A Test Worthy of the Man — Andrew Forrest

The wall is completed in 52 days.

Destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians, 140 years later Nehemiah’s leadership results in the walls around Jerusalem being rebuilt in 52 days.

The accomplishment is so astounding that the surrounding people are filled with awe and terror at the obvious favor of the Lord on Nehemiah’s life and in support of the beleaguered Jewish community of exiles in Jerusalem:

15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. [Nehemiah 6:15-16]

But the accomplishment is all the more impressive with the next details that Nehemiah gives us as to the complicated web of corruption and intrigue he faced when building the wall. (See today’s passage: Nehemiah 6:15-7:4.)

Allow me to share an extended quotation from Derek Kidner:

“While chapter 5 brought to light the severe strains beneath temporary unity, these three verses reveal a still more serious threat in the disloyalties that might have sabotaged the whole enterprise, and which would persist to the end of Nehemiah’s story (see the final chapter).
This evil, like the other, found its foothold in the more prosperous levels of society, this time through the love of power and status rather than primarily through love of money. Tobiah was a more insidious influence in this respect than Sanballat, since he was probably a fellow-Jew…. His numerous binding agreements (by oath, 18) within the Jewish community were probably trading contracts, facilitated by his marriage connections…. While such links and loyalties were embarrassing enough in themselves, we now learn how busily they were exploited by intrigues, persuasive talk, leaks of information and threatening letters. All this, in addition to the outside pressures already described, brought Nehemiah under attack from almost every quarter. It had been a test worthy of the man, and it was not yet over.”

May each of us take inspiration today from Nehemiah, a truly great man.