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With its walls rebuilt and gates restored, Jerusalem was habitable again. But it was far from desirable. In contrast to the preexilic heyday of Israel, it was more appealing to live in neighboring towns than to settle in the burnt ruins of Jerusalem. But the people of God were challenged back then – just as we are today – to commit, through sacrifice and service, to being a holy city that shines God's light into a dark world.

Naturally, as a follow-up to the people returning to God in repentance, the people enter into a curse and oath to walk in God’s law and to do all that he has commanded his people to do. In their covenant renewal they focus on three areas where the people of God have most prominently failed to do: Mix marriages, observing the sabbath, and giving support to the house of God. We’ll see how these play out in our hearts today as we live in relationship with God.

After God's word has been read, the Israelites humbly repent in response to that word. However, true repentance is rare in our day because we often harbor too small a view of God, which trivializes our sin. Through this remarkable prayer, we learn how to enlarge our vision of God through repentance. Along with Nehemiah and his people, we discover how repentance stirs us to worship our great God with fullness of heart and gratitude.

On that first Easter morning, the three women at Jesus’s tomb were not anticipating a resurrection. They were coping with the loss of their beloved master and merely hoping to honor him with a proper burial. But what they encountered instead aroused a mix of trembling fear and great joy – transforming these women into history’s first evangelists.

The attention has shifted from rebuilding physical walls to rebuilding spiritual lives. Nehemiah and Ezra now work together to ensure that God’s Word is foundational to the reconstituted covenant community. This is achieved by conducting a massive worship service where Scripture is read and studied for hours. It results in mournful weeping due to their covenant-breaking. But it also leads to great rejoicing in the covenant-keeping faithfulness of their God.

Completion of the wall was only the first step in the process of reestablishing Jerusalem as a spiritual center for God. Nehemiah chapter 7 is a transitional chapter, where the focus has shifted from the project to the people. The city's physical structure was rebuilt. Now the people’s spiritual lives needed to be rebuilt. They must embrace their identity as children of God and their role in the family of God.