Okay. Is that good? We’re good. All right. Father God, thank you so much for tonight. Father, thank you for a chance to slow down in the middle of the week like we do now. This is our 7th week studying Ezra and Nehemiah. And just having a moment to pause, to see who you are more fully, and to live our lives in light of your kingdom. God, I’m thankful for our time. Guide our thoughts. Help us to… wrestle through your truth. Help us understand your word better. We ask all this in your name. Amen.
All right. So tonight is interesting. I reread it a couple times this week before tonight, just because there were a couple things that we’re going to read that surprised me a little. They were things that initially, like reading through, I didn’t quite understand. So I think this will be neat. I think this is a cool moment. So I put a little blurb there at the top of the cheat sheet. But the idea of this chapter is, the last chapter, I’m sorry, the last week was 3 and 4, and that was much more like the wall building, the, you know, they, how did it phrase it? It said, you know, the men of the guard were with me. They never took off their clothes. Each carried his weapon, even when washing. I mean, they were really at the work. That was what they were about in chapter 3 and 4. And then… And that was very much like the enemy was on the outside. The enemy was threatening them and trying to scare them, trying to intimidate.
Where now, chapter 5, we start to see the people’s own sin becomes the threat that they’re dealing with. And then chapter 6, there’s still the outside pressure. There’s kind of some folks, the characters that we’ve heard their names before, they’re going to come back and they’re actually trying to mess with people that are inside the city. So we see an interesting and like it becomes very personal. It’s subtle, but it’s very neat how how Nehemiah handles this. It’s a cool example. So let’s go ahead and read. We’re going to read chapter 5, chapter 5. And then we’ll there’s a couple of those intro questions we’ll start with.
There was a widespread outcry from the people and their wives against the Jewish countrymen. Some were saying, we, our sons and our daughters are numerous. Let us get grain so that we can eat and live. Others were saying, we are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and homes to get grain during the famine. Still others were saying, we have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children. Yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless because our fields and vineyards belong to others.
I became exceedingly angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. After seriously considering the matter, I accused the nobles and officials, saying to them, Each of you is charging his countrymen interest. So I called a large assembly against them and said, We have done our best to buy back our Jewish countrymen who were sold to foreigners, But now you sell your own countrymen and we have to buy them back? They remained silent and could not say a word. Then I said, what you are doing isn’t right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God and not invite the reproach of foreign enemies? Even I, as well as my brothers and servants, have been lending them money and grain. Please, let’s stop charging this interest. Return their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and houses to them, immediately, along with a percentage of the money, grain, new wine, and fresh oil you have been assessing them. And they responded, we will return these things and require nothing more from them. We will do as you say.
So I summoned the priest and made everyone take an oath to do this. I also shook the folds of my robe and said, may God likewise shake from his house and property everyone who doesn’t keep this promise. May he be shaken out and have nothing. The whole assembly said, amen, and they praised the Lord. Then the people did as they promised.
Verse 14. Furthermore, from the day King Artaxerxes appointed me to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the 20th year until the 32nd year, 12 years. I and my associates never ate from the food allotted to the governor. The governors who preceded me had heavily burdened the people, taking from them food and wine as well as a pound of silver. But their subordinates also oppressed the people. But because of the fear of God, I didn’t do this. Instead, I devoted myself to the construction of this wall, and my subordinates were gathered there for the work. We didn’t buy any land. There were 150 Jews and officials, as well as guests from the surrounding nations at my table. Each day, one ox, six choice sheep, and some fowl were prepared for me. An abundance of all kinds of wine was provided every 10 days, but I didn’t demand the food allotted to the governor because the burden on the people was so heavy. Remember me favorably, my God, for all I have done for this people.
So, There’s a lot of story there. We’re going to look at parts of it. But there’s a couple of questions I put on that cheat sheet, our handout. What’s harder to resist? Pressure from the outside or temptation from the inside? I think it probably depends. But what do you think? I think inside is generally harder. I can… I mean, it sounds terrible. You know, if a kid is kids hustle, I call it hustling all the time. Like, can I get a free drink from the coffee house? Can you, do you have any food that I can have? I mean, they’re just constantly hustling for something. I can say no to them really easy, but when it’s a colleague that needs something, it’s a lot harder to say no. You’re like, well, sure. I mean, most of the time it’s not unreasonable, so it’s easy, but I think inside is a lot harder.
Outside, we can see it coming. If we take the analogy or the metaphor of city walls around Jerusalem, you see the enemy coming. You know the schemes. You know what’s happening. You can sense it. You can plan for it. You can prepare for it. And there’s typically others there that are helping you resist. But when it’s on the inside, it’s harder to discern, and it’s a lot harder to say no to sometimes. It’s harder to deal with those things. So we’ll come to that, because there’s some cool parallels we see between chapter 5 and chapter 6. And there’s a spot in 6 that I really like, that it took me like three readings to figure out what in the world was going on, but it’s neat, and I’m excited for it. But I don’t want to steal from later.
The second question I put on there, though, Think of someone whose integrity you trust. What have you seen them do when no one was watching or when it cost them something? I can think of people whose integrity I trust, and it’s typically because the things that aren’t as obvious that you notice. I hope that makes sense. Maybe not the things that everybody else sees, but just those little moments of faithfulness that stand out.
That’s amazing. Because my kids even know this quote, my children. I think it was a C.S. Lewis quote, and he said integrity was doing the right thing when no one’s looking, like still having integrity when it matters. I think when I see someone, whether it’s a church or school or neighbors or family, they’re serving and they don’t assume anyone’s watching, I think I’m the most excited. Those are the things I kind of file away in my mind because they’re the things, not that they matter more, but it’s neat because you know they’re doing it completely out of integrity versus getting a little bit of, applause or praise.
I say school examples too much, but kids have a hard time in school because their whole lives are great. Everything is what they’ve turned in and how well they performed. So it’s really hard sometimes for them just to do the right thing because it’s the right thing. Because they’re so used to well but will I get bonus points or is do I get a better grade if I do this and you’re like no do it because it’s the right thing do it because it makes it makes the world better they’re like oh yeah okay um I’m gonna keep telling you this until you believe it kids um there were we this weekend at school was homecoming and Westminster has a really good job of like having a really neat carnival on Friday night and Saturday morning and there’s rides and a petting zoo and games and stuff.
