Above the Horse Gate the priests repaired, each one opposite his own house. After them Zadok the son of Immer repaired opposite his own house. After him Shemaiah the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, repaired. (Nehemiah 3:28,29 ESV)
Hands
I usually attempt to ‘learn’ one language every year. Recently, I am working on Icelandic. But I admit to a dramatic disconnect between my language study and reality.
I never advance to the point of speaking, let alone fluency. I rarely advance to the point of easy reading. I even forget, after a little time, the new alphabets. Other than a broad better understanding of my own native tongue, my studies do not seem to be practical, useful, or planted in reality.
For the world, knowledge is often disconnected from practical reality. Thus, folk complain about the years spent knee-deep in ‘useless’ algebra. Thus, folk complain about the time invested in impractical English grammar. Thus, folk complain about being forced to learn obsolete skills like typing, long division, and tying shoelaces.
But Christians know something about knowledge. Done right, it is always practical. Knowledge, true knowledge, both comes from God, and can lead to God.
Some Christians are accused at times of being so heavenly-minded that we are no earthly-good. If that is a fair criticism, it is only because we do not comprehend the great blessing we have of true knowledge.
The third chapter of Nehemiah describes the physical labor of rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall. We might expect that God would have set up a comfortable division of labor… priests doing ecclesiastical things, scribes doing intellectual things, muscled-folk doing physical things… but that is not how God sets up the society of returning exiles.
Instead, while there are priestly, administrative, and intellectual asks, everyone got their hands dirty. Everyone had regular connections between their minds and their hands. Everyone had regular connections between their hearts and their hands. Everyone had regular connections between their souls and their hands.
Jesus, did not graciously arrive merely to save souls, as eternally grand as that is. He also came to redeem and repair every aspect of creation, including the physical. He came to save our minds, hearts, souls AND hands.
We are peculiar, God keeps us planted in practical reality.