Written by: Sheila Gail Landgraf
There is hardly a story in the Old Testament that does not shadow the story of Jesus Christ. We can see Christ in the stories of all of the ancient people of God; Moses, Abraham, Joshua, Joseph, David, and believe it or not - Nehemiah; that little minor prophet that people mistakenly find so boring.
My Mother always told me; "if you think someone is boring it is because you do not know them very well." So one day I got to know Nehemiah. How surprised I was to find The Face of Christ revealed through his obscure personality. It really hit me one day as I was reading the following scripture passage:
Nehemiah 2: 11-18
11-So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days.
12-Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem, nor was there any animal with me except the one on which I rode.
13-And I went out by night through the Valley Gate to the Serpent Well and The Refuse Gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were burned with fire.
14-Then I went on to The Fountain Gate and to The King's Pool, but there was not room for the animal that was under me to pass.
15-So I went up in the night by the valley and viewed the wall;then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned.
16-And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; I had not yet told the Jews, the Priests, The Nobles,The Officials, or The Others Who Did the Work.
17- Then I said to them: "You see the distress we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach."
18-And I told them of the Hand of My God which had been good upon me and also of the king's words that he had spoken to me. So they said, "Let us rise up and build."
Then they sat their hands to do this good work.
Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king of Persia. He got word that the walls of the city containing the temple where his ancestors had worshipped at Jerusalem were destroyed and in need of restoration. He spoke to the king and obtained permission to leave the king for a while in order to supervise and oversee the repairs to the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah agreed to return to the king once the work was finished.
Jesus Christ - The Greatest Cupbearer of All - had knowledge that the lives of the people of God had been destroyed by the enemy (satan), and He grieved to know that the people of God were in need of a great restoration. He spoke to God The Father (The King of Heaven), and obtained permission for The Incarnation. Changing from God to God in Man, (in comparison to Nehemiah changing from Royal Cupbearer to a common day-laborer), He left the Kingdom of Heaven for awhile to come to earth to oversee the restoration of a nation. He promised God The Father, The King of Heaven, that he would return to The Kingdom once His work on earth was done.
Referencing the scriptures we see in the sequence of events that after a long and tiring journey Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem and felt compelled to stay in Jerusalem for three days and three nights before beginning the restoration of the walls. Again, we glimpse a shadow of Christ spending three days and three nights in the grave before arising to restore the walls of salvation for the people of God.
Nehemiah is quoted many times saying "I will arise and build." Jesus Christ rose from the grave and began the work of building The Kingdom of God. His one desire was to arise and build a nation of people with hearts for God.
The disciples, living at the feet of Jesus, were the first to see His plan of restoration. As they walked through life with Jesus they heard Him pray to God for help and guidance in the restoration of the world. The disciples living and working with Jesus saw the "before" picture of mankind; a picture of brokenness, wreck, ruin, decay and devastation, so similar to Nehemiah's first glimpse of the walls of Jerusalem.
Jesus wanted the disciples to see and understand how broken mankind had become. He spoke of this while He was with them, so that in the day of His resurrection they would remember all that He had taught them and give glory to God and believe on The Name of Jesus.
Moving on through the scripture passage, Nehemiah records something that seems insignificant at first. He says in verse 12 "there were no animals with me, except the one I was riding on." Considering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ makes this sentence much clearer to us. All of a sudden this passage becomes very significant. Of course there were no animals. No animal sacrifice would have been sufficient. Only the sacrifice of a perfect One, Jesus Christ, could restore us to God and recreate the kingdom that God had first created and planned for us from the foundation of the world. There were no animals sufficient for the sacrifice that Jesus provided. He came bringing His own precious life, and He rode into the city on the back of a donkey. In this triumphant entry he rode the animal that signified peace, but the animal only bore him into the city, it could not replace Him as the sacrifice. He rides into His own City as The King of Peace, but only a few faithful men recognized Him as Who He was, much like Nehemiah riding at night with his few good men.
Nehemiah comes on his horse to the Valley Gate. Verse 13 states; "by night Nehemiah went out by the Valley Gate." Many years into the future, beyond the days of Nehemiah, Jesus too goes through a valley gate. He goes through The Valley Of The Shadow of Death, as mentioned in Psalm 23. Nehemiah's horse is symbolic of war, much different from the donkey of peace. Jesus was riding a donkey, He could not ride the horse of war through the Valley Gate. He did not fight against the death that He knew awaited Him. He laid down His life willingly without a fight. So, we hear that "the horse could not pass through." It was not the time for the horse of war. Jesus walked to the cross and to a gruesome death.
