This is Spoken Gospel.

We are dedicated to seeing 
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s 
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

The walls surrounding Jerusalem have been 
smashed to rubble and its gates burned to ash.

Any hope of protection and a peace in 
Jerusalem has crumbled with the wall.

But with letters of authority from
Persia’s king, an armed escort, and

resources to rebuild the wall,
Nehemiah approaches Jerusalem.

But Nehemiah’s efforts are immediately opposed.

Two enemies, Sanballat and Tobiah, are furious 
that he has come to help the people of Israel.

Like the enemies Israel 
first drove out under Joshua,  

these new enemies have settled in the land God 
promised his people and are unwilling to leave.

Conscious of this, Nehemiah goes on a secret three-day
reconnaissance mission to the devastated city of Jerusalem.

It’s the same tactic Joshua used in Jericho.

Nehemiah is a new Joshua, retaking the
promised land from God’s enemies.

Only, instead of defeating his 
enemies by tearing their walls down,  

he is winning victory by 
building Israel’s walls up.

Like Joshua, Nehemiah rallies his troops by telling
them to rise up because God will give them success.

And despite the opposition, the whole nation 
sets out to rebuild the gates and the walls.

Sanballat and Tobiah are enraged.

They conspire with the Arabs and 
the Ashdodites to stop Nehemiah.

The four nations’ armies surround Jerusalem on their north,   south, east, and west and plot a surprise attack
on the builders of the wall.

But as Nehemiah prays, God reveals 
the enemy’s plot to Nehemiah.

Before they can attack, Nehemiah 
arms each worker with a weapon  

and establishes shifts so that while one 
man guards the wall, the other builds it.

With the element of surprise gone, God’s people thwart
the plans of their enemies and slowly rebuild the wall.

[music]

Israel’s prophets promised that after Jerusalem’s 
walls were ruined, God would build them back up.

The prophet Zechariah pictured a day when
God would surround his city like a wall of fire.

He would live in all his glory with his people.

Rebuilding the walls didn’t just keep them safe from
their enemies, the walls secured their proximity to God.

We should all want a city with walls like that—a city that keeps
us completely safe and close to God’s power and presence.

That city has been secured in Jesus.

Jesus has thwarted
the plans of the enemy.

And like Nehemiah, he has 
armed his people to the teeth.

God’s city is now being
built in and through us!

And one day soon Jesus will come in
fire and live with his people in all his glory.

Jesus’ final city won’t be cobbled together out of 
burnt rubble but built with precious stones and metals.

The gates will be cut out of 
boulder-sized pearls and emeralds.

The symbolic point is that Jesus will spare no
expense in the provision and protection of his people.

And the best news of all is that the gates 
along this heavenly wall will never be shut.

In God’s coming Kingdom there will 
be no enemies, no threats, no danger,  

and no schemes that will take us away from 
our eternal proximity and home with Jesus.

I pray that the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to see 
the God who walls his people off from danger.

And may you see Jesus as the builder of our final
city where we will dwell in safety with him forever.