Nehemiah: Rebuilder

For two summers I worked as a union laborer with a major construction company in Minneapolis. As a laborer, I was assigned a lot of messy jobs, often requiring a jackhammer or concrete saw. Some were jobs to fix mistakes in construction, like when concrete was poured beyond where it should be. Other times the jobs were about remodeling a business, a drive-up teller or expanding offices. Remodelling was messy work because it required demolition and reconstruction. Some of the old had to go and new construction needed to tie in with the old.
But my little summer jobs were nothing compared to what Nehemiah undertook. The entire wall surrounding Jerusalem was in ruins. It had been knocked down by the Babylonians 160 years earlier. And it had been left in ruins for almost four generations. That's a lot of mess. But without a wall, the new Temple was vulnerable to invasions and attack, as were all the citizens of Jerusalem. So Nehemiah rebuilt the wall. That's the story for Sunday.
The image on the table and floor is of broken pots (remember Jeremiah last week), bricks and burned bricks. Also, to the left is a spear because the reconstruction effort was threatened by enemies, so Nehemiah posted soldiers in the construction zone. And then there is the branch, budding even more this week than last. But that's getting ahead of the story.