The Work Before The Work

Nehemiah records the last historical events of the Old Testament, carrying the history to about 430BC with the prophecy of Malachi being recorded soon after. Some 70 years after the Babylonians captured the people in Judah a group of 50,000 jews returned under Zerubbabel to rebuild the temple (Haggai & Zechariah). Ezra the scribe lead a second group roughly 80 years later to institute spiritual reforms (Ezra). Nehemiah will go back about 13 years after Ezra. The book of (Esther) fits somewhere between the two. This was written by Nehemiah to record how God used him to lead a group of people from captivity to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He gives us the theme of “Rebuilding." But, anyone who has ever started a project knows that there’s a whole lot of work that happens before the actual work happens. Understanding the project, asking for help (me for sure), being prepped & ready - the work before the work