Fight for Your Family The Threat

Fight for Your Family

The Threat

Starting a family is an amazingly, wonderful thing

The expectation, the joy, the bond is indescribable

As amazing as giving birth and starting a family is

History reveals sorrows and pain as the family is attacked

Nehemiah warns the families of Abraham that there are plots to destroy the family

He says in Chapter 4, Verse 14 of Nehemiah   

"Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

What does it mean to “Fight for your family”?

What are we fighting?

How do we build a wall of protection?

The Threat

The Book of Nehemiah is about the people of God.

They are families, decadences of Abraham.

Families grow and as they

grow changes take place.

Abraham lived to be 175 years.

 That time seems short as we

look back these past 4000 years.

Never the less, the impact of his life and the

promises God made to him concerning his

family still impact the world today.

Abraham by faith looked

for the promises of God.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:8-10

God promised a land, a city built by God.

We see his family lived in Egypt as slaves.

Wandered in the wilderness

under the leadership of Moses.

They entered the promise land…

 But the glory of the city they built

and the temple they worshiped in

 was destroyed.

The family of Abraham was again taken into

bondage in Babylon and lived there 70 years.

  

1500 years after Abraham, God started to bring

Abraham’s family back to the Promise Land in 520 BC.

They started by rebuilding the temple under Zerubbabel.

  

Then Ezra arrived in 458 BC to

reestablish the Word of the Lord.

In 445BC, Nehemiah arrived to rebuild the wall.

The Wall, the protection around

the city, around the family.

The wall that once made a separation

and served as protection was in rubble.

Nehemiah came to rally the people

together to rebuild the wall.

 But in rebuilding the wall came resistance.

Nehemiah establishes three lines of defense.

Those who will build the wall.

Soldiers who will fight off the enemy.

And trumpet blowers to watch for the enemy

and sound an alarm for all to join in the fight.

Family…

We are all a part of a family

with a long list of members.

A man and a woman from two different

families have come together

making a new branch of family.

This has happened on an average of

every 20 years going back to the start

of the first parents, Adam and Eve.

Starting a family is an amazingly, wonderful thing.

The expectation, the joy, the bond is indescribable.

As amazing as giving birth

and starting a family is…

History reveals sorrows and

pain as the family is attacked.

Nehemiah warns the families of Abraham

that there are plots to destroy the family.

He says in Chapter 4, Verse 14 of Nehemiah…

   

"Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord,

 who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers,

your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

What does it mean to…

 “Fight for your family”?

What are we fighting?

How do we build a wall of protection?

Scripture Reading

Nehemiah 4:12-23 NIV

12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."

13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.

16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.

19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!"

21 So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. 22 At that time I also said to the people, "Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and workmen by day." 23 Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.