Rise and Build

Depressed, despised, defeated, apathetic, and broken; can you imagine trying to motivate this team of undesirables? This is the team that Nehemiah had to work with; a team assigned an impossible task—to build a stone wall around an entire city in 52 days! 

Now if you were given this assignment and this rag tag team of unfit masons, what would be your strategy? The first step for Nehemiah was to help the people overcome their victim mentality by taking responsibility for their sin. Next, Nehemiah turns their eyes off of their broken lives and helps them to refocus on the greatness of God. Lastly, Nehemiah communicates and demonstrates that the favor of God is upon them and the work that they have been called to do. (See chapters 1-2.)

It’s one thing to talk about God’s favor and another to experience it. Nehemiah knew that once people started working and experiencing the favor of God for themselves, momentum would become spontaneous. In fact, in Nehemiah chapter 3 we have seven occurrences of spontaneous work that results in this unprecedented accomplishment.  

In chapter 3:11, 19, 20, 21, 24, 27 and 30 the word shay-nee' appears seven times. Shay-nee' means double. In verse 11, this word is first used in connection with one of the workers who had taken it upon himself to do double the work on the building of the wall. In verse 19, again someone does double the work. The third time, in verse 20, we read: 

“After him Baruch the son of Zabbai passionately repaired the another (double) piece of the wall...”

Are you facing a difficult assignment?  Work passionately, do more than is required, and the rest will follow!

If your family hasn’t read The Story of Charles Ogilvie, you will want to place this on your must-read list, especially if you want to encourage the qualities shared in this moment.