The attitude of the builders

[Nehemiah 4:15-23]

Here is the story of a Sufi teaching: A man wanted to get married. He wandered all over the world to meet the most perfect woman, but he could not find the perfect woman. In the end, her friend asked him who just came back after wasting her life. ‘Yes, isn’t there a single woman in the world who is so perfect?’ The 70-year-old bachelor replies. ‘No, there was one. She miraculously found the perfect woman.’ asked the startled friend again. ‘So how did it go?’ the bachelor replied with a gloomy face. ‘Whatever she is, she is looking for the perfect man. So, in the end, she was blown away’ (Jeong-ho Kim). Maybe that's why there are old bachelor and old virgins, we don't know. What is the essence of Sufi teachings here? There is no perfect church in this world. But what's the problem? Like a 70-year-old bachelor, we are looking for the perfect church. If we say that the community of imperfect beings is the church, isn't it a contradiction if we want to find the perfect church? The question I want to throw out here is what kind of attitude of mind am I serving the church with? What kind of attitude are you and I taking part in rebuilding the church?

I would like to receive a valuable lesson from the attitude of Nehemiah, the builder, and the people of Judah, with the title “The attitude of the builders” centered on the words of Nehemiah 4:15-23.

First, we must be driven by our goals.

Look at Nehemiah 4:15 – “When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.” Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, the enemies who opposed the building of Jerusalem, gathered in anger and decided, “They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it” (v. 8), but the plan failed. There are 2 reasons for this:

The surprise attack failed because the people of Judah learned the will of the enemies first and prepared a defensive posture.

The will of the enemies was to stop the work of rebuilding the city of Jerusalem by attacking and slaughtering the people of Judah “before they knew it or see us” (v. 11). But the people of Judah who lived near the enemies came to Nehemiah and the people of Judah and told them several times in advance that the enemies who were besieging Jerusalem would attack (v. 14).

Because God destroyed the counsels of the adversaries, their plans failed.

A good example is when Absalom heard the advice of Ahithophel and David's friend Hushai the Archite (2 Sam. 16:16) in killing David, God frustrated the good advice of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom (2 Sam. 17:14). If we look at Nehemiah 4:15, the Bible says that God had frustrated the plot of the Judah's enemies. At that time, Nehemiah and the people of Judah returned to the city and worked individually. In other words, Nehemiah and the people of Judah prepared for the attack of their enemies “behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places” (v. 13) and then returned to the wall and continued their goal of rebuilding the city of Jerusalem.

The principle we learn about the attitude of a builder here is work by being guided by the goal. It is said that General Mahon, a U.S. Navy admiral during the Revolutionary War, emphasized the following spirits when teaching his subordinate officers: ‘Gentlemen, whenever you set out to accomplish something, start by deciding on the final goal first. Once you have decided, never forget it’ (White). Nehemiah had a goal. It was none other than the construction of the walls of Jerusalem. If Nehemiah had chosen to strike first, he would have needed all the troops. And all work would have been stagnant. If he had decided to suspend construction of the walls until the hostility of his enemies had subsided, the inevitable redeployment of the workforce would have made resumption of construction difficult. However, as we have already seen, the labor force remained active and work resumed at the earliest possible time. Nehemiah's ultimate goal was to build the wall, and his policy was determined by his goal. That's why the plan to keep working with a defensive posture in place came out. His stance on offense was defensive and his stance on work was aggressive (White).

Eighteenth-century evangelist George Whitefield, more than any other leader of the eighteenth century, was at the center of the great spiritual awakening in England and North America, and few Christians faced such fierce and relentless opposition. It is said that it met with early opposition from clergy who did not live a God-centered life, and most Anglican churches ultimately turned their backs on it. At that time, Whitefield adhered to three principles: (1) To never retaliate against one's accuser, (2) Not to get involved in a controversial controversy as far as possible, and (3) To never stop proclaiming the whole truth of the gospel. He had the ultimate goal, the full and fearless proclamation of the gospel. He never lost sight of his goal despite all the slander and accusations that were directed at him (White). What is our church's goal? Isn't it to build (rebuild) the church, which is the body of the Lord? Driven by this goal, we must not stop this great work of rebuilding the church. We must go forward!

Second, we must work with a combative attitude.

Look at Nehemiah 4:16 – “From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah.” “From that day on”, that is, after receiving the information that the enemies were united to attack Jerusalem by force, Nehemiah and the people of Judah did not just rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, but prepared themselves for their attack. In other words, while building the walls of Israel, they worked with a war readiness (Park). Half of his own men continued to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, while the other half took up arms and stood guard. And the builders and those who were undertaking repairs to the walls of Jerusalem (i.e., those who removed the stones and cut the materials needed to build the walls) each worked with one hand and held a weapon in the other (v. 17). Because builders need both hands when working, they built the walls of Jerusalem with swords at their sides (v. 18). And the trumpeter stood by Nehemiah. The reason was because the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem was great, and because the walls were wide, they wanted to fight in unity by blowing the trumpet when enemies attacked from either side, helping the dangerous side.

