Working with Difficulties

Notes

1. Nehemiah did not consider his commission as governor of Jerusalem as his greatest authority for building. When questioned by the Samaritans, he frankly told them that he trusted in a higher power than earthly kings for help to carry forward the work.

2. Some built "over against" their own houses. In this is a lesson for those who can not leave their homes to labor in the Lord's work. There is always something to do by their own homes.

3. There was but one class mentioned that did not engage in the work of rebuilding. This was the Nobles of the Tekoites. All others including the priests, rulers, goldsmiths, apothecaries, and merchants, entered heartily into the work of building the wall. This was the first thing to be done, and it was that which many years before their enemies had accused them of undertaking. Ezra 4:12, 13. Under Nehemiah the work was accomplished.

4. Jerusalem had been laid in ruins, because "they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age; He gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil three score and ten years." 2 Chron. 36:16-21.

The Lord through the prophet Daniel had foretold that "the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times." Dan. 9:25. Some of the experiences passed through in fulfilment of this prophecy are studied in these lessons.

Now, as in the days of Nehemiah, the true people of the Lord are entrusted with a special and an important work. A real city is not to be rebuilt and a real wall restored, but a spiritual restoration is to be accomplished. The foundation of many generations is to be raised up, and the breach made by apostasy in the law of Jehovah is to be restored. The rubbish of error must be removed, and the truths of God's word restored to the people. The Sabbath of the Lord, long hidden beneath the traditions of men, is to be restored to its proper place in the Decalogue. In "troublous times" the law of God is to be reared up to stand as a wall of defense for the people of God in the last days. No work ever accomplished called for greater earnestness, zeal, and consecration than this.