And all the schools that feed into Westminster, those kids are invited to. So lots of great school siblings show up. And my kids always go. They love it every year. They spend all of my money. And I genuinely have gotten to where like, I just, I bring cash and I’m like, this is it guys. Like when dad runs out of cash, we’re not in the like, what about your credit card? And you’re like, no, like it’s in the car. No, uh-uh. I love them. They could spend all the money. Can’t you go to the bank? Right. Dad, I don’t understand. You work here, can’t you? And you’re like, nope, dad’s out of money now.
We need to have some chores to where they can earn money to spend their money. That’s true. We don’t pay them enough for their chores for that carnival. Our poor kids. They’d have to work for a year. So we were there Friday night. And I was working, too. We’re all required to work while we’re there. But my kids are old enough now. They can kind of run and play, and they have friends they know. It’s nice when you’re in a place like that and other parents know your kids because then there’s just lots of eyes on them. So when they do sprint around and you lose them, another mom or dad has them.
Anyway, at one point, I had gone to go check on my coffeehouse kids. They were finishing up their cart for the night. It was like 8 o’clock. And Jack is running toward me and he has these two high school boys in tow behind him. And he’s like, Dad, Dad, I have to I have to get them some hot chocolates, Dad. And Jack is like already 30 feet away from me. And I’m like, buddy, the hot chocolate’s gone. We just put it up. And he’s like, wait, but I told them I’d get him a hot chocolate. And it was just it was so sweet. But then um you could tell jack was beside himself like he wanted to hang out with his new buddies his sophomore buddies um and they they were like it’s okay like why don’t we go ride that ride again like because he wanted to go ride the the big kid ride with these two high school boys they were such kind young men like it gave me hope for the future like the junior class this year like I’m not a big fan seniors love them sophomores seem to be better next year we’ll just pray a bunch um
But these two guys, they were like, yeah. I’m like, guys, you don’t have to do this. It’s not a big deal. He’s fine. They’re like, no. When we were in fourth grade, we would have been so excited to hang out with big, big high schoolers. And it made them feel special. But it was neat because in my mind, I was like… that’s kind of a sweet sign of integrity like they weren’t doing this for any praise they weren’t doing this for any glory like they were just doing this because the sweet fourth grader all of a sudden was obsessed with these two high schoolers he didn’t know their names um I had to actually go look up their names but nevertheless integrity matters and I think the little things add up a lot more in my heart and mind than the the big things that are obvious um you know it’s
When someone can’t do something trustworthy and can’t be faithful to something small, why in the world would they ever be faithful to something big? So when we look at chapter 5, we just read it, but there’s a lot of really cool things. So do you see what’s happening when we first started reading? My Bible calls it social injustice. I think my other Bible called it unfair treatment. But do you see what’s happening to the people? What happens with that first section there that we read? Do you remember? It says there, our sons and daughters give us grains so we can eat. We’re mortgaging our fields and vineyards and homes to get grain during the famine. Our children, we’re subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. We’re powerless because our fields and vineyards belong to others.
I mean, they’ve come back to the Holy Land. They’ve come back to the city of Jerusalem. They’ve rebuilt the walls. And now because of famine, The wealthy are oppressing the poor. And the nobles of the land. And we know that because I think in verse 7, Nehemiah says, I accuse the nobles and officials, saying to them, each of you is doing this. So you have God’s people who have been brought back from slavery and bondage once more, from exile. And they have re-enslaved themselves to their own people. I’m not saying that right, but we’re tracking it. And it’s a hard reality that God’s own people would treat God’s own people in such a manner.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could call Congress together and go, okay, you guys are doing this right. Give everything back. Like, be fiscally responsible. Gosh, I’m such an old man. It doesn’t matter what the government does. Whenever they spend more money than they have, it makes me so mad. I’m like, I’m not allowed to spend more money than I have. Why do you keep doing it? You would have thrown me in jail. Anyway.
Um, so we see that happening, that like rampant social injustice is happening where, where God’s own people are enslaving God’s own people instead of helping one another and working together. So massive, big problem. But what I love more than anything, cause that’s, that is its own problem. As I love Nehemiah’s response, it says in verse six, I became extremely angry when I heard the outcry and these complaints after seriously considering the matter. I accused the nobles and officials saying them, each of you is charging his countrymen interest. So I called a large assembly against them and said, we have done our best to buy back our Jewish countrymen who were sold to foreigners. But now you sell your own countrymen and we have to buy them back. They remained silent and could not say a word.
So do you see in the very first bit of six and seven, Nehemiah’s response? He is first. How does it describe him in verse six? Extremely angry he is angry there is nothing wrong with being angry about sin but his second the second thing here is what’s so important after seriously considering the matter he’s angry but he does not lose his cool and lash out irrationally i say that phrase way too much in my head it’s from do you remember the old santa claus movie with tim allen Okay, at some point, the stepdad, who’s like a psychiatrist, is talking to Charlie. I think Charlie, the little boy. And I don’t remember what happens, but Charlie quotes back to him at the end of the movie, like, Neil, it’s okay. You don’t have to lash out irrationally. And I don’t know why, but that’s just, there’s certain phrases that stick in your head. Nehemiah doesn’t do that. He does not lash out irrationally, like that kid from the Santa Claus. But he instead…
His anger, he’s extremely angry, not just angry. He is extremely angry at seeing the sin and mistreatment of his people. But he seriously considers the matter. What an important way to respond. I mean, we live in a world that and I was literally just talking. I have a I have made one friend in my time in seminary. It’s hard to make seminary friends when you’re an online student. Like you just you don’t actually see people. So you don’t. Anyway, but I have made one actual friend in seminary and he and I were talking the other day and he how did it? I totally lost my train of thought because I started telling you about how weird online seminary is.
Extremely angry, heard their cry, complaints. What’s that? I know, it really, it’s like, immediately, like, you explain one little bit and you’re like, it’s gone. Like, I lost the whole train of thought. There are worse things. There are worse things. I can’t believe I just totally lost that train of thought after seriously considering the matter. Here’s the nobles and officials. Man, this is 40. This is 40. It’s okay. I have my gray hairs coming in my beard. I have a hearing aid. I’m blind. I mean, it’s just come. It’s fine. Okay. Well, hopefully that thought comes back or it wasn’t that important. It really will. You’ll wake up. Yeah. I’ll add it to the email notes if I remember.
