Lawrence and Norma came last Monday evening. The children rushed to give Norma her gifts, and soon the scrumptious aroma of her big three-wick candle was wafting about the room.
Caleb said, “Pretty soon all the smell will be out, because of everyone smelling it so much!”
I arrived to visit her one afternoon--she was in the hospital in Lincoln for two weeks, and we visited her every day--and discovered that when John and Lura Kay had been there earlier that day, they had left a big red Bible story book with her. So I sat down to read her a story.
“Read one about a baby,” she asked me (Dorcas always did love the babies), so I started turning pages to find a story with the requested subject matter.
But the stories didn’t seem to be in quite the order I expected...and all of a sudden I landed on some pages about Nehemiah, and there were good pictures, and that was what I wanted to read.
“Look, Dorcas!” I said, “These are the best pictures I’ve ever found about the story of Nehemiah building the wall!”
I held the book so she could see. Her eyes brightened up. “Let’s read this one!” she exclaimed.
So I did.
Now I will go directly to the verses Robert used in his message Sunday, which were from Chapter 4. You will recall that Sanballat, when he heard about the building of the wall, was “wroth”.
4:1 But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. {When our enemies mock at us, we would do well to remember that it is because they are wroth. And they are not harmless, because they are energized of Satan!}
4:2 And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? {It was true; there were not many Jews; they looked feeble. But God has chosen the weak things of the world (us--the Christians) to confound the wise!} will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? {implying their efforts would not last long} will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish {some of the stones were nothing but crumbled bits--in the original, ‘rubbish’ means some of the stones were pulverized.} which are burned? {Sanballat was wise enough to only ask lots of questions. Remember that the very first thing Satan said to Eve was in the form of a question! Questions from the enemy can cause many doubts in a Christian’s mind.}
{The stones are typical of the Christian, and also of God’s precepts. And these stones had fallen... been broken... needed to be built back up again, and repaired--just as wayward Christians do, sometimes, and just as our foundations need to be kept in repair, so that we can build on that which will not fall.} {We are sometimes vessels broken in the potter’s hand...broken; but, nevertheless, the master can use us.}
4:3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite {A descendant of Ammon! And Sanballat was a Moabite. They were descendants of Lot’s illegitimate sons. Those who are our worst enemies are sometimes of our own bloodline. Gesham the Arabian (another enemy) was a descendant of Ishmael.} was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall. {Tobiah the servant was not quite as wise as Sanballat; he was bold enough to make an out and out statement. Statements can be proven wrong; questions not so easily. But remember the verses in Song of Solomon, “Give us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines”? Sometimes it is a series of little things that is the undoing of a group of believers. The Israelites would have done well to have taken heed to that statement of Tobiah’s.}
4:4 Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:
4:5 And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders. {Quite a prayer! Not many Christians believe such a prayer is right.}
4:6 So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work. {They ‘had a mind to work’! Oh, that we would be the same. It takes work to build the wall, and it takes work to keep it in good condition. Of course, the wall speaks of our separation. Separation from our enemies, and from the world and all their evil ways, is our protection.}
4:7 But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites {Ashdodites! Look! A new enemy has been added! Yes; enemies multiply.}, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth,
4:8 And conspired {To conspire means to plan secretly. So how did Nehemiah know what they were doing? There must have been a spy in the enemy camp! In Chapter 2, verse 19, we are caused to suspect that there was a spy in the Israelite camp, because it says Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem heard it--that is, they heard of Nehemiah’s plans. But now, it seems, someone is spying on them. Works that way! haha!} all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.
4:9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night {they were constantly vigilant, and so must we be}, because of them.
4:10 And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed {the cause of this decay is sometimes physical--remember what Paul said about Timothy, to the Philippians in chapter 2, verse 30: “Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life.” But sometimes the decay is because of spiritual backsliding.}, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.
4:11 And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. {This is one of their weapons against us: to creep in among us, pretending to be our friend; but really they are out for our harm. Troublemakers in our midst will always try to ‘cause the work to cease’.}
4:12 And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times {ten times! We should be so persistent!}, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you.
4:13 Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. {When such discouragements and troubles come upon us, we should not faint; we should fight back!}
4:14 And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the LORD, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses. {A reverential fear of the Lord will virtually eliminate fear of man.}
4:15 And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work. {Most enemies, even when they are the stronger, prefer not to fight against people who are prepared to fight back, tooth and nail. Nearly all bullies are cowards!}
4:16 And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.
