Don’t Just Start
Our text is Nehemiah 4:10:
“Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, ‘The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.’”
“Meanwhile?” Our text starts in such a way that it demand that we know what the meanwhile is about.
70 years earlier Israel had been taken captive into Babylon. Their Temple had been destroyed. The walls of the city were broken down. Now a leader named Nehemiah returned to help them start over. They planned, they worked, and got the work going. They started well, but then they struggled. The reason for the struggle is explained in this verse.
1. They were tired. – The people said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out.”
They started well, but now they are exhausted. Exhaustion kills many good works. We start a good work and then stop because we are tired. The solution to such a barrier is to stop and rest. No one can go and go and go. Sometimes one has to take a step away, refresh, and restart.
2. The rubble discouraged them. – “The people said, “There is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”
Israel was surrounded with broken down walls, destroyed gates, and rubble everywhere. Because of the great piles of rocks they had delayed starting the work and now that they were working that same rubble made them want to stop.
We have all been there. We have walked into the garage, a room, or a yard with great intentions of cleaning it up, but then stopped because there was just so much to do. Maybe the rubble is a checkbook that is hopelessly unbalanced. When rubble discourages us we need to do like Nehemiah did. He broke down the work into small pieces and gave the work to people in small groups. One group worked on this part and another on that part.
Israel did not just start the work, they finished it. They were tired and discouraged, but they finished anyway. Successful people do not just start, they finish.
Lonnie Davis