Double Duty

Nehemiah, the cup-bearer of King Artaxerxes, approached his Persian master with a burden from God to return to Jerusalem to rebuild its wall.  The king was pleased to give him permission and provide him provisions to accomplish the task which God had laid upon his heart.

Nehemiah and the Jewish people were pleased to begin the work, which God had laid upon their heart and begun the work with great fervor.  But the Gentile inhabitants of the land were not pleased, instead they were alarmed and sent Sanballat to discourage them with ridicule and threats.

Sanballat and Tobiah chided Nehemiah saying, "Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble,,,even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones" (4:2-3).  But Nehemiah and the Israelites were not listening, they continued to build.

The Arabs and the Ammonites became more alarmed and determined to stop them by force.  Word of their plot came to Nehemiah and the Jews but they did not stop building on the wall.  Instead, "Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked" (17-18).

Rather than back down due to the added pressure and increased threat level, Nehemiah and the Jews doubled down, continuing to work on the wall while carrying weapons and posting guards while they worked.  The burden on their hearts from God was stronger than the burden they felt in the heat of the day facing intense opposition with every brick laid upon the wall.

What the people of God faced in the days of Nehemiah is not essentially different from what we must face today.  When we are burdened from God to do a good thing, Satan is bound and determined to make it more difficult in order to get us to surrender.  We too will have to pull double duty, serving God on one hand and resisting the Devil on the other.  As the apostle warned, "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim 3:12).

We are called to the double duty of building the kingdom while defending against Satan's attacks but we need not fear for Jesus promises, "I will never leave you as orphans, I will come to you" (Jn 14:18).  The pressure will be on but the Prince of Peace will be at hand.  Jus' Say'n.