The passage in Nehemiah's story mentions the Jackal Well, and the Dung Gate, and in almost the same breath; Nehemiah is pictured "examining the walls" of Jerusalem. One can't help but to see Jesus in this act. We see Him on the cross, examining our sins, taking them upon Himself, letting them become a weight laid upon Him that brings about His death and suffering. The Dung Gate represents the dirt and filth of our sins that were laid upon Him.
Nehemiah looks around in the place where he is standing and observes the walls that are broken and the gates that are destroyed by fire. Jesus on the cross looked around at the ugliness of mankind while He hung there for hours with all of us mocking and laughing and taking no pity on His suffering. He sees the brokenness of our lives. He sees the weak places in our walls. He sees where we have fallen down and been divided. It is so ugly that no one else could have bared to look upon it. He gazes down from the cross with His eyes full of love. He does what He must do while He is here in this moment of history. He comes to us just as we are and looks straight into our ugliness and examines our hearts. He does not see the ugliness. He does not see the brokenness. His eyes are special and full of mercy. He sees like Nehemiah examining the walls, only what God originally intended to be. He sees us as God first designed us. God gives Nehemiah a glimpse of how the walls will look when they are fulfilling their true purpose and design. God gives him hope of the future of the walls of his beloved city returning to their original state of glory and majesty.
When we can get a glimpse of hope from God, anything is possible.
In verse 14 Nehemiah begins to move toward the Fountain Gate and The King's Pool. Here is a new turn of events. Jesus came to a time of turning too. In His ascension, He rose up to Heaven and sent us The One He had promised, The Holy Spirit.
The Fountain Gate of Nehemiah's time represented the refreshment of The Holy Spirit. The water was known for its freshness, its clear, pure qualities. Now Jesus has shown us the living waters of the fountain of heaven, where we can drink freely and be restored to life everlasting, just like the restoration of the walls around Jerusalem in the story of Nehemiah.
Here, Nehemiah mentions that animal he was riding again; "there was not enough room for any mount to get through." At the Fountain Gate there is peace, the Peace of The Lord, and there is no need for the horse of war. It is here that the horse of war must be left outside, because it cannot squeeze through into the heavenly places where war has been defeated. Here at the Fountain Gate, many come seeking the waters. It is a crowded place. People are pushing and crowding to get nearer and nearer to Jesus and to the living Water that He brings. Jesus waits patiently by the Fountain, waiting for each one who comes. He will meet you there, if you just push on through the crowd and find him.
Finally, Nehemiah turns back toward where he started. After a very careful look at every detail of the walls, he turns and reenters the valley through the same Valley Gate. Jesus Christ, having ascended into heaven is sitting at the right hand of The Father now. He is there looking down at the walls of our lives. He is examining us, talking with us, pointing out the things that He wishes us to see and do to those walls that surround His Church, His Bride.
We must speak with him now, this moment, while He is sitting in the place of Peace, because the day is coming when He will leave the place in the Heavens again and He will reenter this earth. He will walk again through the dark valley and through the earth full of forgiven sinners. When He begins to reenter that Valley gate again, there will be times on earth of trials and tribulations like there has never been before, or ever will be again.
In verse 16 Nehemiah says "The officials did not know where I had gone, or what I was doing, because as yet, I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work." Jesus didn't speak to the Pharisees and the religious rulers of His day. He spoke only to his little band of followers, those earthy men who trusted in Him. Even today, as He speaks from Heaven, He doesn't always speak to the rulers and famous religious leaders, but often He speaks to the poor, humble, gentle, loving people of God who are following His lead and listening to His voice in their lowly lives.
When Jesus Christ returns to earth, just as when Nehemiah turned around from following the destruction of the walls, one of the first things Jesus's eyes may see, will be the same picture that Nehemiah saw in those days - Jerusalem lying in ruins. That Holy City that He loved. Jerusalem's gates may still be burned with fire. But Our Lord will turn to His people and say (just as Nehemiah said to his men) "Come - let us rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace."
And "So they began the good work," in the days of Nehemiah - in the days of Christ, in the days of our lives. What a beautiful picture of the face of Nehemiah, the face of Christ, the hope of restoration of a Kingdom and a Nation.
All this is beautiful to think of, and wonderful to look forward to, but how can we apply this story in a practical way to our own lives right now?
Nehemiah put much prayer and thought into this work of God. He only listened to what the Lord had to say, so he only did things the way the Lord wanted them done. He told the people to start right where they were living. They each were instructed to build the walls along the portion of the city that they lived the closest to.
What an inspiration for the church today. We just have to start with our own place in the wall. We live out a witness in our own homes and our own families, and our own neighborhoods. We stand for God in our work places, and our social activities in the community. We simply have to start in the place that God put us, and we can begin to grow out from our own home base.
