Over Letters Serve As A Bridge Between Your Resume And The Specific Job To Which You: Fill & Download for Free

i find myself lucky to work as a web dev intern at a startup company in denmark. some of my tasks were kinda testing. testing websites after dev. so maybe this answer might help you as i can try to give you an overview. it was like a few years ago when i was in my third year of btech. i would say it depends upon the situation. there are a lot of factors - your current situation, which company you apply for- startup or established, what do you study, which year you are in, how much time you can spent being absent in college, interview process, hr structure, your limitations- how much you can apply and where do you break down, who is taking your interview, how many rounds are there, are they hiring you just for skills per se, or they are hiring you for your overall personality, which country you come from, are they brave enough to sponsor a visa, have they employed someone before from your country, are you applying for a job/internship, do you know danish or not, would knowing danish be a big deal or not, do they have resources to host you, to pay for your visas, do other team members trust you, do they like how and would they influence the decision who would hire you, do you have resources to survive there, would you able to accomodate in danish culture, would you miss you home …so on there are a lot of other factors.the most important factor for me was to never stop trying and finding the right company. i spent about a few months in beginning of 2014 applying n applying for different countries in europe for internships. one good thing about startup companies and very big companies/corporations is that even if you don’t know danish it’s kinda okay. when i ask my boss today that what led you to select me out of the pool of 15 other candidates you interviewed is the email. it was a letter which was a few pages pages long, showing my skills, knowledge, and feelings about the startup in a balanced way. that letter impressed my boss and he called me for a skype interview. skills wise- i knew a little bit but not like a pro. he was happy and got me in. i applied for my visa in vfs delhi nehru place with the documentation from them and my side. i got the visa stamped. booked my flights. packed the luggage. and yeah this internship was paid so i was able to survive there. also my college supported me during these 4 months. i can also suggest that finding a job directly to denmark right after college might be challenging. as per european union, they have to advertise the job in their locations so as to give preference to their people first. so you might want to step up through easy roles like internship where there is not much competition. then you can move ahead with performance and overall personality.so i mean, if i apply again ever for a position (imagining i am at your place), i would focus on startup companies/small ones in denmark and write them love letters (email) explaining myself, my skills as a conversation that they enjoy. i wish i could help you more. yeah european companies i have found them more transparent as most of them have the list of their employees on their company site. also during my this whole period i put my trust in allah and i consider his help for everything i do/did or will do. (this was a free style write, haha, so ignore any english mistake).below is my detailed experience i mean it can help you motivate and give you more insights.(This is a personal experience with ups and downs. It's mainly for students who are seeking internships and opportunities to give them a boost to never give up and learn everything is possible. It's not a guide but with every section I have tried to write down what you can learn/tips from the things! Have a good read:))The feeling when you are in college and have already failed 4 subjects in your third year, but still you plan to do something challenging. Welcome, that's me, Jamal and this is my story where I made to one of the best countries in the world for an internship. Some college days were missed, waking up late nights and sleeping throughout the days got common. The room becomes your world and you try hard to get the most out of it. It's a living room, it's an eating room, it's a room where you entertain yourself. It was a silent midnight, the table was cleaned, coffee was brewed and laptop was turned on. Now, I could count on my fingertips how much time the laptop would take to load Windows! The noise from the laptop could be hear due to messy heat fan, sometimes the leg got scratched due to an iron piece bulging out of the table. The chair was setup and I got a seat. Often I used to offer night prayers.This continued for a few months after I returned back to India failing an internship interview in the U.K. Interested what happened there. Click here. The passion to travel the world, the passion to know what is abroad, the passion to know what is considered as the 'west', the passion to learn abroad fueled me to follow the procedure eat -> sleep -> rave (work) -> repeat! for consecutive for 74 days. So, clearly my aim was not to score the academics, my aim was not impress people with an honors, my aim was to follow the passion.Days and days passed, sending resumes/CV and application letters to companies abroad became common, somewhat frustrating at a point. Haha, don't think I won't get frustrated just because I am blogging and I am a super human. I am just like a regular human being. I used to use a mixed number to websites to find internships, mostly through Google. Like a usual day, it was 21st April 2014, in the evening, I was on this website www.graduateland.com. (Thanks @Patrick Lund for making such a great website! ;)) I was browsing randomly for internships and saw various internship listings in Europe and applied to all of them. I am not sure how many I applied to, maybe 5 or even 10. Yes, I was applying to a lot of companies and spending most of my time in searching for opportunities online.What you can learn: failure is not anend, it just a bridge between success.When I found my this dream companyThen there was this internship listing with the company name 'Morning Train Technologies ApS' based in Denmark on an island Funen. This was a small web bureau or a web design/development company having less than 5 permanent employees. To my understanding, when I found this listing it was around 5pm on that day. I found this internship just like every other listing at least for the first moment but when I read the description I found it interesting. The description impressed me but when I looked at the skills required, I got a bit sad. It was a web development internship and the skills required seems complicated to me because I just knew the basics. Still, I made my way to apply. I researched the company well, read about their employees, management, history, what they do, their current projects. I started with the cover letter on Microsoft Word but cancelled it because I was in fear that my cover letter might not be read if I would send that as an attachment, so I typed my cover letter in the body of email directly, so, that the reader would have a direct impact. In the email itself I showed my interest, more importantly my passion, my feelings for the company. That's it. I am not sure if I had knew more than 20 percent of the skills they were expecting. After the email cover letter, I had to see the format of resume according to the country's specifications. So, now I got the format of Danish resume which is below: (Danish resume format is a lot simpler than US version :D)RésuméPersonal Data (also include nationality, marital status and work permit)Key CompetenciesExperienceEducationRelevant CourseworkSkill SetLanguagesVolunteer ActivityHobbiesAchievements and ActivitiesWhat you can learn: if you are not a master of skillsets, try to be a master of passion and positive attitude. Now you also know the format of a Danish resume :DI sent the applicationThe great thing is that you don't have to worry about formatting, you just have to list the things in a Danish resume which makes it simple and easy to read. Anyway, now the time is 9:32PM and I was ready to push the email below. (LinkedIn won't allow you view the image in original size, do please don't try read the text in email, I would make separate post regarding it.)So, I had put all my efforts into these lines above. This was the best I could have wrote to impress someone. Just before I hit the button, I could see my heartbeat rising and I was very nervous. I took a deep breath and finally hit the send button.Now, I just had to wait for them to reply me. At this point, I had some expectations but I was not fully confident that I would get a reply. Why? because I didn't had top skills, inviting someone from abroad is a very expensive process which needs time and money both, immigration rules are strict (which now I think is one of the most hyped things today) etc.What you can learn: 1. to decide whether it is a good idea to type a cover letter letter or attach it. If it is not a requirement to attach it, type it. 2. Be honest, say the truth, let your feelings come out, let employers know what you can do for them. Caution: make a balance amongst all these.I got a positive reply ;)But something happened the next day, I got a reply from Karsten Madsen, the CEO of the company. When this email arrived, I was in my college where I was studying Bachelors of Information Technology. My college was United College Of Engineering and Research, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India which was 60 kilometers away from the home. I didn't had the habit to check my emails while being at the college. But throughout the whole day I was there, I was expecting something positive. So I reached home in the evening and checked my email. I noticed an email from the company, my heart started beating faster (due to the reason I had been going through the phase where you receive negative replies and phrases such as "Hi, thank you for applying for this position......This time we have decided to move on with another candidate. .....We would keep your application for x months".) These are the moments where you feel like, it's the end sometimes, you have been failed, you can't do anything. But anyway, not for me, so here is the email I got at 1:25PM on 22nd April 2014:"Hi Anvar,Well I think that is the most time anyone has ever spent on writing about our company haha ;)I like your energy and enthusiasm, so you have granted yourself a skype meeting. It will be in 1-2 weeks from now. I will return with details.Best regards / Med venlig hilsenKarsten MadsenT +45 2781 xxxxEmail: xxwww.morningtrain.dk"I was so happy to read this that for the first time in several months, I felt like I am really so happy from within. I told my mom about this and she gave her blessings to me. I told my family about this and they were so happy for me.What you can learn: a good strategy and an honest approach worked.I replied them but didn't get a replyI replied them at 8:32PM the same day I asked if they needed anything from me like work samples and shown my interest to know more about their company. I didn't receive a reply from them till the next day. There was just one thing revolving in my mind, if you go through failures and failures, admit it or not negative things start coming into your mind. I doubted whether they might have accepted someone else, or no, what is the reason they didn't reply, were they busy? or were they ignoring me? I decided to play my shot again.What you can learn: it's just natural to not to receive a reply within a day or two. So, just be relaxed. Don't be over conscious like me.I impressed them againI observed their website, their SEO and performance with their priorities. I made nice list explaining the problem their website was going through and sent to them. Some of the issues I encountered with from CSS, missing files, meta tag etc. Guess what, I got a reply from the CEO Karsten Madsen in just two hours thanking me for sharing the observations. Then we started getting in touch more often.What you can learn: If you feel there is something wrong, sharing good things (which are economically beneficial) is always a good idea.I super impressed Karsten again by sharing a business planThe fear of losing an opportunity kept me tight and I kept on saying to myself, doesn't matter what happens I have to super impress them. I prayed at nights, sometimes I even cried. I had to see the world, I had to grow, I had to see mountains, meadows, abroad, had to enjoy, had to fly, had to see the skies. I researched around the company services and made a plan how can we offer better services to Danish customers and what we can offer them. I sent my ideas on 25th April 5:41PM and on 5:52PM I got this reply:"I am impressed.Although this is not what we will do - at least not quite like you proposed it. One year ago I would have wanted the same thing, but the strength of our business is our niche, which is web programming, and that is what we want to push further. I am thinking about building a blog or knowledge website that will somehow target customers who needs programming. The SMS idea and some other ideas sounds cool.Thank you for these suggestions, you are wild i like it ;)"I didn't leave any loopholesWhenever I had time, I researched. I came up with an idea of a study app for international students studying in Denmark to give them some tips, an idea of a website for to let the students exchange exam papers. The great thing was I also made prototypes. Thanks to some of the softwares and services I used- subdomains, cPanel, Arvixe hosting, Softaculous etc. I shared these prototypes with Karsten and at last he replied:Hi Anvar, not a bad idea!Here you will find possible schedules for an interview regarding the internship position, please choose on or get back to me if nothing fitsYes, I was waiting for this moment, the moment where I can Skype with Karsten and show my enthusiasm.I replied:Thanks Karsten for the reply very early in the morning. May be this is the reason why the team calls the company as ‘Morning Train’.Second, thank you again for giving me an opportunity to get interviewed at MTT and giving me a chance to get to know each other well.What you can learn: whenever you find time, even 5 minutes, dive into the products, services, history, values, connections to see how you can contribute. Do something practical. This shows you are proactive and you are proving yourself.Finally had the Skype where no skills related questions asked, still no verdict as there were other candidatesBefore starting the interview, I prayed to Allah that everything would be fine. My mother, my family gave me blessings and prayed for me. I had just returned from my college and the Skype was scheduled at 7:30PM. So, I had mere 1-2 hours in between. While returning from college this time, I felt very happy that at last, I can face and talk to the company face to face. Since this was the first Skype interview I was a bit nervous that would I be able to understand their English accent, what if I didn't understand?? Other things, I wore a white formal shirt and used my old HP laptop gifted to me by my elder brother. I still remember the very first lines I said to Karsten, "thanks for giving me a chance to present myself......". During