Like adopt-a-highway signs that indicate a certain group is taking care of this section of the road, various families took on the task of repairing sections of the gates and the walls of Jerusalem. “The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate; they laid its beams and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars” (Nehemiah 3:3). “Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah repaired the Old Gate; they laid its beams and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars” (3:6). (Don’t you wish your parents had given you a classy name like one of those?)

Although their names are written down in the Bible, hardly any of these people seem familiar to us – Uzziel the metal-worker and Hananiah the perfumer (3:8), Shallum and his children (3:12), Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah (3:13). Yet it’s easy to imagine that they felt proud of their work, and therefore felt pleased to be remembered on Nehemiah’s list of workers.

Nevertheless there were opponents who mocked them. Sanballat ridiculed their efforts (4:1), and Tobiah offered the sneering remark, “That stone wall they are building – any fox going up on it would break it down!” (4:3). This bothered Nehemiah severely, to the extent that he prayed that God would hold his enemies’ sin against them: “Do not cover their guilt, and do not let their sin be blotted out from your sight; for they have hurled insults in the face of the builders!” (4:5).

I get that. It’s easy to hate those who hate us. It’s easy to want them to suffer the way they deserve. I’ve done my share of plotting revenge and cherishing anger toward those whose words and action have hurt me. But we are all sinners, needing the grace of God. I need God’s forgiveness just as much as anyone else does.

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You are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, O Lord, and you have shown us your mercy again and again, so far beyond what we could ever imagine. Teach us to believe that your grace is big enough for all the sinners: for us and for our enemies, too.

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