THE BUILDING OF THE WALL, NEHEMIAH 1
THE BUILDING OF THE WALL, NEHEMIAH 1
It is remarkable that we have the house built and the service of God set up in Ezra before we come to the thought of the city and the wall which is largely developed in Nehemiah. The first thing in the mind of God is how we approach Him. Hence Ezra is more occupied with what is internal; he speaks of the altar, the house and the service; it is more an internal view of things. Nehemiah is occupied with what is external. The city and the wall refer to the public position; the service of the altar and house is to be safeguarded and preserved. There is a need for the city and the wall.
The first thing in the mind of God is how He is approached. The thought of privilege in relation to God must come first in the mind of God, although it may not in our minds. So in Exodus the instruction as to the tabernacle begins with the ark, and then goes on to what was enshrined in it. We must realise that approach to God and the service of God are great things in the mind of God and then we can take up what is external — the principles of fellowship divinely administered in the assembly. That is necessary if things are to be protected and preserved. Nehemiah gives that side of things; the city and the wall represent what is public. Without the city and the wall the public position is one of affliction and reproach, and that is very much the position in the Christian profession today. In the ways of God there is a recovering of things in these last days. There was not much thought of the city and the wall when the saints began to break bread; they thought almost entirely of the Lord’s supper as the privilege of all believers. The test comes when these things have to be protected. When the exercise began among the brethren as to assembly principles and administration, many who were apparently going on well became adversaries.
We find in this chapter that Nehemiah was brought to deep concern because of what he heard of the affliction and reproach of God’s people. The wall was in ruins and the gates burned with fire; it filled him with sorrow. That is the first thing. Reproach lay on the people of God that was not the reproach of Christ. We have to feel that great reproach [p. 456] rests on the people of God today because of their unfaithfulness. Nehemiah’s concern was that the reproach might be taken away. We must differentiate between the reproach of Christ and this kind of reproach. The reproach of Christ is reproach in the eyes of the world, not the reproach spoken of here which is reproach under the eye of God. Those who are faithful bear the reproach of Christ before the world; those who are unfaithful bear reproach under the eyes of God. It is the divine way of recovery that we should be sensitive as to everything that comes on our consciences as not being of God. The condition of the people of God generally, even true christians, is one of great reproach in the eyes of heaven. We have to take up the exercise of it. It is easy to see how true it is of the christian profession, for many things there have no authority or support in Scripture at all; they are a reproach under the eye of God. It arises from the fact that the true principles of christian fellowship have been broken down, and assembly administration has been destroyed, so that we speak of the ruin. J.N.D. was greatly criticised and denounced because he spoke of the ruin, but there it is; what does not answer to the mind of God is a state of ruin. God’s intention is that at the end there is to be exercise as to it and a turning to God and to the Lord in prayer and then to the light of Scripture.
Three great outstanding principles come out in this chapter:
(1) Deep exercises as to the ruin.
(2) Prayer.
(3) The Scriptures turned to as affording great confidence notwithstanding all that has taken place.
That is the way of recovery for any of us. God said that, if they repented and turned to Him, He would bring them back to the place where He had set His name even if they had been scattered to the uttermost part of the heavens. It is most encouraging. We have to feel now what was felt at Pentecost. They felt the failure of Israel, but they had not the sorrow of feeling how the assembly had failed. We must take up the exercise that the assembly in its public setting is the greatest failure there is in the whole history of the world. Therefore there is nothing for it but to seek the Lord and pray. There is everything in the Lord to be counted on in the darkest day and the time of greatest ruin. The Lord remains. When we [p. 457] come to prayer we are at no disadvantage; we are as well off as they were at Pentecost. Before Pentecost we find they spent ten days in prayer; that is a provision as open to us as it was to them. There is no one to tell us that we cannot pray. At the end of Acts 2 we find that they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine, and fellowship, in breaking of bread, and prayers. It is very beautiful to see that those things are as open to us today as they were then — the apostle’s teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers — they are as much within our reach now as they were in Acts 2. It is very comforting and encouraging. We have to get back to what the assembly began with, to have our whole resource in God and in the Lord and in the Spirit. The assembly at Corinth and those meeting all over the world at that time were calling on the name of the Lord. We can still do that, and when we do so we have reached the source of everything. The Lord is as equal to the darkest day as to the brightest day. I believe the giving up of prayer is the first mark of spiritual decline. People give up private prayer, and then household prayer, and everything for God is over. We have to get back to this great basic fact that, if we are to be anything at all for the Lord, we must be men and women of prayer and feel things more than we do. We get so hardened. Nehemiah was a man of deep exercise; he realised that the wall was in ruins and the gates burned and the people in affliction and reproach, and he turns to God. We have to go the same way; there is no other way of recovery if we want to stand in assembly truth.