the Skype, I could see the Danish sunny weather and nature. Karsten didn't asked me much, he just gave me a short description what they do, what I have to do, that's all. The company wasn't even bothered about my transcripts and academics, how much subjects did I fail or not. Karsten told that they have other candidates as well for this internship position as well and I have to wait until all interviews are finished to get a final verdict on my selection. I left a thank you email after several hours of the Skype.What you can learn: Why I wasn't tested for my skills? because I had already shown them on a basic level. My average skills + passion to join them was able to counter attack the requirement for top skills. So, only skills are the part of recruitment. Recruiters are also humans and they respect passion!A big hurdle- how I get past through the competitive skills of other candidates?Recruitment is based solely on how can a candidate bring more skills on the desk unless other factors are considered. Naturally, ideas started coming to my mind. There were other international candidates from Europe fighting for this paid internship. There were total 15-20 applications for 3 intern roles. I had 3-4 days to impress Karsten and the company again and put my best possible efforts. I started researching more and more about the prototypes I developed earlier and asked for feedback. I was developing it, improving it and showing it to Karsten. It was just being proactive and never yourself down. I was so nervous on Sunday night that I wrote to Karsten the following:Hi Karsten, just wanted to tell you that as the Monday is approaching, I keep on thinking whether what will be the verdict regarding my selection. I have many expectations bound to your company. Hope everything be good ;)I didn't hear a reply for that day. I again did the same thing, challenged myself, kept on researching, developing, working on the previous projects asking feedback and things.Finally, the company accepted me officially!on 4th May 2014, Karsten emailed me.I know you are excited to know the answer. And since i have made all the interviews i can say that you are onboard the team - congratulations :DNow what was the next step. On 21st May I got my official contact letter. The next step was the visa documents. I was so excited that the same day, I researched out all the information on the process to get a visa or permit. It was really exciting to prepare documents for visa. Now I was happy, I was enjoying.What you can learn: honest hard work paid off. Be honest, work hard from within, It would definitely pay off today or tomorrow!The Visa processOn 27th June, I submitted my visa application to VFS Global New Delhi with contract letter and lot of supporting documents to make sure I get on the first try.I know the girl in pink looks good :D but trust me I didn't intend to cover her. What a postive thinking it was! I had my flight scheduled on 3rd Aug.How I dealt with 4 months of absence at my college?Since I had to be away from my college for 4 months which is more like a semester, I had to talk to the management as I would be missing sessionals, attendance, practicals, classes. There was a HODs (head of departments) meeting going on when I had decided to approach them and see any chance of collaboration. I was a little bit afraid. I had all the documents ready with me- the company contract letter, travel tickets, passport photocopy.The room was full of conversations and moment comes when I asked "May I come in sir?". I didn't get a pleasing reply. This was the moment I felt I might get screwed if anything got wrong. But I kept my confidence and approach one of the HOD at the front, I still remember some of the lines I said at that time. I said "Sir, I have got an internship in Denmark, so I was willing to go for it for 4 months." As I remember I wasn't welcomed and things got wrong or I was unable to speak to them properly. Don't know what was the reason. I left the room and went to my professor Ravi (the one who had supported me always for my passion), he said, "don't worry I talk to them". He went straight forward to them and said "Sir, this student has got an internship abroad and we should send him. It's a big deal." Then the HODs thought for a moment and asked me to come in, they asked me if I have some proof to show I have got an internship, I said that yes I have the contract letter from the company. Then they asked for my travel tickets and visa. I said I have the tickets but not the visa. They asked why? I said "waiting for it to get approved". They asked me to send it once it is confirmed. My professor said "No problem sir, Anvar can send to me". They were like "okay". Everything went okay and then my professor told me "you fool, you should have come with sweets" to impress these guys :DLater or sooner, I was accompanied by my friend, Gautam and we went to a sweet shop to buy some sweets. We brought some good sweets, didn't mind to spent few extra buck if that eases a task :D I had the opportunity to go to the top management of our college through my this friend as he was excited to share this news of mine with them. So, we went there and I introduced myself to her (Mona mam, she professionally is responsible for managing the whole college). She got very impressed with my achievement and the fun fact is that that the HOD whom I tried to negotiate with, was also present there. But this time, he was smiling at me :D We distributed sweets to almost everyone in the college from librarian to reception, from director to principal :)If you have people who understand you and they would definitely back you, things get easier. Our IT department was good and supportive to me, even though I was bad at academics but they knew I am good at something ;) My teacher Ravi sir, Aarti and Archana mam, HODs and college management they were also supportive. Overall everyone including my friends supported me for which I am happy. Just after a week or two, I got my visa confirmed.what you can learn: be nice with everyone in your college, teachers/professors/HODs/management would support you for an absence for your internship or any document work.Finally got my visa approvedOn 23 July within a month as they say, I got my visa approved from the Embassy of Denmark in New Delhi.The problem at Delhi airport(Including so that we students can learn how to handle these situations).I had a flight booked with Aeroflot airlines. I was dropped off at the airport by my brother, mother, sister in law and cute nephew who was sleeping. My mother broke into tears while saying goodbye. Yes, this happens all the time in India. When I approached the airlines counter, a semi-fat Indian lady there at the same asked me for my passport which I shown. She also asked if I had some offer letter, I shown her the contact letter. She asked where I would stay. I said I would stay with my employer since the company arranged that for me. She said "okay, wait!". She calls her manager and I don't know what she tells him regarding me. The manager who was slim, suited, and having a moustache asks if I have college ID card, I said no I didn't have. Then he started explaining things to me that the immigration won't let me go through, I would be stopped and so on. I further told I have a letter from college which states my identity which I can show him if he want. He said "okay", you can go and I made him satisfied with all the information he needed. Then he allowed, and asked the lady at the desk to process my boarding pass. I submitted my two heavy luggages (yes, I got a good deal with Aeroflot) , took my boarding pass, and proceeded towards the immigration. The immigration process was super easy. Nothing asked. The airlines executives earlier seemed a bit worried from me, don't know what was the reason. I didn't want to make myself sad on this great day. So I said to myself, let's go and not to think about that incident again.What you can learn: always carry an official ID card of your college/university while travelling abroad and always carry minor notes of things such as your accommodation address, supervisor contact details so that whenever the airlines staff or immigration asks, You don't have to think about it, but you are like, "here it is, Sir/Mam! and there you go!". Don't be a stupid like me!EXPERIENCE AT A GLANCEThe experience was full of challenges from day 1 like handling the visa documentation, embassy officer, airlines manager regarding small issues, but that was worth to learn and explore something. In Denmark, I lived on an island called Odense which is windy and cold. It was about 12 hours journey via Russia. The route was something like Delhi airport to Sheremetyevo airport to Copenhagen airport to Odense St. I started working the very next day I arrived there. In the company I got an opportunity to work on Web development and team management skills. I worked with other international interns, Paul from Greece and Marius from Romania. Paul taught me a lot of things about Greek culture like fotia me fotia :) (music)They are my very good friends. I also found anew hobby DJing which I used to do on weekends in our house parties sometimes and once in a bar. I got some very good friends like Calle, Georgi, Elena, Ieva, Edgar, Laura, Crille, Annina, Rokas, Peteris, Clemo, Dexter, Aleks, Alexandra, Tony, Daniels, Bjarne, Peter, Ronja, Glory, Liz, Bob, Dimitris, Catharina, Alex, McCullen, Jayi, Dragos, Ulari, Mariah, Irene, Toms, Giota, Tamas, Anturia, Mazvydas, Torben, Marta, Gizem, Mai mi, Rolands.The very first steps in DenmarkIt was a 10-12 hour long flight in total via Moscow (SVO- Sheremetyevo Airport). So from, DEL- SVO- CPH-Odense (by train).My office was located in a small city (Odense) on an Island (Funen) in Denmark. But Odense doesn't have an airport so, I had to travel through Copenhagen which is well know city then to Odense via train. So, having successfully landed at CPH airport, I could see the Danes (the Danish people for the first time). The immigration process was super easy. No questions asked. I wished the office, he offered me a smile and what then, he just stamped the passport. The Copenhagen airport is well connected to the city via metro. I exchanged Indian rupees for the Danish Kroners and I got a very good exchange rate which I was not expecting. Then I proceeded towards the Kastrup Station which is a train station inside the airport to go other cities. I realized I needed a ticket :D, then there were some vending machines but since I had never used one before, so, I was a bit afraid. I tried to use one and it was super easy. Carrying the two big luggage was becoming difficult. With some problems, I happen to reach the train platform where I happen to strike a conversation with two internationals (not sure if they were Danes).They helped me in getting the right train. After a few minutes, the train arrived and I managed to get my luggage inside it. Then I had to find my seat number which I did. People were looking at me surprisingly because they are not used to see a lot of Indians. As I remember there were total less than 100 Indians in Odense city which is also the third largest city of Denmark. During the travel, I captured some photos of nature, farms, wind mills and specially the ØresundBridge which connects the two main lands. So, now I was at the Odense Station and again handling the two big luggages and carrying them via escalator was a bit challenging which I did it anyway. Now I was at the Odense Station and Karsten was waiting for me to pick me up.What you can learn: you can always purchase train tickets ('billet' is a Danish word for ticket) in advance using www.dsb.dk website for your Copenhagen airport to Odense journey. This can also save a lot of money.The first funny dayMy first at the company Morning Train was on 4th Aug, just the next day I arrived here. I dressed formally. As soon as I enter the kitchen/area where the company people used to have breakfasts, I was introduced with my team members, and other people working.I was also told that wearing formals is not a requirement and in fact most of the Danish workers don't do that :D So, that was the first and last time I wore the formal dress. Generally, Indian parents expect their child to wear formals at their office. The first day was easy, but soon we got the opportunity to work on live Danish projects mainly websites.What you can learn: be original, be nice to everyone, take the step to introduce yourself to meet at least your team members yourself and don't wait for them to come and meet you.Denmark at a glance, especially for Indians!Well I got a treat from the company side on my arrival and it was totally Danish food. It was fish cooked in spinach served with rice and sauce. They eat less spicy, simple, fresh food and I liked it. The Danes speak Danish as their first language but they also speak perfect English and governmentoffer free classes for internationals. The houses are mostly hut shaped, detached, low height, wooden with energy efficient technologies. We used to live in a big villa like this. For Indians, the climate there will always be cold because summers for them is like winters for us. Danes loveriding bikes (bi cycles, yes Danes use the word bike to refer to bicycles). The transport timings are accurate by 1 minute so may be a problem for us Indians ;)My team membersI feel like blessed to find such team members Pavlos Isaris from Greece and Marius Vaduva from Romania. Infact, they are my very good friends too. We collaborated on a great level on projects such as website development, SEO etc. I still remember the time we used to play in the kitchen.What you can learn: team members are not just for work, work and work! You need to show your true personality inside your team. Me, Paul and Marius, we had a great bonding because we used to work, play, chat and help each other. So, be great, nice and gentle, be helpful towards them!The new skillsI had the opportunity to learn the demands by Danish customers, the perfection in creating a website, you would be questioned if you even try to add a single grey line after the content ends on a website (Danish culture is highly sophisticated about quality). What they want is a strict requirement. Anyway, I got a whole new exposure to the web world such as WordPress website development, designing website using builder themes, basics of search engine optimization, researching open source solutions, working with e-commerce website, learning Google developer tools.What you can learn: learn skills!!Not just computer, I also happen to learn to cook great noodles which got famous in the office and oftenly I gave treats to people in the office.What you can learn: learn cooking too because you need to be healthy and stay responsible for yourself!!A great momentThe best moment there I receive a call from our CEO in the morning saying "hey Anvar! Our Olufbagersgaard customer wants the project ready before 1 pm today instead of next week. They want to launch it in a reception event today. Can you do it?". My reply "Sure. I will try my best." I relaxed myself andtook a cup of hot black coffee. I did it half an hour before the deadline and rewarded with an appraisal ;)What you can learn: if your supervisor would trust you, you might get challenges like this, but these challenges are just to make you standout!The weekend fun and friendsWithout fun, it's not abroad yet! Yes, I also enjoyed there and happen to make a lot of friends throughout Europe. I also had the opportunity to spent a day with a traditional Danish family where I got so much respect, love, learning about Danish culture! I also went to Flensberg, the top most north area of Germany. Also had the opportunity to get to know the high school, TornBjerg Gymnasium in Denmark. I also represented our Indian food at ESN dinner event with a great team, me from India, two from US, one from Latvia, and last one from Germany.What you can learn: An internship is not just about working and learning on the skills side. It's a complete immersion program of culture, work, ethics, people, places. So, try to balance your work life to enjoy too!The journey back home!That's our team, from right to left: It's me, Marius (team member), Paul (team member), Martin (Project manager), Karsten (CEO), Bjarne (the coding champion). Oops, where is Peter?I felt great to be able to live in such as great country, experience a great culture and its people. It was a complete immersive experience. I returned back to India on 29th November collecting up all the precious memories from back there! What a wonderful experience it was. Thanks to all who made this possible specially Karsten who believed in me, Pavlos & Marius who found a great friend in me, Peter who helped us in understanding marketing, Martin is making us understand planning, Bjare in making us understand coding, my professor Ravi, my college, my family and friends. A lot of my friends ask me, how I actually did it, I say to them, I did nothing, It's Allah who did it all!FINALLY What you can learn: never give up, there is always a way, just try to find it. Don't let your stressed academics come in between your passion!Please feel free to ask or share any views! I like hearing.Denmark- was this my end?- nopes :D, a remote internship from US was awaiting for me!- stay tuned for it!

