The Holiness of Work
Nehemiah 4:14 (verse 46 of 145)
After looking things over I stood up and spoke to the nobles, officials, and everyone else: “Don’t be afraid of them. Put your minds on the Master, great and awesome, and then fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
Before this weekend, I don’t think I’d ever read anything from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. Now I’m a fan.
Nehemiah was a court official for a foreign king when he got word that the small group of Jews who were trying to rebuild Jerusalem following the period of exile were struggling—desperately. He learned that the walls of the city remained rubble, the burned gates were still cinders, and conditions in Jerusalem were appalling. Upon getting this news, he mourned and prayed deeply about the situation.
Then he asked his employer, a king, for a leave of absence to return to Jerusalem. Once again, he prayed before he made the request, and the king not only granted him a leave of absence but agreed to send a letter giving Nehemiah permission to use trees from the royal forest for the rebuilding.
That’s how Nehemiah became a general contractor. When he arrived in Jerusalem to help, his determination and example inspired even the discouraged citizens there to join him. The book of Nehemiah details the many individuals and families that rebuilt specific sections of the wall. Not surprisingly, there were also people in the area who didn’t want to see the Jewish people succeed. They wanted them to remain disempowered and disenfranchised. These are the people Nehemiah referred to in the “Do not be afraid” verse above. But the threat from adversaries didn’t stop Nehemiah and the workers. They kept at it, and they succeeded in rebuilding all the sections of their walled city, including rebuilding its many gates.
In his preference to Nehemiah, The Message translator Eugene Peterson talks about how Nehemiah’s work as a building contractor was essential to Ezra, the prophet who was the spiritual leader of the Jews in Jerusalem at this time. Peterson argues that work is not separate from our spiritual lives, but is—or can be—an equally holy endeavor. He points to Nehemiah’s skills as a builder as every bit essential to the survival of the Jewish people as Ezra’s spiritual gifts as a prophet.
I have been rereading a wonderful book called Say Yes: Discover the Surprising Life Beyond the Death of a Dream by Scott Erickson. Erickson suggests that the deepest desire we have for our work lives—the work we most want to do—is put there by the Divine. Our job throughout our lives is to discern the path these desires are calling us to follow. That is the holy work we are meant to do.
The Book of Nehemiah is about a guy with some skills who shows up to help, after spending time in discernment and prayer. He’s a government official, far from Jerusalem, who listens to a stirring in his heart to help. And then he acts, and God uses him to set off an amazing, subversive, unstoppable chain reaction of hope and empowerment and healing.
