Bible Unmolested – During the American Civil War, one of the Baptist church buildings in northeast Tennessee, Mossy Creek, was “irreparably damaged. Troops were quartered near this church at different times during the war. A soldier in the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment, who was at Mossy Creek during February, 1864, recorded the treatment that had been given the church’s facilities by the invading armies.
The people had agreed to build the wall, but now the work had to be done. Nehemiah organizes his workers around the wall of the city and they begin to work. However, they had not gotten far before opposition came. Sanballat and Tobiah mocked them and when that did not work, they planned a surprise attack on the workers. When Nehemiah heard of their plans, he organized the people to fight. But the work did not stop for long. Soon, the people went back to work with weapons ready in case they needed to fight. The wall would be finished.
Haman has been destroyed and the Jews have been delivered. That which was the cause for great sorrow has become an occasion of great gladness. This working of God in things that are thought of as chance must be celebrated. We must remember what kind of a God we have.
The first return is a trip into the fog. They do not know exactly what will greet them. They do not fully know the condition of the land. The journey of hundreds of miles will take them weeks to complete. Yet they go because they have a higher purpose in mind. They go to rebuild God’s holy temple and to reestablish the true worship of God in God’s chosen city of Jerusalem. They go also to replant the land given to their father Abraham.
One of our most precious commodities is time. We struggle with the proper use of time. This psalm begins with the eternity of God, powerfully expresses the brevity of man’s years, and closes with help on how to number our days.