Visitor Management Techniques and StepsEvery business and organization has visitors. Some just get a few package and food deliveries. Others have customers, vendors and interview candidates streaming in and out all day. How offices manage visitors can be as varied as the organizations themselves. For some, the process of visitor check-in is regimented and formal. For others, handling guests is a fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants affair.Regardless of the visitor management system, there are certain aspects to the process of handling guests that are common across the board. Most are done so quickly that sometimes very little thought goes into the process at all. Each step, however, is important to the functioning of your organization, the safety of your employees and data, the comfort of the guest and -- most importantly -- the overall efficiency of time spent.In this six-part article about the visitor management process, we’ll break down each step of the process, explain why it is important, and give examples of different methods for effectively accomplishing the end goal - great first impressions, productivity and safety.Visitor Management Step 1: Recognizing Visitors and Making Them ComfortableHave you ever walked into a restaurant or other place of business, looked around and had no idea what you were supposed to do next? No one said hello. No sign directed you to “Order at the Window” or “Please seat yourself.” No directory on the wall pointed you to a visitor desk. Most guests in that situation will do one of three things: 1) they’ll wander around awkwardly and watch what other people do; 2) they’ll ask someone for help; or 3) they’ll turn around and leave.This is an obvious failure of the organization to accomplish the first technique of a strong visitor management process: recognizing that visitors will come to your organization and they will need tools to make the initial moments of that visit comfortable and pleasant. We all know it is easier to remember negative experiences. Visitors who feel confused, lost or unwelcome may never want to return, and even worse, may tell others about their treatment.People have an inherent need to be recognized. The first step of recognizing visitors can be easy as saying, “hello”, having a sign that reads “Welcome Visitors” or a welcome screen that informs visitors of their next step. Not every location needs to roll out the red carpet for visitors, but every location needs to acknowledge the visitors who do walk through the door.Every organization has different ways of recognizing guests, and they range from very hands-on and labor intensive, to reception automation. Some methods can be combined for maximum impact.Using People to Recognize GuestsHistorically, the most common method used by organizations to make guests feel recognized was to use people. There are really three types of personnel employed to greet visitors.Dedicated receptionist: The dedicated receptionist’s primary job is to welcome visitors and perhaps answer incoming phone calls. They often have minimal responsibilities outside of assisting guests. The greeter at Wal-Mart has minimal duties beyond saying hello and checking the occasional receipt. In some locations where security is a concern, the dedicated person might be a security guard or a door-person.Semi-dedicated receptionist: The difference between a dedicated and a semi-dedicated receptionist is one of responsibilities. A semi-dedicated receptionist is stationed near the door and expected to greet guests as part of the job description (or, maybe they forgot to mention that part), but also has other responsibilities. Most administrative assistants fall into this category. They are expected to greet walk-in guests, answer phones, and perform other tasks, like write letters, manage calendars, set up meetings, and sometimes accomplish large projects. It is surprisingly hard to resume these other responsibilities after interruptions.Informal/unrecognized receptionist: This is perhaps the least considered visitor welcome method, but is, unfortunately, a very common one. The unrecognized receptionist is often a junior employee with a functional role - human resources, accounting, office management - a person who has their own list of priorities. But in today’s modern office happens to sit in a desk by the door. Depending on the number of walk-ins every day, unrecognized receptionists find themselves interrupting important tasks to help guests find their way. Whether they tell you or not, the unrecognized receptionist HATES IT. They resent the guests and the interruptions and prefer to just get their own work done.Using people to greet guests has the advantage of bringing a personal touch to the welcome process. A warm smile, and a “how may I help you?” can provide the start to a truly positive experience.On the other hand, using people is expensive. You have the direct cost of a dedicated receptionist who is paid primarily to greet guests. Or, if you prefer, you have the high cost of productivity lost for semi-dedicated and informal receptionists. And in the case where you have a less-than-effective receptionist – one who greets people gruffly because they are tired of being interrupted – the cost could be greater in terms of negative attitudes toward your organization.Un-staffed Ways to Recognize VisitorsVisitors don’t always want or need to talk to a person to feel welcome. Organizations can spare employee time and save money by making effective use of the following methods for greeting guests.Automated receptionists: More and more locations are taking advantage of automation in order to greet and assist guests. It is common to see airport check-in kiosks, visitor registration kiosks, informational kiosks in visitor centers and libraries, self-ordering stations at fast-food restaurants. Even just an automated announcement connected to your door - “Welcome, please turn right and proceed to the counter” - tells visitors they are expected and what they are supposed to do. Modern offices are rapidly adopting visitor check-in apps to create strong impressions and improve efficiency.Signage: Prominent signs bridge important gaps for visitors. Posted directories, plaques that identify visitor check-in locations or information desks, and directional signs all help visitors to feel comfortable.Automated receptionists and signage have the advantage of being relatively permanent, tireless, and available 24 hours a day. The cost is far less than paying a dedicated person. Also, as crazy as it sounds, people don’t always like talking to people. Being able to use a kiosk or signage is often preferable to having to ask someone for directions. Signs and kiosks may not be able to deliver the warmth of a smile, but they can direct visitors to the person most likely to give them that smile.Conclusion: The Best WayYou guessed it, there is no single "best way". Rather, the best option to greet guests varies by organization, but all of the most effective methods ensure that the guest is acknowledged, either by a sign or a smile. Visitors should feel welcome, and confident that they can accomplish what they came to do. Using forethought and planning, you can ensure your organization recognizes visitors as part of your visitor management process.Visitor Management Step 2: Identifying VisitorsWhen visitors arrive in your place of work, how do you find out who they are and what their business is? Identifying visitors is an important step in the visitor management process. Once you have this valuable piece of information you can create a great visitor experience. Not having it though could cause you to steer a guest the wrong direction, or allow someone onto the premise who should not be there.In Part One of this series, we described how important it is to simply greet guests and make them feel comfortable. Once this is accomplished, the next step in the process is to determine who they are, what type of guest they are, and how best to meet their needs.Visitors VaryOrganizations have varying levels for how they need or want to greet guests, and it often depends on the type of business that person has come to accomplish. You might be thinking, “My organization doesn’t have any visitors,” but you’d be wrong. Even the most insular of organizations will have people from outside show up from time to time. Consider the following types of visitors:Task-oriented visitors: These include postal workers and delivery personnel, maintenance workers, building and code inspectors. These are people who arrive with a set task that must be done at your location (e.g. dropping off a pizza, painting an office, checking the smoke detectors). They are often paid (or tipped) per task so they will leave quickly once it is complete.Important guests: Prospective and current clients or donors, prospective and current vendors, management visiting from the head office, contacts from a related firm, etc., are all important guests. Anyone who your organization wants to have an ongoing, positive relationship with needs to have special care taken to ensure they feel welcome and are treated accordingly.Casual visitors: These are visitors who don’t plan to stay long do business, but need to know how to get where they are going. Consider hospitals, who have people stop in to visit patients all the time. Colleges have family visiting students on campus. Friends and family of employees also fall into this category; the manager’s spouse might show up to take her out to lunch.Visitor-visitors: This might seem like a no-brainer, but places like museums, hotels, tourist attractions, restaurants, and retail are designed to draw people in and welcome those who may only ever be there once.Starting the ConversationOnce a visitor walks in the door, how do you find out what they need?If you are employing a full-time receptionist to greet people, the logical next step is to ask the person who they are, and what they are there to accomplish. With a person at the door, a simple, “How may I help you?” will start the conversation, though other questions may be needed. Depending upon the security needs of your organization, you might require a guest to show an I.D., fill out forms, create a and explain their business.What happens if the receptionist is busy on the phone when a guest arrives? Or if you don’t have a dedicated receptionist, and the person nearest the door is engaged in other tasks?People aren’t the only way to ask guests what they need. More and more offices are using iPad receptionists to allow visitors to check in themselves, whether they employ a receptionist or not. If the receptionist is tied up on the phone but can pause long enough to point a guest to an automated reception kiosk, the guest can continue the visitor registration process instead of waiting around. Guests of all kinds don’t like to wait and appreciate the ability to be proactive instead of inactive.A reception application might ask the following questions:Your NameThe name of the person you are meeting, if applicableThe purpose for your visitOnce the information is obtained, the receptionist or the kiosk can either direct the guest to the appropriate location, or contact the appropriate person to come meet the guest.Conclusion: This is Mission-Critical InformationUnless they are lost and only walked in to get directions to somewhere else, every visitor who enters your organization is there for a specific purpose. However the person is greeted, finding out the reason for their visit is mission-critical to successfully moving them along on their journey. Your method for identifying them, whether a person or a digital visitor management system, needs to have the necessary skills to politely and effectively gather this key information. Then, they must be intelligent enough to guide the visitor to their next step.Only after you have successfully identified the visitor and their purpose can both your visitor and your organization continue the tasks that keep you in business.Visitor Management Step 3: Signing InDoes your organization require visitors to sign in upon arrival? Every organization and even individual offices within has different guidelines surrounding guests and whether or not signing guests in is part of their visitor management system.In parts of this series detailing the visitor management process, we described different ways to greet and identify your guests. Once you’ve identified which type of person or group is standing in your lobby, it is time to determine how much of the check-in process they are required to complete.Whether or not you have visitors sign a paper or digital visitor logbook will depend largely on the rules or customs of your organization, but there are definite benefits to requiring visitors to check in.Security FirstIn today’s modern world, office security is a higher priority than ever before. Schools, government buildings, large firms and factories all have reasons for knowing who is inside their facilities. And while businesses might like to maintain an open-campus type policy when it comes to visitors, that also makes them less secure.Visitors are wild cards. Security best practices require visitors to sign in, which acts as the first layer of protection from would-be criminals – people who would harm people or steal data – by causing them to have to think twice about leaving a trail of evidence.Many organizations require employees to