“Above the Horse Gate, the priests repaired the wall. Each one repaired the section immediately across from his own house.” Nehemiah 3:28 NLT
Last time we looked at Pediah, the temple servants, and the Tekoites taking their place in the rebuilding effort, remembering how God uses the harsh bondage of this world to show Himself a Redeemer. And we His rescued ones ready to promote His goodness.
Today we see a group of priests each repairing a section of the wall directly across from their own house. Our family is blessed to be in the middle of helping our good friends, two different families, move. One family recently took possession of their new house which is in need of some TLC. Sometimes Tender Loving Care includes demolition, amen?
Sometimes things just need to be broken down so they can be built back up. Other times walls need to come down simply because they’re not needed. Freedom and openness are the goals.
Then some walls we may want to take down but they’re needed. They’re load-bearing, helping to support the weight of the building, keeping it from toppling. Fortunately, the Word only ever points to One able to bear the entire load of this universe. We don’t have to try or pretend to be Him.
But there is a place for us to help each other bear our burdens. There is no way we can be truly loving our neighbor as ourselves if we aren’t willing to help support the load that overwhelms at different points in life. And often that looks like throwing in on rebuilding efforts of a larger scale. We will stand before God and be asked how we obeyed during our time here. May we be faithful seek His face and join with wisdom where He is at work.
Now let’s talk about how each priest – responsible for serving in Temple, interceding for the people, and helping to establish a communal identity among the people – worked directly opposite his own home. This is obviously for practical purposes in the rebuilding effort. There is no way the Temple workers could continue to hold sacrifices and worship each day and work on a section of the wall at the opposite end of the city.
But how about for us? I’d like to suggest if we aren’t focusing on our own home, our own hearts, our rebuilding “out there” will suffer. If you, too, are heartbroken over the gaping wound of racism in our country right now, what kind of work are you doing in your own life? Is there a sense of confusion over how the sin applies to you if you weren’t alive during the beginning? Or can you see your complicity in the present?
What if your eyes have been opened to how you have been part of the problem, but you have bitterness in your heart toward someone for other reasons? Or pride and superiority toward people? Or a sense of entitlement?
Friends, this cannot be. He Himself broke down that wall of hostility on an instrument of torture so we no longer have to torture each other. He took it all. He really did. We can take each other off the hook. We can repent, reconcile. And keep on reconciling.
Believers, we are His Temple now. No walls of hostility needed.