4:17 They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. {The Christian has a dual job: he must work for Christ, and he must war against Satan. To effectively do either, he must do both.}
4:18 For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me. {We would not get very far without watchmen. And all of us are qualified to be a watchman--to warn others of impending harm, of places where the enemy might ensnare him. The Christian essentially has three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil.}
4:19 And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another.
4:20 In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for us. {If we all stick together, God will be beside us, defending us, helping us, directing us!}
4:21 So we laboured in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.
Now, back to my story about Dorcas: I told her that the Social Service people would probably be coming. And I said, “You don’t have to talk to them. Whether they are nice or not, you don’t have to talk to them.”
Dorcas was normally a friendly child, willing to talk to anybody. So I really did not know what would happen when the SS people came; I rather suspected Dorcas would be charmed into talking. Not that I was worried about her story, but I really detested the SS Department, and I knew they would try their best to trip us all up, and say that one story did not match another. I knew they would twist our words to make them mean something we did not say. And I was in no mood to be polite to them.
I told Dorcas, “The Social Service people are just like the Israelites’ enemies: they hate us, and they hate to see the wall being built--they hate to see our families growing, and they’d like to put a stop to it. (You’d be surprised how many nasty remarks were made about the size of our family--and back then, we only had five children!) (And, as always, plenty of spiteful comments were made about our church, and our beliefs, too.) Nehemiah refused to talk to them (6:3) and so should we.”
Well... the story of Nehemiah did the trick. The SS people DID come... but that little four-year-old, otherwise so very friendly, refused to talk to them, except for one line (we were told this by a wonderful, kindly nurse Dorcas had): they asked (in a very sweet manner, of course) if her mother had had anything to do with her burned feet.
And Dorcas, unable to keep still a minute longer, said loudly and forcefully, “NO! She is a nice Mama! YOU are the ones who are mean and horrid! And I won’t talk to you!”
And with that, she rolled over and turned her back to them, and nothing they could say would make her turn around again. The nurse said they bribed her with all sorts of things... but she wouldn’t budge. I was rather amazed.
Then, to our great relief, the doctor and nurses all vouched for us, and the SS Department suddenly decided they wanted nothing more to do with us.
When the school children came in, their mouths began watering, because Victoria was toasting herself a sourdough muffin (a girl after her mother’s own heart). Soon all six toaster slots were full, and the sound of clattering saucers and butter knives filled the air.
I finally arrived at the last load of clothes. Well, uh, that is, the last load of clothes for a couple of hours, anyway. Before I knew it, that very evening, there was another big pile--three loads worth or more. The audacity of the people in this house!
The littles watched an old, old video of Rin Tin Tin, the very film Larry and his brothers and sister watched when they were very young. The quality is poor, much poorer than it was when they saw it in the 60s. In the middle of the film, Larry came home from work and Teddy came home from horn practice. They both collected their suppers--chicken and vegetable egg rolls--from the kitchen and came out to the living room to join the rest of the family as they watched the video. Larry sat down in his recliner, and Teddy seated himself in his favorite chair.
At the very same time, they each picked up an egg roll and took a bite. And then they both made the same face at the same time--a face that clearly stated, oOoooooOOooo... bleah. What’s this?!!
hahaha I hadn’t realized Teddy looked so much like Larry, until they both rumpled noses and curled lips at the same time! hee hee
Computers can be troublesome things, can they not? A short time ago, I wrote a note to a friend, thought I dialed up... and thought the post went sailing off in the proper direction... But I only just now discovered a window that had popped up (it was buried behind half a dozen other windows I had running) telling me my computer did not know any such server as megapotato, and would I please reconstructure my desk chair. Something on that order.
One afternoon we were picking up things in the living room.
“Put your shoes away,” I said to Caleb.
He absentmindedly picked up his jacket and wandered off down the hallway. I have often noticed that when the children are having or have recently had troubles with asthma, they are much more scatterbrained.
“Hey, come back, you little ginkhead!” I called. “That’s your jacket, not your shoes, and where are you planning to put it, anyway?”
He stopped and gazed blankly down at the jacket in his hand. He giggled. “What’s a ginkhead?” he asked.
“It’s a person with a weatherball for a head,” I told him.
He giggled more. “Oh, Mama,” he said. He pondered. “Well, I think it’s somebody who isn’t thinking what they’re doing!”