Oh, gosh. This part is such a good, important part, though, because that’s what it was. The culture we live in is so prone to outrage, like so quickly. Like you see a news article and everybody just loses it. And then a bunch of other people hop on Facebook or Twitter or whatever. They lose it about the thing everybody else is losing it. And before you know it, the outrage cycle has just, I mean, it’s like an atom bomb of outrage has just taken off over something that even 20 years ago, if it had happened, by the time we heard the news, it would have been over and we would have realized that life goes on. But yet the world we live in is just so quick to outrage.
And Nehemiah, while he is extremely angry, and it’s not wrong, again, to be extremely angry at sin, he seriously considers the matter. So Nehemiah, question one here, it says, why does sin among God’s people threaten God’s work more than outside enemies do? When we think about that idea, I asked that question early on. Is it harder to deal with the outside pressure or the inside pressure? This question kind of continues on this. Why does sin among God’s people threaten the work more than outside enemies do? Why is it that sin among the church and God’s people make God’s work so hard? Because people look at it and they judge. Yeah. I mean, you think about it. They judge the church. They judge the church. Because they see it’s…
It’s that same old adage of, well, the church is a bunch of hypocrites. And you’re like, yes, of course it is. Like, of course it is. Like, we’re human beings and we’re broken human beings who still need a savior. We still need God. I think it threatens it in that way. It threatens it very quickly because it gives people a reason to judge when, when we ourselves are sinful. I mean, I was the seminary friend and I were just talking like so much. And I think it’s because I’ve been teaching in Ezra, Nehemiah, and then Romans on Sundays. It’s a lot of sin. Like we, it’s a lot of sin. Um, we just, as a church of 2026, um, Church has leaned very heavy on, we talk about grace, and we talk about what God has done for us, and we do not talk about sin and the deep repentance that we should live in. Like, we should be people who every day confess our sins, because every day we fall short, and every day we need a Savior. And it’s heartbreaking how little that’s really a topic in church. Often, I mean, pastors you hear online, TV, books.
Dealing with sin is not the primary focus of what’s coming out of the church. It’s what Jesus has done in the grace, which is beautiful. It is the gospel. But the gospel gains its power and beauty because of the sin. And we don’t speak of it much. So that’s an important spot. And we’ll keep building on that as we go through. But we need to look and see at how, like question number two, I think I said, Nehemiah paused before confronting the nobles.
What does that teach us about how and when to speak up? I’ve talked about that a lot. Like, I keep saying it. But he was angry, but he was seriously considered. It’s incredibly hard. Like, I regularly, I mean, this is the simplest example. When I am most angry at one of the kids for doing something, usually it’s when they disrespect their mom. That’s when I’m the most angry at my children because it’s wrong. I get zero tolerance for it. The best thing I can do is have them go sit on their bed. Like the absolute best thing I can do. I don’t always do that well. But that’s when that’s the mental habit of like, go sit in your bed. Dad will be with you soon. Or when dad’s ready. It’s the best part.
Because again, dealing with the sin, being angry at the sin isn’t the problem. But knowing how to wisely handle the sin matters. And the world we live in does not pause. I have told kids before when they do dumb stuff at school, I’m like, just count to ten. Just breathe. Count to ten. Don’t react. Because we live in a reactionary culture. We react before we even think. We react before we breathe. It’s not healthy. But Nehemiah gives us this great example. And I think that teaches us how we ought to handle the things that make us angry.
Well, it’s like somewhere I came across it. It talks about not letting your anger cause you to sin. So that’s what Nehemiah is doing in this case. He’s going, okay, I’m mad, but I’m going to wait. It’s like in sports. A lot of sports have a 24-hour wait. If the coach does something you don’t like with your kid, wait 24 hours before you talk. And it’s amazing how much I mean, I had a boss once that told me when you’re really, really upset or frustrated, write the email and then leave it there for 24 hours or write the letter and set it in your desk drawer. And just and it is I can vividly remember the time I didn’t do that. Like it has been a decade and I can still remember the time that I didn’t sit on the email.
It was during, actually, I guess it wasn’t a decade ago. It was during COVID. COVID was a hard time to be a teacher. Like, I mean, it’s a hard time for everybody, but it was trying to be in school while every public school was closed. And we were there wearing masks and goofy plastic dividers. And like, it was just a nightmare among nightmares. Kids are stressed. Parents are extra stressed. We’re all worn down and tired. It was just, it was a long season. But they rolled out a new software they wanted all of us teachers to use to make it more robust and better online learning and better in person learning. And this is what colleges are doing. And it was just the worst possible time to roll that out. When you’re like, we’re just kind of keeping our heads above water now. Like we’re, we’re doing the best we can. Please don’t make us switch and pivot to a whole new stressful system. Well they did. And some there were a few of us teachers that were frustrated by it so um we sent an email and we’re like you know this was at best bad timing and at worst it was cruel it wasn’t cruel. Like no one wanted to make our lives more difficult. They even realized later.
And the funny thing is the, the boss that I sent the email to was, does not remember it in the slightest, like doesn’t even cross his mind. But like, it still is in my head of like, I remember that one time I shot off an email when I should have just put it in my outbox and then realized I didn’t really want to send that email. Thank goodness. That’s all it was. Um, What I’ll do is I’ll write the email, but I don’t put anybody in the… No name in the thing, yeah. No name in the send to, and that way if I do accidentally get an email, it’s like, hey, you don’t have anybody in there. That’s what I want. That’s what I needed, yeah. I needed to not send that email. But it is something I think, I believe, we have to practice this. It’s not our natural instinct, and in the world we live in, we don’t see it. We’re very quick to being frustrated and being outraged.
That said, it doesn’t mean Ezra still confronts the nobles. He still confronts those that have sinned because he goes to them and says, I call the largest simply indeed, or in fact, we have done our best to buy back our Jewish countrymen who were sold to foreigners. But now you sell your own countrymen and we have to buy them back. And they remained silent and could not say a word. Then when I said, what you are doing isn’t right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God and not invite the reproach of our foreign enemies? So does Nehemiah still deal with the sin? Yeah, he still calls out the sin. We too should still call out the sin. Just because he pauses doesn’t mean he doesn’t still call out sin. It just means he gathers his wits, waits for the right moment, and then calls out the sin. It’s very, very wise. And it’s very right, because ignoring the sin would mean he fears man, not God.
Because it goes on and says, I read that verse in verse 9, what you’re doing isn’t right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of God and not invite the reproach of our foreign enemies? And that changed everything. Like they very quickly saw the sin and error of their way because the sin was identified. Sometimes we need the sin to be identified. Sometimes we don’t see the sin because we’re living in that thing. But Nehemiah actually, like one, letting himself genuinely be angry and then seriously considering and slowing down, then goes and speaks with the nobles. Their reaction’s totally different.
