We might ask, why at night? I believe this was wise of Nehemiah, for he didn't want to court controversy and create arguments at this early stage of his plan, and he certainly didn't want to alert the many opponents of the people of God to his intentions to rebuild the walls of the "rebellious city" (Ezra 4). So at this stage the work was still very much a burden on only Nehemiah's heart; "neither told I any man what God had put in my heart"... Later he will share his vision and burden with the people; "then said I unto them..."
Essentially what we are seeing here, as Nehemiah surveys the site of Jerusalem at night by donkey, is a needs-assessment exercise. He is taking
[caption id="attachment_139" align="alignleft" width="252" caption="A plan of Jerusalem in Nehemiah's day, showing the wall and the gates etc"]
[/caption]stock of the current situation and appreciating what was going to be needed as he weighed up the job ahead. I learned a valuable lesson from the actions of Nehemiah here - do we ever perform needs assessments in our churches/assemblies, or even within our own Christian lives? Surely it would be a good idea every now and then to take a look around (whether it be in our local assembly or in our own life) and take stock and ask ourselves some challenging questions:
What is the condition of things? What are the needs? What needs to be done?
I believe that by doing this we can appreciate the reality and state of our testimony, whether collective or as individuals and we can address areas in need of 'rebuilding'. The book of Nehemiah is really about the rebuilding of a testimony, if we look at it that way!
Just some quick thoughts but I trust a challenge and help to us all.
Yours in Christ, Mark
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