Restore Rebuild Revive - Week Three : 09 Feb 2011

When you think of wizard of oz (besides childhood nightmares about flying monkies) we think of Dorothy’s line when her house lands in Oz “I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.” But her more profound line is when she is back home. –What she learned about home.

Well, I... I think that it... that it wasn't enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em... and it's that if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own backyard; because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with. (our heart’s desire is to be “home”)

Craig Barnes, Searching For Home, “It doesn’t matter where you move, how fast you run, or how many new identities you try on along the way, you can’t escape the longing for home. 

The Israelites went looking for their heart’s desire and looked beyond their own backyard. Moving away from the presence of God they abandoned the principles of God. The Israelites were swept away by a hurricane called “captivity”. Another “desert wandering.” A wandering that has left them longing for the home –a longing that was a grace gift from God to bring them home.

Craig Barnes, “Whether we want to admit it or not, the longing for home is welling up from the soul. This may even be the most enduring trace of God upon our lives.”

God set into motion the historical events that freed them from captivity and gave them the opportunity and resources to go home, go to Jerusalem. The Israelites built the temple, reinstated sacrifices for the covering of sin, but the city of Jerusalem, the city of God, their home, is a mess…

Neh 1:3 And they said to me, "The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire."

Jerusalem is not yet the city of God that Jeremiah and Ezekiel the prophets had foretold- the evidence of God’s dwelling among His people. God burdens, equips, and sends Nehemiah to go rally His people to finish “home”.

 And so we enter Nehemiah 3, where the word “repair” dominates the chapter (30x)- to make strong or firm. Looking particularly at the gates, we see the plan God has given to Nehemiah (2:18) to make strong and firm His dwelling place - Jerusalem.   And while the accounts of Nehemiah are historical, the realities they “mirror” and the truths they point to are very real and significant.   These truths go beyond the rock walls of an ancient city.