Wednesday afternoon it was so nice, Victoria and I went for a walk and didn’t even need sweaters or jackets, either one. Hester and Lydia were sick, and stayed home from school. Caleb got sick and came home fifteen minutes early at the end of school. And later, Victoria’s stomach hurt. So I stayed home with the four youngest that night. Larry and I had a debate over which one of us should stay home. I had the upper hand, because he’d stayed home all day Sunday. (I say the upper hand, because both of us were leaning toward staying home, on account of not being up to power ourselves [“up to power”: something an old friend of ours used to say], although we would both go, if the children were all going.)
So he got out one of those dollar coins that the post office spits out by the gallon, and which we are prone to give to people in lieu of quarters, and which they are prone to pocket, putting a quarter into their drawer in its place [yes, that really happened to me], and he said, “We will have to flip a coin. Heads, I stay home; tails, you go to church.”
{Think that through carefully, now.}
I foiled things, however, by rushing at him before the coin made it into the air, yelping, “LOOSE MONEY! LOOSE MONEY!” -- and he snatched it off his thumb and crammed it back into his pocket before he wound up a dollar poorer.
Larry took a nap before going to church. I woke him up at the last possible minute (or so I thought, although later it was determined that I had awoken him a couple of minutes past the last possible minute) to tell him he’d better shower and go. So he, calm as ever, sauntered off to the shower. The water ran...and ran...and ran...and ran...and ran...
He eventually exited, and went into our room to put on his suit. Finally, when I was getting highly concerned over the speed with which the clock was traveling, compared to the speed at which Larry was traveling, I rushed into our room to see what was taking so long--and there he stood, suit and tie on, calmly cleaning his fingernails.
“YOU HAVE TO GO!” I exclaimed, trying to speed him up with a panic-struck voice.
He serenely started on another nail, and then looked up at me. “Well, I was afraid I’d make someone else sick, if they saw my fingernails,” he explained.
He eventually moseyed out the door...and I do hope he got himself into the church, seated and collected, (well, he’s always collected) (almost always), in time for the first song. I declare! That man! Reckon he’ll be late for his own funeral?
I am now reading to the children about Moses going back to Egypt from the back side of the desert to bring the children of Israel out of that country and into Canaanland. The story of Baby Moses--when his mother put him in the little basket made of bulrushes, and held together with ‘slime and pitch’--a kind of mud that made the little ark waterproof--I can hardly read that to the children without shedding a tear. I love that story. I guess it's because, once you have had a baby or two get to three months of age, you realize what an anguish it must've been to that dear mother, Jochabed, to put her precious baby in the little 'ark', and trust God to save his life. And to think that she was then able to care for her own little baby--and even got paid for it! God rewards the courage of His children well, doesn't He? The other Israelites were not so courageous; they went right ahead and obeyed Pharaoh, throwing their babies into the River Nile. Sooo... what reward did they get?
I have now finished Hester’s dress, cut out a dress for Lydia, and gotten it halfway completed. It has an ivory satin skirt with a ruffle that swoops up in an inverted V at the side front, and an ivory silk jacquard top that will be partly covered with mint green lace. There is a mint green lace peplum with its own edge, and a mint green satin belt and bow. It will also have mint green satin piping at the neck.
Oh, hahaha... the children are watching “Little Women”... (for once, a video that is true to the book) ... and in the kitchen is Larry, who’s just arrived home from work, and is collecting his food...
And Professor Bhaer is singing a beautiful old German song in full vibrato while he accompanies himself on the piano, and Larry, from his post in the kitchen, has launched into a full tenor vibrato, singing along with him--but he was trying to eat at the same time, and quite choked himself. He gathered himself back together again, and warbled, on exactly the right notes, right along with the singing Professor, “OhHHhhh, I cho-o-o-o-ked on my cheese brea-ea-ea-ea-d, ooOHhhh-HHHhh-hhh-oo-oooo--ooo!”
That night, we washed the Suburban and then went off to the Super Wal-Mart in Norfolk with all the children from Joseph on down. As we left town, Caleb announced that he had decided not to go to sleep, because he might miss out on some good food. And sure enough, we stopped at UnSmart Foods before leaving Columbus, in order to get some snacks to eat on the way.
I trotted through one side of the store with Caleb and Victoria, collecting carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cheese, and juice; while Larry, Joseph, Hester, and Lydia trotted through another part of the store collecting Kudo bars (sort of like granola bars, only more like candy), chocolate milk, and gum.
