02/21/2026
Nehemiah 1:1-11
Nehemiah’s story begins far from Jerusalem and more than a century after the Jewish people were first displaced by exile (around 450 BC). In the Persian capital a thousand miles to the east, Nehemiah serves in the royal court. When news arrives that the walls of the city that once surrounded his people’s life together are in ruins, he understands that the news is both structural and revealing. In the ancient world, walls existed because peace and trust were elusive. The dilapidation of Jerusalem’s walls exposed how vulnerable and fractured the people of God remained.
Nehemiah’s first response is embodied grief. He weeps, fasts, and prays for days. Scripture often shows that God’s work of renewal begins with our awareness of need. We cry out, and God hears. Nehemiah knows his heart must be restored before his hands can begin the work, so his prayer is deeply communal. He confesses the sins of Israel as his own and remembers God’s faithfulness.
As we begin Lent this Wednesday, we prepare the church in a similar way. We confront what is worn down in us and turn again toward God’s mercy. We slow down for forty days of both individual and communal reflection. Nehemiah’s broken walls revealed how fragile the people had become, but reading with our historical hindsight, we know that rebuilding them will not permanently restore stability. The deeper need was—and is—shalom, the wholeness of life with God. Only God makes a community secure from the inside out, and as Nehemiah reminds us, our participation in that work should begin with the courage to grieve and the humility to pray.
