The surrounding enemies were successful in slowing the pace of the work without releasing an arrow. But the leaders in Jerusalem masterfully employed a brilliant strategic plan to combat the threat. In addition to arming themselves, they used every waking hour to work on the project, employed their vigorous young men to do the “heavy lifting,” took maximum advantage of the half-built but now connected wall, organized around family ties, created an alarm system using a trumpeter, and stayed positive with the rallying cry, “God will fight for us!”
So we kept doing the work with half of them holding spears from dawn until the stars came out. (Nehemiah 4:21, Legacy Standard Bible)
There’s an old saying regarding perceived strength to win out in a fist fight, “I can take you with one hand tied behind my back.” With God at their side, this was precisely Nehemiah’s mindset, although in theory he was cutting his productivity in half with half the people standing guard. So he used every available hour to do the work.
At that time I also said to the people, “Let each man with his young man spend the night within Jerusalem so that they may be a guard for us by night and a worker by day.” (Nehemiah 4:22, LSB)
Another essential in the plan was to strategically employ the “young men” or “servants” in the effort, utilizing their strength and vigor.
The meaning of the Hebrew word na˓ar for “servant” here does not denote a “slave” or a performer of low duties. These men carried important documents, were trained in the art of warfare, and even gave counsel to the king.1
Another tactic was bringing those outside the wall into the “safe” confines of the wall at night.
So neither I, my brothers, my young men, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes, each took his weapon even to the water. (Nehemiah 4:23, LSB)
Undergirding all this was committed and omnipresent leadership. Nehemiah toured the project nightly on horseback it would appear, and soldiers in full battle array stood behind the workers. See verse 16 below.
And it happened that from that day on, half of my young men carried on the work while half of them took hold of the spears, the shields, the bows, and the breastplates; and the commanders were behind the whole house of Judah. (Nehemiah 4:16, LSB)
Since the workers on the wall were separated from each other, there was cause for anxiety given the circumstances. Nehemiah solved this issue by using family ties (verse 13), trumpet alerts (verse 20) , and this rallying cry: “God will fight for us.”
“At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, there gather together to us. Our God will fight for us.” (Nehemiah 4:20, LSB)
1Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). In Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Vol. 1, p. 299). T. Nelson.
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