Codes for Christian Living

It’s Never Too Late for a New Beginning

Rebuilding. Who among us is not in need of an occasional new beginning as we journey through different periods of life? Some of us deal with relationships that need to be rebuilt. Some are in the process of rebuilding businesses. Most coaches are continually engaged in the rebuilding process. Other people are seeking to rebuild their integrity after a misstep. Some are seeking to rebuild after divorce. Many who have lost loved ones are rebuilding their own lives. Some are rebuilding self-confidence and hoping for a better future. In one way or another, most of us will spend some or much of the next year trying to rebuild something. The good news is . . . it’s never too late for a new beginning.

Nehemiah lived twenty-five hundred years ago, and he “wrote the book” on rebuilding. God recorded it for us and placed it in the Bible for all posterity. Who was Nehemiah (pronounced Nee-uh-mí-uh)? He was neither a preacher nor a prophet. Nehemiah was a civil servant, an ordinary guy, who applied some universal principles that enabled him to rebuild a broken city and, in the process, a lot of broken hopes.

Nehemiah’s story unfolds after the reign of King Solomon in Jerusalem. The kingdom was now divided. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been ruled by a series of wicked kings, not a good one among them. Then, in 722 BC, the Assyrian assault swept them away into a captivity from which they never returned. The Southern Kingdom lasted until 586 BC, when it was finally devastated and destroyed by the Babylonians. Their holy city of Jerusalem was virtually leveled and decimated. The temple was demolished, the wall of the city was broken down, and its gates were burned. The leading Jews were taken away as captives to Babylon, and once there, the psalmist says they hung their harps upon the willow trees in deep despair (Psalm 137:1–2). After several years, the Persians broke the Babylonian supremacy and allowed some of the Jews to return home, which they did. They began to rebuild their temple and city, but the sheer magnitude of the task caused them to give up. Years passed. The city, still broken and burned, was in dire need of rebuilding.

In stepped Nehemiah, a Jew still in exile, with a cushy civil service job complete with benefits and retirement. But Jerusalem burned in his heart. He left Babylon to return to Jerusalem, armed with a single, focused objective to rally the people, rebuild their hope, and, ultimately, rebuild their Holy City.

Content drawn from The Nehemiah Code: It's Never Too Late for a New Beginning.