This is the Bible Book Club, the book of Nehemiah.

Welcome to the club.

Last episode in chapter 6 and 7 of Nehemiah, the Israelites finished the wall in just 52 days, despite a lot of opposition.

Then the tables turned.

With the successful completion of the wall, the opposition was afraid because they could see the hand of God at work.

But of course, that did not stop them.

The opposition continued with the help of Tobias' family connections who happened to be Jewish.

The ongoing flow of insider information only made Nehemiah more cautious.

He had two people he could trust his brother and another that he put in charge of guarding

the gates to Jerusalem.

That protected them from the likes of Tobiah.

Then Nehemiah turned his attention to another building project.

He needed to rebuild the population in Jerusalem. Without people and priests, the city and temple were at

risk. That build included a housing project, so he made a list of everyone who had returned from exile,

and he gathered them all in support of the project.

From the time Nehemi heard from his brother about the devastation of his people city,

until the day of the wall's completion was nine months. In the time it takes to give birth to a

child, Nehemiah gave birth to renewed hope for the exiled nation of Israel. The wall itself was finished

in just 52 days and changed the course of the nation. But Nehemiah never stopped after the wall.

He took that hope and built on it. He moved from building the wall to building the city,

and he raised the people's support and the funds to do it. Included in those funds was money to support the priests

who had to live in the city's houses, the priests who would build the faith of the people.

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