Nehemiah 3:1 Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate…
If you watch cable television of any kind, you probably know that all the ancient wonders of the known world were made by aliens. I am joking, but some people actually believe that. One reason these people promote these theories is because all of these amazing structures, like the Pyramids or Machu Picchu, are striking examples of craftsmanship and creating something that we would be hard pressed to create even today. One wonders how this could all be done. Well, they were all made by work, teamwork, and by people who used the minds and hands that God gave them.
Nehemiah 3 is not exactly a spellbinding account. It is basically a work roster of people who joined Nehemiah in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. How did they do this? Well, you learn something very important from this: how to accomplish worthwhile work. Whatever you are doing today, you want what you are doing to be worth your while. Maybe you are doing something this morning you don’t want to do. Maybe it’s a quiz at school or some mundane job that may well need to be done, but in your heart of hearts everyone in this world wants to do something worthwhile. You want to accomplish something that makes a difference. You learn three lessons about worthwhile work from the account of Nehemiah.
First, you learn that any worthwhile work takes more than just you. It was not just Nehemiah that built this gate. It was a whole team of people. As Americans, we are so focused on individualism and going it alone that sometimes we lose sight of the importance of teamwork and things that are bigger and beyond us. We want to do things in our own glory, money, or health. Well, Nehemiah was a man whose name we know, but there are dozens of names in Nehemiah 3 of people you’ve never heard of and whose names you probably cannot pronounce, but they all worked together.
Second, worthwhile work takes people who are not like you, except that they have a common purpose. In this account you read of Gibeonites, foreigners, the sons of goldsmiths, apothecaries, and rulers. You read of daughters, Levites, priests, keepers, and merchants. All these people had different roles in the construction and in some cases different gifts, but they all had a common purpose, a common God, and a common cause. They all came together to accomplish something greater than any one person could have accomplished.
Finally, any worthwhile work, while it takes more than you and people that are not like you, it takes you. Verse 5 tells us about a group of people who “put not their necks to the work of the Lord.” Anyone who is lazy or just ignores the work that needs to be done and leaves that to other people is not going to accomplish anything worthwhile. But, if we are going to accomplish something worthwhile, then we need to realize that although there are other people, it does take me doing my part.
It is interesting to note that in Nehemiah 3:10, 23, 28, and 29, the Bible talks about those who repaired the wall and that portion of the wall that was by their houses. Imagine if one of your four walls was a wall of Jerusalem. Well, you would take that pretty seriously because you are not just building the wall of Jerusalem, you are building a wall that includes your house. You take your work personally. It is hard to do your best work when you are just doing it because you have to or are helping someone else accomplish their goals. You need to buy into what you are doing if it is going to be what it ought to be.
Now, God has made each of us, and He has a purpose for each of us. The most worthwhile work is our serving God by serving others and realizing that any worthwhile work takes more than just you. It includes people not like you, but it does include you. It takes the work of someone who buys into their work, takes it personally, and gives all they have to glorify God and help others.