“I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “‘In this way may God shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out and emptied!”’ At this the whole assembly said, “‘Amen.”’ And praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.”
~ Nehemiah 5:13
Hi James and Ellen,
Is there an ‘elephant in your home’? If there is an ‘elephant in your home’, what is it that your dad, ma and/or you know about that your dad, ma and/or you do not want to talk about. When your grandpaa was in Thailand about two months ago with the September 2007 World Race team, your grandpaa was able to spend three to four days with each one of the four September 2007 World Race squads. When your grandpaa arrived in Ratchaburi – which was where the squad was staying that had picked the name of seven:eleven as their squad name, your grandpaa was told by a couple of the seven:eleven squad members that a day or so before he arrived there that someone on their squad had finally gotten up the nerve to talk about the ‘elephant in the room’ that was causing consternation in their squad. The seven:eleven squad leader used meetings to find out how the guy and gals who were in his squad were doing, to make squad decisions, to . . . your grandpaa had asked the seven:eleven squad leader not long after his squad came together in Gainesville, Georgia – which is where the September 2007 World Race was launched, when he noticed that Marcus was calling a lot of meetings with his squad, to stop having so many meetings. Your grandpaa knew that Marcus’ squad would become annoyed with him if he kept on wanting to have meetings. The ‘final straw’ that had your grandpaa telling Marcus to please stop having so many meetings was when Marcus called a meeting during the time that he had been tasked to do an activity with his squad. Marcus had used the time that the seven:eleven squad was to use for an assigned training assignment to meet with his squad to talk about something that he was thinking about. Your grandpaa had taken Marcus and his squad in a van to a site where they were to do a training assignment. Your grandpaa – in spite of the fact that he needed to do other things, had hung out for a couple of hours near the site area where Marcus and his squad were expected do their assigned training assignment. When your grandpaa got back to the site, Marcus was meeting with his squad. When some of the participants on Marcus’ squad decided to get coffee at a nearby place, your grandpaa had to wait even longer before being able to take Marcus’ squad back to where the guys and gals who had been accepted to go on the September 2007 World Race were staying – which was on the grounds of Adventures In Missions. Even though the one other guy and the gals who were on the six member seven:eleven squad had not wanted to have so many meetings, the one other guy and the gals on the squad did not want to hurt Mark’s feelings by telling him that he was irking everyone on his squad by always calling meetings.
After Nehemiah began reconstructing the wall that surrounded the city of Jerusalem, opposition – an ‘elephant in the room’, showed up to discourage and intimidate Nehemiah and the guys who were rebuilding the wall that had once protected the city of Jerusalem – that had been demolished about 140 years or so earlier by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army when the army from the country of Babylonia overran and captured the land area of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. Even though Nehemiah was the Babylonian king’s cupbearer or winetaster, Nehemiah’s life passion had been was to go to the city of Jerusalem to take on the task of rebuilding the razed walls that once guarded the city of Jerusalem. The Persian king – who was King Artaxerxes, gave Nehemiah that opportunity. It took Nehemiah just 52 days – after having made a plan and following the plan, to repair the walls that surrounded the city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah would remain in the city of Jerusalem for another 12 years as the governor of the city of Jerusalem. After Nehemiah was called back to the country of Babylonia to his old job of being a winetaster, Nehemiah was able to return a number of years later to the city of Jerusalem for another stint of being the governor of the city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah made decisions that guys and gals could comply with. Nehemiah was not after fame or glory. Nehemiah conveys in his Nehemiah Diary that he only wanted God honored and glorified.
What Nehemiah recorded in his journal – in Nehemiah 5, exemplifies how Nehemiah resourcefully took on the ‘elephant in the room’ discouragement that he discovered existed. When Nehemiah found out that his Jewish bro compatriots who were living in the city of Jerusalem had become so financially challenged that they were having to mortgage their properties, borrow money at exorbitant rates and sell in the slave market their own kids just to make ends meet, Nehemiah told the wealthy Jewish guys who were causing these hardships to stop it – to stop charging high usury or interest fees on loans and to give back to their original owners the fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses that they had taken. The wealthy Jewish guys who were living in the city of Jerusalem were getting richer as they were making the poor Jewish guys poorer who were living in the city of Jerusalem. When Nehemiah realized what was taking place and even though he could have as the governor of city of Jerusalem levied a tax or fee on the wealthy guys and fed a lot of the poor guys, gals and kids, Nehemiah did not do that. Verse 13 in Nehemiah’s diary says, “I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “‘In this way may God shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out and emptied!”’ At this the whole assembly said, “‘Amen.”’ And praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.” Nehemiah expected his fellow countrymen to keep the promise that they made. Even though an ‘elephant the room’ exists to cause angst, your grandpaa believes that God – when He is asked to do it, will gladly slay any an ‘elephant in the room’ for you.
Nehemiah 5 (871)