One Man Standing Next To Another

Nehemiah 3:2 KJV

And next unto him builded the men of Jericho. And next to them builded Zaccur the son of Imri.

One could say that the theme of this chapter is the phrase, "next unto him."[1]

·         A good work is always a work of cooperation.

·         A good work always involves a number of people working side by side.

I notice that Nehemiah isn't even named in the chapter.

·         God had burdened him for these walls

·         God had used him to motivate the people to the work

·         God would use him to organize their defense against the enemies of the work

But the building of the walls was literally accomplished not by Nehemiah but by the people, each one standing next to the other and putting their hands to the task.

This is an excellent portrait of what makes the work of God's churches move forward. A great church isn't about the pastor, though he leads, organizes and instructs. A great church is more about the people of the church. Notice that, though we have some "big names" in the (Bible, Moses, David, and Paul, etc.,) the Bible gives us very few names of the pastors of the various churches. We may imply some of them, but in most cases we are not told about them but about the churches themselves.

We have twisted this around today. We make it about the preacher.

·         His is the name we see published

·         He is the one that is lifted up and (if we are not careful) idolized

To be sure God uses a man, one like Nehemiah, to rally people around God's cause but the real work is always done by one average hero standing next to another, and getting "dirty" in the work.

---

[1] The phrase is found thirteen times here.