Rebuild Your Life - Find Your Joy
- Paul Downie
- Jun 25
- 18 min read
Nehemiah 8:9-11 NIV8l
[9] Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. [10] Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” [11] The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.”
Often when we have a debilitating condition, the biggest battle we face is not with our condition itself, it’s actually in our mind.
Let me give you an example. I was never a super-fit athlete, but I was at least able to go to our local train station, catch a train, go to work in the city, catch a train back to home town and walk home. It was basic. It was simple.
I took it so badly for granted.
So when I went through a period of several years with bouts of back issues that left me unable to stand, and, in some cases, barely able to sit down, you can imagine the thoughts that went through my head.
As I’m sure they have gone through anyone else’s head who has had that kind of a condition.
It was depressing to arrive in pain at a station and be left in the dust of other people, and worse if they were clearly older than me, as they went about their business while I hobbled down the platform. Mentally, it was really tough.
But I learned a critical lesson then that has stood me in good stead since.
The only way I could get through the hardship was to stop comparing myself with other people. I set myself targets. I put markers down for my own progress. Then, when I hit those targets, I congratulated myself.
That worked.
My mentality improved. The more it improved, the more my health improved and the better I got.
When we are in the middle of a struggle, one of the greatest changes we can make is to find a way to give ourselves joy and a positive outlook.
There is little doubt that the Jews in Nehemiah’s day had precious little to celebrate. Their lives were no longer their own. They were under the domination of a pagan power. Their city walls had been destroyed for a hundred and thirty years without repair. They were beset by enemies.
Many of us would look at their situation in despair, not in joy.
But there have to be moments in life when we stop, draw a breath and take encouragement from what we have achieved, however little that may seem to someone else.
I don’t know if you have ever climbed a high hill or a mountain. Yes, it’s much easier if you sit in a cable car and it whizzes you to the top. Of course it is. But the only sense of achievement you gain from that is bring able to pay the price of the ticket.
However, walking up a mountain trail, watching behind you again and again as the valley from where you came becomes smaller and smaller, and the landscape around you becomes larger and larger, before you reach the top and see the splendour of all God has created – that really is an amazing feeling.
This meditation is all about that feeling: whether you are at the top of the mountain where you have finally overcome, or whether you are stopping to reflect at some minor landmark along the way, it doesn’t matter.
Let today be the day when you find your joy.
There are three things in which these Jews should have found their joy.
The first is their Work.
Work
Nehemiah 6:15 NIV
[15] So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.
I'm always happy at 5pm on a Friday, when I can turn off my laptop and stop work for the weekend. Who isn’t?
But what we see here is a thoroughly different feeling.
These Jews had just finished completely repairing all 2.5 miles of the wall, which was 12 metres high and 2.5 metres thick. And they did it in a mere 55 days.
If ever there was joy experienced at clocking off from work, this is it.
Given the scale of their achievement, and what it meant to them as a people, who could blame them for celebrating?
They had reached a considerable landmark. Nehemiah 12:27-43 lists the details of that beautifully exuberant day when they finally blessed and dedicated the wall.
That must have been a truly wonderful day.
But making progress on such grandiose building projects is not always met with such joy.
Previously, work had begun to restore the most important building in all of Jerusalem: the Temple. After years of stymied desires, such that it actually took the ministries of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to change their minds again (Ezra 5:1), permission was once again given to continue the work (Ezra 6:1-12).
So being able to even start that building project was a source of celebration.
Or was it?
Because previously, before the work had been stopped, the people reacted like this when the foundation had been laid:
Ezra 3:11-13 NIV
[11] With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. [12] But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. [13] No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.
It seems to have been this outpouring of mixed emotions that triggered the opposition to the rebuilding.
You see, the issue here is that grandiose building projects can be something quite spectacular, but how you feel about them depends entirely on your perspective. The younger people who saw the foundation of the Temple being laid would have been delighted. That building was symbolic of them recovering their identity as the people of God.
