444 BC and 1958 AD

Do you ever remember having to answer an exam question or an essay question that began, ‘Compare and contrast…’ and which then gave you two events or two periods of time, or the like, to consider? I was never very good at those but here goes anyway...

God has myriad ways of calling people to something new - something which will alter the direction of their lives - and if we compare the way that it happened in biblical times, with the way that it happens in our own ‘modern’ times, we often find that the two are not dissimilar.

The two I want to look at in this post both involve God showing a person a seemingly intractable situation and that person just knowing they are being called to address it.

Back in 444 BC, Nehemiah, a Jew who had been born in captivity and had never been to Judah, was going about his daily duties in Susa, the Persian capital, as cup-bearer to King Artaxerxes. It was a fairly undemanding but nevertheless senior position. All had not been going well back in Jerusalem with the Jews who had previously been allowed to return – bulletins from the province spoke of hostility from the Samaritans, disagreement among the Jews, long periods of inactivity on the building projects, a breakdown in the rule of law and a lack of religious zeal – and when some Jews arrived in Susa, from Judah, Nehemiah made a point of asking them for news. They said to him, “The remnant there in the province who survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”

Their words had a devastating effect on Nehemiah – if he hadn’t realized, up to this point, the degree to which his own heart’s desires were tied up with the state of his homeland, he definitely knew it now. He reports his reaction in the following words: ‘As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.’

In 1958, David Wilkerson was pastor of a small church in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, where he was seeing slow but steady growth and where he and his family had (in his own words) ‘a very predictable but satisfying life’. 350 miles away in New York City, a place that David had never been to, things were not going well. Increasing numbers of teenage kids were getting caught up in gang culture and, as well as doing irreparable damage to their own lives, the gangs were disrupting the way of life for whole neighbourhoods. Great trouble and shame had also recently come upon a particular group of people - some members of a street gang, called the Dragons, had attacked and killed a fifteen year old boy in Highbridge Park and they were now on trial.

Back in Philipsburg, David Wilkerson was pacing his study late one evening, trying to pray. Finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate, he picked up a copy of Life magazine and turned a page. He reports his reaction as follows: ‘At first glance, it seemed that there was nothing on the page to interest me. It carried a pen drawing of a trial in New York City. I had never been to New York and I never wanted to go. I started to flip the page over. But as I did, my attention was caught by the eyes of one of the figures in the drawing. A boy. One of seven boys on trial for murder. The artist had caught such a look of bewilderment and hatred and despair in his features that I opened the magazine wide again to get a closer look. And as I did, I began to cry. What’s the matter with me! I said aloud, impatiently brushing away a tear.’

For Nehemiah, it was the start of an incredible adventure, that saw him appointed Governor of Judah for 12 years, during which the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt, God’s law was re-introduced, temple worship was restored and enemy factions were removed from the scene.

For David Wilkerson, it was also the start of a 12-13 year adventure to New York, that saw him begin street ministry to teenage drug addicts and gang members, establish recovery programs and set up evangelistic ministries to young people of all backgrounds, aimed at preventing them becoming involved in drugs, alcohol and violence.

Both Nehemiah and David Wilkerson moved away from their respective battlegrounds for a time, only for God to call them back there later because there was more work for each of them to do. In David’s case he remained in New York for a further 25 years until his death in 2011.