wear or carry identification that doubles as electronic access keys for buildings. Visitors might also need visitor badges in order to access areas, or simply for identification.A good, secure sign-in process will require, at a minimum, the following information from guests:First and last nameBusiness or organization they represent (if applicable)Purpose for visitingName of the employee, host or contact person they are visitingTo go above and beyond, some organizations might also require:A visitor photograph is taken on site.Signed, or electronically signed non-disclosure agreements or waiversMaking Visitors WelcomeIt might seem slightly counter-intuitive, but having visitors sign in can actually help them feel more welcome. While some visitors may be frustrated by having to jump through hoops, this technique is also a signal that your organization has taken visitors into consideration, and it gives guests the knowledge that they’ve come to the right place. When a guest signs in, they know you are aware of their presence and therefore they are less likely to be left wandering around.Also, if visitor badges are part of the sign-in process, you can train your employees to keep an eye out for those visitors who might need a little extra help. Guests often find themselves lost in an unfamiliar location, especially if your building has a lot of twists, turns and levels. Visitor badges give employees the immediate knowledge that the people wearing them are supposed to be in the building, but may not be familiar with the layout.Who signs in?Not every organization is super-sensitive to security, and maybe not every visitor who comes in will be required to sign in. When thinking about your organization and its security needs, you’ll want to think about what your goals are, and what happens in your visitor management process. In step six of this article, we will discuss the benefits of keeping a visitor registration log that includes all guests, but here are some possible questions to consider.Do delivery personnel need to sign in? Will they go beyond the lobby? If not, then signing in may not be necessary. Or, you may require less information for delivery people.How much access will the person have? Could they see or hear sensitive information or encounter semi-dangerous manufacturing equipment? If so, they might need to sign a non-disclosure agreement or a waiver. Such documents can be handled during the sign-in process with an e-signature app.Does your organization want or need to know who is in the building at all times? If yes, then having every person sign in is important. Some organization may not; perhaps you don’t need to know about the visit from an employee’s spouse or the pizza delivery person.Do you have a skilled dedicated receptionist to help visitors find their way? If the answer is no, then an electronic check-in kiosk has the benefit of both signing in visitors and helping to move them along in the process. Otherwise, they may very well be lost from the start.Conclusion – Efficient Sign-In for Happy GuestsWhatever process you choose for signing in guests, visitors will appreciate any steps you take to make the experience easy. Take the time to plan ahead to determine your security needs and how best to make guests feel welcome. An efficient visitor sign-in process shows your guests that they are not just an afterthought, but rather an integrated part of a well-functioning workplace.Visitor Management Step 4: Contacting the HostWhen any visitor arrives at your workplace, they are there to connect with a person. It might be their host for a meeting, one of the people who receives food or package deliveries or someone they need to consult with. Helping the guest and their host connect is a crucial step in any visitor management process. There is nothing worse than walking into a building and talking to ten different people before you find someone who can actually help you. So how can you make this step seamless?First, of course, you have to ensure you are first greeting guests, if necessary. Upon knowing their purpose, you can determine who they came to see; it may be a specific person, a group of people, a department or even security if they are not wanted at your site.What is a host employee’s job? And what are the mechanics of making sure the host knows their guest has arrived in a timely manner?The Responsibilities of a HostWhen we think of a host, we often think of those who hold a dinner party, house guests or even travelers in their home, like Airbnb. The fact is, whenever an employee has someone come to see them at work, that employee is serving as a host. For however long the visitor is at your organization, that employee is the face of your organization. It is their responsibility to leave a good impression.Here are some basic reception etiquette tasks a host can do prior to a guest’s arrival to make sure their visitor has a good experience:Provide crucial information to a visitor, like their name or their department.Communicate vital contact information, like telephone number, email and office number.Inform the guest of which entrance to use and any sign-in requirements your organization has.If possible, determine a meeting spot with the guest in advance and be there prior to the appointed meeting time.If appropriate, preregister the guest with either your human receptionist or visitor registrationThe Mechanics of Connecting Visitors to HostsHow you connect your visitors to your hosts will largely depend on how your reception area is staffed and what the practices of your organization are, but the mechanics are basic. One of the following things has to happen:Reception notifications via a phone call, text, email or instant message - or several of those - is sent to the host, who comes and meets the guest.The visitor is given directions for how to find the host, either by another person or a posted directory and finds the host themselves. This method can have several unfortunate consequences ranging from lost and frustrated guests to unwanted visitors unfettered access to your place of work.The visitor is escorted by another person to their host.Who Makes the Call and Why it’s ImportantWhile the mechanics are simple, there are multiple consequences that could interfere with how work gets done and the impression guests get from your organization. The pros and cons hinge on whose responsibility it is to contact the host:The Receptionist: If you have an obvious reception desk, then the receptionist handles making phone calls, answering questions, giving directions and escorting guests. While this has the benefit of being great customer service, it also requires a very knowledgeable and personable staff member – and it’s expensive. In a busy office, the receptionist might be overwhelmed by people who don’t follow rules or too many people at once. This could leave your desk without staff, and keep guests waiting. It also prevents the receptionist from accomplishing other work, if necessary.The unlucky person by the door: If you are in a modern office or coworking situation, you likely don’t have a designated receptionist. The unfortunate soul who sits near the door may find themselves constantly interrupted by deliveries, salespeople, prospective candidates and more. They then have to stop what they are doing to use a phone, shout across the room (we hope not!) or guide the guest to the person in question, wasting work productivity in the process.A Digital Receptionist: Having a digital visitor check-in kiosk with a visitor management system can be a simple solution for visitors. It can automatically inform the host of a guest’s arrival via the host’s preferred method. A digital system can be set to contact hosts using email, text, phone, Slack or all of the above. This is especially helpful in the case of unexpected guests, like the flower delivery person sent to bring a surprise bouquet. They simply enter the name of the recipient into the system, and the person is contacted – wherever they are – that they have a delivery. One drawback of a digital receptionist is that it can be quite easy for a visitor to walk right past a kioskPerhaps the most fail-safe method of ensuring that guests and hosts get connected is to have a combination of a visitor check-in app supported by live staff for extenuating circumstances.Conclusion – Get Them TogetherReal-time reception notifications connecting visitors with the appropriate host is vital to getting business done. You want your visitors to feel welcomed, and to leave with the impression that your office has its act together. Contacting their host quickly and efficiently allows everyone to get on with the important job of accomplishing the purpose of their visit.Visitor Management Step 5: Checking OutYour visitor has arrived, been greeted, signed in and has been connected with the appropriate host. When their business at your workplace is complete, what happens? Does your guest just walk out the door? Or is your visitor required to check out?Throughout this series, we’ve been exploring the various steps to a good visitor management system and explaining why some easily overlooked steps and processes can important. Perhaps the most overlooked step of visitor management is visitor checkout. Unless you run a medical office or are in the hotel business, most organizations don’t focus on guests checking out; guests just leave. However, there is one very compelling reason to have guests check out: security.Your Secure WorkplaceSecurity means protecting your people, physical assets and your data. When it comes to securing your workplace from the dangers of onsite visitors, you can’t know if a guest has left your premises unless the guest is required to check out. There are multiple security reasons for a visitor to actively check out of the location.Access: If a guest is given any sort of physical access capability (a key, key card or identification) it must be returned at the time of checkout. If the visitor gives it to the host and just leaves the site, then the host is responsible for returning it, and it is more likely to get lost. If the guest has been given electronic key card access, even if they don’t return the card or item, your system should register that they have left and deactivate access connected to the unreturned key card (like that pile of hotel keys you have).Accurate records: Knowing who was in your facility on which days at which times and for how long can be incredibly important if it is ever necessary to investigate a crime. (We’ll discuss in detail why it is important to keep these records in our final installment in this series.)Visual record: If all visitors are required to check out at the same location (a security best practice), it is easy to station a staff person or a security camera to watch for anything unusual. Strange behavior, unusual bulges in pockets and other visual cues can alert staff to theft or other crimes. If the use of a camera is engaged, it can also provide the physical appearance of a person for identification in connection with a crime – whether that person is a suspect or a victim – and can provide a record of their movements and what they were wearing.Visitor Safety: Imagine if a visitor completed their meeting, accidentally wandered into an unused area and either got locked in or had an accident of some sort. If the visitor isn’t required to check out, how would anyone know to look for them? At the end of the day or at shift changes, it is good practice to review a visitor log and see if anyone is still in the building or has stayed far longer than is normal. (A good host will also make sure to walk a visitor who is unfamiliar with the facility to the exit!)Methods for Checking OutHow your visitors check out will largely depend upon how they check in. If a guest is writing their name on a paper visitor logbook upon checking in, then they might be required to write the time at which they check out next to their initial signature. If you have a large volume of guests checking in and out, this may require flipping through a number of pages and isn’t very efficient. Not to mention that every guest can see everyone else that has visited.If you have a staffed reception desk, the receptionist or security guard may check the visitor out, taking any physical objects, like keys or key cards, at that time. The staff person might be required to update the paper or electronic log, or to ask the visitor to do so.Pointing visitors to an iPad receptionist for checkout is probably one of the most efficient ways to have them check out. This maintains easy-to-search electronic records of the visit. It also gives visitors some active role in the check-out process. It is a signal that their business is complete and they can transition to their next task accordingly.Summary – Checking Out Completes the CircleLast time you went to an amazing restaurant, did you save room for dessert? Never underestimate the value of a great last impression.Checking out of your facility is quite simply the final step a visitor ought to take before leaving your facility. With the stress of business complete, and all parties mentally recapping the visit or moving onto their next activities, it is easy to skip. Yet this important step in the visitor management process gives your organization a measure of security nearly impossible to achieve without it.Visitor Management Part 6: Keeping a Visitor LogWe all love visitors! It’s a chance to move your business or projects forward, to showcase your work or even to take a respite from those!When putting a process to your visitor management system, when a visitor to your organization has signed in, accomplished something amazing - or maybe just had lunch - with one of your staff, and then signed out... Do you keep the visitor log?Over the course of this series, we’ve discussed all the important steps of having a visitor management process. The final piece of an efficient process occurs almost completely outside the visitor’s experience. While the visitor is aware of signing in and signing out, whether or not you keep a record of visitors is completely at the discretion of your organization. There are definite benefits to keeping a visitor log.Why keep a visitor log?There are some distinct advantages to keeping a visitor log. You never know when you might need to reference the information. Here are some possible reasons and scenarios.Visitor Recall: Some employees meet with LOTS of people: salespeople, job candidates in a low unemployment market, vendors crucial to delivering a great product, potential and current clients, maintenance workers and even key staff from other sites. If they had an unfamiliar walk-in visitor and did not get the name or contact information of that person – or misplaced it – a visitor log can fill in the gap. Categorizing every visitors correctly in your CRM database and following up can be crucial for sales and relationship building.Following Up with Visitors: Perhaps you wish to send a message to certain visitors. For example, if you run a service organization, you might wish to send a survey after visitor departs your facility. The insights and data they provide will allow for continuous improvement. Or, perhaps you hosted a grand opening party or Meetup event. You might wish to recap the event to reinforce the good feelings or cause. With a properly built and maintained visitor