But those who remembered the splendour of the original Temple, which was, after all, one of the wonders of the ancient world, were crushed by the fact that, after seventy long years, all that remained of it was a construction site.
Some saw potential; others saw only a gaping wound.
Some saw progress; others only saw misery.
Perspective is important.
The completion of the wall in Nehemiah’s day was a tremendous achievement. There is no doubt about that.
But we know that the enemies of the Jews saw things differently.
They felt even more threatened than before:
Nehemiah 6:16 NIV
[16] When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.
They conspired even more – but still failed:
Nehemiah 6:17-19 NIV
[17] Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. [18] For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shekaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. [19] Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.
Over the years, I have found myself in two of those camps: of those who cheer progress and those who despair the loss of the past. Time has led me to believe that we can choose our reaction. We do not need to be locked in to either.
The question we must ask ourselves is this: which of these two reactions is more useful to us? Which of the will help us the most?
In my experience, mourning the loss of what has come before is not useful. It is actually counter-productive, as wise Solomon taught:
Ecclesiastes 7:10 NIV
[10] Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.
What’s more, it’s that attitude that caused the generation of Israelites who had left Egyptian slavery to die in the desert:
1 Corinthians 10:10-11 NIV
[10] And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. [11] These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.
I'm not saying that there is no place for remembering the past. Of course there is. But the past is a foreign country, and a country where we should visit for a vacation but not take up permanent residence.
Sooner or later, we have to move on and look forward.
Look at the Lord’s first words to Joshua after Moses, the greatest leader the Israelites had ever known, had died and they had passed through forty days of mourning for him:
Joshua 1:1-2 NIV
[1] After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: [2] “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.
It was time for him to move on.
If God had wanted us to live our lives in the past, he would have placed our eyes in the back of our heads.
Yes, I know things aren’t the same as they used to be. But that’s rather the point, isn’t it?
Look at what God said to Isaiah as he prophesied the rebuilding of Israel in which Nehemiah was involved:
Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV
[18] “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. [19] See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Yes, it might seem like nothing right now. Insignificant. A waste of time even. But God gave this word to the prophet Zechariah, who was a contemporary of Ezra’s:
Zechariah 4:10 NIV
[10] “Who dares despise the day of small things?
So yes, you should cheer your own progress. You should feel happy about any movement forwards, whether it’s baby steps or giant strides, because each step is one step closer to your goal, however small it may be.
So we see that they should find joy in their work, and so should we.
We also see that they should find joy in something else, even if they had decidedly mixed feelings about it: the Word.
Word
Nehemiah 8:8-11 NIV
[8] They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read. [9] Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. [10] Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” [11] The Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.”
Now, I don’t doubt for a second that, for some of us who are reading this, the people’s reaction seems a bit strange. After all, this is a tine of immense joy. The Temple has been rebuilt. The wall has been rebuilt. The character of the Jewish nation is being rebuilt. They are rising from the ashes.
So why the sadness?
For others, it seems strange because the Word of God is for us a source of strength and encouragement and resiliency. We agree with the Psalmist:
Psalms 1:1-2 NIV
[1] Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, [2] but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
Psalms 119:24 NIV
[24] Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.
Psalms 119:111 NIV
[111] Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.
The Word of God brings us light and hope and happiness and joy and encouragement.
So why the long faces?
Perhaps this explains it:
Deuteronomy 28:15, 25-26, 36-37, 49-52, 64-68 NIV
[15] However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
[25] The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. [26] Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away.
[36] The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. [37] You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.
[49] The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, [50] a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. [51] They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. [52] They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.
[64] Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. [65] Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. [66] You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. [67] In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. [68] The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
This is a perfect picture of what happened during the Exile. Yet it was written thousands of years before by Moses. It had been fulfilled a hundred and thirty years before recovery finally came to Jerusalem.
The Word they heard wasn’t just about nice promises and encouragements, it pointed the finger precisely where their problems lay.
And that would have been a very uncomfortable experience.