I often will tell kids at school when they’re mad at a teacher, which happens shockingly all the time. Usually it’s because they didn’t do their homework and they lost points, so then they’re mad. Go figure. I’m like, okay, don’t go in hot. Don’t go in and accuse them of ruining your grade. Go in and ask questions. Like, go in and ask questions. That’s going to get, like, it keeps the person, they might still be a little indefensive, but not like they are when they’re accused. When you ask a question, typically it helps ease up the tension a bit. Not always, but a bit. Versus going in hot and accusing someone of something. So I love it.
Nehemiah teaches us exactly how to handle sin. We let the sin make us angry. We slow down. We consider it. And then we identify it and deal with it. And we come up with a plan. So it’s great. And I think that’s… As it continues on, we’re going to come back to this topic. I made it one of the very last questions on the back, I think. Yeah. The fear of God is enormously important in this passage. We live in a world that people generally fear people more than they fear God. And what we see is there’s a big temptation in chapter 5 and chapter 6 for Nehemiah and the others in Jerusalem to fear people more. Way more than they fear God.
But yet Nehemiah, we’re going to see, continually goes back to the fear of the Lord. And there’s a few ways he does that, which I think is pretty cool. So Nehemiah, though, then goes on in verse 10. And he even said he like this is very humble. We’ve seen a lot of humility on Nehemiah. But verse 10, he goes, even I, as well as my brothers and my servants, have been lending them money and grain. Please, let’s stop charging this interest. Return their fields and vineyards, olive groves and houses to them immediately, along with the percentage of the money, grain, new wine and fresh oil that you have been assessing them. So even Nehemiah puts himself in this category and says, no more. Like we’re not charging interest. We’re not doing anything that actually hurts those who have less than those of us that have more, which is great.
And in the response from the crowd, in verse 12, we will return these things and require nothing more from them. We will do as you say. I love it. Like, then he calls in the priest, but the reaction of the crowd, I mean, it’s kind of amazing how, I know it doesn’t always work like this. I’ve talked to people before when there’s been big sin, and it is not always a, you’re right, we’ll do as you say, let’s repent and change. Like, it’s not always that reaction. But it is sometimes. Sometimes. And there are many, many, many times, whether it’s been me, someone coming to me or me going to someone else, that the reaction has been. Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t see it like that. And we just don’t because we’re living it. We don’t always see.
So it’s an important reminder from from this short little passage in Nehemiah. We need to be OK calling out sin. We need to be angry at sin. But we need to be very wise, and we need to approach it the right way that points people back to what God has called us, which is beautiful. Nehemiah says, and this is question five. Nehemiah says he did not take the allowance because of the fear of God. So what does it mean to walk in the fear of God? What does that actually mean? I’ve said it a few times. What does the fear of God actually mean? I think a lot of times people hear fear and they think of being scared. Yeah. But this is like being reverent. Yes.
Yeah. And by not taking, you know, by walking in that way, knowing God will provide for you, he doesn’t need to take the allotment from the people. Yeah. God will provide what you need. Right. Yeah. Because, again, he doesn’t fear the people. He fears God. And it’s a reverent fear. And the reverent fear pushes him to obedience. Because he cares about pleasing the Lord, not about pleasing men. And again, he’s continually setting his heart back on the things of God, not on the things of earth. Which is very hard to do. Just in my class devos this year, we’re doing Romans 12, which is one of my favorite chapters.
And we… Yesterday, we’re just doing verse by verse. So like, I mean, 15 minute devos once a week, we do, you know, verse one, verse two, like just by the time. And this week was verse two, third devo through the thing. And we talked about Romans 12, two is, you know, be trained or do not conform yourself to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. So you can discern the perfect pleasing will of God. It’s a great verse. And we talked about how hard it is to actually want to be different than the world. And I think we see the same challenge here with Nehemiah.
Actually walking in the fear of the Lord is very different than the world. Because the world, and fear maybe is the wrong word, we want to please God or we want to please man. And fear is a good word for that because what are we worshiping? Are we worshiping the lord and we want to please him we want to fear him and worship or we want to please those around us and we want to please really ourselves in the end and it’s a contrast that we see over and over again in nehemiah that he goes right back to the fear of the lord which is very awesome it and it changes the life that he lives because he’s not doing these things just so he doesn’t get in trouble he’s doing these things because he wants to be obedient to god which is exactly the heart we should have too.
So you do not have to answer this question out loud. I just put it on here so we can think about it. Where are you tempted to use a position, a gift, or an advantage for your own benefit? I mean, I think everybody on some level. I have a kid in class who… It comes from a good family. You know, they’re an alumni family where, like, all the siblings went there, and they’ve all, their kids have all been, like, it’s a very well-known family. And I think it, and actually there’s, like, three of these families that come to mind. Good families, like, love the Lord, are involved. They’re good servants. Like, they are wonderful in the school community. But sometimes their kids, because their kids are kids, will trade on their name.
And use it as an excuse to get away with not doing something right, or that they’re kind of above something else, or like, I don’t really need to care about that, Mr. Malloy. And you’re like, there’s nothing… It sounds mean, but if a kid who did not have their credentials and their heritage or whatever… did the same thing, it would not annoy me as much. It annoys me way more when it’s a kid who it’s like, man, like your name means something. You need to live up to that and never use it as an excuse to get away with something. Like that never is a proclivity. Like it does not give you permission to just be lazy. Like it’s not how it works.
I can vividly remember, and hopefully I don’t do this. I’m sure I have at some point accident. I remember, I think it was when my grandpa turned 80, I think. We had a big birthday party, and we all had to go around and say something about him. Most of my family hates doing, but my grandmother loved doing. So we were going around, and it dawned on me, because we were not prepared. We were not given forewarning of like, know what you’re going to say for your grandpa’s birthday. So in the moment, you’re panicking. You’re trying to listen, but also like, what do I say? And it hit me. I was like, you know what? The thing that I have gotten from grandpa is that Molloy’s should not ever sit down when there’s a need. Like when they can see something they should do, they should just go do it. Because it’s the right thing to do. And not because that’s your name, not because you get some sort of praise, but just because that’s what grandpa always did.
