Nehemiah chapter 3 teaches lessons about the power of community. Here’s a great one: spend plenty of time with people who value the family.
Verse 10 says, “Adjoining this, Jedaiah son of Harumaph made repairs opposite his house.” Verse 23 then mentions Benjamin and Hasshub making repairs in front of their house. And verse 28, describes priests making repairs, “each in front of his own house”.
What Nehemiah is allowing to occur here is tactically brilliant. Nehemiah understands something about human nature: that if we perceive there is a benefit in something for me and my family, then we’ll work all the harder at it.
The Pilgrims found out this lesson the hard way. Their first year in Plymouth, they kept a common store; all the food that was grown belonged to everyone equally. And they nearly starved to death under that system. Raw socialism – taking from each according to their ability, and giving to each according to their need – sounds noble at first glance, but it just doesn’t work, because it diminishes our individuality by making us just a cog in a collective. Worse yet, it diminishes our drive to exercise responsibility by stripping us of the motive of self-care, which is not to be confused with selfishness. We’re to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
The next year, the Pilgrims decided to tap into the power of self-care and free-enterprise. This time everyone was allowed to keep a portion of the crops for themselves and their families. And they reaped a bumper harvest that blew out their storehouses.
Then it’s insightful that in verse 12 Nehemiah describes how Shallum repaired a section of the wall with “the help of his daughters.” Ladies, I understand it if you feel a little short-changed by the fact that he doesn’t give the daughters’ names. But let’s give Nehemiah his props here and take what we can get from the fifth century B.C.. And what we do get with the Jewish people back then is a people who placed incredible value on the family.
Thanks to Jesus Christ, we have an opportunity to belong to a surrogate family.
The family matters. Where you came from matters. Who your parents were matters. What they taught you. What they spoke into your life. So many of the wounds we carry with us through life are wounds suffered while growing up with our families. So much of the life-change that we need has to do with the healing up of those wounds. Is such a healing even possible? If you never had a father who gave you the sort of love and validation your soul longed for, where can you ever find another father?
Welcome to Christianity. Because of Jesus Christ we have the opportunity to get to know a Heavenly Father who invites us to climb up into his lap and be his sons and daughters. Not only that, but thanks to Jesus Christ, we have an opportunity to belong to a surrogate family that can help us find some of that healing. A surrogate family called ‘the church’.
Stay close to a community that values the family, and the life-change you are seeking might be closer to reality than you think.