THE BUILDING OF THE WALL, NEHEMIAH 2
THE BUILDING OF THE WALL, NEHEMIAH 2
The exercise of Nehemiah was that the city and its walls might be built. He was conscious that he was a man under authority and that he must not move without authority. It would seem that the king of Persia in this book is viewed as representing divine authority; he had been set up by God.
[p. 460] The lesson for us would be that in a day of ruin, when we feel things are broken down and in ruins, we should desire to do something to remedy the state of things for God’s advantage and the advantage of His people. We must be careful to act as those who have authority for what they do.
All authority is of God; so today the authorities that exist are not the world, they are of God. We have to distinguish between the world, which is made up of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and the authorities which are of God. The object for which authority is exercised is to repress evil. The government of God is not the world; there is something on earth which is of God. All government is representative of God, all kings and judges; they are for the punishment of evil-doers and the praise of those that do well, and so they represent God. Therefore we respect all authority. We have to distinguish between the world as an evil system and the government of God in it by means of kings, rulers, and magistrates. What would the world be without government? If there were no police or prisons, it would be impossible for God’s creatures to live in it under present conditions. God maintains in government a condition of things that is favourable to all His creatures, and of course to His people. It is important to recognise that all authority is of God. To understand the teaching of this chapter we have to look at it in this light. Nehemiah was dependent on the king for his commission and the supply of what he needed for building the city. He acts as a man under authority; we must be careful that we have authority for what we do. There is a danger of losing sight of that and looking on the authorities of the world as though they belonged to the world morally, for they do not. Positionally the king is representative of God as exercising government for the restraint of evil and the furthering of what is good.
There is a suggestion here of Nehemiah being in a position in which he could minister to the joy of the king. If we apply it spiritually, I thought that was the condition necessary if we are to get support and direction and supply in relation to eradicating the ruin that exists. We must be marked by this feature of offering pleasure to God in our own personal walk and deportment. Paul says to Timothy, ‘Study to show thyself approved of God, a vessel to honour, acceptable to the master’. That is important. It made Nehemiah acceptable to the king [p. 461] and he got all his requests. We should be individually exercised to be pleasing to God. We cannot get light as to the state of ruin around, or as to what can be done to remedy it, if we are not personally pleasing to God.
Then we find that Nehemiah has a new exercise. He had never been sad before. He heard from these brethren who came from Jerusalem about the dreadful state there and it awakened a new exercise in his soul and made him a sad man. It is good when an exercise begins in our hearts as to the state of things in the christian profession. It is an exercise that God would give us to feel, that the public christian profession is one of great reproach to God; the walls are broken down and the gates burned with fire. The holy separation which marked the people of God is broken down and the administration which rightly marked the assembly is burned with fire. We often speak of our joys and happiness, but God is looking that we should be sad. As it says of Timothy, “remembering thy tears”; that is a very important side of things. Do we feel for God as to the broken state of things? If we do not feel like that, we shall not be very serviceable in building the city and wall. Nehemiah is instruction for us as to how something can be built up for God and the good of His people in a day of ruin. The first thing is to think of God and the reproach that rests on God by reason of the state of things among those who profess to be His people.
There were others besides Nehemiah “who delight to fear thy name”. It will always be so; any true spiritual exercise will never be confined to one person. Paul had Timothy and others who were a comfort to him. In the darkest day there will always be a company sharing the same exercises. Even Jeremiah was not left alone; there were those who befriended him.
Nehemiah moved in his own exercises and that is important for us. We are so apt to move like a flock of sheep, all going one way without much exercise. Individual exercises are most important in a day of ruin. I ought not to have to be supported by the faith of others. This great work required all hands to help it on. As to matters of fellowship they require all hands. Nobody is let off; each one has to be true to this principle of fellowship. In the next chapter each one builds his bit, all going together. God does not limit His work to one individual. It would not be suitable in the assembly for God to give [p. 462] exercise to only one. Any spiritual exercise is shared by all those in the current of the Spirit; all move together.
While Nehemiah was sad as to the state of things at Jerusalem, he did not settle down to that. There are a vast number of christians today who are sad and grieved by what they see and hear, but they leave it at that and just go on, whereas Nehemiah was a man of action. His request to the king was, “If it please the king ... that thou wouldest send me to Judah ... that I may build it” (verse 5). He was not content to be a silent, sorrowful man because of what he had heard, but he wanted to move in the matter. There were the walls to be built and the gates set up and he was a man of action. It ought to affect us much that the principles of fellowship and the truth of the assembly and its administration can be set up again, in principle, even in a day of ruin. That is the teaching of Nehemiah.