We went, this is really funny, and my mom still makes fun of me for this years later. For I think my sophomore or junior year homecoming, We went to, there used to be a little restaurant in Concord Village called Constantine’s. It was this really great, I think it was Greek. It was Greek or something. It was something neat. And we went there for dinner before homecoming. Well, my mom later, after I got home, and she’s like, what in the world did you spend $200 on on my credit card? And I’m like, what do you, I mean, we went to dinner. And she was like, you went to Constantine’s. Like, I expected it would be like you know, 40 bucks. And I was like, well, mama, I got appetizers and dessert for everybody. And she’s like, why? Like, she was like, you do realize you’re paying me back. I’m like, but that’s what grandpa always does. So I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do.
If you’re like the, you know, she was like, oh, that’s ridiculous. Um, so i still get made fun of for um yeah i i did get to pay her back i thought i was doing the right thing because that’s what grandpa always did and she was like your grandfather is not a 16 year old anyway it was funny uh it’s fun to give your mom fun to give your mom gray hair especially if you know my mom i mean it sounds very it’s if you know fred malloy or you know connie malloy like you can imagine that exchange happening and then me in the middle being But it’s fine. I paid her back. I mowed yards. It was fine. They’re both wonderful people. They are. They are. Both a handful in different ways, but both wonderful. Don’t tell her I said that. Hopefully she hasn’t listened to these recordings.
Anyway, chapter 5 is great. And there’s a few little things that it wraps up on. But I love verse 19. I mean, we can summarize 17. He didn’t take the big allotment that he was allowed. He was the governor. He could take a big chunk of money and food and tax the people to live in his own wealth, but he didn’t. And then in verse 19, he just says, remember me favorably, my God, for all that I have done for this people. What a neat way to like, when you think about the hard things Nehemiah has done, It’s kind of this nice cherry on the top of, like, he has tried so hard to serve God’s people and to obey God. And he just, in the end, it’s like, I hope that I am remembered favorably for what I have tried to do.
I’m not perfect. Like, neither Ezra nor Nehemiah were perfect men, but they genuinely tried to be faithful. And I think what we see over and over again in the whole of Scripture is God never demands perfection. He asks for faithfulness. And they were faithful men, even for the flaws, even for the things I am certain at the ends of their life, they looked back and like, I really wish I had done those things differently. Of course, we all do. But they were faithful. And it’s the same thing I, as a teacher, as a dad, as a Sunday school teacher, as a whatever, like I have to always go back to, it’s like, you know, I didn’t do it perfect, but I did try to be faithful. And I can go to sleep easy at night knowing I tried to be faithful, even when that falls short.
So because it’s time, we need to pivot. So let’s pivot to chapter 6. We’re going to read 6, and this is where these fellows come back that are difficult. So let’s read chapter 6, verse 1. When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that no gap was left in it, though at that time I had not installed the doors and the city gates. Psalm 24, verse 1. The earth is the Lord’s. Psalm 24, um, sand below and Geshem sent me a message. Come let’s meet together in the villages of the Ono Valley. There they were planning to harm me. So I sent messengers to them saying, I’m doing important work and cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?
Four times they sent me the same proposal, and I gave them the same reply. Sanballat sent me this same message a fifth time by his aide who had an open letter in his hand, and it was written. It is reported among the nations, and Geshem agrees that you and the Jews plan to rebel. This is the reason you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to become their king and have even set up the prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim on your behalf there is a king in Judah. Verse 10. Verse 10. They’re coming to kill you tonight. Verse 15. Verse 15. The wall was completed in 52 days, on the 25th day of the month Elul. When all our enemies heard this, all the surrounding nations were intimidated and lost their confidence, for they realized this task had been accomplished by our God. During those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, since he was a son-in-law of Shekiniah, son of Arah, and his son Johananah, had married the daughter of Meshulam, the son of Bekorai. These nobles kept mentioning Tobiah’s good deeds to me, and they reported my words to him, and Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me. The drama heated up. It gets good. All of a sudden, it’s like, ooh, this could be a nice movie. I’m a little surprised it hasn’t been.
So we see a few things. There’s four invitations that come out. There’s four letters that come, and they want him to come to the Valley of Ono. And they want to talk to him about this rumor that supposedly he is going to be the king, and prophets are prophesying, and they plan to rebel, and that’s why they built the wall. They’re stirring up this rumor, and they want him to come down by teasing out this rumor. He tells them, I can’t come down. I can’t do this. So then Verses 10 through 14, we have this prophet who comes and urges him to go into the temple with him because they’re coming to kill him tonight. Nehemiah refuses because he figures out the plot line, which I’m thick enough. It took me a few reads to figure out some of the nuance there.
Then the last chunk, 15 through 19, we see the wall is finished in 52 days. And the nations genuinely see that this was done by the work of the Lord. Like only God can actually can do this. But unfortunately, the last few verses remind us there are still a few. What’s the word I used? Oh, there’s some allies of Tobiah. Some bad apples are still within the city walls and still within the people that Nehemiah is still dealing with the fallout from. So, annoying, but it happens. So, Nehemiah gives the… This is question one. Nehemiah gave the same answer four times without being worn down. Have you ever been worn down by questions? I… I often drive home from school in complete silence just because I’m so worn out by questions.
And I know the second I get home, before you even get a hug or hello from children, there’s 18 questions that have happened. You haven’t even answered a question and there’s four more. They can be a lot. But in this case, Nehemiah is quick to give the same answer to those four letters. The four requests to come down to the valley of Ono. There’s a lot of important lesson in this, but because of the time, like I wrote in the question too, I said, where do you face repeated pressure to leave something God’s called you to do? It’s between you and the Lord. But the fact of the matter is we shouldn’t. If the Lord has called us to do something, then we remain faithful to it anyway. And we keep sending back the same answer as many times as it takes, which is very annoying sometimes. But that’s the reality of what we see in Nehemiah’s life.
But this is what’s crazy. So when we look at chapter 6, let’s see. Well, I can’t skip it. Okay. So we have this request four times to go down to the Valley of Ono. And they tell him the fifth time, like, here’s the rumor that’s being spread. And he responds very clearly, like, there’s nothing to these rumors. You’re inventing it. Leave me alone. God strengthen me. But I want to look at 10 on because this intimidation thing is crazy. Again, maybe you see it right away. But like verses 10 through 14, I must have read them half a dozen times because I was confused. What in the world? Like what is actually happening here? So we got to just read it again and maybe you’ll catch it.
