Devotional Nehemiah 3: Serving as a Family Study on Nehemiah 3: discover how teamwork, the example of leaders, and the unity of families made it possible to rebuild the walls in 52 days. Topics: Devotional, Old Testament.

Devotional Nehemiah 3: Serving as a Family

Continuing through the book of Nehemiah and recap of the previous chapter (Chapter 2), I explained that he had finally spoken with King Artaxerxes and obtained his permission to help the people rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. We also discussed the spiritual vision he received and how it helps in 3 key ways:

1. A spiritual vision confirms the calling.
2. A spiritual vision encourages others.
3. A spiritual vision stops persecutors.

That chapter concluded with Nehemiah convincing the people of Israel to believe in rebuilding the city and the temple—assuring them it would be even better than before. He also managed to stop the detractors who wanted to disrupt the work by demonstrating that the success of the project was guaranteed by God, and that those detractors would not be able to hinder the work nor have any memorial in Jerusalem.

Last Sunday, the message came from Chapter 3. In this chapter, we find the names of all the families who helped rebuild the city wall and whose names were recorded in its memorial. Within this chapter, we can observe these 3 main points:

1. Families are called to serve, without exception. In this chapter, we see that no family was exempt from participating. It was not out of obligation, but by their own willingness—from the most noble families, such as Eliashib the high priest rebuilding the Sheep Gate, to the merchants. We see that the leaders set the example and were the first to begin rebuilding, thereby inspiring all the other families to follow suit and voluntarily do their part as well.
2. Families are called to serve where they live. We see this clearly in this chapter. To build the perimeter wall encircling the entire city, each family took responsibility for constructing the section of the wall near their own dwelling. And so, sequentially, every other family did the same.
3. Families are called to serve in harmony and unity. It was necessary for all families to be on the same page to successfully rebuild the wall. If any family failed to do their job, the family in the adjacent section could not build their part of the wall because the previous portion remained incomplete. In other words, all families trusted one another, knowing that everyone else would do their part and that they only had to account for their own section. Every family committed themselves and worked whenever they could without making excuses. Because of this unity and dedication, a wall that was expected to take at least a few years to rebuild was completed in just 52 days.