Nehemiah 3-4 - Which Walls are We Building?

We've started a sermon series in Nehemiah and this week I'm preaching on chapters 3-4.

As with any other Old Testament text, one of the key questions is that of the hermeneutic that we use. Here in the 21st Century we are not living in the Israeli city of Jerusalem, trying to fend off attacks from our opponents. How, then, do we apply these events of almost 2,500 years ago? What are the walls that we're meant to be building? Are we even meant to be building walls?

Australians have been building walls for a long time. Home ownership (and construction) is deeply embedded in the Australia psyche, as a recent SBS Documentary “The Australian Dream” clearly shows. One of Australia's cult films also shows us how fundamental this “value” is to Australian self-definition…

Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, ²³ to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,