I went to the house of Shemaiah, son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was restricted to his house. And he said, let’s meet at the house of God inside the temple. Let’s shut the temple doors because they’re coming to kill you. They’re coming to kill you tonight. But I said, should a man like me run away? How can someone like me enter the temple and live? I will not go. I realized that God had not sent him because the prophecy he spoke against me. Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He was hired so that I would be intimidated, do as he suggested, sin and get a bad reputation in order that they could discredit me. Do you see what’s happening? It took me way too many times to figure out.
I know that he wouldn’t be able to go into the temple because he’s not a priest. The suggestion of that was enough for him to realize something wasn’t right. That’s what took me so long. I’m glad you got that quick. At first, oh gosh, I read this somewhere. The safe option for this fake prophecy, the safe option is a sinful option. Like, it was not right for him to enter the holy place of the temple, which is what he was being encouraged to do.
Without thinking, I think the human reaction would be like, well, if that’s the safest place and they’re coming to kill me, let’s go anyway. But the safe option was a sinful option. It was not the right option because it was a sin, which is just crazy. Like, that just goes to show not only the wisdom of Nehemiah, his ability to listen to the spirit, but also that even like he doesn’t actually know for sure if this is true or not, but because it’s still a sin, he’s not going to do it. And he sees through it. Thank God.
Um, let’s see. Verse 12. I realized that God had not sent him because the prophecy he spoke against me, Tobiah and Sandblad had hired him. He was hired by, so I would be intimidated, do as he suggested, sin and get a bad reputation in order they could discredit me. So they’re trying another angle to frustrate the work of God in Jerusalem. It’s crazy. I mean, this really could be a movie. It blows my mind. Like, this is a good movie. If anybody makes movies, pitch this to people. But Nehemiah sees through it.
We can read this. I don’t know if you’re like me. I read it and go, wow, that’s crazy that he knew that and he was so confident. Maybe he wasn’t in the moment. I mean, there’s no doubt in my mind. If someone tells me, hey, let’s go because they’re coming to kill you tonight, I’m probably not sleeping great tonight. Even if I think that this is all a ruse, even if I know that that’s a sin to go do, I probably put an extra chair behind my door or slept with an extra weapon near my bed. But I also think it comes to the fact that Nehemiah was walking in the fear of God. He was more afraid of…
Amen. Yeah. Well, and I agree wholeheartedly. Like, I think that’s one of the many ways, but one of the big ones where we see Nehemiah’s fear of the Lord guiding him. Because, again, he cared more about what God cared about than what men cared about. So even if it was true, even if he was going to die that night, he still wasn’t going to disobey God.
He wasn’t going to discredit himself and give God a bad reputation for the work he had done, which is amazing. I have a lot of respect. There’s something to be said for living a life that is totally above reproach. And it’s something that’s pretty rare that people actually care about in 2026. But to live a life where you do not want to give an opportunity for someone to think less of you, or at the very least, they’re saying bad things about Nehemiah. They’re spreading rumors. But the general population knows that’s ridiculous because he’s been faithful and true. So he can discredit the lies, which is a great, great thing. But if he’d gone to the temple, it would have been a lot harder to dispute that because he would have still done something obviously sinful. It’s integrity.
That he has to live with. I’m reading through… Oh, yeah. Yeah, I agree. Why are we thinking about Job? There’s a really good book I read on Job like 6 years ago. I don’t have it anymore. It was in the fire. But I know I have the, like on the website, I know I have the book, like what’s the word I’m looking for? The order. There’s a really, really good book. I think Christopher Ash wrote on Job. Awesome. Like, so if you need a book recommendation, let me know. I may not have all my books, but I have the online orders that I can look back and see what the books were. Ash, A-S-H, yeah. Christopher Ash. It was…
Not a huge book, but phenomenal. I’ve never seen Job, like, he helped open it up in such a way that you’re like, oh, my goodness. Like, I’m not poetic. Like, so reading poetry is just tough. Like, and it’s so much poetry in Job. Oh, it was a great book. The organization called Through the Word. Yeah. Yeah. They talk about each chapter and then you listen to it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they actually have intermissions because they’re talking it as it’s a play. Ooh. And so then they have intermissions to discuss things. And it’s really helped me go through Job again because when I went through it on my own the first time, I was like, this is crazy. It’s hard. It’s hard to read. Yeah.
Trusting God in the darkness. A guide to understand the book of Job. Trusting God in the darkness. Thankfully it was on my Kindle. Okay. Fear is the enemy’s main tool. This is question 4. Fear is the enemy’s main tool in this chapter. What helps us fight against fear?
Fear is certain. It may not be big fear that someone’s coming to kill us tonight, but there’s fear of the unknown. There’s fear of what tomorrow holds. There’s fear of, gosh, the political world and the economic world and all those things just incite so much fear in people. How do we combat against fear? We’re not built to live in constant fear. How do we combat against that? Because that’s what we see coming against Nehemiah.
I think surrendering fear quickly is a great weapon. I don’t know if you guys have heard the song. I know the name of the song is Still Waters. I do not remember the name of the artist. She’s a girl. She has long hair. That’s not helpful. But the name of the song is Still Waters, and it’s about Psalm 23. It’s on the radio, I’m pretty sure. But she makes this comment at the beginning of the song that, like, great Aunt Marie told me to write scripture on your heart for when you need it. Well, I can sincerely tell you from experience, the more, like all of Jack’s hard years at school, the more we memorize scripture…
And the more we could get him to recall it quickly when he was having a moment that he was just crazy stressed or behavior was out of control or whatever, you know, those fight or flight moments, it would calm his heart like that. And his was actually Psalm 121. He loved, I lift my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? Oh, Yahweh, the maker of heaven and earth. And he knew like 6 verses into it. He loves that one. More than likely, if you were to catch him and be like, I lift my eyes, he would keep going.
But between prayer and genuinely memorizing scripture, putting scripture in our heart, that’s the best weapon we have against fear. Because… What’s that? That’s it. Leanna Crawford. I knew that it would… It’s not a hard name. It’s so important to have those weapons. Because if we don’t have those weapons, fear can consume. Fear is very quick to take over. Fear…
No one should ever make decisions out of fear, but so many decisions get made every day out of fear. Like investments and jobs and moves and all that just get made from a place of fear versus a place of knowing God is in control. I remember God is good even when it doesn’t feel like God is good. Because fear is, it’s very easy to let our feelings run amok. And feelings are not always reflective of truth. Okay. Okay.