Back in the Suburban, after everyone had a granola bar and some chocolate milk (you see what they like best), I passed out the gum.
Caleb took a piece of that nasty bubble gum, said, “Somebody was chewing on my gum before I was, ’cause it’s all hard.”
Joseph, who was sitting in the middle seat faithfully relaying all the funny things that were issuing forth from the third seat, said in a high-pitched (for him), woebegone voice, “But I gave him a brand-new stick!”
So Larry explained, “Store employees do that with gum; they chew it, flatten it back out, and put it back in the wrapper.”
Caleb stopped chewing. “Whairsh by wrapper,” he said, trying not to let his gum touch the insides of his mouth, a feat that is probably only possible in outer space.
Victoria, unconcerned, soon needed another piece--“because now my gum’s little.”
I looked at her, and she, realizing the request was about to be denied, hastily reconsidered: “But it’s still pretty strong.”
Some time later, she tried a piece of broccoli, and then a carrot. “This,” she said, referring to the carrot, “is lots better than that,” meaning the broccoli “because I like this better.”
For the most part, the jaunt was a Shoe Excursion; we bought eight pairs. Several styles were only $5.00 a pair. Victoria got a pair of white, one of pink, and another of shiny maroon. Lydia got two pairs just like Victoria’s, pink and white. We could only find one nice pair for Hester; hers are blue, and have an inch-and-a-half heel, with which she is of course pleased.
Joseph and Caleb each got a pair of black shoes. Now, I realize that that looks like we are prejudiced toward the younger ones--especially the girls--but really, it was just the luck of the draw, that’s all.
Hester still needs white shoes. There were white shoes we could have picked from--if we wanted shoes that weighed half a ton, and had a six-inch heel and a two-inch platform and heels as big around as a fence post. I held up a pair of white sandals with a good deal more substance to the sole than the uppers, and told her she would be getting a bargain, if she got those, because they would serve a double purpose: if a thug accosted her, she could simply jerk off her shoe and thwack him over the head, and there he’d be then, stretched out dead cold. Totally harmless.
Her opinion of the shoes did not improve.
I bought material for two skirts to go with suit jackets Hannah and Dorcas gave me, white fabric for Victoria’s dress that will go under the purple dress Hannah crocheted of thread, and lots of lace for Lydia’s dress and Victoria’s, too.
Hester made a couple of small navy doilies. She showed them to me as we drove along.
Victoria, looking on, remarked, “Is it a doily, instead of a spider, like Dorcas’, when she started doing it wrong?”
The funny thing is, Dorcas’ doily that didn’t turn out quite right really did resemble a spider.
Victoria oohed and ahhed over her shoes--especially the maroon ones--all the way home. She put them on her hands and held them up, admiring them in the illumination of the sidelights in the back of the Suburban, and she discussed at length which dresses would best match those shoes.
“What color did you say these were?” she queried. “Macaroon?”
Teddy’s idea of a nice warm day was not quite the same as Victoria’s and my idea of a nice warm day. Brrrrrr! It was downright cold! Lucky for me, I had on a too-big sweater, with too-long sleeves; so I pulled the sleeves down over my hands, tucked them under, and there I was then, with a pair of matching mittens, utterly too-too. Fortunately, I’d put a little hat on Victoria, and she’d brought her blanket, so she didn’t freeze. But we cut our walk shorter than expected, because our noses were threatening to suffer severe cases of frostbite, and we were both quite fond of our noses, and did not wish to do them harm.
Hannah came visiting Saturday night while Bobby was practicing at church. Keith and Esther came afterward, bringing Keith’s new suit so I can alter the pants. They need to be made smaller at the waist, which is pleated, and they also need to be hemmed, and Keith wants cuffs. Esther said she had already taken in a pleated skirt that day, and had nearly pulled her hair out over the ordeal, and didn’t have enough hair to spare on anything else. haha I said that Keith, knowing I had sewn part of Hannah’s dress a week earlier, decided I could jolly well sew something for him, too!
Keith went into my bedroom, put on the pants, and then came walking out with those britches pulled clear up to his armpits, belt buckled tightly, shoulders hunched over, feet pointed out. Oh, if he didn’t look totally ridiculous. haha
Sunday’s sermon was about blind Bartimæus, who sat by the highway side begging.