In Matthew 18 the Lord speaks of the assembly. He says, “if two of you”. He attaches the same provision and power to two as He did to the assembly. It shows that the principles of the assembly can be worked out if necessary by two. They could not be worked out by one; at least two are necessary. “Two of you” means two who have assembly exercises and light. You can have anything you ask for. “Where two or three are gathered ... to my name, there am I in the midst of them”. If He is there, what more do we want? The assembly in its brightest day had nothing greater than the presence of the Son of God. All the principles of the assembly can be enjoyed today in spite of the ruin and failure. It is people like Nehemiah, who are really concerned about matters, that understand these things. In 2 Timothy we find the kind of material that can be used in building; we cannot build without material. If we read 2 Timothy carefully we shall see the sort of material that is useful for God’s building operations. God has to provide it and it is provided by His work in the souls of His people. It speaks of the king first; there is material which the king has at his disposal needed to build the city and walls. 2 Timothy speaks of faithful men. Paul exhorts Timothy to pass on what he had to faithful men. The first thing to look for in connection with assembly material is faithfulness. I look with confidence on a man or woman who is faithful to the light he or she has; it is a bit that God can use. God provides suitable material. Timothy largely describes the kind of material suitable for God to use in a day of ruin:
[p. 463] faithful men; those who live piously in Christ Jesus; those who follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. All that is fine timber; they are those who are “in Christ Jesus”, words occurring seven times in 2 Timothy. That is the kind of material for the house, not the man after the flesh but the man in Christ Jesus. Paul writes in 2 Timothy, “according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus”. He has the thought of living material, as Peter speaks of living stones. God has found some material even in these last days; He has found a few hearts who grieve over the ruin of the assembly and seek to build and set up divine principles on the ancient foundation and to establish the truth of separation. There are a goodly number of hearts set on these things.
Then there was opposition. Any move made in consideration for God and the welfare of His people is sure to find Sanballats and Tobijahs who grieve over it. It is in 2 Timothy that Paul refers to persons who opposed — Hymenaeus, Philetus and Alexander; they opposed the ministry. They may have been prominent men amongst the brethren, but adversaries of the work of God. Tobijah had a link with the people of God; he was an Ammonite, descended from Lot, but he turned out to be an enemy all through. It is interesting to see that, although there was so much opposition and difficulty put in the way, yet the work went on to completion.
We have an important exercise brought before us in this chapter. People surveying the state of ruin cannot expect to have the help of God unless they understand what the need really is. So Nehemiah’s first exercise after arriving at Jerusalem was to see what the state of things really was; this is an exercise very important for us all, emphasising the importance of private exercise with God. None of us can move publicly beyond the measure of our private exercise with God. If we are true we shall accept that. It is like Paul’s three years in Arabia, where we do not read of his doing anything. There is no word of his preaching there; he is going through things in private and personal exercise. If our public action goes beyond our private and secret exercise, it is sure to come to nothing. We are apt to be in a hurry to do what we see to be right and let the public movement go beyond our measure of private exercise and that leads to failure. There was not the measure of spiritual exercise with the rulers that there was with [p. 464] Nehemiah. It is always distracting to take counsel with those less spiritual than ourselves. When people decline, they seek the company of those inferior, and that accelerates departure; we should seek the company of people more spiritual than ourselves. See how the Philippians clung to Paul; he could speak of their fellowship from the first day to now. Others turned away from him, but they clung to him, and it was their salvation. We all have the opportunity of keeping company with the best saints and servants the Lord ever had. We should value things secretly so that we avail ourselves of what there is for us. First of all there are the Scriptures; there are men of God, Peter, Paul and John, waiting on us and ready to give their company at any time. What is to hinder me from being a close companion of Peter or Paul or John? Let us give our minds wholly to the ministry, so that we get on. We do not keep good company when alone; we want to keep in company with the blessed servants of God in our private life.
Nehemiah, in going to take account of the ruin, goes by night; it is a private matter. He goes out by the valley-gate; that is the way to go to take account of the ruin. The valley-gate suggests going out in a lowly spirit. When Paul had to survey the ruin at Corinth he says, “out of much tribulation and distress of heart I wrote to you with many tears” — he went out by the valley-gate. That is the only way we can take account of the state of ruin — in the spirit of tears, not in a censorious spirit. The Lord puts His people through exercises of that kind. When the Lord was going to send a solemn message to the assemblies by His servant John, He put John through tremendous exercise. John says, “when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead”. John needed that exercise; he went out by the valley-gate. That is the only spirit in a day of ruin that will answer the divine purpose. Nehemiah went back by the valley-gate, too; that is suggestive of that lowly spirit that feels things with God. When he comes to think of sources of refreshment that were once available and are not now, he feels it intensely. “And I went out by night by the valley-gate, even toward the jackal-fountain, and to the dung-gate”. The jackal-fountain would seem to speak of what is evil, apparently a source of refreshment, but the power of evil in it. The Lord makes us acquainted with the evil teaching that has found its place in the ruin of the assembly publicly; He would have us in a lowly spirit to take account of the evil teaching. We do not [p. 465] need to read bad books to know what the evil is, for we learn of it from the Scriptures. Scripture speaks of the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes and of Balaam, and the woman Jezebel. The Lord calls attention to the sources of evil teaching; none have arisen or will arise that are not in Scripture. Some say today that there is no resurrection from the dead, but we do not need to read their books; Scripture reveals all bad teaching. We read that there are already many antichrists; so we know about the evil teaching that has come into the assembly. All this is connected in my mind with the dragon well or jackal-fountain. We are warned of every kind of evil that will come in. We are not groping in the dark as to evil.