If you have the wall, you have things secured. That is the point of teaching in this book, to be able to set up the true principles of the assembly in a day of ruin, principles of divine administration not to be seen in the religious world. It was very encouraging to Nehemiah that Jehovah had said that if the people turned to Him He would bring them back to the place where He had set His name. The Lord will never see His name in unholy conditions. A godly man never leaves himself out when he confesses sins. If I have to speak to the Lord about something wrong in someone else, He always turns me back on myself. It is necessary that we should bring ourselves into this matter. We cannot stand outside the ruin and reproach of the christian profession as spectators; we are all part of it. We are only out of the ruin as standing in the thoughts of God, and when we stand there we have no very [p. 458] flattering estimate of ourselves. We need to be marked by these features: by feeling everything that is a reproach on the people of God, and then turning to the Lord as a resource, calling on the Lord out of a pure heart. We must be exercised as to this, to be standing in the truth of the assembly and the principles of christian fellowship, we must be thoroughly identified with them and completely separated from things around us.
Paul speaks to Timothy of “those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”, 2 Timothy 2: 22. “A pure heart” means that there is nothing artificial or hypocritical about us, that we have done with the Pharisee. We are all naturally well-bred Pharisees and we have to get rid of that and have a pure heart. Nehemiah is the line of spiritual exercise for us all. We must not rest on the fact that we have come to outward separation; we must be set to be in the reality of it so that heaven recognises that we call on the Lord out of a pure heart. The Psalms give a good idea of a pure heart. The psalmist confesses his own sins and the sins of God’s people; he has a pure heart. No one has a pure heart that does not judge himself. When we are occupied with what is of God, we go on with it and judge all the ruin in the light of what is positively of God. What we find constantly in the Psalms is confession of sin and consciousness of integrity, which go together. Nehemiah takes account of God as keeping covenant and mercy to them that love Him and keep His commandments. He reckoned that there were such persons, so he says in his prayer, “Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying ... if ye return to me, and keep my commandments ... will I gather them ... unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there” (verses 8, 9). That is what he builds on. There will always be those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart and we want to move along with those people. Nehemiah does not pray that the people may return, but he takes for granted that there will be those who love God and keep His commandments, so he says, “let now thine ear be attentive ... to the prayer of thy servants who delight to fear thy name” (verse 11). He takes for granted that there was a company marked by these desires and exercises. So the inward state of our hearts is the great thing.
There was a long interval between the end of Ezra and this chapter showing that when God recovers His work He does [p. 459] not do everything at once. He carries it on by progressive stages. We have seen that in the last hundred years. The Lord did not bring out everything at first; there was not much thought about principles or administration at the beginning; those exercises gradually developed as the need arose for maintaining separation and for safeguarding the precious things. So the building of the wall is a further exercise, and a constant one to keep up separation as to all those things that are not of God. The principle of separation must be maintained; it is a constant exercise. Nehemiah has the sense too that the matter will depend on the favour of the king. The king was God’s representative in this matter. It shows that the king is one who represents a power which God can make of service to His people and testimony. Artaxerxes was not on the same line as Cyrus. Cyrus was raised up by God to build the house and thus was a type of Christ. Artaxerxes was on a lower line, for he was made favourable by observing the condition of Nehemiah. That is the setting. Nehemiah so conducted himself before the king that, when the time came, the king was disposed to be favourable to him. That is one ground on which we might expect the powers that be to be favourable; we are to be marked by subjection. Nehemiah commended himself to Artaxerxes; that is one aspect of the position. We see in certain parts of the world that the powers of government are favourable to what is of God. In those countries where the testimony has had its place we find the powers that be are generally favourable, but where the testimony has had no place the powers are adverse and persecuting. God provides for the protection of His work, and we ought to value the powers that are favourable. Paul says that they are God’s ministers to us for good. It is a great thing to see that. Every policeman and soldier is a servant of God, and in that sense he serves the testimony.