Free On This Foundation by Lynn Austin Page A

Nehemiah followed the official from the throne room, feeling light-headed with joy and astonishment. Had Moses felt this way when the waters of the Red Sea miraculously parted for him? The gracious hand of the Almighty One had done this! He had answered Nehemiah’s prayers.

    Nehemiah worked steadily in the weeks that followed, making all the arrangements for his journey: a caravan to transport the supplies he would need; the official letters of authorization with the king’s seal; the military escort; and the details of the long trip itself with regular stops along the way. The distance from the Persian capital to the Promised Land was about one thousand miles, and he calculated that if they averaged twenty miles a day, the journey would take fifty-five days. After adding an additional eight days for resting every Sabbath, he concluded that it would take him sixty-three days to reach Jerusalem. But even as he planned and prepared, Nehemiah continued to wonder what he would find when he arrived. Were any sections of the wall salvageable, or would he have to begin with new foundations? Where would he find building stones and tools and workers? He knew he would have to build quickly, before Judah’s enemies had a chance to sabotage his efforts or send a negative report to Susa and try to halt construction. Once the king sealed his decree it couldn’t be rescinded, of course, but a king could issue a second order to cancel the first one’s effect—as King Xerxes had done to halt the slaughter on the Thirteenth of Adar. Or what if a new king came to power before Nehemiah had a chance to finish Jerusalem’s wall? Persian monarchs had a long, bloody history of power struggles and intrigues.
    In spite of all these worries, Nehemiah could barely contain his excitement. The Almighty One had faithfully answered Nehemiah’s prayer and granted him much more than he had dared to imagine. He longed to share the good news with someone, but who? There was no one. And besides, the fewer people who knew about his mission the better. It would be disastrous if news of it reached Judah before he did.
    Late one night when Nehemiah lay in bed too excited to sleep, a new thought occurred to him. After all these years, after a childhood that had ended much too quickly and sorrowfully,might he finally find meaning in the loss of his parents on that long-ago night? Was it possible that the Almighty One had used the pain he had suffered to shape him into the man he’d become—and that the pain had prepared him for this very purpose?
    For the first time, Nehemiah could think of his parents and accept consolation for their loss.

Chapter
7

    D ISTRICT OF B ETH H AKKEREM J UNE
    T he sun hadn’t risen yet above the surrounding hills as Nava stood with her parents and two brothers in their wheat field, surveying their crop. The stalks looked dry and spindly, the kernels small compared to other years. Nava remembered wheat crops so thick she could barely push her way between the stalks, their ripe heads drooping beneath their weight. But this drought-stunted crop would be very small in comparison. Abba broke off one of the ripened ears and tasted it, chewing slowly. Nava couldn’t bear the suspense. “Is it good, Abba? Is the wheat ready to harvest?”
    He nodded. “It’s ready.” But the expression on his weather-wrinkled face betrayed his worry and disappointment. The whole family had risen early to avoid the summer heat and were waiting to begin. As soon as Abba pronounced the crop ready, he and Nava’s brothers began making their way across the field with their sickles, cutting the ripened stalks and laying them on the ground. Nava and her mother followed behind, tying the stalks in bundles with pieces of straw. Bending over in the field all day was backbreaking work, but practice had taught Navahow to quickly tie the sheaves without scratching her hands on the brittle stalks. She was