Under Nehemiah’s leadership, the walls of the city of Jerusalem were rebuild in only 52 days.
That seems quick and it sounds like it would have been easy, but it was not. Nehemiah faced severe opposition, in multiple ways, that threatened progress and could have easily derailed the project.
This opposition took various forms, from ridicule to political, bad advice to prophetic subterfuge, and well-sounding distractions to a strategy of physical attack.
In response to the plan to attack and kill the workers, Nehemiah prayed first and then took tangible action to protect themselves.
Too often, when faced with adversity, we take action first and then pray as an afterthought, if at all.
That is not what wise leadership does — and its not what we should do. We need to seek God first — and then take reasonable precautions.
[See Nehemiah 4:9.]
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
