There is such a thing as work without a will. There is the dull, lazy work of the idle man, and the mechanical work of those who take no interest in what they are about. Just as in religion, there is the languid performance of a routine as different as possible to the real wrestling with God in faith. There is no soul in it, and who can wonder if there is no result? In this case there was rapid result, and they built the wall, and the reason is given, “for the people had a mind to work.” { 51} An important lesson this for every Christian effort.
(3) They made real sacrifices for their work. It must have been a sore inconvenience to these men to leave their own occupations and to labour on the wall; but they laboured night and day till the wall rose from its ruins. Oh, that we had more of this spirit in the Church of God! Would that we knew better how to give to Him so as to pinch ourselves; to give our time, our money, our painstaking, our real self-denying work, in order to glorify God, and show that we live not unto ourselves, but unto Him that died for us and rose again.
Nehemiah was a man of prayer. When any trouble arose, his heart turned as if by an holy instinct to God, and so, when Tobiah mocked their efforts, Nehemiah gave no rough answer, but he turned his heart upwards and said, “Hear, O our God, for we are despised.” { 52a} How much bitter strife would be avoided in the world if men acted like Nehemiah, and, instead of retorting, spread out their provocations before God.
But the conduct of the opponents soon turned from mockery to war, and there was a plan to attack the rising walls. But the attack was met just in the same way as the insult. In both cases he gave himself to prayer. I cannot imagine a better illustration of the praying believer than the words in verse 9, “Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night.” They heard of the conspiracy, and at once spread the intelligence before God; but, having done so, they did not consider that prayer superseded effort, but day and night they set their watch on the walls. Had they watched without praying, they would have been trusting to their own forethought; and had they prayed without watching, they would have tempted God to leave them. But they watched and they prayed, and they prayed and they watched, and so they acted in the spirit of the words in aftertimes spoken to us, “Watch and Pray.” { 52b}