Building with One Hand, Fighting with the Other

When Nehemiah got to Jerusalem, he did something sneaky. In the middle of the night, he rode around on a donkey looking at all the broken walls. He didn't tell anyone what he was doing. He wanted to see how bad it was first.

Then he called all the people together. 'Look at this mess! Let's rebuild the walls! God will help us, and the king said we could do it!'

Everyone got excited. 'Let's do it!' they said. Families started working on the parts of the wall near their houses.

But some mean men named Sanballat and Tobiah didn't want the walls fixed. They started making fun of everyone.

'Look at those silly people! Their wall is so weak, even a little fox could knock it down!' they laughed.

Nehemiah prayed, 'God, these people are being mean to us. Please help us!' Then everyone kept working even harder!

The wall got halfway done! But the mean men got even meaner. They said, 'We're going to come fight you and stop you!'

Nehemiah prayed again. Then he put guards all around to watch for bad guys. Some workers were getting tired and scared.

Nehemiah had a smart idea. 'Half of you keep building. The other half hold swords and spears to protect them!' So that's what they did!

The builders held their hammers in one hand and their swords in the other hand! Everyone was ready to work AND ready to fight if they had to.

Nehemiah told them, 'Don't be scared! God is great and awesome! He will help us!'

They worked from when the sun came up until the stars came out. Everyone worked together. Nobody gave up!

Even when people are mean and try to stop us, we can pray to God and keep doing what's right. God helps us finish what He wants us to do!