Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Saturday, December 15, 2012 Read – Nehemiah 6 & 7:1-4 The story about the struggle to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem comes to a conclusion in these chapters. The wall is completed. Perhaps now life will be better. But that is not to be. The resistance of others continues. The struggle goes on. Nehemiah now goes on in the same way that the book of Ezra did to list the returned exiles. This listing is used to give legitimacy to the people. If your name is not on the list you don’t belong. The problem of discerning the balance between inclusion and exclusion is not an easy problem to solve. We might learn something, both in a positive and in a negative way from the book of Nehemiah.