The fifth time—same messenger, same message—Sanballat sent an unsealed letter with this message: “The word is out among the nations—and Geshem says it’s true— that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. That’s why you are rebuilding the wall. The word is that you want to be king and that you have appointed prophets to announce in Jerusalem, ‘There’s a king in Judah!’ The king is going to be told all this—don’t you think we should sit down and have a talk?” I sent him back this: “There’s nothing to what you’re saying. You’ve made it all up.” Then I met secretly with Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, at his house. He said: Let’s meet at the house of God, inside The Temple; Let’s find safety behind locked doors because they’re coming to kill you, Yes, coming by night to kill you. I said, “Why would a man like me run for cover? And why would a man like me use The Temple as a hideout? I won’t do it.” Nehemiah 6: 5-8, 10, 11, MSG.
Gracious God, when the enemy come after as as a flood, please lift up Your standard (Isaiah 59: 19). This is our prayer in the blessed name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Repairers of Broken Walls” usually meet with a lot of opposition. I believe that one of the reasons is that people tend to resist change. We are comfortable treading in the path of the least resistance. We do not like the tension produced by opposition. If things have been done a certain way for all these years, why change them? While that may, or not, be a valid question, I believe that the real issue at stake is: has the results over the years, proven to be good for those who are affected by the way things are being done?
Yesterday we looked at rule number one. Today we will discuss Rule number Two: Do not let down the standards! Now there are times when the spirit of the standards, and the letter of the standards are not rightfully aligned. I believe that the reason for this is because the message is from God, but the choice of words, the vocabulary, is that of human beings. I pray that you will not become weary of me constantly referring you back to the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus’ Words: “You have heard that it was said . . . But I tell you . . .” I feel constrained to do this. After all, He is our example, is He not? (1 John 2: 6). And He is also the Author of the message, transmitted through the Holy Spirit. “Holy men of God spoke [wrote] as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1: 21).
In the discussion of rule number two there are two main premises I would like us to look at. The first is: “Repairers of Broken Walls” ought to be transparent. Let me hasten to tell you that this has nothing to do with human perfection. If transparency were the equivalent of human perfection, I believe that the heavenly host would have to do the work of repair themselves! Unfortunately, we have all inherited the “imperfect DNA,” and therefore, we are all imperfect. Transparency, as used here is simply, “What you see is who I am.” This is who I am behind closed doors. This is who I am in the shadows as well as in the sunlight! I believe too much effort is put forward by Christians to impress other human beings. Our desire to grow in grace, and to become more like Jesus, should be inspired by our love for the Savior. We know that we were originally created in His image and likeness, and we know that He is constantly encouraging us to once again, become like Him. Therefore, because of our love for Him, we strive for transparency, which I will equate to purity of life.
Transparency reduces stress. We do not have to live our lives looking behind our backs. We do not have to be afraid if our immediate family members are in the congregation when we give a testimony, and in the case of ministers of the gospel, when we preach a sermon. They know that what we are saying is what we live before them. They know that we are open with our imperfections, and that we are not happy with them, nor seek to make excuses for them. They know that we stand to be corrected, because God is still working on us. When we are transparent, we can say, as did Nehemiah, with full confidence: “There’s nothing to what you’re saying. You’ve made it all up.”
Tomorrow we will discuss the second premise of rule number two: “Repairers of Boken Walls” ought to be people of integrity.