log you can automate these tasks.Crime Investigation: If you know exactly when a visitor checked in and out of your facility, it can greatly assist with the investigation of a crime. If even the pizza delivery person must sign in and out, but for some reason spent an hour in your facility on the same day property was stolen, that is suspicious. The crime need not even be committed at your organization. If law enforcement is tracking the movements of a suspect or a victim, as in this case, the information of whether they entered your premises could be vital.Digital vs. PaperMost visitor logs are going to be in one of two forms: a paper log that people sign in and out of, or a digital record.In our increasingly digital world, it is hard to believe that paper logbooks still exist. There are a number of drawbacks to paper visitor records.Bad handwriting can make it impossible to read.Unless closely monitored, it is easier for a person to fake entries, in particular, the check-in and check-out times. It is also easy to bypass altogether.They take up a lot of space.They can’t be sorted by name or otherwise easily searched.Digital visitor logs, especially cloud-based, have several distinct advantages over paper logs.They can be sorted by any field, including name, date, time of check-in or check-out, their host’s name or more. All of the visitor’s info is easy to read.They can be searched quickly and efficiently by computer.They take up only a small amount of digital storage space.They can store other records with the log, like non-disclosure agreements and waivers.The time is logged automatically by the electronic device, and therefore the time cannot be falsified.How Long Should You Store Visitor Log Records?When it comes to keeping organizational records, we often fall into two camps.Throw Everything Out: It frees up a lot of physical and mental space. (There is a reason Marie Kondo is so popular.) However, if you throw out records prematurely, you could find yourself needing them for reference; financial audits are the perfect example.Keeping Everything Forever: This can be beneficial when you need to reference information, assuming the records are kept in an organized system. If, however, you keep everything indefinitely AND your system is disorganized, you might as well just take a bulldozer to your files.As is usually the case, the best scenario is somewhere in the middle: you may have reason to go back in the records two, five or ten years, depending on your organization’s needs.If you are keeping paper records, it is likely they will either be thrown out long before this or filed away in a manner that it is unlikely to be retrieved. Digital records can be automatically archived or deleted after a certain length of time. Even if you choose never to delete the records, they take up so little space that keeping them will be no hassle at all.Wrapping it all upKeeping a visitor log, preferably in digital form, is the final step in a comprehensive visitor management process. A guest is greeted, identified, signs in, meets up with the host and signs out. Then, the log of these visits is filed away to the benefit of all the different parties who might have need of them. It is the final link in the chain of a successful visit and an efficient process.You made it! You are now officially one of the world's foremost experts on visitor management techniques!Originally posted by Greetly visitor management system at www.greetly.com/blog/visitor-management-techniques-steps. Reposted with permission.

Who rebuilt the walls of Jericho in the Bible?Early JerichoArticleby Art Ramospublished on 19 SeptemberThe city of Jericho is remembered for the story in the Book of Joshua in the Bible regarding its destruction by the Israelites. Excavations have revealed that Jericho is one of the earliest settlements dating back to 9000 BCE. It also has the oldest known protective wall in the world. Continuing excavations have revealed stone towers which are even older. The reason for its earliest settlements are the springs which are found in and near the city. These springs supply the area with enough water to sustain a large population. We are going to cover the settlement of Jericho from its earliest beginnings until The Battle of Jericho in the Bible.Walls of Jerichoby Daniel Case (CC BY-SA)First SettlementJericho started as a popular camping ground for the hunter-gathers of the Natufian culture dating to 10000 BCE. It wasn’t until the cold and drought caused by the last Ice Age, or Younger Dryas, came to an end around 9600 BCE that year-round habitation and permanent settlements began in the area. Tell es-Sultan (Sultan’s Hill), 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) north of modern-day Jericho, became the earliest permanent settlement. It was a Pre-Pottery Neolithic(New Stone Age) settlement. It is situated on the Ein as-Sultan spring (later called Elisha’s Spring) supplying it with water. By about 9400 BCE the settlement grew to include more than 70 homes. These circular dwellings measured 5 meters (16 feet) in diameter and were built with clay and straw.First SettlementJericho started as a popular camping ground for the hunter-gathers of the Natufian culture dating to 10000 BCE. It wasn’t until the cold and drought caused by the last Ice Age, or Younger Dryas, came to an end around 9600 BCE that year-round habitation and permanent settlements began in the area. Tell es-Sultan (Sultan’s Hill), 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) north of modern-day Jericho, became the earliest permanent settlement. It was a Pre-Pottery Neolithic(New Stone Age) settlement. It is situated on the Ein as-Sultan spring (later called Elisha’s Spring) supplying it with water. By about 9400 BCE the settlement grew to include more than 70 homes. These circular dwellings measured 5 meters (16 feet) in diameter and were built with clay and straw.nd 9 meters (30 feet) wide at the base. The tower had an internal staircase with 22 steps. The only older towers than this one have been found at Tell Qaramel in Syria. It is thought that the wall was used to protect the settlement from flood waters. The tower was used for ceremonial purposes. This suggests that there was a social organization happening in the town. Some scholars believe that the tower was used to motivate people into taking part in the communal lifestyle. Estimates vary on the population with a low of 300 to a high of 3000. At this time the inhabitants domesticated wheat, barley and legumes. It is highly probable that irrigation had been invented to provide enough land for the cultivation of these crops. They supplemented their diet by hunting wild animals.Map of the Levant circa 830 BCEby Richardprins (GNU FDL)The Second SettlementAfter a few centuries, the first settlement was abandoned. Around 7000 BCE, a second settlement was established by an invading people that absorbed the original inhabitants into their culture. It too was a Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement. This new settlement expanded the range of domesticated plants. There is evidence for the possible domestication of sheep at this time. Buildings were rectilinear structures made of mudbricks. Each building consisted of several rooms situated around a central courtyard. The rooms had terrazzo floors made of lime and the courtyard had a floor made of clay. Other advancements include flints in the shape of arrowheads, sickle blades, burins (used as chisels), scrapers, and axes. Also found were grindstones, hammerstones, and axes made of greenstone. Dishes and bowls were carved from soft limestone. The greatest distinction of this culture was that they kept the heads of deceased relatives by plastering the skulls and painting the features of the person on it. These skulls were kept in the home and the rest of the body was buried. This settlement lasted until about 6000 BCE. There is then little evidence of occupation at Jericho for at least 1000 years.Bronze Age & The Fall of JerichoAfter this, new settlements were established in Jericho periodically. These settlements were still Neolithic, but there is evidence that they were producing pottery. It became a walled town again at the end of the 4th millennium BCE. Evidence shows that the walls have been rebuilt many times. The largest of these settlements was constructed in 2600 BCE by the Amorites. About 2300 BCE, there was once more a break in the occupation of the site. It was taken over by the Canaanites in 1900 BCE and reached its greatest prominence between 1700 BCE and 1550 BCE. This was due to the rise of aristocrats that utilized chariots called the Maryannu in the Mitannite state to the north. Their rise caused a greater urbanization in the surrounding area, including Jericho. By this time, there were two walls around the city in a double enclosure made of mud brick. The outside wall rested on top of a stone base. Though they were impressive in size, they were not stable. BronzeAge Jericho fell in the 16th century around 1573 BCE when it was violently destroyed by an earthquake. Charred wood found at the site suggests that the remains of the city were burned. Buried food supplies also suggest that it was not captured following a siege. It remained unoccupied until the late 10th century or early 9th century BCE when it was rebuilt.The Israelites Capture Jerichoby Providence Lithograph Company (Public Domain)The Israelites & The Battle of JerichoAccording to the Bible, at around 1,400 BCE, Jericho was the first city attacked by the Israelites after they crossed the Jordan River and entered Canaan. The Wall of Jericho was destroyed when the Israelites walked around it for seven days carrying the Ark of the Covenant. On the seventh day, Joshua commanded his people to blow their trumpets made of rams’ horns and shout at the walls until they finally fell down. Excavations of the site reveal a network of collapsed walls that date to around the late 17th century or early 16th century BCE. The most likely cause of the collapse was an earthquake. Descriptions of later earthquake destruction (1267 CE & 1927 CE) match the description of the collapsed walls in the Bible. In each description, the cliffs above the Jordan River fell into the river and dammed it up. It also reveals that Jericho was unoccupied from the late 15th century to around the 10th century BCE. Non-Biblical Scholars now believe that the Bible story is an allegory. The story was written sometime after 722 BCE, long after the date of the event, and was used to claim the territory for the Kingdom Of Israel. Biblical Scholars point to the destruction of the walls 175 years earlier as proof that the story in the Bible is true. They state that the only thing amiss is the dating in the Bible and that the earthquake was God rewarding the Israelites for following his commands. According to the Bible, Jericho remained abandoned until Hiel the Bethelite established himself there in the 9th century BCE.EDITORIAL REVIEWThis article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication.Bibliography"Ancient Jericho: Tell es-Sultan". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. 2012.Accessed 1 Dec 2016."Chariot Armies Of The Ancient Near East", theancientneareast.comAccessed 1 Dec 2016."Jericho", Encyclopædia Britannica.Accessed 1 Dec 2016."Jericho", Vassar.eduAccessed 1 Dec 2016.Steven Mithen. After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BCE. Harvard University Press, 2006.TranslationsWe want people all over the world to learn about history. Help us and translate this article into another language!Ancient Coins For SaleRebuilding the Wall of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:1-7:73)Bible Commentary / Produced by TOW ProjectThe first chapter of the Book of Nehemiah introduces the book bearing his name as a resident of Susa, the capital of the Persian Empire. When Nehemiah heard that the walls of Jerusalem were still broken down more than a half-century after the completion of the rebuilding of the temple, he “sat down and wept,” fasting and praying before God (Neh. 1:4). Implicitly, he was formulating a plan to remedy the situation in Jerusalem.Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide (Nehemiah 1:1-1:10)The connection between the temple and the wall is significant for the theology of work. The temple might seem to be a religious institution, while the walls are a secular one. But God led Nehemiah to work on the walls, no less than he led Ezra to work on the temple. Both the sacred and the secular were necessary to fulfill God’s plan to restore the nation of Israel. If the walls were unfinished, the temple was unfinished too. The work was of a single piece. The reason for this is easy to understand. Without a wall, no city in the ancient Near East was safe from bandits, gangs and wild animals, even though the empire might be at peace. The more economically and culturally developed a city was, the greater the value of things in the city, and the greater the need for the wall. The temple, with its rich decorations, would have been particularly at risk. Practically speaking, no wall means no city, and no city means no temple..Conversely, the city and its wall depend on the temple as the source of God’s provision for law, government, security and prosperity. Even on strictly military terms, the temple and the wall are mutually dependent. The wall is an integral part of the city’s protection, yet so is the temple wherein dwells the Lord (Ezra 1:3) who brings to nothing the violent plans of the city’s enemies (Neh. 4:15). Likewise with government and justice. The gates of the wall are where lawsuits are tried (Deuteronomy 21:19, Isaiah 29:21), while at the same time the Lord from his temple “executes justice for the orphan and the widow” (Deut. 10:18). No temple means no presence of God, and no presence of God means no military strength, no justice, no civilization and no need for walls. The temple and the walls are united in a society founded on God’s “covenant and steadfast love” (Neh. 1:5). This at least is the ideal towards which Nehemiah is fasting, praying and working.Does Trusting God Mean Turning to Prayer, Taking “Practical” Action, or Both? (Nehemiah 1:11-4:23)The last line of Nehemiah 1 identifies him as “cupbearer to the king” (Neh. 1:11). This means not only that he had immediate access to the king as the one who tested and served his beverages, but also that Nehemiah was a trusted advisor and high-ranking Persian official.[1]He would use his professional experience and position to great advantage as he embarked upon the work of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem.When the king granted him permission to oversee the rebuilding project, Nehemiah asked for letters to the governors through whose territory he would pass on his trip to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:7). In Nehemiah’s view, the king granted this request “for the gracious hand of my God was upon me” (Neh. 2:8). Apparently, Nehemiah did not believe that trusting God meant he should not seek the king’s protection for his journey. Moreover, he was pleased to have “officers of the army and cavalry” escort him safely to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:9).The text of Nehemiah does not suggest there was anything wrong with Nehemiah’s decision to seek and accept the king’s protection. In fact, it claims that God’s blessing accounted for this bit of royal assistance. It is striking to note how different Nehemiah’s approach to this issue was from Ezra’s. Whereas Ezra believed that trusting God meant he should not ask for royal protection, Nehemiah saw the offer of such protection as evidence of God’s gracious hand of blessing. This disagreement demonstrates how easy it is for godly people to come to different conclusions about what it means to trust God in their work. Perhaps each was simply doing what he was most familiar with. Ezra was a priest, familiar with the habitation of the Lord’s presence. Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king, familiar with the exercise of royal power. Both Ezra and Nehemiah were seeking to be faithful in their labors. Both were godly, prayerful leaders. But they understood trusting God for protection differently. For Ezra, it meant journeying without the king’s guard. For Nehemiah, it meant accepting the offer of royal help as evidence of God’s own blessing.We find signs in several places that Nehemiah was what we could call a “pragmatic believer.” In Nehemiah 2, for example, Nehemiah secretly surveyed the rubble of the former wall before even announcing his plans to the residents of Jerusalem (Neh. 2:11-17). Apparently he wanted to know the size and scope of the work he was taking on before he publicly committed to doing it. Yet, after explaining the purpose of his coming to Jerusalem and pointing to God’s gracious hand upon him, when some local officials mocked and accused him, Nehemiah answered, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success” (Neh. 2:20). God would give this success, in part, through Nehemiah’s clever and well-informed leadership. The fact that success came from the Lord did not mean Nehemiah could sit back and relax. Quite to the contrary, Nehemiah was about to commence an arduous and demanding task.His leadership involved delegation of parts of the wall-building project to a wide variety of people, including “Eliashib, the high priest, [and] his fellow-priests” (Neh. 3:1), “the Tekoites,” minus their nobles who didn’t want to submit to the supervisors (Neh. 3:5), “Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths” and “Hananiah, one of the perfumers” (Neh. 3:8), “Shallum, …ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, [and] his daughters” (Neh. 3:12), and many others. Nehemiah was able to inspire collegiality and to organize the project effectively.But then, just as in the story of the rebuilding of the temple in Ezra, opposition arose. Leaders of local peoples attempted to hinder the Jewish effort through ridicule, but “the people had a mind to work” (Neh. 4:6). When their words did not stop the wall from being rebuilt, the local leaders “all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it” (Neh. 4:8).So what did Nehemiah lead his people to do? Pray and trust God? Or arm themselves for battle? Predictably, the pragmatic believer led them to do both: “We prayed to our God, and set a guard as a protection against them day and night” (Neh. 4:9). In fact, when threats against the wall-builders mounted, Nehemiah also stationed guards at key positions. He encouraged his people not to lose heart because of their opponents: “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes” (Neh. 4:14). Because of their faith, the people were to fight. Then, not long thereafter, Nehemiah added a further word of encouragement, “Our God will fight for us!” (Neh. 4:20). Yet this was not an invitation to the Jews to put down their weapons and focus on building, trusting in supernatural protection alone. Rather, God would fight for his people by assisting them in battle. He would be at work in and through his people as they worked.We Christians sometimes seem to act as if there were a rigid wall between actively pursuing our own agenda and passively waiting for God to act. We are aware that this is a false duality, which is why, for example, orthodox/historic Christian theology rejects the Christian Science premise that medical treatments are acts of unfaithfulness to God. Yet, at moments, we are tempted to become passive while waiting for God to act. If you are unemployed, yes, God wants you to have a job. To get the job God wants you to have, you have to write a resume, conduct a search, apply for positions, interview, and get rejected dozens of times before finding that job, just as everyone else has to do. If you are a parent, yes, God wants you to have enjoyment in raising your children. But you will still have to set and enforce limits, be available at times when it’s inconvenient, discuss difficult topics with them, cry and suffer with them through bumps, broken bones, and broken hearts, do homework with them, ask their forgiveness when you are wrong, and offer them forgiveness when they fail. You don’t get time off as a reward for good behavior such as taking your kids to church. Nehemiah and company’s arduous work warns us that trusting God does not equate with sitting on our hands waiting for magical solutions for our difficulties.Connecting Lending Practices to the Fear of the Lord (Nehemiah 5:1-5:19Nehemiah’s wall-building project was threatened, not just from the outside, but also from the inside. Certain wealthy Jewish nobles and officials were taking advantage of economically difficult times to line their own pockets (Nehemiah 5). They were loaning money to fellow Jews, expecting interest to be paid on the loans, even though this was prohibited in the Jewish Law (for example, Exodus 22:25).[2]When the debtors couldn’t repay the loans, they lost their land and were even forced to sell their children into slavery (Neh. 5:5). Nehemiah responded by demanding that the wealthy stop charging interest on loans and give back whatever they had taken from their debtors.in -&nbspThis website is for sale! -&nbspdebtors Resources and Information. contrast to the selfishness of those who had been taking advantage of their fellow Jews, Nehemiah did not use his leadership position to enhance his personal fortune. “Because of the fear of God,” he even refused to tax the people to pay for his personal expenses, unlike his predecessors (Neh. 5:14-16). Instead, he generously invited many to eat at his table, paying from this expense from his personal savings without taxing the people (Neh. 5:17-18).But Nehemiah tells them that their economic lives are of utmost importance to God, because God cares about all of society, not just its religious aspects: “Should you not walk in the fear of our God, to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies [to whom the nobles had forced the sale of Jewish debtors as slaves]?” (Neh. 5:9). Nehemiah connects an economic issue (usury) with the fear of God.The issues of Nehemiah 5, though emerging from a legal and cultural setting distant from our own, challenge us to consider how much we should profit personally from our position and privilege, even from our work. Should we put our money in banks that make loans with interest? Should we take advantage of perks made available to us in our workplace, even if these come at considerable cost to others? Nehemiah’s specific commands (don’t charge interest, don’t foreclose on collateral, don’t force the sale of people into slavery) may apply differently in our time, but underlying his commands is a prayer that still applies: “Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people” (Neh. 5:19). As it was to Nehemiah, God’s call to today’s workers is to do everything we can for our people. In practice, that means we each owe God the duty of caring for the cloud of persons who depend on our work: employers, co-workers, customers, family, the public and many others. Nehemiah may not tell us exactly how to handle today’s workplace situations, but he tells us how to orient our minds as we decide. Put people first.Nehemiah Gives Credit to God (Nehemiah 6:1-7:73)The external and internal problems facing Nehemiah did not halt work on the wall, which was completed in only fifty-two days (Neh. 6:15). The enemies of Judah “were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem; for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God” (Neh. 6:16). Even though Nehemiah had exercised his considerable leadership to inspire and organize the builders, and even though they had worked tirelessly, and even though Nehemiah’s wisdom enabled him to fend off attacks and distractions, nevertheless he saw all of this as work done with God’s help. God worked through him and his people, using their gifts and labor to accomplish God’s own purposes.Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther and WorkBible Commentary / Produced by TOW ProjectIntroduction to Ezra, Nehemiah & EstherMost Christians don’t find their workplaces very supportive of their faith. Generally, there is limited scope for explicitly Christian witness and action. Moreover, workers may feel pressure to violate the ethical requirements of biblical standards, either explicitly or implicitly. In a pluralistic society, some such limits may be appropriate, but they can make the workplace feel like alien territory to Christians. The books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther depict what it is like for God’s people to work in unwelcoming workplaces. They show God’s people working in jobs ranging from construction to politics to entertainment, always in the midst of environments openly hostile to God’s values and plans. Yet along the way they receive surprising help from nonbelievers in the highest positions of civic power. God’s power seems to crop up for his people’s good in surprising places, yet they face extremely challenging situations and decisions, upon which they don’t always agree.Ezra had to ponder whether to trust an unbelieving ruler to protect the Jewish people as they returned to Jerusalem and began rebuilding the temple. He had to find financial support within the corrupt economic system of the Persian Empire, yet to be true to God’s laws about economic integrity. Nehemiah had to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which required him to both trust God and be pragmatic. He had to lead people whose motivation ranged from altruism to greed, and get them to overcome their divergent self-interests to work towards a common purpose. Esther had to survive both the oppression of women and the deadly intrigue within the Persian royal court, yet remain ready to risk everything to save her people from genocide. Our titles and institutions have changed since their days, but in many ways our workplaces today have much in common, for better or worse, with the places where Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther labored. The real life situations, challenges and choices found in these biblical books help us develop a theology of work that matters in how we live each day.Ezra and NehemiahIn 587 BC, the Babylonians, under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Jerusalem. They killed the leaders of Judah, plundered the temple before burning it to the ground, destroyed much of the city, including its walls, and took the cream of Jerusalem’s crop of citizens to Babylon. There, these Jews lived for decades in exile, always hoping for God’s deliverance and the restoration of Israel. Their hopes were heightened in 539 BC when Persia, led by King Cyrus, overthrew Babylon. Shortly thereafter, Cyrus issued a decree inviting the Jews in his kingdom to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple and, therefore, their life as God’s people (Ezra 1:1-4).The books of Ezra and Nehemiah, originally two parts of a single work,[1]narrate crucial aspects of this rebuilding story, beginning with the edict of Cyrus in 539 BC. Their purpose, however, is not simply to describe what happened long ago out of antiquarian curiosity. Rather, Ezra and Nehemiah use historical events to illustrate the theme of restoration. These books show how God once restored his people and how people played a central role in this work of renewal. Ezra and Nehemiah were written by an unknown author, probably in the fourth-century BC,[2] to encourage the Jewish people to live faithfully even under foreign rule, so that they might be participants in God’s present and future work of restoration.Ezra and Nehemiah are highly theological books, but they do not directly address the theology of work. They do not include legal imperatives or prophetic visions having to do with our daily labors. The narratives of Ezra and Nehemiah do describe arduous work, however, implicitly placing work in a theological framework. Thus we’ll find beneath the surface of these books rich soil from which a theology of work might sprout. In particular, Ezra and Nehemiah were called to restore God’s kingdom (Israel), in the midst of a partially-hostile, partially-supportive environment. Today’s workplaces are also partially hostile and partially supportive of the work of God. This encourages us to work out how our work may contribute to implanting God’s kingdom in today’s world.EstherThe Book of Esther tells the story of one curious episode during the era depicted in Ezra and Nehemiah. It focuses, not on the restoration of Jerusalem, but rather on events happening in Persia when Ahasuerus, better known to us by his Greek name, Xerxes, was king (485-465 BC). The narrative of Esther accounts for the origins of the Jewish festival of Purim. The unidentified author of this book wrote, in part, to explain and encourage celebration of this national holiday (see Esther 9:20-28).[3]His broader concern was to examine how Jews could survive and even thrive as exiles in a pagan and often hostile land.