Day 138: February 27, 2026 – Nehemiah 1-7

I have to admit that I was not super familiar with this story but we were given a sneak preview in Chronicles which talked about Nehemiah being sent by the king and starting to rebuild the temple and the walls. So this is the story, we find a prophet of the Lord who was a cupbearer of the king whose heart was broken because Jerusalem was in complete disarray. He could not manage to imagine that he was living in Babylon in basic comfort while the walls of Jerusalem were in disarray and the city itself was razed to the ground. He asked the king for permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls and the city and the king gave him permission.

This story is about him gathering all of the Jews who were still in the region and rebuilding the walls of the city. Now, as you can imagine, those who were not Israelites in the region saw this as a threat to their well-being, but since Nehemiah was sent by the king of the land there was not much they could do about it. We see the Nehemiah succeeds in building the walls, even if he has to keep a sword by his side.