Well, here we are at Day 14.
I've read Nehemiah before, so I knew how this story ended. But walking through it slowly this time, chapter by chapter, has made the ending hit differently.
We started with rubble. We've watched Nehemiah weep, pray, prepare, build, face opposition, return to God's Word and finally worship on the wall. But Nehemiah doesn't end with a celebration. It ends with him still tending what was built.
In these final verses, Nehemiah discovers people working and selling goods on the Sabbath. He closes the gates, and when merchants camp outside waiting to get back in, he warns them “Why are you camping outside the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you!”
Nehemiah 13:21
Nehemiah is clearly done playing around. But it also connects perfectly with yesterday. Tobiah couldn't be allowed a room and today Nehemiah is guarding the gates. He isn't rebuilding the wall anymore. He's protecting what the wall was built for.
We can pray for God to rebuild something, fight for it, cry over it and watch restoration happen, but then we have to steward what He restored. There are things God has worked too hard in us to casually let old patterns walk back through the gate.
Then Nehemiah discovers that some of the children couldn't even speak the language of Judah. After everything previous generations had gone through to rebuild Jerusalem, the next generation was already losing part of what connected them to who they were.
And anything involving the next generation gets my attention. Giving them the wall isn't enough. We have to teach them why we built it.
I don't just want the next generation to inherit our church buildings, ministries, traditions and programs. I want them to know Jesus. I want them to understand why we worship, open our Bibles, pray, serve and keep showing up. We can hand them something beautiful and still miss the point if we don't give them the faith it was built on.
That's why I love how Nehemiah ends. The wall is finished, but God is still building His people. After fourteen days, I think that's where Rise & Build leaves us too. We don't finish building something God gave us and walk away. We tend it. We guard the gates. We teach the next generation. We stay in the Word. We love the people inside the walls. And we keep saying yes.
Nehemiah's final words are “Remember this in my favor, O my God.”
After everything he built, Nehemiah ends where he started with God.
And so should we.
Weep. Pray. Listen. Rise. Build.
Then take care of what God trusted you to build.
Because the wall may be finished, but God is still building His people.
His People.....That's us!
Love Pastor Mandy
MandiesDandies / Ark of Hope
Daily reading Nehemiah 13: 15-31
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