Lodging about the Wall

Nehemiah 13:21 KJV

Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the sabbath.

Nehemiah had worked tirelessly to complete the construction of the wall around Jerusalem but when it was finished he was obligated to return to the king. This done, the king gave him leave to again go to Jerusalem; this time as Governor.  Nehemiah returned to find the walls standing, but the people still in a reproach. The exterior walls of religion are useless without inner walls of devotion. 

A number of complaints are observed. This meditation concerns the merchants of Tyre selling their goods on the Sabbath. In order to prevent the thing, Nehemiah ordered the merchants out and the gates shut at dark. But he discovered that these Tyrian merchants were lodging themselves "about the wall", waiting for the first opportunity to tempt the Jews and continue their trade.

An observant Christian can spot these same merchants lodging about the walls still today. They may no longer be selling fish and other items from the sea. The offense may no longer include the Sabbath. But the merchants are there nevertheless lodging as close as they are able to the believer, seeking the opportunity to tempt them into breaking with God's Word and embrace some piece of worldliness. The careful Christian will treat these merchants of worldliness with the impatience of Nehemiah who threatened them if they continued next to the wall. We should not physically threaten anyone, but we can mortify the deeds of our own flesh and we must not have company with those who would draw us from the things of Christ.