Nehemiah 3:28-32 The technology is different but the situation in Israel is very similar in 440 BC as it is today. The Palestinian citizens are there to see that the Jewish immigrants fail in their attempt to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. 145 years before, the Jews had been carried away in exile to Babylon as punishment for their disobedience to God. Now it was time to come home and rebuild - a new generation, a new time, the same sort of adversaries. I would suppose the feeling among the local citizens was like that toward those today who go into Palestinian territory and establish settlements. The threats and hostility became so bad that the builders would carry a weapon in one hand and build with the other. There would be those who acted as watchmen posted so that the builders could do so in safety. If there was a threat, the watchman would blow a trumpet and others around would come to their aid. It is interesting to note that each family worked on the wall in front of their own house. One had a vested interest in what went on next to where he lived. He was likely to do a better more efficient job there than any place else. The situation has a lot to say to us today as we establish pockets of Christians in basically non-Christian territory. As we "build" we need to work with our weapons at hand, the Word of God, prayer, gentleness, patience, etc. We need to spend time on the "wall" in front of us, get our own lives in order, before we can be of very much help with the other person's wall. In building the wall in Jerusalem, they came to a point where there was so much rubble from the old wall that it got in the way of building the new - it had to be removed. When we see the habits and "stuff' from our old life style getting in the way of our new lives, we also need to begin taking out the trash. Think about it.

Build in Front of Your Own House