The story is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Robert read most of it from Mark), and is a perfect type of an unsaved person who receives salvation and then follows the Lord.
- He was blind = He didn’t understand.
- He heard = Faith comes by hearing.
- He didn’t know what all the noise (of the multitude) meant = Even the wise of this world don’t understand the things of God; it just sounds like a lot of ‘noise’ to them.
- He asked = “Let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and it shall be given him.” (James 1:5)
- He cried for mercy and was promptly rebuked by those around him = The minute people start a real search for God, they are often immediately hindered.
- Jesus commanded him to be brought unto Him = We are incapable of coming to Jesus on our own. If His saving grace does not bring us, we are without hope.
- The crowd told Bartimæus it was Jesus of Nazareth, but Bartimæus called for “Jesus, thou son of David!” = Bartimæus recognized Jesus’ lineage and deity.
- He cast away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus = We must cast aside our ‘garment’--all the ways about us that keep us from answering Salvation’s call; we must ‘rise’ (above ourselves and our sinful ways); and we must go to Jesus. It is only His mercy that chooses us...but He leaves our will intact, and we have responsibilities we must carry out--our side of the bargain, per se.
- Bartimæus asked for sight--understanding; it was given him, and he promptly ‘followed Jesus in the way’ = When we repent (turning away from our sins, and then asking the Lord to save us), if our salvation is real, we will immediately follow Jesus, no matter where He leads.
Well, that wasn’t all, of course, but that was the main part.
Yesterday, Joseph cut his hand, right between the thumb and the index finger, on the saw blade of his pocketknife. He had just discovered his pocketknife in some remote corner of the house, and was happily walking back to his room with it--and it was open, of all things--, when he bumped it on the doorjamb. And of course it shut on his hand.
I declare! That kid! We are trying to keep the hand wrapped, so the cut will heal. If he moves his thumb at all, the cut has a tendency to separate. It could use a stitch or two, I suppose; but if he is careful, I think it will be okay.
Time for a Sunday afternoon nap! This letter will simply have to wait. I am sleepy. Falling asleep, in fact.
Larry isn’t sleepy at all... He’s just plain asleep. (We learned that bit of scientific logic from Victoria.) (Although she does contradict herself at times, saying such things as, “I slept for soooo looong!--That’s why [she means ‘because’; she often gets ‘why’ and ‘because’ mixed up] I was sooooo sleepy.”)
* * *
Sunday evening, and the letter continues:
All three items were passed unanimously.
Tonight’s sermon was from Nehemiah 5. This chapter starts out rather sadly, because, for the first time, the work on the wall is ceased... and it is because of trouble amongst the Jews themselves--trouble between brethren. Opposition from all their foes--Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabians, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites--did not stop them; but trouble among themselves effectively halted the work. Just so it is with us. We are well able to stand against exterior foes, and have done so time and time again. But arguments, fights, and bad feelings between brothers have the potential of ruining the church.
When the people--and even their wives--(5:1) came to Nehemiah with their complaint, he said (vs. 6), “And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.”
Now, you will recall that in Chapter 4, Sanballat was ‘wroth’ when he heard that the Israelites were building the wall. In verse 7, it says that when the enemies heard that the breaches began to be stopped, they were ‘very wroth’.
So right there you see the difference between the wicked and the righteous: the wicked are angry when the righteous separate from them (build a wall), and when they are being edified, or built up, in the faith. Any progress of the righteous infuriates the wicked. The righteous, on the other hand, are angry when the poor are oppressed. Quite a disparity, isn’t it?
Well, Nehemiah called them all together and talked with them, telling them exactly where they were wrong. Contrary to popular belief, that did not mean he didn’t love them. Just the opposite: he loved them dearly. In Leviticus 19:17 it says, “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.” So, when people come to talk to us about our faults and errors, it is not because they hate us. No, exactly the other way: it is because they love us. (Of course you know I am referring to those who talk to us as they should--as it says in Galatians 6:1: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”)
Thankfully, those Israelites who were in the wrong repented, and restored to their brethren all they had taken from them wrongfully.
And in the very next chapter we see that they finished the wall! Robert’s sermon stopped at verse 13 of chapter 6…but just look at the rest of chapter 5, and chapter 6, too. Oh, I love this story! I love how every little detail applies so perfectly to our lives, right now, today. Yes, it truly is the Living Word!
Till next week…
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