Favor with Kings by Caleb Anderson

Author:Caleb Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: how to be successful;Mariners church;finding your purpose;what is my purpose in life;how to achieve goals;success factors;Nehemiah Bible study;find your calling
Publisher: David C Cook
Published: 2016-07-27T18:24:52+00:00

18

Stacking Stones

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.” —Robert Collier

“The men of Jericho built the adjoining section.” —Nehemiah 3:2

I recently visited Israel and its majestic city of Jerusalem. It was breathtaking to come through the tunnel and see a big, bold, beautiful city that has existed through an Old Testament, a New Testament, and too many kingdoms and governments to explain. Excavation in and around Jerusalem is ongoing, and archaeologists are uncovering ancient ruins all the time. Year after year, more proofs of biblical stories are confirmed and framed in stone.

When we visited the walls of the Temple Mount, 48 I could see and touch actual stones that were in place at the time of Jesus. That means that the stones Nehemiah and his generation were dealing with were a little farther out (surrounding the small city) and a little farther down, below our feet.

Regarding these stones, I want to make sure you’re not thinking red bricks in your backyard. These stones were as long as a man and as heavy as a small car. The elaborate pulley and people systems necessary to move these objects are staggering. When you see and touch the actual stones, it becomes a little more obvious why five guys with hard hats and coolers of beer didn’t rebuild the structure on a Saturday long before Nehemiah’s arrival. It was a beast of a project.

Jericho

Notice that the verse at the start of this chapter refers to the “men of Jericho.” You’ve likely heard of the city of Jericho. In the Old Testament account of the era when Joshua led the Israelite army, Jericho was a fortress with a circular wall that stood among the clouds as if to say, “Thou shalt not pass.”

One thousand years prior to Nehemiah, God told Joshua and his army to conquer Jericho. At first, it seemed like a joke because the walls of Jericho loomed overhead like a mythical structure. But God was serious. “No, really … go take Jericho.”

God: “March around the city for six days, and on the seventh day march around it seven times. Then blow some horns and shout and you’ll win the battle.” 49

Joshua: “Wait, what?”

But, sure enough, marching, blowing, shouting, and then—kaboom! The walls came tumbling down. The stones of this formidable structure that took unbelievable effort to stack collapsed in an instant, right before the people’s eyes.

Since you and I are still referring to this story over three thousand years later, I trust that it was still very much in the minds of the men of Jericho who lived in Nehemiah’s day and were commissioned to join the project of rebuilding the wall surrounding Jerusalem. I imagine this thought crossed their minds at some point: Uh, remember that story about God bringing down the wall of Jericho because of some horns and yelling? That was cool. And easy. What if we just marched around Jerusalem’s broken-down wall and played some music? Maybe God would build the wall for us, just like he busted the one at Jericho.

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