We have 15 minutes, so we’re doing okay, but we’ve got to be careful. Sometimes I get carried away and then it’s over before you know it. Question, we’re going to look at 7. You don’t have to necessarily answer out loud. You can, but you don’t necessarily have to. Whose approval do you fear more than God’s? Whose approval do you fear more than God’s? It’s an interesting question and a very annoying question.
Because I know the guy here wrote that question. I can say on one hand, of course I fear God more than anything else. Of course. But very practical example. I do not have a, like normally I do not care. Like I like being on time because I like respecting people’s time. But like I’m not panicked when I’m not on time for something. So it’s like, well, it was soccer practice. You know, if I’m a minute and a half late because I hit every stoplight wrong, I’m not going to lose any sleep over this. It’s not worth it.
But if I have, we have department chair meetings like all the department chairs at school, our meetings when we have them are like 7 or 6:45. Well, I’m at school every day by 6:50. But it’s amazing how just leaving the house an extra 5 or 10 minutes early throws off your whole routine. And inevitably, the day that you do need to be there early is the day that 2:70 is a parking lot at 6:30. And you’re like, why? And my boss, Micah, does not care. Like, if you slip in quietly and you’re 2 minutes late, he is not perturbed. He does not think that you are a slacker. But in my mind, I feel that way.
And one time, ironically, his dad, his dad is the history department chair. Micah is all of our boss, but his dad is a retired teacher and then moved here to teach, too. And Jeff, his dad, goes, Brian Malloy, always late, late, late. Coming in late, I’m just like, oh, I’m so sorry. I mean, because I just have this whole irrational fear of I don’t want to. And I think it’s you don’t want to be perceived as not being on top of things.
And I, it’s ridiculous. I’m at school earlier than most teachers and I stay later than most because of the coffee house. But I still in my mind felt so like, and it’s silly. It’s not a real fear. I did not go to bed that night and have a hard time sleeping. I was fine. But it is a silly fear that I have to sometimes recognize and go, who are you fearing here? Are you fearing man or are you fearing God?
And you could put it a different way. Whose opinion matters more to you? Who are you trying to impress more? Are you trying to impress God? Are you trying to impress people? We live in a world that typically tries to impress what? People. So many decisions are made based on what’s more impressive to people. Have you ever gotten in a battle with your neighbor over who has the best grass? I haven’t, but my dad has.
He was very good at having the best grass. I am not the neighbor with the best grass. Right now, we have weeds that I mow every week. I like the weeds. They’re easy. Nevertheless, they’re green, and the kids can’t tear them up. And even some of them even have flowers. That’s right. That’s right. I don’t have to worry about the kids tearing them up. You get some wildflowers once in a while. It’s great. Yeah, but that question is an important one. It’s worth almost highlighting or underlining because when we think about fear of God versus fear of man, we don’t necessarily think we fear man. But again, we have to rephrase that question. Whose approval do I want more? Who am I working for?
One of the verses on my wall in my classroom, because it’s business class, is that verse from Colossians of doing everything as though we’re working for the Lord. We’re not doing it for man. We’re doing it for the Lord. And that changes. Claire and I have to remind ourselves of that sometimes on the tired days. We’re like, it’s okay. It doesn’t matter that so-and-so at work was frustrating or we didn’t like. We’re doing it for the Lord, and that’s enough. And we need that from each other. People need that reminder because it’s easy to forget.
Okay. Question 10. I wrote this. I know I did. But I don’t necessarily love this question. But I do love it. But I don’t like thinking about it. Is there a Tobiah in your life? A relationship or influence that you’ve kept comfortable, but it quietly works against your obedience? I don’t know.
Like, I don’t like thinking about that because I’m like, man, who in my life makes it hard to obey? Do I have someone in my life that makes it hard to be faithful to God? Do I have someone that keeps me from fearing the Lord and seeking to glorify him above all else? I don’t know. But I know that it’s a question I think is probably wise to ask once in a while because you just never know. You never know. They say, I don’t remember what author wrote this. I don’t think it was a believer.
That we’re a sum of our 5 closest relationships. I say it to kids all the time because they’re at the point where they’re making friends, they’re moving off to school, they’re like all of the above. You’re a sum of your 5 closest friendships. And if those friendships are good friends that build you up and point you to Jesus, great. You will probably go the same direction. But if those friends are not that way, they are probably going to drag you down. And we’re at a point in life where that’s not necessarily as easily done. Thank the Lord.
But it doesn’t mean there’s not still temptation to work against obedience. It doesn’t mean there’s not still temptation to not be faithful. It just happens. And it’s not typically the dramatic things. It’s the very subtle, small things that just gnaw away. Which is why I’m more impressed by the little acts of faithfulness than the big. Because the little ones are usually unseen. They feel unimportant. Well, likewise, the little things that make us unfaithful are typically sneakier and more creep in a lot quicker. So we’ll kind of try to wrap all these things up because we’re getting close to that time.
The gray thing there, I wrote this and it’s worth us pausing on before I flip to the last questions. Integrity and leadership is not a personality trait. It’s the fruit of the fear of God. I thought about that for a while. I genuinely think that integrity and it’s not something that we naturally aspire to. It’s not something we naturally are just, we’re born sinful. Like we come out of the womb and it’s any baby you see, child, they are out for number one. We are naturally sinful. Integrity, when we lead, integrity when we’re in charge of something, integrity when we teach. It is an example, I’m sorry, it is the fruit coming out of us.
Of learning how to trust the Holy Spirit, fearing God. Nehemiah, we see in this 5 and 6, we see Nehemiah confronting the sin of the people, the wealthy, the nobles, those in charge, had oppressed those who did not have as much. Nehemiah confronts it. He does not exploit even his position, and he says, like, us too need to do the right thing, and we’re going to return what has been taken from these people.
He then isn’t scared off from doing the work. Even though there’s this threat and these rumors and they keep trying to get him to come to the Ono Valley to harm him, he doesn’t give in to the threat. He just keeps working. He keeps praying. We see him pray at the end of 5, verse 19. We see him pray in verse 9. We see him pray. There’s another spot. 14. Like he continually is going back to the Lord in prayer. He’s about to work and he’s worshiping God and he goes back to it. And then at the end of 6, we see the wall is completed because of the work of God. So it’s a short moment in prayer.
Relatively short book in the middle of the Old Testament, but it’s an important moment where we see a lot of really great humility and we see a fear of the Lord that drives a man to do the right things. So I jotted down a few bullet points. I said, and this is kind of where I think it points to Jesus as we look at this. God’s people can be harmed more by their own sin than by outside enemies. This is why repentance matters so much.
