Deliver us from Broken Walls and Burned Gates

I’ve really been kind of drawn to the Old Testament book of Nehemiah lately. In my Bible there is a subtitle at the top of chapter 1 that reads, "Nehemiah Prays for His People." This particular chapter talks about how Israel had been captured by her enemies, but that some Jews had survived. Nehemiah was talking with a few of his fellow countrymen, asking how those survivors were doing. When he heard that they were in "great distress" and that in Israel’s main city of Jerusalem, the walls were broken down and her gates were burned with fire, Nehemiah "wept and mourned for many days." He also began to fast and pray.

Walls around a city in that day were one of a city’s main defenses against attacks. So for Jerusalem to be without walls (or a stronghold) basically meant that it was disarmed and unable to defend itself. It had been defeated.

The gates not only allowed individual people to come and go freely, but they were also related to the city’s commerce। So for it’s gates to be burned with fire basically meant that the economy was shot. Or to borrow a few of Obama’s words from a few weeks ago, "the nation is broke."

Jerusalem was (and is) Israel’s capital—it was the place where headlines were typically made—kind of like Washington D.C. One might wonder how Israel ended up becoming disarmed, defenseless and broke. How is it that a nation on whom God had poured out such plentiful and prosperous blessings fell, seemingly suddenly, into the treacherous hands of her enemies? What happened to her allies and why did they refuse to stand with her?

I have to say that the questions are disturbing. While a nation’s primary defense today is no longer a physical wall or stronghold, the "mettle girders" of what makes a nation great and blessed of God lie in "walls" that are built with "material" that acknowledges and honors God, and a nation who chooses to apply His directives to their everyday living—from Washington D.C. all the way down to the smallest village. If we will choose to humble ourselves in that way, then we’ll eventually be delivered from the broken walls of morality and burned gates of commerce. Now such restoration isn’t going to happen overnight. And please also notice that the redeemed morality comes before the restored commerce—because when a man’s ways please the Lord, the Lord will make even his enemies to be at peace with him (Proverbs 16:7).

The book of Nehemiah goes on to detail how God poured out His blessings as the nation consistently choose to acknowledge and honor God with their choices and actions. He didn’t want them to have broken walls of morality and burned gates of commerce or He wouldn’t have put it on Nehemiah’s heart to fast and pray. You see, God made Nehemiah a godly leader so that he could set the example for the rest of the nation. As God dealt with their leader at the time, God dealt with the nation. Leaders often function as God’s visual aides—sometimes for how it should be done, and sometimes for how it shouldn’t be done. God desires to bless His people. But just like any good (but sometimes imperfect) parent isn’t going to "bless" a child who makes immoral choices and lacks character, neither will the good and perfect God of the universe bless such people. But when such people change their hearts and cry out to Him for deliverance from broken walls and burned gates, He is eager to bring hope and restoration.