Building With a Sword in One Hand

Do you know what God's people wanted, more than almost anything? They wanted to go home.

For a long, long time their city had been broken. The wall that wrapped around Jerusalem to keep it safe was a heap of burned stones. And a city with no wall is like a house with no walls. Anyone could walk right in. So God put a longing in the heart of a man named Nehemiah. Rebuild it. Make my city whole again.

And the people came. They were not soldiers or kings, just ordinary people with ordinary hands. They picked up the stones. They mixed the heavy mud. Up went the wall, one stone at a time, slow and good.

But not everyone was glad.

There were men nearby who did not want the wall to rise. When they saw the people building, they laughed. Oh, how they laughed. "Look at them," they sneered. "If even a little fox climbed up on that wall, it would all come tumbling down!"

It is a hard thing, being laughed at while you are trying to do something good. It makes your face go hot. It makes your hands want to stop.

And the laughing got meaner. The men said, "We will come in the night. We will hurt them. We will make them quit."

The people were afraid. Of course they were.

But Nehemiah knew what to do when he was afraid. Long before, in the king's shining palace, he had whispered a quick prayer to God before he dared to speak. Now he told the people: Do not look at the laughing men. Look at the great and mighty God who loves you. He has not forgotten you. He has not gone away.

And then they did the bravest thing. They kept building.

But now in a new way. Every builder worked with one hand and held a sword in the other. They laid the stones with a weapon at their side. They would not stop and they would not run. They would build, and they would be ready, both at the very same time.

The laughing men tried again. They sent letters. They told lies. "Come down and talk to us," they said, but their hearts only wanted to harm. And Nehemiah sent back the same answer every time. "I am doing a great work. I cannot come down."

And the wall went up. Stone by stone, day by day, all the way around. Until it was whole. Until the city was safe. And the enemies stopped their laughing, for anyone could see that God had been with his people from the very first stone.

Hold on to that picture. Ordinary people, building something good, under the laughing, never letting go.

Because God was building something far bigger than a wall. And one day Jesus came to carry on the work. He is making a family. He is gathering his people home. There are still those who laugh and say it cannot be done, but the building goes up anyway, stone by stone and heart by heart. It has already begun, right here, even in you.

So there is still building to do, and still some laughing to outlast. Keep a stone in one hand and your courage in the other. The Builder himself works right beside you, and he never puts down his tools.