In Nehemiah's day, the beginning of the building started first in a spot that was deemed the most important place in the wall. It was the wall around the Sheep Gate. This gate represents Jesus, our Good Shepherd. This is the gate mentioned in John 5:2, the gate beside the pool of Bethesda. It is the gate beside the pool with five porches, which could easily stand for five types of ministry. This is the gate where the sheep were washed and brought into the temple for sacrifice. Here we are washed of our sins, just like the sheep in Nehemiah's day. The priest who offered up the scarifies were required to live in this area. They had to live next to The Sheep Gate.
At the time of Nehemiah the High Priest's name was Eliashib. "El" means "God." "Yashib" means "to go back." Reading backwards as the Hebrews do - we can hear a message even in the name of the high priest who worked at this gate. The message says "go back to God" - or REPENT.
So it is recorded by Nehemiah that the wall around the Sheep Gate was built by one whose names meant "repent." This gate is the perfect Old Testament picture of the New Testament sacrifice of The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. This gate shows us the cross.
We are lead to think immediately of the prophet Isaiah's great words about Jesus, "as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth." (Isa. 53:7). At the Sheep Gate of our lives there is a principle of death at work. It is the death of the natural self. It is the way we come to our own cross. We are called to obey Christ, to follow Him and to walk with Him. That means that some of our desires, some of our natural longings must be put to death. That is the principle of the cross. This is a gate that must be kept in repair if we want to grow into a strong Christian.
A gate is an opening. The cross symbolized by this Sheep Gate, is an opening to God. A beginning.
On each side of the Sheep gate the walls lead to two towers, one tower in each direction. The first tower is named "Meah." "Meah" means "Hundred." The second tower is called The Tower of Hananeel - which means - "God is gracious and merciful." "Hanan" means "gracious and merciful." "El" means "God." Reading backwards we have "God is gracious and merciful."
Reading the gate and the wall by the meaning of the names of the places in the wall we come to see an Old Testament message with a New Testament meaning: "The walls of Salvation built by one named "repentance" stands between two tall towers that say "God is gracious and merciful to hundreds."
In the Old Testament, in the story of Nehemiah, there is a gate of sacrifice in the middle of a wall of salvation called The Sheep gate that opens the way to God for mankind. This beautiful picture that God has painted for those with eyes to see, just like a thousand other Old Testament pictures of Christ, brings us hope. It is a reason to hold on to our belief in God and to cling to our faith in all circumstances, even when we appear to be as broken as Nehemiah's walls.
The people of Nehemiah's day were in transition. They probably thought the great days of God with their nation had passed, and that all of God's great deeds had been done. They had lost any sense of mission, any sense of calling, any sense of challenge. As a result, they almost missed their chance to see God act powerfully among them. They almost missed the chance to experience His reclaiming them as His beloved people all over again. Isn't that much as our world is today? Where are the Nehemiahs today?
Thank God for Nehemiah pointing the way to Christ, and thank God if you can find a modern Nehemiah hiding in the culture we live in today. In an amazing period of just 52 days - under constant threat of attack - the walls of Jerusalem were raised.
It seems to be the way of our people today to constantly groan. They groan and morn, and sit and wait for things to change. Not the case with Nehemiah. Nehemiah was willing to DO something. He makes the journey to Jerusalem himself, after convincing the king that he should be allowed to go. He brings with him leadership. The walls were torn down and needed rebuilding. There were no gates of protection. The people themselves needed to be rebuilt. The walls became the metaphor for the broken people. Nehemiah was not just mending a wall - he was mending a nation.
With Nehemiah's Godly leadership, the people of God once again became great, because they were willing to work together to accomplish a common goal. Everyone pitched in to do the work. Everyone but those who opposed the work that God had lead Nehemiah to do, that is. There were those who did everything they could to stop the rebuilding of the walls and gates of the city. These Godly people handled much adversity and opposition to obtain the restoration of their city.
Because of Nehemiah's Godly leadership and the people's spirit of unity, a broken, disorganized, discouraged bunch of individuals who were alienated from God and from one another transitioned into a strong, well-organized committed and proud community. They were rededicated to God, recommitted to each other, and respected by their enemies.
God's people don't change much through time. They still face similar dilemmas and they still ask the same hard questions. They consistently have their periods of doubt and faith. But true men and women of God keep looking toward a river whose streams shall make glad the City of God. Like the few good men in the days of Nehemiah, they look to the future with the hope of a restored Kingdom, where God is in the midst, and they shall not be moved.
