Deployed: Encouragement While Serving In Harm's WaySample

Voluntold

We have a word in the military that’s used quite frequently… voluntold.  It’s being asked to volunteer to do something you don’t want to do.  It’s one step before being ordered to do it. Take out the trash and clean up your spaces.  Go to a meeting to cover down for someone else.  Deploy to the sandbox, leaving your family and friends for months to a year.  Having no choice in the matter, you suck it up and do it.

Today’s chapter in Nehemiah 11 features Jewish men who were voluntold to live in Jerusalem after the city laid in ruins from years of enemies destroying it.  They were recent Jewish exiles coming back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city after their leader, Nehemiah asked them to help.  

These exiles were not quite ready to live in Jerusalem as it was still being rebuilt.  They had been rebuilding the walls so that invaders wouldn’t destroy the city again. However, they found it easier to live in the outlying towns and villages instead of the heap of rubble that was Jerusalem.  

The city still needed to be rebuilt.  Vineyards and gardens needed to be planted.  Homes needed to be constructed.  People were required to work in the temple.  The only way to get these volunteers was for the leadership to cast lots, an ancient way of rolling dice to see who got picked for a task.  

“Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every man to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns.”

Nehemiah 11:1

Have you ever been voluntold to do something?  Has God ever asked you to do something that you don’t find necessary?  You can always bet that if He asks you to do something, no matter how small, it has great importance to Him.  The great preacher Dr. Charles Stanley said when it comes to God, obedience brings blessing.  Are there blessings you are missing out on because you don’t want to do something? Maybe you need to be voluntold!

Questions:

1.  Have you ever been told to do something?  How did you handle that?

2.  What are some blessings that come from obedience?

3.  What might God be asking you to do that you haven’t done?