Nehemiah 4:16-18

I've spent my summer in a study of the book of Nehemiah. Even though I've long since passed these verses. I've found myself continuing to come back to them. At first, I really didn't know why I kept coming back to these verses. They didn't really seem to be ones that had an application to my life - at least not at first glance. But as I thought about them, God began to speak something to me through them.

"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 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon with the other, and each of he builders wore his sword at his side as he worked." (Nehemiah 4:16-18)

On the surface, not the usual type of verses I get something really practical out of. But as I listened for God to show me what He had for me in these verses, he began to speak something that really was more practical than I thought these verses could be.

These verses are about the very practical reality of the Israelites rebuilding the wall under Nehemiah's leadership and how they responded to opposition they faced. The opposition threatened to completely destroy their progress on what they were doing. But they responded by making plans for how they would face the opposition and still keep doing the work they were to do.

The same thing can be true in our lives. And it seems to happen often. We are going about doing what God has called us to do and things are going well until Satan attacks. When those attacks come things change. We can't go about things the same way we always have. We learn to go about what God has called us to do while at the same time being ready to defend ourselves from Satan's attacks. Like the Israelites did things differently "from that day on" we do the same thing.