Nehemiah

There are few times in our lives when we think that everything is going well and there seems to be little to no problems that we know of. We have a good family life. We have found a good church to attend that helps us to learn and to grow. And we have a good job which helps us not only to pay the bills but to have some prestige. Those are times we need to keep our eyes open and look around to see how God is going to use us. God does love us and He is going to bless us simply because we are His children, but there are times when He will put us into places in order
to accomplish His will.

Such was the case several times in the Old Testament. These include Queen Esther whom was used to protect the Jews and this was the case with Nehemiah, cupbearer to king Artexerxes (Nehemiah 2:1). The problem from Nehemiah's day was that the walls of Jerusalem had been torn down (Nehemiah 1:3). If it truly is a God-given task that we have on our hearts then our requests will be granted when we go to the "authority" figure seeking permission and possibly
even when we seek funding.

In Nehemiah 2:4 Nehemiah went to the king to seek permission to step away from his role as the cup bearer and to return to "home" where his fathers were buried to rebuild it. Since he was favored in the king's eyes he was granted permission to go. Not only that, but the king also sent him with letters to other provinces to give Nehemiah safe travel as well as timber. Again, the king granted the request, but he didn't stop there. The king also sent officers and calvary to accompany Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:9).

It wasn't until Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem that he saw just how much devastation there was that he knew the extent of the damage and how much work was going to be needed in order to accomplish the rebuilding task. And to make matters worse, even though Nehemiah was there with the king's permission and was going to accomplish God's will, but there were also those who opposed the work. As you can see in verses 19-20 there were those who mocked and ridiculed Nehemiah.

Despite the opposition Nehemiah and the rest of the Jews were faithful and began the work to repair the walls around Jerusalem / Judah. The work was divided upon families and the prominent Jewish leaders. Each leader was given a section of wall or gate in order to repair (Nehemiah 3).

Then in Nehemiah 4 the opposition goes from being ridicule and mocking to being active opposition and the enemies plotted against the rebuilding of the wall (Chapter 4). So in 4:16 half of the men worked on the wall while the other half of the men stood protection. They would then rally to where ever the trumpet would sound and converge to help in the event of an attack.
Despite all of the obstacles the wall was completed and God's will was accomplished. Even then opposition continued.

Just because they were following God's will did not mean that opposition would stop. This is a very important lesson for us to learn. Even when we are following God's will and seeking to serve Him we will still run into problems and have difficulties in life. Even with the problems we should continue to serve Him and to overcome. His will is going to be done, if not by us then by others. Then we will fail to receive the blessings that accompany serving God and
seeking His will for our lives.

It is always better to follow God's will for our lives rather than to get comfortable and stop seeking His will and stop serving Him. In those instances we risk losing the blessings that He has bestowed upon us when He raises up someone else to help.

In Him,
Benjamin