep the people of the city safe from military attacks. But the walls also might be seen as symbolic, to state that within this guarded city we will remain pure. Foreign influences will be shut out and the people within will be kept from straying form God's ways.
I am left to contemplate the following: Do the walls we construct ever really work the way we think they will?
The Book of Nehemiah finishes off the work in Jerusalem that had begun with the rebuilding of the temple as reported in the Book of Ezra. Nehemiah is not among the returning exiles but is the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes of Persia. He is obviously favored for he is allowed to return to Jerusalem after he tells the king that "the city where my ancestors are buried likes in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire." Nehemiah never directly names the city as Jerusalem, which had a reputation as a rebellious city. That is actually the charge made by later opponents as Nehemiah directs the rebuilding of the fortifications of the city. After the job is completed and the city restored to holiness by the reading of The Law and the proper observance of the religious festivals, Nehemiah oversees the repopulation of Jerusalem with all the right people.
Walls can be decorative or functional, something that the poet Robert Frost muses about in his poem Mending Wall. Where the intent is function the question arises as to whether you are trying to keep things out or to keep things in. The wall and gates of Jerusalem were certainly meant to be defensive, to keep the people of the city safe from military attacks. But the walls also might be seen as symbolic, to state that within this guarded city we will remain pure. Foreign influences will be shut out and the people within will be kept from straying form God's ways.
I am left to contemplate the following: Do the walls we construct ever really work the way we think they will?
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