Builders on the Wall
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the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows,
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and the habergeons.... They which builded on the wall, and they that
bare burdens, with those that laded, everyone with one of his hands
wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the
builders, everyone had his sword girded by his side, and so builded.”
Beside Nehemiah stood a trumpeter, and on different parts of the
wall were stationed priests bearing the sacred trumpets. The people
were scattered in their labors, but on the approach of danger at any
point a signal was given for them to repair thither without delay. “So
we labored in the work,” Nehemiah says, “and half of them held the
spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.”
Those who had been living in towns and villages outside Jerusalem
were now required to lodge within the walls, both to guard the work and
to be ready for duty in the morning. This would prevent unnecessary
delay, and would cut off the opportunity which the enemy would
otherwise improve, of attacking the workmen as they went to and
from their homes. Nehemiah and his companions did not shrink from
hardship or trying service. Neither by day nor night, not even during
the short time given to sleep, did they put off their clothing or lay aside
their armor.
The opposition and discouragement that the builders in Nehemiah’s
day met from open enemies and pretended friends is typical of the
experience that those today will have who work for God. Christians
are tried, not only by the anger, contempt, and cruelty of enemies,
but by the indolence, inconsistency, lukewarmness, and treachery of
avowed friends and helpers. Derision and reproach are hurled at them.
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And the same enemy that leads to contempt, at a favorable opportunity
uses more cruel and violent measures.
Satan takes advantage of every unconsecrated element for the ac-
complishment of his purposes. Among those who profess to be the
supporters of God’s cause there are those who unite with His enemies
and thus lay His cause open to the attacks of His bitterest foes. Even
some who desire the work of God to prosper will yet weaken the hands
of His servants by hearing, reporting, and half believing the slanders,
boasts, and menaces of His adversaries. Satan works with marvelous
success through his agents, and all who yield to their influence are
subject to a bewitching power that destroys the wisdom of the wise
and the understanding of the prudent. But, like Nehemiah, God’s