Nehemiah 2:17-18

God is in the restoration business. He will take what we give to Him and restore it to His perfect will for our life. In the birth, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior is our abundant life to be found. Place everything you have mentally, physically and spiritually at the feet of God and He will use it for His glory and the glory of His Church!!! Nehemiah was used by God to encourage others to build up the House of the Lord. We are called to do the same.

Reconciliation is the restoration of friendly relation or the action of making one view or belief compatible with another. Bringing the Messiah of the Jews, Jesus Christ, to the Gentiles of the world.

Nehemiah, whose name means “The Lord Comforts,” was a highly placed statesman associated with Ezra in the work of reestablishing the people of Judah in the Promised Land. The month of Chislev corresponds to our November–December.

Nehemiah encouraged all of the people to assist in rebuilding the city’s walls emphasizing that it was not just his idea to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Rather, the idea had come to him from the Lord. In response to Nehemiah’s challenge, the people replied, Let us rise up and build.

Christ in the Scriptures

Like Jesus, Nehemiah gives up a high position in order to identify with the plight of his people. Like Jesus, he comes with a specific mission and accomplishes it. And like Jesus, Nehemiah’s life is punctuated by his prayerful dependence on God. His purpose is not just to get the Jews back to Jerusalem; his ultimate goal is restoration! The temple is rebuilt. The city walls are repaired. Jerusalem is reconstructed. The covenant is renewed. The people are reformed. According to the apostle Paul, Jesus came into our world for exactly the same reasons: reconciliation and renewal.

2 Corinthians 5:18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 

2 Corinthians 5:19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 

Nehemiah 2:17-18

¹⁷ Then I said to them, “You see the distress that 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 set their hands to this good work.