Nehemiah was far from home when he heard the news that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down.  It broke his heart and he decided to go do something about it.  He gathered the necessary supplies, and blessed by Artexerxes, the King of Persia, he headed to Jerusalem.

When Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, he didn't just find walls that were broken down.  The walls represented a greater destruction that had come upon the people of Israel.  Not only were they physically vulnerable but they had lost their identity as God's people.  There was civil disorder as people forgot to apply God's law to their marital, family, and social issues and injustice reigned.  There was physical poverty, as the people were not unified and consequently were open to being preyed on by their neighbors.  There was spiritual poverty as the people were ignorant of God's law and sin abounded.  The combined weight of this physical and spiritual poverty left the people of Israel without vision and unmotivated.  Nehemiah's work in rebuilding the walls became a physical symbol of a greater work that God was doing through him to restore once again the identity of His chosen people.

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