Part 4 of 6 of the theme 'Lessons from Nehemiah‘ by Gijs van den Brink
Last time we saw how Nehemiah sought help from the king and from the people. Both requests were not without problems. But now that the people in Judah have agreed to start building the wall with him, we enter the third stage of building a community: organizing the work. We read about this in Neh.3:2-8.
| Next to him worked the men of Jericho, and next to them Zakkur, the son of Imri. ... The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the sons of Senaä ... Next to them Meremot, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkos, carried out the repair work, and next to it Mesullam, the son of Berechiah, the son of Mesezabel, and a little further on Sadok, the son of Baalna. Next door again, the inhabitants of Tekoa were working, but the considerable people of that city would not let their lord impose work on them. ... Next to them, Melatja from Gibeon and Jadon from Meronot worked with the men from Gibeon and Mispa, where the residence of the governor of the province of Trans-Euphrates was. Again further on, Jerusalem was rebuilt up to the Broad Wall by the goldsmith Uzziel, the son of Charhaja, and by Chananja, an ointment maker. |
It is striking that in chapter 3 we find an account of actual activities, done by all believers together. All emphasis is on the work of all believers and not on how Nehemiah organizes any of it. The focus is not on Nehemiah, but on the efforts of all present, that is, with one exception: the substantial ones fail (vs. 5)! Those who consider themselves important usually see themselves as an exception. They do not like serving; they want to be served!
We see here some important organizational principles for building a community.
- Everyone cooperates.
- The workers are divided into small groups. I count 38 groups of workers in this chapter. We should not think of those mentioned here as individuals, but as heads of a family. This is evident even in those places where brothers and sons are explicitly mentioned.
- As much as possible, the groups consisted of people with the same interest or profession: anointers (vs.8), levites (vs.17) or priests (vs.22,28), among others.
- Groups consisted of people who knew each other. For example, family (vs.3,18) or people from the same town (vs.2,7).
- If possible, one works on the wall in the neighborhood where one lives (vs.10,23,28,29,30).
All are important principles for any pastor or missionary worker working to build or plant a church community. Without these principles, the congregation remains a collection of people without relationship. Then it is like the residents of an apartment building. But a congregation is not an apartment building, but a family. Living, working and believing together must become a unit. This is how God intended it to be.
Next time on phase 4:
Next time:
Part 5 of the series 'Lessons from Nehemiah' is entitled 'innovation evokes resistance.‘
See also:
Part 3 of the series 'Lessons from Nehemiah' ‘Stage 2: Making yourself dependent and asking others to help'
Author: Gijs van den Brink
From: Study Bible Magazine
This is part 4 of 6 of the series "Lessons from Nehemiah” Some of which we will be posting online in the near future. We hope this will help you understand the Bible better!
