Daily Bible Reading Plans to help you read and understand God’s Word

Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 3:1-32, Isaiah 58:11-12, Hebrews 6:7-12

I was just a high school cheerleader whose only interests were football players and glitter hairspray when I landed a job at T&G Constructors. With cheer curls and back flips as my only skill set, construction was a less-than-obvious field for me to pursue. 

In reality, my friend’s uncle owned the company and I needed a job, so I found myself sending and receiving purchase orders for materials that construction workers needed to complete jobs. 

I didn’t know anything about what I was buying, but the boss was really passionate about his work and felt compelled to teach me the ins and outs of things like rebar and acoustical ceilings. Reading Nehemiah 3 today felt a little like listening to the speeches he gave me about the orders I was placing for drywall.

Nehemiah 3 is very tempting to skim over if you’re not into construction logs. It’s a lot of names and a lot of details that can seem cumbersome and boring at first glance. But if you slow down and think about what you’re reading, you’ll notice how beautiful it is that each name and each assignment and each gate represented a small piece in the big picture of what God was doing. 

It was not glamorous or exciting. It was tedious. It was laborious. It was obedient. It was beautiful.

They rebuilt the Sheep Gate, the gate through which the sacrificial animals would enter the city—the place where the lambs came through, the ones offered up to atone for sin. What a beautiful foreshadowing of the ultimate Lamb who would later walk through that city to be offered up for our sin: Jesus. 

If your life looks like mine, the exciting or glamorous moments are few and far between. Most days, my serving the Lord looks like what Eugene Peterson called "a long obedience in the same direction.” But even though most of life is little acts like changing diapers, organizing purchase orders, scrubbing burnt eggs off the bottom of pans, etc., all those little things are acts of faithfulness and obedience that can point to and prepare the people around us for Jesus. 

I thought the speeches my boss at the construction company gave me were boring, but they weren't boring to him because he was involved in the projects at the job sites from beginning to end. He knew what an order of rebar meant; it meant there would be a beautiful mansion built at the end of the job. 

Similarly, Nehemiah gives us details that point to a bigger picture that we get to be part of thanks to Jesus. We are all called to serve in small ways. In small moments. Building gates. Working on walls. And God uses those moments for His Kingdom. What an honor to place a hinge on a gate for the Savior to walk through. 

Written by Scarlet Hiltibidal