Every once in a while there is something that sticks in the mind and stays there for years, even if we do not always know why. In the summer of 1977 I was on a camping holiday in Scotland and stopped in Portree to attend an evening service at the Free Church.
All I remember about it now is the text of the sermon, which was Nehemiah 8:10: ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength.’ That verse has stuck in my mind ever since, and it comes back to speak to me whenever I need to reset my perspective on life. Nehemiah was faced with the challenge of having to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in the face of powerful local opposition. The Jewish people were behind him, but they were discouraged and when Ezra read the law of Moses to them, they broke down in tears because they believed that the misfortunes that they had suffered were the result of their sins. Nehemiah had to encourage them to celebrate his achievement, and to assure them that it would be the joy of the Lord, not the sturdiness of the wall he had built that would be their true strength. Today that wall has long since disappeared, but his message still resonates with those of us who walk in the footsteps of the ancient people of God.
On the surface, Nehemiah’s experience seems remote from anything we are likely to encounter, but if we dig a little deeper we shall soon see that it is closer to us than we think. Just as Nehemiah had to rescue a city that had been ruined by enemy attack, so Christians today must come to terms with a church that has suffered from the unbelief and indifference that surrounds us. For the first time in recorded history, we are now a minority in the land of our birth, and we do not have to look far to meet people who are actively trying to eradicate whatever influence we may have left. We cannot take it for granted that the pillars of our society will support our beliefs and values, or even that they will be prepared to tolerate them. There is even a real possibility that it will soon become illegal to pray for people in public, because that may be criminalised as indoctrination or forced conversion.
Worse still, the church that we are trying to defend is often paralysed by doubt and compromise with the enemies that are attacking us. It was the same in Nehemiah’s day – some of the Jewish leaders then were actually related to their enemies by marriage and therefore disinclined to stand up against them. Today we see how many of our church leaders are so deeply rooted in contemporary society and so afraid of causing offence to unbelievers that they are prepared to sacrifice their own spiritual inheritance. What can we say when we hear that some of them are prepared to bless same-sex ‘marriages’ in order to stave off the threat of disestablishment, which they fear would be the result of proclaiming traditional Christian doctrine?
Like Nehemiah, we are surrounded by hostile forces that want to attack us and stop us from advancing the kingdom of God. Like him, we have to struggle against discouragement, fatigue and indifference on the part of many of those whom we want to help. As in ancient Judaea, the enemy is uncomfortably close, ready to use whatever resources it can find to defeat us. Yet as in Nehemiah’s time, the greatest danger we face comes from within. When Ezra read the law of Moses to the people they were convicted of their sins and reduced to despair, and the same can happen to us when we are confronted by the Word of God. I may be dedicated to the struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil, but have I forgotten the One who has made me what I am and given me what I need to succeed in my work for him? What good will it do me if I have sacrificed my relationship with God in the name of working flat out for him? As Jesus said, ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’ (Matthew 16:26).
The situation we face is dire, and there is no point pretending otherwise. Many of us will suffer for our faith, if not physically, then spiritually. We may be tempted to fight back, using our enemy’s weapons against them. When that fails, as it surely will, we may despair and forget that God is stronger than our enemies. His ways are not our ways. What he wants from us is what Nehemiah wanted from the Jews of his day. ‘Rejoice in the Lord always’, Paul wrote, ‘and again I say rejoice!’ (Philippians 4:4). It is the joy of the Lord that is our strength, and no one can take that from us. We may be in spiritual exile now, but if we cling to him and rejoice in his love, we shall ‘go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills...shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.’ (Isaiah 55:12). May it be so with us as we make our pilgrim way to our eternal rest with him.
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Gerald Bray is the Director of research for the Latimer Trust. He is the author of several articles and books. You can find his books here.
Views expressed in blogs published by the Latimer Trust are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Latimer Trust