It is likely that these verses, and others like them, were the cause of their tears.
Why?
Because this race of people, albeit a previous generation, had passed as close as possible as it could be in their world to hell. They had witnessed unparalleled destruction, unrestrained violence and the merciless slaughter of everything and everyone close to them.
The wounds of their horrific loss, way worse than most of us will ever endure, had been around them for a hundred and thirty years in the form of damaged people, damaged buildings and a ruined city, not to mention a decimated population.
And verses like these highlighted who it was that was responsible for their awful plight.
It was them.
They had sinned. They had fallen short of God’s glory.
There, as they stood to hear the Law being preached for the first time in close to a century and a half, that self same law put their sins in the spotlight and told them precisely why it was they had suffered so badly.
No wonder they wept!
Yet Nehemiah and the Levites did their very best to cheer them up.
Why?
Because standing in their own walled city and hearing the Word of the Lord preached was symbolic of their return to being the people of God.
Besides, their sorrow at their sin was not necessarily a bad thing. As Paul explained:
2 Corinthians 7:10 NIV
[10] Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
If the deep pain they felt at being the root cause of their own predicament caused them to repent from their sin and obey God once again, then that was a good thing. If it drove them only to despair, then it was a bad thing. Even a deadly thing.
There are times when we hear the Word of God and we burn inside. We know we are in the wrong. We don’t need anyone to tell us.
What we do with that profound sorrow we feel determines whether or not the joy of the Lord is our strength, or whether we will bury ourselves in bitterness and regret. If we realise we are in the wrong and repent, then that time spent in pain under the Word of God is a good thing.
But if it only reminds us of our sin and there is no repentance, then the sorrow of our sin could well destroy us.
It depends on our perspective, and what we do next.
So we have seen how we need to find our joy in our work, and in the Word of God.
Lastly, we see that we should find joy in our Commemorations.
Commemoration
Nehemiah 8:14-17 NIV
[14] They found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month [15] and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: “Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles, palms and shade trees, to make temporary shelters”—as it is written. [16] So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves temporary shelters on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim. [17] The whole company that had returned from exile built temporary shelters and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great.
Of all the commemorations in the world, I think the UK has one of the strangest.
On 5th November, we light bonfires and set off fireworks in commemoration of an attempted terror attack on the Houses of Parliament, in 1605, by the Catholic Guy Fawkes, who was trying to assassinate King James 1st of England, who was Protestant. So every year, in a secular country, we commemorate an act of sectarian terror and an assassination attempt on a king.
In a land which has spent decades trying to fight against religious terrorism.
Weird, eh?
The festival the Jews were celebrating in these few verses sounds like a bit of a strange one. They had spent years trying to re-establish their capital city. They’d built the Temple, houses, stores, their city wall.
So now they were sleeping outside in basic booths and temporary shelters, for a week.
But this wasn’t some weird boot camp or adventure in the wild. People were camping out in the streets, in their courtyards and on their rooftops.
This was actually a religious festival: the Festival of Tabernacles. And they loved it, they really did.
But why?
God instigated this Festival, centuries before, in Moses’ day:
Leviticus 23:39-43 NIV
[39] “ ‘So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest. [40] On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. [41] Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. [42] Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters [43] so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’ ”
So the purpose wasn’t to have a nice adventure or a cook-out or to eat some ‘smores round a campfire.
No, it was to remember that the Israelites had left Egyptian slavery as refugees and lived in temporary shelters for forty years while they crossed that desert.
And while they were there, something pretty incredible happened:
Deuteronomy 8:3-4 NIV
[3] He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. [4] Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
God provided for them for those forty years and made sure that they, as a people, made it through that shattering experience, even if almost a whole generation perished in the desert sands.
But why did it take forty years?
Because they did not have the faith to believe God when confronted by the enemy (Numbers 13 and 14).
God was faithful to them, even when they were faithless to Him.