This is why continually searching our hearts and calling out sin matters so much. A leader’s integrity rests on the fear of God, not on reputation, not on techniques, not on more how-to books, but on the fear of God and continually going back to, am I doing what is right before God? Not what I think might be clever or smart. I wrote this down. I have bolded this because this is important. I don’t say it enough. Test every voice.
Test every voice against God’s word. I’ve said this is my favorite movie before. Very few people have seen it. It’s called The Kingdom of Heaven. It’s awesome. It’s about the Crusades, like 1300s. But there’s a moment where the main character goes to Jerusalem. And he’s sitting before the king of Jerusalem.
And the king is actually a leper. And he was a real historical character. The movie is a little Hollywooded up, but it is based on real people and real things that happened. It’s one of my favorites. Clara does not care about this movie at all. But I watch it when she’s out of town or asleep. I love it. It’s like 4 hours. It’s great. But the king says to Balian, the main character, and Balian’s father was really important. And Balian has just moved from France to the Holy Land and is learning his role.
And the king tells him, your father was loyal and faithful to me. I expect that from you. And then he goes on to tell him, a king may move a man, but… When you stand before God, and he says it very poetic, but when you stand before God, you cannot say, but I was told by so-and-so to do thus. Like a man has to answer for his own actions. And it is this beautiful moment. And later in the movie, it comes back where they actually want Balian to do something that he believes is sinful. And he’s like, you know, you told me once that a king may move a man, but the heart belongs to the man. And the king’s like, you’re right, I did. I mean, it’s this moment where
Every voice, every voice, even just because I’m teaching out of my Bible and I did some research, everything even I say should be tested back to scripture. Everything every teacher says should be tested by scripture. So it’s an important reminder. And we see Nehemiah do that. And it saves his skin and saves his reputation and saves God’s work. But in all of these things,
Jesus is the better redeemer, the better governor, the better builder, all of the above. All of these things is pointing to the final work of Jesus. So the last few questions, these are the questions to consider as you head home and ponder. Which scene from these chapters spoke more to you? I think very often the things that might stand out to me are not always the things that stand out to everybody.
You know, when that’s the beauty of of reading the scriptures and having the gift of the Holy Spirit is it doesn’t matter how many times we read a section. I mean, even me reading that section that I was confused by with the back and forth and the trying to trick him to go into the temple that I didn’t quite get at first. Every time we read scripture, the Holy Spirit is helping us understand.
So even studying here, there are going to be things that stood out to me that might not be the things that stood out to you. So it’s important as you go home and ponder, is it the cry of the poor? Was it Nehemiah’s persistence against the beating down of trying to get him to come out? Was it this manipulative prophet who was trying to get him to sin, to discredit him? Or was it the allies of Tobiah that were still working under the surface? Whatever speaks the most,
It’s probably the thing you need to ponder on more and figure out, like, what are you trying to help me understand, God? Like, what are you, God, what are you showing me here? How do I understand this and understand you better? And then there’s a couple other questions. Where is God asking you to hold your work and to not come down? And then where do you need to repent of using what God’s given you for your own advantage? But the one I really want to land on before we pray is, do you fear God above all else?
How do we know if we fear God above all else? How do we discern that? I mean, that could have been the whole topic for the whole night. But that’s an important question. I can say that I fear God above else. But how do I know my heart well enough to know if that’s really true? Like, do I really fear God above all else? So those are the questions to part with. Any thoughts before we pray? Yeah. Please.
There is a lot of comparison with Nehemiah building the wall as there was with us building the church. I could go on for quite a while, but we won’t. In that there were a lot of opposition. There was a lot of competition. We came in and bought this land.
On a very short notice because the Savings and Loan Association was going to be taken over by the federal government. And we came in and were able to finish everything and get it done 5 days before the feds came in and locked it down. I forgot about that. That’s right. If that would have happened, we would have never gotten the land. And there’s so much that leads up to it and so much to get done. But from the time the church authorized…
THE TRUSTEES TO GO TRY TO GET EVERYTHING DONE. BUY IT AND GET EVERYTHING DONE. YEAH. IT NORMALLY TAKES 9 MONTHS TO A YEAR AND A HALF TO GET ALL OF THAT DONE, COMMERCIALLY. YOU HAVE SO MANY THINGS THAT YOU HAVE TO GET ON.
Prove that there’s no contamination. Oh yeah, the environmental studies and yeah. And we knew we were under pressure. Tom O’Hara, bless his heart, was the real attorney. Yeah. And he worked and worked and worked. We got it done on June the 25th. The feds came in, that was on a Tuesday. Feds came in the following Monday and closed everything down. We hadn’t done it, we wouldn’t. Yeah.
Bob Warner was preaching through Nehemiah. Was he really? Yes. Oh, my goodness. He was doing this. I went and talked to him, and I said, Bob, how long did it take Nehemiah to build the temple? Yeah. He said 52 days. I said, how long did it take us? I counted. Yeah. 52 days. That’s crazy. I did not know that whole story. Yeah. You don’t know the whole story. No, no. That’s just a surplus.
Goodness gracious. Wow. It shows how much God works for us.
Oh, absolutely. Seriously, yeah. I mean, there’s so many stories through there. It’s just amazing. That is amazing. Wow. That was amazing. Those are the things that someday, probably sooner than later, we almost need to record those stories just to have them.
There’s a video that Westminster put out, I think last spring, for the 50th anniversary of the school. And it was stories like that. The original board of directors took out second mortgages on their house just to get the school off the ground. They were mowing the yard on Saturday afternoons because they couldn’t afford to. I mean, just you hear those stories, you’re like, wow, it’s really hard to believe that because it’s come so far.
Yeah, wow. Well, that’s a good place to land. All right, let’s pray.
Father God, thank you for this time. Thank you for a chance to study Nehemiah. And what a neat parallel back to, you know, 20, 27 years ago. That’s hard to believe. God, I pray that you help us to be faithful in the little things just as much as the big things. Help us to not fear calling out sin, to be angry at sin, but help us to pause and consider and examine and determine the best route. Help us to be courageous and
And help us not be intimidated by the lies of the enemy or the things that distract us from doing your work. God, we’re thankful for all you do for us. And we’re thankful for Wednesday nights and this time to study. We ask all this in your name. Amen.
All right. Thank you all so much.
