The Sun Rises Over Jerusalem

Jerusalem was destroyed in judgment, but after judgment comes restoration.

The City

The sun rises over Jerusalem. This is not the great city of David as it was during the height of the empire, nor is it the urban center that Jesus will find some centuries from now when he enters the city to clean its temple, prophecy its destruction, defeat its oppressors, and establish the kingdom of heaven.

This is the Jerusalem birthed in fire created by the Chaldeans, a foreign enemy who “killed [Israel’s] young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged” (2 Chr. 36:17).

This is the wreckage of the Jerusalem that had mocked “the messengers of God, despising his words and [scoffed] at the prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people” (vs. 16). Despite all his forbearance, God finally brought the judgment against them he had promised if they refused his discipline and despised his words.

The sun rises over Jerusalem to reveal a city with broken walls, a city destroyed in wrath. The visual representation of God’s chosen people—the king’s city—is gone.

The Temple

The sun rises over the temple. It too was destroyed when God used the Chaldeans to judge his people. The temple should be a blasted ruin.

Except it isn’t.

The dwelling place of God on earth should just look like a mound of rubble.

Except it doesn’t.

The temple stands.

This is not Solomon’s glorious temple. That temple was destroyed as part of the judgement, and God’s people were dragged away into slavery in Babylon.

God prescribed a rest for his land. Every seventh day, his people were told to rest, and every seventh year, they were to grant the land a rest, but they never did; they neglected the Sabbath and abused the gift of land that God had given them. God granted the land rest by removing the abuser.

The Sabbath

God is a great restorer. In the story of Samson, after he was utterly ruined, enslaved, and shorn, there is an unexpected turn at the last minute when all seems lost forever:

The hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

Judges 16:22

The same thing happens in Jerusalem. The temple is burned, the city walls are broken down, the sacred vessels are taken away, and there is no remedy. But here, also, is an unexpected turn:

All the years that it lay desolate, it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

2 Chronicles 36:21

Just as God’s spirit returned to Samson when his hair regrew, God relented after the land had its Sabbath, and Cyrus, King of Persia, caused the temple to be rebuilt.

The Builders

The reduced but restored temple stands among the ruins, surrounded by broken walls.

Look more closely at the walls. They don’t look quite as ruined as they did. There are scars, and many of the rocks are scorched, but stone that was burned to rubble has been hauled away.

New walls are rising around God’s temple.

As the sun breaks full over the horizon; armed men become visible in the gaps along the wall. Armed with spear and sword, they stood through the night, using their bodies in place of the missing walls.

One man moves from group to group offering encouragement and guidance.

“Good,” he says. “I see that you passed the night in Jerusalem and did not take off your clothes or put away your weapons. At night, we watch. During the day, we work.”

That man is Nehemiah, the Governor. He has a squire walking with him, carrying a horn. “When you hear my squire blow the trumpet,” he says to each group, “come to the noise and defend your brothers. Until then, keep one hand on your sword, and another on your trowel. We will not quit the work until this city is restored.”

Get to work.

Coda

Thank you for reading this article. This is the first issue in my new series about Nehemiah. Nehemiah is possibly the greatest biblical picture of how to take a project that you don’t have the resources for and tenaciously make it happen, but in the end, it is not about what Nehemiah does. It is about how God makes the work possible.

Over the next several issues, we’re going to look at the story of Nehemiah, and when your son finds himself with a problem that needs solved, or when distractions come his way, I hope this story will come to mind, and you’ll “teach it diligently to your children, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deut. 6:7).

God’s stories are good steak. Read them, grow to love them, teach them to your children.