I remember what I learned when I was at Westminster Theological Seminary. I am reminded of what the theologian Herman Bavinck said, ‘The church on earth is a militant church, and the church in heaven is a victorious church.’ I agree. The church must be militant. The reason is that the church is fighting a spiritual war. We must rebuild the church, the body of the Lord, holding the Bible, the sword of the Holy Spirit, in one hand and prayer in the other. What is important at this time? It is the assurance of victory. Look at Nehemiah 4:20 – “Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!” For Nehemiah, this had no choice but to be a very certain truth. The reason is because he has already experienced God's gracious hand many times. The hand of God destroyed the counsel of their adversaries (v. 15). Nehemiah had assurance of the victory of the war, and we can think of four grounds for that assurance: (1) The first ground for assurance is that God will always help the side of justice’, (2) The second ground for assurance is that the Jerusalem restoration movement was God's own work, (3) The third ground assurance is that all wars for the glory of God (wars to fulfill God's Word) in Israel's history were all victorious. thing, (4) The fourth and last ground for assurance is that the fact that God is always with us (Park).

Do you remember what David said as he went to fight Goliath? “… for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands” (1 Sam. 17:47). Since the battle belongs to the Lord (2 Chron. 20:15), we must be faithful in rebuilding the church, the body of the Lord, with a combative attitude with the assurance of victory.

Third and last, we must work with tension.

In the book ‘Ingenious Ideas Awakening the World’ (co-authored by Sira P. White and G. Patton Wright), the subjects who create ideas and create innovation are called ‘H3 leaders’. In other words, it means a person who is Hot, Hip, and Happening. In the book, the authors say that an H3 leader is the “someone” who creates ideas for innovation, and that creative talent is the most necessary and important resource when pursuing innovation. However, H3 leaders are not only creative, but also have idea techniques, which are new ideas for materializing ideas. What is the idea technique specifically? There are five things the authors have arranged, of which the third seems to apply to Nehemiah and the people of Judah: ‘The third is the creation of a state of creative tension. Creative people know that to achieve something new, friction and tension are necessary, and confrontation is inevitable. In other words, you need to use tension where there is tension, and create tension where there is no tension. … In other words, H3 leaders attract creative sparks by securing diverse people. Greater ideas emerge from the dissonance created by confrontation and contradiction. This is because the more diverse the viewpoints and experiences, the better the results. Innovation requires the convergence of at least two knowledge systems. When different ideas come together in a unique way, a new idea emerges’ (Internet).

Now Nehemiah and the people of Judah are in a state of tension. They were nervous because of the enemy's armed attack plan, a crisis that came while rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. How do we know? We can tell they were tense in three ways:

Half of the Jewish people held their spears from the first light of dawn until the stars came out.

Look at Nehemiah 4:21 – “So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out.” In other words, they worked while holding a spear or wearing it around their waists from the time the sun rose in the morning until the stars were visible at night.

Nehemiah asked the people not to return to their homes even after they finished rebuilding the city during the day, but to stay inside the city to continue defending (Park).

Look at Nehemiah 4:22 – “At that time I also said to the people, ‘Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and workmen by day.’” They didn't even go back home in tension. Venturing out of Jerusalem at night would have been dangerous. Every night some workers had to stand watch. The reason for this is because they knew that it was easy to be attacked at night.

Nehemiah and the people of Judah did not take off their clothes except for washing, and they carried weapons even when they went to draw water.

This tells us how tense they were even in their daily lives. Look at Nehemiah 4:23 – “Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.” Even though they had to wash dirty clothes after work, if they worked without time to wash their clothes, they would stand guard. And even when they went to fetch water, they always took their weapons with them. We can see Nehemiah's influential leadership here. In the midst of a crisis, he also set an example with a sense of urgency (v. 23). He joined in the trouble without undressing with his own brothers and servants and the watchmen who followed him. This example encouraged the Jews who followed him to be more faithful and to endure the work of rebuilding the city of Jerusalem even in the midst of a crisis. In a word, Nehemiah formed a consensus with the people of Judah who followed him. In other words, he was loyal to rebuilding the city of Jerusalem with tension like the people of Judah. In the words of James Packer: 'When people admit that their leader is the closest person to them, they also admit that they are the same person' (Packer).

The poet of faith, Orfellow, in his ‘Hymn to Life,’ exhorts us not to lose our dreams and courage: “… In life’s vast battlefield/ In life’s campground/ Let us not be a herd of silent driven cattle/ Let's be the leading heroes of this struggle/ Let's not be fooled by the fact that the future will be sweet/ Let's turn the past into the past/ Let's act, let's act for the living present/ Have the courage in our hearts/ Know that God is above the sky. Have faith ….” Look at the Puritans who traveled to the New World on the Mayflower with dreams and pioneering spirit. The pilgrims who arrived in the New World on the Mayflower faced hard labor, exhaustion, and malnutrition that year. Many people died because of the pain, and the funeral was also held at night, fearing that the pilgrims might be attacked by the natives by exposing the situation that the number of pilgrims was decreasing. After the winter, their numbers were cut in half. Surrounded by an unexplored primeval forest in front and an open sea behind them, the sadness and unpredictable anxiety of losing loved ones often come to them. And the intimidation of pioneering a new continent was enough to make them despair. The painful winter of that year has passed and spring has come. As the Mayflower returned to her homeland, the captain kindly invited: ‘Those who want to go back to their home country should not hesitate to go back.’ But the ship had to leave empty. It was because not one of the pilgrims went back in the boat. They had nothing, but only one thing. It was because they only had dreams and hopes. Although the wings of reality are heavy, a life like a pilgrim who used those wings to move toward the world of hope was a truly beautiful life (Dae-seong Jung).