Nehemiah 3
This chapter describes the volunteers who actually rebuilt the city walls of Jerusalem, people from all walks of life appear to have taken part - from the high Priest, tradesmen and just people who lived by the wall site.
The nobles of Tekoa were recorded as refusing to get their hands dirty but were happy enough to order their serfs.
The list of names is quite long and I have no plans to name them all as my typing is not that good!
Nehemiah 4
You know in many pursuits there is the excitement of starting the work, but that wears off quickly and you are left with hard work.
At the point that the initial excitement has worn off and the magnitude of the work they have started kicked in our old "friends" Sanballat and Tobiah turned up to observe and sneer at the works, bringing an army with him.
"what do these feeble Jews think they are doing, they will never rebuild the walls, the stones are burned beyond repair, and they are supposed to offer sacrifices - it'll be dark soon too."
"Come on lads, you can do better than this - a fox climbing on that wall will knock it down"
Nehemiah called on God to hear the taunts and turn them back on Sanballat and Tobiah, meanwhile the wall reached half height.
This progress really upset Sanballat and the people surrounding Jerusalem decided to make an attack and stir up trouble.
There is a joke that a man was in his house in danger of being flooded, as the water rose a boat came along and he was told "get in, the flood will get a lot worse". The man, climbing the stairs said "No, no go away, my God will save me". The boat went away
Things got worse and the floodwaters had risen and the man was climbing on to the roof of his house when another boat came along "Get in, the flooding is likely to rise some way yet".
"No, no go away my God will save me" replied the man.
As he is standing on the ridge of his house roof, holding on to the chimney, with water up to his chest a helicopter turned up to winch him to safety. But again he refuses saying "God will save me"
The flooding rises further and the man drowned - he squelched his way through heaven and shouted at God - "I had faith that you would save me, you really let me down"
God replied "What are you doing here? I sent you two boats AND a helicopter"
Nehemiah is a bit more sensible than that - he prayed to God for protection, but he also set guards.
The enemies make their plans to attack, but the local Jews give warning to the builders who are waiting for them at the weakest points in the wall and armed to the teeth.
From this time half the workers are on guard to protect their colleagues - labourers did their work with a weapon in their hands and the bricklayers had a sword on their waist.
Nehemiah organised a trumpet signal to gather troops in case of attack as things were getting spread out.
At this stage nobody got undressed or took off their weapons for any reason
This chapter describes the volunteers who actually rebuilt the city walls of Jerusalem, people from all walks of life appear to have taken part - from the high Priest, tradesmen and just people who lived by the wall site.
The nobles of Tekoa were recorded as refusing to get their hands dirty but were happy enough to order their serfs.
The list of names is quite long and I have no plans to name them all as my typing is not that good!
Nehemiah 4
You know in many pursuits there is the excitement of starting the work, but that wears off quickly and you are left with hard work.
At the point that the initial excitement has worn off and the magnitude of the work they have started kicked in our old "friends" Sanballat and Tobiah turned up to observe and sneer at the works, bringing an army with him.
"what do these feeble Jews think they are doing, they will never rebuild the walls, the stones are burned beyond repair, and they are supposed to offer sacrifices - it'll be dark soon too."
"Come on lads, you can do better than this - a fox climbing on that wall will knock it down"
Nehemiah called on God to hear the taunts and turn them back on Sanballat and Tobiah, meanwhile the wall reached half height.
This progress really upset Sanballat and the people surrounding Jerusalem decided to make an attack and stir up trouble.
There is a joke that a man was in his house in danger of being flooded, as the water rose a boat came along and he was told "get in, the flood will get a lot worse". The man, climbing the stairs said "No, no go away, my God will save me". The boat went away
Things got worse and the floodwaters had risen and the man was climbing on to the roof of his house when another boat came along "Get in, the flooding is likely to rise some way yet".
"No, no go away my God will save me" replied the man.
As he is standing on the ridge of his house roof, holding on to the chimney, with water up to his chest a helicopter turned up to winch him to safety. But again he refuses saying "God will save me"
The flooding rises further and the man drowned - he squelched his way through heaven and shouted at God - "I had faith that you would save me, you really let me down"
God replied "What are you doing here? I sent you two boats AND a helicopter"
Nehemiah is a bit more sensible than that - he prayed to God for protection, but he also set guards.
The enemies make their plans to attack, but the local Jews give warning to the builders who are waiting for them at the weakest points in the wall and armed to the teeth.
From this time half the workers are on guard to protect their colleagues - labourers did their work with a weapon in their hands and the bricklayers had a sword on their waist.
Nehemiah organised a trumpet signal to gather troops in case of attack as things were getting spread out.
At this stage nobody got undressed or took off their weapons for any reason
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