"Rebuilding the City of Our Fathers" (Part 2)

In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before; so the king asked me, "Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart." I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?" The king said to me, "What is it you want?" Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it." (Nehemiah 2:1-5 NIV).

The first principle is revealed in the highlighted verses of our reading today. Nehemiah had come to feel the burden of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. It affected him so deeply that the king noticed it on his face. He called it a “sadness of heart.” The king asked him an incredibly penetrating question: Why?

Isn’t that the question we all ask in times of crisis? We want to know why the innocent suffer. We can’t seem to grasp why there is such injustice in our world and we long to have the answers to why. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is this world so unfair? We’ve all heard the explanation that we simply “can't understand God's ways." The trouble with that answer is in its very nature. It’s the wrong question, so it is the wrong answer! Nehemiah didn’t ask why. He knew that question and its answer wouldn’t make a difference for the future of Jerusalem. Of course, we must all learn from the mistakes of our past. We ought to be careful not to repeat destructive behavior. That will always produce destructive consequences. However, our incessant bemoaning of the present will not change the future.

Understanding Nehemiah’s answer, the king then asked the correct question: what do you want? Nehemiah wanted to rebuild the city and restore peace to his homeland. Now, here’s the real issue for us today… I am sure there are few, if any, who do not want to rebuild our nation and restore peace in our nation. The differences are in the solutions being offered today. Our government and many of our churches today have adopted a philosophy that the solution rests in a process or program. That philosophy will never work. You will never lighten the load until you feel the pressure of the burden in your own heart. Programs must never take the place of people. People must always precede programs.

WE must take the responsibility of restoration into our hearts and then put our hands to the task one person at a time. Jesus always affected change in the lives of others one person at a time. He did it because he felt their needs and pain one person at a time. If our nation fails it will not be because the wrong party was in power, or the program was not sufficient for the need. If our churches fail, it will not be because we didn’t implement the most recent programs. If our families fail, it will not be because we didn’t follow the rules perfectly. If they fail, it will be because we didn’t begin the rebuilding of the walls! As for me, I’m committed to doing everything I can to rebuild the walls to join in Nehemiah’s commitment to fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes (Nehemiah 4:14). Will you?