Theological Commentary: Click Here
As Nehemiah
completes the wall, the next thing he does is set a guard. There are some things we can learn from this
process once we understand the steps that he takes. First, he orders the city’s gates shut while
the sun is still up, before the shadows can get near the walls and hide
enemies. Second, he posts a watch during
the night. Third, some of the watch is
over the gates, some of the watch is near their homes.
What can we learn
from this? First of all, we need to be
careful that we guard what is valuable to us.
I’m not talking material possessions here, I am talking about our character
and our morals and our spirit. We need
to be careful who we grant access to our being, especially with respect to
things like mentoring, teaching, and other means of influencing us. We need to make sure that we don’t give the
enemy an easy route into our being.
Second,
Nehemiah posts a watch. Nehemiah doesn’t
assume things will be fine and his wall will keep out threats. Nehemiah posts a watch to ensure things stay
secure. The same should be true with
us. We shouldn’t assume that our
relationship with God will be okay, or our love for His ways won’t change. We shouldn’t assume that our character and
our ethics will never be compromised. We
need to guard those things, watching out for them and protecting them!
Third,
Nehemiah appoints some guards who live close to their homes. Nehemiah knows a simple fact. When guards are protecting their own house,
they will do a much more thorough job. The
same is true for us. When we invest
ourselves into the things about which we care the most, our performance will
usually be better and more thorough.
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