Nehemiah- Part 1

Scripture: "And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels." 2 Chronicles 36:18-19 ESV

Good morning, this week we will be looking at Nehemiah and his journey of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.  I understand it is a little strange that we start with a scripture that is not from the book of Nehemiah, but we have to understand what had happened and why it was important for Nehemiah to answer the call. Jerusalem is not just a city it is the Holy city.  It is the city where the great temple was built to worship God.  As God judged His people, the Holy city of Jerusalem was ransacked; every brick destroyed.  They looted God's house and stole all of the treasures that were in the temple of God. But they didn't stop at looting the temple of God they then burned it down.  Not only was the temple burned but also the walls that defended the once mighty Holy city were crumbled to the ground.  Now lets understand that the Temple was rebuilt well before Nehemiah received the call to rebuild the walls.  So lets examine the state if Jerusalem before the wall was rebuilt. The temple has been rebuilt; the children of God were allowed to return home. But the people were in still in a bad place. "The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire." Nehemiah 1:3 The walls were needed to protect God's temple and God's people.

Now lets look at this and compare it our spiritual lives.  "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you" 1 Corinthians 6:19 There are so many times where we come under attack spiritually and we are robbed of our joy.  The reason why these attacks happen and become so successful in our lives is because our walls are destroyed and we have no defense to guard God's temple. It is time we become like Nehemiah and build our walls up to help protect the temple of God.  How do we build up our spiritual walls? Well lets think of Jesus in the wilderness when he was tempted 3 times, how did he defeat the temptation? Through scripture.  He quoted scripture to win the battle. We win our battles through building our walls of faith through reading and studying scripture, through prayer and through praise.  Let me encourage you as you go through the week to study scripture to praise God and to build your walls up to help guard your spirit.

Let us pray, dear Father help us guard our hearts help us build our walls up to protect us.  Show us in your scripture passages to help us with our battles.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

David Wiggins

Youth Pastor

www.nbcornerstone.com