“Nehemiah, build that wall!”

“Nehemiah, build that wall….” This song from my childhood has been playing in my head all week. That’s because I started off the week helping a teenager with her Christian Studies homework on the book of Nehemiah. I hope it was helpful for her. I know that God spoke to me through it.

 

I have also been taking a refresher class at the Melbourne School of Theology on how to do good research this week. It’s been helpful and has definitely built my confidence as I embark on a b-i-g project (well, big for me) focused on the Muya people in Asia. It is right to feel ill-equipped and overwhelmed. Seeking the extra training was appropriate. At the same time, it would be wrong to be crippled by that sense of inadequacy. That’s a topic I blogged about a couple of weeks ago.

 

Gems gleaned from thinking about the story of Nehemiah intersected with jewels of wisdom received from the research methods class. In particular, we started and ended the course by thinking about research as a spiritual discipline. It has been a good way to ‘set the scene’ for the year ahead.

 

Nehemiah’s peer on the Indian sub-continent

Although I learned about Nehemiah as a child, hence having that catchy song in my head still today, it was only this week that I realized that Nehemiah lived about the same time as Siddharta Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. Nehemiah worked in service for the Babylonian king in the city of Susa, situated in what is modern-day Iran, though the project for which he is remembered, of course, was leading the wall-building project of Jerusalem in Israel. Siddharta Gautama spent his life further east, in the area through which the border between Nepal and India now runs.

 

Both men were greatly distressed by the state of affairs in their homelands. Nehemiah looked to God for divine intervention and later led many of his fellow Jews in bringing about God’s will for them – the reestablishment of their nation, symbolized by a city wall around Jerusalem. Siddharta Gautama didn’t know the Creator God. He responded to the suffering he saw about him by meditating and seeking ‘truth’. The insights he gained have been passed from generation to generation in various forms ever since. That was the beginning of Buddhism.

 

The contrast between Nehemiah and Gautama reflects what I see as the importance of looking to God rather than looking within ourselves. As you probably know, I’m very interested in Christian meditation. It involves a degree of introspection, to be sure, but primarily Christians should be looking to God in our times of focused silence.

 

As I meditated on God as he is revealed in the book of Nehemiah, three things stood out to me. I hope and expect to apply these to my work and life in 2018.

 

Look for what God is doing and participate in his work

The Jews’ return to their homeland from exile after they had repented and turned back to God had been prophesied long before the events recorded in the book of Nehemiah occurred. Rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem and establishing the people back in their homeland was primarily God’s work. Nehemiah did, however, have a significant role in bringing about what God had in mind.

 

My research project this year will focus on the Muya people in Asia (God willing). There are a number of cross-cultural workers focused on this group right now. Several people I know believe that this is God’s time for the Muya to come to know him. I have sensed a ‘call’ to focus on them for over five years but it is only this year that I am finally in a position to do more than promote prayer for them.  I am excited to think that I can make a contribution to what God is doing right now. My role will hopefully involve academic research, making regular visits to the area and mobilizing people like you to pray for them. The privilege of participating in God’s work motivates me to do my very best.

 

Bathe the work in prayer

Nehemiah integrated prayer into everything he did. For four months before he had the opportunity to raise the possibility of his leading the rebuilding project with the king of the empire, he fasted and prayed. Confession on behalf of his people was a major part of his prayers. He also reminded God … and himself, as he prayed … of God’s attributes and promises. It seems that prayer was a regular part of his day. Several of the prayers he offered are recorded in Scripture.

 

As I finally approach undertaking a research project on the Muya people, it is my intention that prayer will be an integral part of my work. This will include confession, a focus on God’s attributes and promises, frequent requests for help to focus and good connections with key Muya people, and for creativity in writing up what I learn in academic and other formats.

 

Work hard – very hard

Nehemiah worked very, very hard. The team he led completed the building project in just 52 days despite setbacks. He later returned to Jerusalem to deal with other problems which emerged within the community. He faced plenty of discouragement, fear and disappointments. Through it all, he stayed focused, dealing with each incident as it arose.

 

I don’t know what 2018 will bring. I hope for happiness, harmony and good health, but that isn’t assured. Regardless of what is ahead, is my intention to work hard – very hard. Reaching the Muya is God’s work but that doesn’t mean that my role in it will be easy.

 

 

“Nehemiah, build that wall!” I sang this song often as a child and have sung it again plenty this past week, some forty years after first learning it.  The same God who listened to Nehemiah’s prayers and enabled Nehemiah to participate in his work almost 2500 years ago still listens to prayers today.  May we achieve what God has in store for us this year, whether it be building a physical wall, undertaking a thorough research project on a particular people group, or something else entirely.