So this wonderful festival, which I am in no doubt at all was a lot of fun, could have caused two contrasting emotional reactions to it: gladness at the faithfulness of God; sadness at the faithlessness of His people.
We Christians don’t celebrate too many festivals. One festal meal we celebrate regularly is that of the Lord’s Supper.
This also is a celebration that could cause contrasting reactions: joy that Jesus saved us; sadness that our sin caused Him to need to die.
I have often seen both reactions. They are both valid.
Again, even for religious festivals, it depends on our perspective.
It may be that we need to be reminded of the terrible cost of our sin. This can act as a deterrent to keep us on the straight and narrow.
But we may also need to be reminded of the joy of God’s provision of salvation for us.
Like a pair of glasses or contact lenses, our perspective changes how we see the world. It also changes how we see the work in which we are involved, the Word of God and the festivals we commemorate.
Let’s show understanding and tolerance of other people’s perspectives, but let’s also make sure our perspective helps us to follow God more closely.
Because if not, then what is it for?
Conclusion
Nehemiah 8:10 NIV
[10] Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
People use all sorts of things to make themselves happy, or, at least, to try to maintain a level of happiness. Many of those things are delusions: they promise happiness but only deliver misery and dependency and death.
I’ve been with people who are made happy by alcohol, drugs, empty and meaningless sex, TV shows, vacations, games, shopping, fantasies, collecting, all manner of things.
Sad to say, many of them would call themselves ‘Christians’.
Paul wrote these words to the Philippians:
Philippians 4:10-13 NIV
[10] I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. [11] I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. [12] I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. [13] I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Let me tell you what the defining characteristic of a Christian is – what it is that truly sets them apart:
They find their joy in the Lord. They depend on Him for their satisfaction. Not anything else. Not anyone else.
When we fall short of that and depend on anything else to make us happy, we design for ourselves a substandard Christian life that will only lead to crushing disappointment.
Nehemiah had three things before him that people often cling to in hard times. All of them brought satisfaction and joy for some, but misery and despair for others.
The first of those was their work, even though their work was for God.
Perhaps surprisingly, the second was the Word of God. If that Word brings conviction of sin but we don’t bring this conviction to God to find forgiveness, then it will bring misery to us.
The third was our commemorations, even though these also are from God. If our perspective on them only leads us to view our shortcomings and not God’s grace and provision to help us overcome them, then yes, we will feel miserable.
Perspective matters. It matters a lot.
Maybe you’re wondering where truth fits into this.
The thing is, both perspectives are true.
Yes, it was sad that the wall had been broken down for a hundred and thirty years. That was true.
But so was the fact that its reconstruction was symbolic of the rising of the Jewish people from the ashes of the Exile.
Yes, the Word of God did state quite clearly that their losses during the Exile were their fault. That much was clear. But it also provided for a way back, which they were now taking.
Yes, their Festival of Tabernacles was a stark reminder that they had spent way too long in the desert due to their own sin, but it was also a reminder of how God had provided for them in His grace and mercy during the journey.
Both perspectives were valid. Both were true. There was no contradiction.
But the Jews of Nehemiah’s day had to choose which one to adopt. They had to choose which perspective was more useful and constructive for them in their situation.
Of course, there wre situations where positive perspectives are hard, or even impossible, to find. But most of life’s experiences have a positive side. And even in the very worst of life experiences, we know that God is with us and working tirelessly for our good.
So even while life is hard and it feels like there us no end to trouble, find joy, brother or sister, even if it’s something that seems so small and insignificant. Find joy and cling to it with everything you have.
It may be the light you need to break the darkness.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, my situation is far from easy. It’s a struggle. I find myself in a battle to find joy. Show me, O Lord, some good that I can cling to and on which I can focus my thoughts. Change my perspective. Help me to find joy, I pray. Amen.
Questions
What three aspects of Nehemiah’s people’s situation are mentioned here? Are they all good or all bad? Why?
How can our perspective change the way we see the world and interact with it?
How can you change your perspective?
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