Then the dung-gate has most important instruction. It is the ruin of the dung-gate that has been so disastrous in the history of the assembly. The dung-gate speaks of the refusal of everything that would be a gain to us according to the flesh. Paul tells us in Philippians of what wonderful things he had to his credit as a man in the flesh and yet they all went out by the dung-gate; he counted them all filth. It was not wickedness, but his religion and the advantages he possessed as a good Jew; they went out by the dung-gate. The dung-gate was very soon burned with fire in the history of the assembly. If we are going to take account of the ruin we must do so first as it applies to ourselves. Have we known what it was to make use of the dung-gate? The flesh in its religion is filth. It is according to the excellence of the knowledge of Christ that Paul measures things. There is a volume of instruction in these things, and if we do not work them out for ourselves in secret exercise we shall not be in the mind of God at the present time.
Then there is the fountain-gate and the king’s garden; there is a beautiful spiritual suggestion there. The fountain-gate is a most interesting place, for it brings in the thought of the Spirit. In the next chapter we read, in verse 15, “And the fountain-gate repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the chief of the district of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up its doors, its locks and its bars, and the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king’s garden, and to the stairs that go down from the city of David”. That all stands connected with the fountain-gate, and is full of spiritual suggestions. God complained of His people through Isaiah that they refused Siloam’s waters that flowed softly. Shelah, or Siloam, referred to what God [p. 466] sent in grace. What He sent by the prophet Isaiah was the promise of Immanuel. To get any spiritual vision we have to come to Siloam. The fountain-gate is the spiritual climax of the next chapter. We shall see there that as the different gates were built, they lead up to the fountain-gate as a climax. The next chapter is of the deepest interest, for the only way to the city is by the gates and I hope we all want to go in. We are told that those who wash their robes have the right to go in, and there is no other way but by the gates.
In this night exercise of Nehemiah’s, he was allowed to see the ruin; when he comes to the fountain-gate there was no way to pass. The great spiritual refreshment properly belonging to the presence of the Spirit was not available.
Then the king’s pool is a beautiful suggestion. It turns us to the Song of Songs and shows that when the Spirit of God has His way He brings fruit into the garden. He can come in and eat His pleasant fruits. In a day of ruin God calls attention to the great principle attaching to the assembly — love. We live in the enjoyment of all the blessings proper to the assembly; if not we are in a state of ruin.
The principal exercise in Nehemiah’s case was as to Jerusalem, and we have to go through this exercise. God has put it in inspired words to indicate to us that there is no other way to the assembly in a day of ruin. It works out collectively in the next chapter, but the individual must come first. This night exercise is most important. We ought not to set these things aside as though meaningless. All that is connected with the Spirit and the king’s garden and the stairs that go down from the city of David is full of spiritual suggestion. It speaks of what is to be enjoyed by saints of the assembly. It raises the question with every one of us, Am I sharing with the brethren in the enjoyment of these precious things? If not, I am in a state of ruin, and the sooner I go to God about it the better. To take account of the ruin is the first thing, but we must not stop there; it leads to Nehemiah calling the attention of others to it, “Ye see the distress that we are in ... and they strengthened their hands for the good work”, chapter 2: 17, 18. God gives His people courage to set up principles that have been broken down; not in our case to restore the assembly, but to set up in our souls and associations principles that belong to the assembly. When we move on those lines the hand of God will be upon us.
[p. 467] Sanballat and Tobijah set forth the opposition of the flesh to all that is of God. They were adversaries; Nehemiah says to them, “Ye have no portion, nor right, or memorial in Jerusalem”. They had nothing to do with the building of God’s city; they were opposed to it. They tried to draw Nehemiah into fellowship with them. There are powers and influences at work today in opposition to what God is doing and Satan will see to it that influence is brought to bear in opposition to what God is doing. What is going on at this point is that the people are encouraged to rise up and build, and they strengthened their hands for the good work. Notwithstanding the ruin it is an encouraging thought that the hand of God is on the man who feels the ruin. There is ability to do things; there is something for every hand to do. This work of building the wall and setting up the gates is going on; there is some part in that work for each one of us. Heaven is with us in maintaining principles of separation from the world which marked the assembly at the beginning. Each one of us has to put our hands to that work. We either build up principles which are of God, or pull them down; that is obvious to each of us. Something goes on in the souls of the saints, for the building is now done there, and in the next chapter all are viewed as having part in it. Some did not put their hands to the work, but, speaking generally, all did. In the fellowship we all put our hands to it; we are definitely committed to the working out of what is of God.