[4]In contrast to Ezra and Nehemiah, Esther is not explicitly theological at all. In fact, God is never mentioned. Yet no faithful reader could fail to see the hand of God behind the events of the book. This invites the reader to ponder how God may be at work in the world unnoticed by those without eyes to see.Ezra and WorkRebuilding the Temple (Ezra 1:1-6:22)The Book of Ezra begins with a decree from King Cyrus of Persia, allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC (Ezra 1:2-4). The introduction to this decree specifies when it was proclaimed: “In the first year of King Cyrus” (539-538 BC, shortly after the Persian defeat of Babylon). It also introduces us to one of the principal themes of Ezra-Nehemiah: the relationship between God’s work and human work. Cyrus made his proclamation “that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished,” and because “the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus” (Ezra 1:1). Cyrus was doing his work as king, seeking his personal and institutional ends. Yet this was a result of God’s work within him, advancing God’s own purposes. We sense in the first verse of Ezra that God is in control, yet choosing to work through human beings, even Gentile kings, to accomplish his will.Workplace Christians today also live in trust that God is active through the decisions and actions of non-Christian people and institutions. Cyrus was God’s chosen instrument, whether or not Cyrus himself recognized that. Similarly, the actions of our boss, co-workers, customers and suppliers, rivals, regulators or a myriad of other actors may be furthering the work of God’s kingdom unrecognized by either us or them. That should prevent us from both despair and arrogance. If Christian people and values seem absent from your workplace, don’t despair — God is still at work. On the other hand, if you are tempted to see yourself or your organization as a paragon of Christian virtue, beware! God may be accomplishing more through those with less visible connection to him than you realize. Certainly, God’s work through Cyrus — who remained wealthy, powerful, and unbelieving, even while many of God’s people were only slowly recovering from the poverty of exile — should warn us not to expect wealth and power as a necessary reward for our faithful work. God is using all things to work towards his kingdom, not necessarily towards our personal success.God’s work continued as many Jews took advantage of Cyrus’ decree. “Every one whose spirit God had stirred” prepared to return to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:5). When they arrived in Jerusalem, their first job was to build the altar and offer sacrifices on it (Ezra 3:1-3). This epitomizes the chief sort of work chronicled in Ezra and Nehemiah. It is closely associated with the sacrificial practices of Old Testament Judaism, which took place in the temple. The work described in these books reflects and supports the centrality of the temple and its offerings in the life of God’s people. Worship and work stride hand and hand through the pages of Ezra and Nehemiah.Given the focus in Ezra upon the rebuilding of the temple, people’s jobs are mentioned when they are relevant to this effort. Thus the list of people returning to Jerusalem specifically itemizes “the priests, the Levites… and the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants” (Ezra 2:70). The text identifies “masons and carpenters” because they were necessary for the building project (Ezra 3:7). People whose skills did not equip them for working directly on the temple contributed to the task through the fruit of their work in the form of “freewill offerings” (Ezra 2:68). Thus, in a sense, the rebuilding of the temple was the work of all the people as they contributed in one way or another.Ezra identifies political leaders in addition to Cyrus because of their impact, positive or negative, on the construction effort. For example, Zerubbabel is mentioned as a leader of the people. He was the governor of the territory who oversaw the rebuilding of the temple (Haggai 1:1). Ezra mentions “Rehum the royal deputy and Shimshai the scribe,” officials who wrote a letter opposing the temple’s reconstruction (Ezra 4:8-10). Other kings and officials show up according to their relevance to the rebuilding project.The temple is what the project was about, but it would be a mistake to think that God blesses craftsmanship and material work only when it is devoted to a religious purpose. Ezra’s vision was to restore the whole city of Jerusalem (Ezra 4:13), not just the temple. We will discuss this point further when we come to Nehemiah, who actually undertook the work beyond the temple.Ezra describes several efforts to squelch the construction (Ezra 4:1-23). These were successful for a while, stopping the temple project for about two decades (Ezra 4:24). Finally, God encouraged the Jews through the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah to resume and complete the job (Ezra 5:1). Moreover, Darius, king of Persia, underwrote the building effort financially in the hope that the Lord might bless him and his sons (Ezra 6:8-10). Thus the temple was finally completed, thanks to the fact that God had “turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them” so that “he aided [the Jews] in the work on the house of God” (Ezra 6:22).As this verse makes clear, the Jews actually did the work of rebuilding the temple. Yet their labors were successful because of help from two pagan kings, one who inaugurated the project and the other who paid for its completion. Behind these human efforts loomed the overarching work of God, who moved in the hearts of the kings and encouraged his people through the prophets. As we have seen, God is at work far beyond what meets the eye of his people.Restoration of Covenant Life, Phase One: The Work of Ezra (Ezra 7:1-10:44)Ironically, Ezra himself does not appear in the book bearing his name until chapter 7. This learned man, a priest and teacher of the law, came to Jerusalem with the blessing of the Persian king Artaxerxes over fifty years after the rebuilding of the temple. His assignment was to present offerings in the temple on behalf of the king and to establish the law of God in Judah, both by teaching and by appointing law-abiding leaders (Ezra 7:25-26).Ezra did not explain the king’s favor in terms of good luck. Rather, he credited God with putting “such a thing as this into the heart of the king” to send Ezra to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:27). Ezra “took courage” and acted on the king’s order because, as he said, “the hand of the Lord my God was upon me” (Ezra 7:28). This language of God’s hand being upon someone is a favorite of Ezra, where it appears six times out of eight times in the whole Bible (Ezra 7:6, 9, 28; 8:18, 22, 31). God was at work in and through Ezra, and that explains his success in his endeavors.Ezra’s confidence in God’s help was tested when it came time for his entourage to journey from Babylon to Jerusalem. “I was ashamed,” Ezra explained, “to ask the king for a band of soldiers and cavalry to protect us against the enemy on our way; since we had told the king, ‘The hand of our God is gracious to all who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against all who forsake him’” (Ezra 8:22). For Ezra, to depend on a royal escort implied a failure to trust in God’s protection. So he and his retinue fasted and prayed rather than seek practical assistance from the king (Ezra 8:23). Note: Ezra was not following any particular Old Testament law in choosing not to receive royal protection. Rather, this decision reflected his personal convictions about what it meant to trust God in the real challenges of leadership. One might say that Ezra was an “idealistic believer” in this situation, because he was willing to stake his life on the idea of God’s protection, rather than to ensure protection with human help. As we’ll see later, Ezra’s position was not the only one deemed reasonable by godly leaders in Ezra and Nehemiah.Ezra’s strategy proved to be successful. “The hand of our God was upon us,” he observed, “and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes along the way.” (Ezra 8:31). We do not know, however, if members of Ezra’s party carried weapons or used them for protection. The text seems to suggest that Ezra and company completed their journey without a threatening incident. Once again, the book of Ezra shows that human efforts are successful when God is at work in them.The last two chapters of Ezra focus on the problem of Jews intermarrying with Gentiles. The issue of work does not emerge here, except in the example of Ezra, who exercises his leadership in faithfulness to the Law and with prayerful decisiveness.Nehemiah and WorkRebuilding the Wall of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:1-7:73)The first chapter of the Book of Nehemiah introduces the book bearing his name as a resident of Susa, the capital of the Persian Empire. When Nehemiah heard that the walls of Jerusalem were still broken down more than a half-century after the completion of the rebuilding of the temple, he “sat down and wept,” fasting and praying before God (Neh. 1:4). Implicitly, he was formulating a plan to remedy the situation in Jerusalem.Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide (Nehemiah 1:1-1:10)The connection between the temple and the wall is significant for the theology of work. The temple might seem to be a religious institution, while the walls are a secular one. But God led Nehemiah to work on the walls, no less than he led Ezra to work on the temple. Both the sacred and the secular were necessary to fulfill God’s plan to restore the nation of Israel. If the walls were unfinished, the temple was unfinished too. The work was of a single piece. The reason for this is easy to understand. Without a wall, no city in the ancient Near East was safe from bandits, gangs and wild animals, even though the empire might be at peace. The more economically and culturally developed a city was, the greater the value of things in the city, and the greater the need for the wall. The temple, with its rich decorations, would have been particularly at risk. Practically speaking, no wall means no city, and no city means no temple.Conversely, the city and its wall depend on the temple as the source of God’s provision for law, government, security and prosperity. Even on strictly military terms, the temple and the wall are mutually dependent. The wall is an integral part of the city’s protection, yet so is the temple wherein dwells the Lord (Ezra 1:3) who brings to nothing the violent plans of the city’s enemies (Neh. 4:15). Likewise with government and justice. The gates of the wall are where lawsuits are tried (Deuteronomy 21:19, Isaiah 29:21), while at the same time the Lord from his temple “executes justice for the orphan and the widow” (Deut. 10:18). No temple means no presence of God, and no presence of God means no military strength, no justice, no civilization and no need for walls. The temple and the walls are united in a society founded on God’s “covenant and steadfast love” (Neh. 1:5). This at least is the ideal towards which Nehemiah is fasting, praying and working.Does Trusting God Mean Turning to Prayer, Taking “Practical” Action, or Both? (Nehemiah 1:11-4:23)The last line of Nehemiah 1 identifies him as “cupbearer to the king” (Neh. 1:11). This means not only that he had immediate access to the king as the one who tested and served his beverages, but also that Nehemiah was a trusted advisor and high-ranking Persian official.[5]He would use his professional experience and position to great advantage as he embarked upon the work of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem.When the king granted him permission to oversee the rebuilding project, Nehemiah asked for letters to the governors through whose territory he would pass on his trip to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:7). In Nehemiah’s view, the king granted this request “for the gracious hand of my God was upon me” (Neh. 2:8). Apparently, Nehemiah did not believe that trusting God meant he should not seek the king’s protection for his journey. Moreover, he was pleased to have “officers of the army and cavalry” escort him safely to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:9).The text of Nehemiah does not suggest there was anything wrong with Nehemiah’s decision to seek and accept the king’s protection. In fact, it claims that God’s blessing accounted for this bit of royal assistance. It is striking to note how different Nehemiah’s approach to this issue was from Ezra’s. Whereas Ezra believed that trusting God meant he should not ask for royal protection, Nehemiah saw the offer of such protection as evidence of God’s gracious hand of blessing. This disagreement demonstrates how easy it is for godly people to come to different conclusions about what it means to trust God in their work. Perhaps each was simply doing what he was most familiar with. Ezra was a priest, familiar with the habitation of the Lord’s presence. Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king, familiar with the exercise of royal power. Both Ezra and Nehemiah were seeking to be faithful in their labors. Both were godly, prayerful leaders. But they understood trusting God for protection differently. For Ezra, it meant journeying without the king’s guard. For Nehemiah, it meant accepting the offer of royal help as evidence of God’s own blessing.Does Trusting God Mean Turning to Prayer, Taking “Practical” Action, or Both? (Nehemiah 1:11-4:23)The last line of Nehemiah 1identifies him as “cupbearer to the king” (Neh. 1:11). This means not only that he had immediate access to the king as the one who tested and served his beverages, but also that Nehemiah was a trusted advisor and high-ranking Persian official.[5]He would use his professional experience and position to great advantage as he embarked upon the work of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem.When the king granted him permission to oversee the rebuilding project, Nehemiah asked for letters to the governors through whose territory he would pass on his trip to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:7). In Nehemiah’s view, the king granted this request “for the gracious hand of my God was upon me” (Neh. 2:8). Apparently, Nehemiah did not believe that trusting God meant he should not seek the king’s protection for his journey. Moreover, he was pleased to have “officers of the army and cavalry” escort him safely to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:9).The text of Nehemiah does not suggest there was anything wrong with Nehemiah’s decision to seek and accept the king’s protection. In fact, it claims that God’s blessing accounted for this bit of royal assistance. It is striking to note how different Nehemiah’s approach to this issue was from Ezra’s. Whereas Ezra believed that trusting God meant he should not ask for royal protection, Nehemiah saw the offer of such protection as evidence of God’s gracious hand of blessing. This disagreement demonstrates how easy it is for godly people to come to different conclusions about what it means to trust God in their work. Perhaps each was simply doing what he was most familiar with. Ezra was a priest, familiar with the habitation of the Lord’s presence. Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king, familiar with the exercise of royal power. Both Ezra and Nehemiah were seeking to be faithful in their labors. Both were godly, prayerful leaders. But they understood trusting God for protection differently. For Ezra, it meant journeying without the king’s guard. For Nehemiah, it meant accepting the offer of royal help as evidence of God’s own blessing.We find signs in several places that Nehemiah was what we could call a “pragmatic believer.” In Nehemiah 2, for example, Nehemiah secretly surveyed the rubble of the former wall before even announcing his plans to the residents of Jerusalem (Neh. 2:11-17). Apparently he wanted to know the size and scope of the work he was taking on before he publicly committed to doing it. Yet, after explaining the purpose of his coming to Jerusalem and pointing to God’s gracious hand upon him, when some local officials mocked and accused him, Nehemiah answered, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success” (Neh. 2:20). God would give this success, in part, through Nehemiah’s clever and well-informed leadership. The fact that success came from the Lord did not mean Nehemiah could sit back and relax. Quite to the contrary, Nehemiah was about to commence an arduous and demanding task.His leadership involved delegation of parts of the wall-building project to a wide variety of people, including “Eliashib, the high priest, [and] his fellow-priests” (Neh. 3:1), “the Tekoites,” minus their nobles who didn’t want to submit to the supervisors (Neh. 3:5), “Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths” and “Hananiah, one of the perfumers” (Neh. 3:8), “Shallum, …ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, [and] his daughters” (Neh. 3:12), and many others. Nehemiah was able to inspire collegiality and to organize the project effectively.But then, just as in the story of the rebuilding of the temple in Ezra, opposition arose. Leaders of local peoples attempted to hinder the Jewish effort through ridicule, but “the people had a mind to work” (Neh. 4:6). When their words did not stop the wall from being rebuilt, the local leaders “all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it” (Neh. 4:8).So what did Nehemiah lead his people to do? Pray and trust God? Or arm themselves for battle? Predictably, the pragmatic believer led them to do both: “We prayed to our God, and set a guard as a protection against them day and night” (Neh. 4:9). In fact, when threats against the wall-builders mounted, Nehemiah also stationed guards at key positions. He encouraged his people not to lose heart because of their opponents: “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes” (Neh. 4:14). Because of their faith, the people were to fight. Then, not long thereafter, Nehemiah added a further word of encouragement, “Our God will fight for us!” (Neh. 4:20). Yet this was not an invitation to the Jews to put down their weapons and focus on building, trusting in supernatural protection alone. Rather, God would fight for his people by assisting them in battle. He would be at work in and through his people as they worked.We Christians sometimes seem to act as if there were a rigid wall between actively pursuing our own agenda and passively waiting for God to act. We are aware that this is a false duality, which is why, for example, orthodox/historic Christian theology rejects the Christian Science premise that medical treatments are acts of unfaithfulness to God. Yet, at moments, we are tempted to become passive while waiting for God to act. If you are unemployed, yes, God wants you to have a job. To get the job God wants you to have, you have to write a resume, conduct a search, apply for positions, interview, and get rejected dozens of times before finding that job, just as everyone else has to do. If you are a parent, yes, God wants you to have enjoyment in raising your children. But you will still have to set and enforce limits, be available at times when it’s inconvenient, discuss difficult topics with them, cry and suffer with them through bumps, broken bones, and broken hearts, do homework with them, ask their forgiveness when you are wrong, and offer them forgiveness when they fail. You don’t get time off as a reward for good behavior such as taking your kids to church. Nehemiah and company’s arduous work warns us that trusting God does not equate with sitting on our hands waiting for magical solutions for our difficulties.Connecting Lending Practices to the Fear of the Lord (Nehemiah 5:1-5:19)Nehemiah’s wall-building project was threatened, not just from the outside, but also from the inside. Certain wealthy Jewish nobles and officials were taking advantage of economically difficult times to line their own pockets (Nehemiah 5). They were loaning money to fellow Jews, expecting interest to be paid on the loans, even though this was prohibited in the Jewish Law (for example, Exodus 22:25).[6]When the debtors couldn’t repay the loans, they lost their land and were even forced to sell their children into slavery (Neh. 5:5). Nehemiah responded by demanding that the wealthy stop charging interest on loans and give back whatever they had taken from their debtors.In contrast to the selfishness of those who had been taking advantage of their fellow Jews, Nehemiah did not use his leadership position to enhance his personal fortune. “Because of the fear of God,” he even refused to tax the people to pay for his personal expenses, unlike his predecessors (Neh. 5:14-16). Instead, he generously invited many to eat at his table, paying from this expense from his personal savings without taxing the people (Neh. 5:17-18).In a sense, the nobles and officials were guilty of the same kind of dualism we have just discussed. In their case, they were not waiting passively for God to solve their problems. Instead, they were actively pursuing their own gain as if economic life had nothing to do with God. But Nehemiah tells them that their economic lives are of utmost importance to God, because God cares about all of society, not just its religious aspects: “Should you not walk in the fear of our God, to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies [to whom the nobles had forced the sale of Jewish debtors as slaves]?” (Neh. 5:9). Nehemiah connects an economic issue (usury) with the fear of God.The issues of Nehemiah 5, though emerging from a legal and cultural setting distant from our own, challenge us to consider how much we should profit personally from our position and privilege, even from our work. Should we put our money in banks that make loans with interest? Should we take advantage of perks made available to us in our workplace, even if these come at considerable cost to others? Nehemiah’s specific commands (don’t charge interest, don’t foreclose on collateral, don’t force the sale of people into slavery) may apply differently in our time, but underlying his commands is a prayer that still applies: “Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people” (Neh. 5:19). As it was to Nehemiah, God’s call to today’s workers is to do everything we can for our people. In practice, that means we each owe God the duty of caring for the cloud of persons who depend on our work: employers, co-workers, customers, family, the public and many others. Nehemiah may not tell us exactly how to handle today’s workplace situations, but he tells us how to orient our minds as we decide. Put people first.Nehemiah Gives Credit to God (Nehemiah 6:1-7:73)The external and internal problems facing Nehemiah did not halt work on the wall, which was completed in only fifty-two days (Neh. 6:15). The enemies of Judah “were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem; for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God” (Neh. 6:16). Even though Nehemiah had exercised his considerable leadership to inspire and organize the builders, and even though they had worked tirelessly, and even though Nehemiah’s wisdom enabled him to fend off attacks and distractions, nevertheless he saw all of this as work done with God’s help. God worked through him and his people, using their gifts and labor to accomplish God’s own purposes.Restoration of Covenant Life, Phase Two: Ezra and Nehemiah Together (Nehemiah 8:1-13:31)After the wall surrounding Jerusalem was completed, the Israelites gathered in Jerusalem in order to renew their covenant with God. Ezra reappeared at this point in order to read the Law to the people (Neh. 8:2-5). As they heard the Law, they wept (Neh. 8:9). Yet Nehemiah rebuked them for their sorrow, adding, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord” (Neh. 8:10). However central work might be to serving God, so is celebration. On holy days, people are to enjoy the fruits of their labors as well as sharing them with those who lack such delights.Yet, as Nehemiah chapter 9 demonstrates, there was also a time for godly sorrow as the people confessed their sins to God (Neh. 9:2). Their confession came in the context of an extensive recital of all the things God had done, beginning with creation itself (Neh. 9:6) and continuing through the crucial events of the Old Testament. The failure of Israel to be faithful to the Lord explained, among other things, why God’s chosen people were “slaves” to foreign kings and why those kings enjoyed the fruits of Israelite labors (Neh. 9:36-37).Among the promises made by the people as they renewed their covenant with the Lord was a commitment to honor the Sabbath (Neh. 10:31). In particular, they promised not to do business on the Sabbath with “the peoples of the land” who worked on this day. The Israelites also promised to fulfill their responsibility to support the temple and its workers (Neh. 10:31-39). They would do so by giving to the temple and its staff a percentage of the fruit of their own work. Now, as then, the commitment to give a percentage of our income to support the “service of the house of our God” (Ezra 10:32) is both a necessary means of financing the work of worship and a reminder that everything we have comes from God’s hand.After completing his task of building the wall in Jerusalem and overseeing the restoration of society there, Nehemiah returned to serve King Artaxerxes (Neh. 13:6). Later, he came back to Jerusalem, where he discovered that some of the reforms he had initiated were thriving, while others had been neglected. For example, he observed some people working on the Sabbath (Neh. 13:15). Jewish officials had been letting Gentile traders bring their goods into Jerusalem for sale on the day of rest (Neh. 13:16). So Nehemiah rebuked those who had failed to honor the Sabbath (Neh. 13:7-18). Moreover, in his typically pragmatic approach, he closed the city gates before the Sabbath began, keeping them shut until the day of rest had passed. He also stationed some of his servants at the gates so that they might tell potential sellers to leave (Neh. 13:19).The question of whether and/or how Christians ought to keep the Sabbath cannot be answered from Nehemiah. A much broader theological conversation is necessary.[7]Nevertheless, this book reminds us of the centrality of Sabbath-keeping to God’s first covenant people and the threat posed by economic interaction with those who do not honor the Sabbath. In our own context, it was certainly easier for Christians to keep the Sabbath when the malls were closed on the Lord’s Day. However, our contemporary culture of round-the-clock commerce puts us in Nehemiah’s situation, in which a conscious — and potentially costly — decision about Sabbath-keeping is required.Esther and WorkWorking Within a Fallen System (Esther)The Book of Esther begins with King Ahasuerus (known to history outside the Bible as Xerxes) throwing a lavish party to display his glory (Es. 1:1-8). Having consumed ample amounts of wine, Ahasuerus commanded his servants to bring Queen Vashti before him in order that he might show her off to the other partygoers (Es. 1:10-11). But Vashti, sensing the indignity of the request, refused (Es. 1:12). Her refusal disturbed the men in attendance, who feared that her example would encourage other women in the kingdom to stand up to their husbands (Es. 1:13-18). Thus Vashti was “fired,” if you will, and a process was begun to find Ahasuerus a new queen (Es. 1:21-2:4). To be sure, this episode depicts a family matter. But every royal family is also a political workplace. So Vashti’s situation is also a workplace issue, in which the boss seeks to exploit a woman because of her gender and then terminates her when she fails to live up to his fantasies.The king seeks to replace Vashti, and a young Jewish woman named Esther ends up in the harem being extensively prepared to be tried out by the king for one night (Es. 2:8-14). From our point of view, she is caught in an oppressive, sexist system and is soon to lose her virginity at the hands of a selfish tyrant. But she is not a passive victim. She plays the system to her own advantage, sleeping with the king, keeping silent about the oppression of Vashti, deceiving the king about her ethnicity (Es. 2:20). Because of Esther’s exceeding beauty, she wins the king’s favor and is crowned as the new queen (Es. 2:17). Esther’s willingness to join a royal harem and become the wife of a pagan king is even more striking, given the emphasis in both Ezra and Nehemiah on the wrongness of intermarriage between Jews and Gentiles (Ezra 9:1-4; Neh. 13:23-27). After reading Ezra’s grief-filled prayer of confession following his learning that some Jews had married Gentiles (Ezra 9:13-15), we can only wonder what he might have thought about Esther’s marriage to Ahasuerus.The contrast between Ezra and Nehemiah’s faithful adherence to Jewish law and Esther’s religious and moral compromises could not be more starkly drawn. Esther is willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead. She is eager to take advantage of another woman’s misfortune and more than willing to submit herself to exploitation. Moral compromise – whether or not to Esther’s extent — is familiar to almost all workplace Christians. Who has never taken morally dubious action in the course of their work? Who has never kept silent when the mistreatment of another has rebounded to our own advantage — failing to stand up when the boss hides his or her own incompetence by firing a subordinate, or watching the dirtiest, most dangerous job fall once again to the ethnic outsider? Who has never shaded the truth to gain what we wanted — implying greater responsibility than we really had for a past success or pretending to know more than we really do in class or on the job?Esther enters the palace with its access to high power and influence. She does not seem interested in whether God has any plan or purpose for her there. In fact, God is not even mentioned in the book of Esther. But that doesn’t mean that God has no plan or purpose for her in Ahasuerus’ court. As it happens, her cousin Mordecai is more scrupulous in keeping Jewish law, which after some time puts him in conflict with Ahasuerus’ highest official, Haman (Es. 3:1-6). Haman responds by plotting to kill not only Mordecai, but the whole Jewish people (Es. 3:7-15). Mordecai learns of the plot and sends word of the plot to Esther. Although her entire people are about to be destroyed, she seems unmoved.Esther’s excuse is that getting involved could jeopardize her position, and even her life (Es. 4:11). Already she seems to be losing the king’s interest, having not been called into his presence for the past 30 days. It is inconceivable that the king is sleeping alone, therefore some other woman or women have been “called to come in to the king” (Es. 4:11). To intervene on behalf of her people would be too risky. Mordecai responds with two arguments. First, her life is at risk, whether or not she intervenes. “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews” (Es. 4:13). And second, “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this” (Es. 4:14). Together, these arguments lead to a remarkable about-face by Esther. “I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish” (Es. 4:16). The social climber interested in no one’s good but her own suddenly offers to risk her neck for the good of others.Notice that Mordecai’s two arguments appeal to different instincts. The first argument appeals to self-preservation. You, Esther, are a Jew, and if all the Jews are ordered killed, you will be found out and slain eventually. The second argument appeals to destiny, with its hint of divine service. If you wonder, Esther, why you of all young women ended up the king’s wife, perhaps it is because there is a larger purpose to your life. The first argument seems base, while the second seems noble. Which argument produced the change in Esther?Perhaps both of Mordecai’s arguments are steps towards Esther’s change of heart. The first step is identification. At long last, Esther identifies herself with her people. In this sense, she takes the same step Jesus was to take at his birth, identification of himself with humanity. And perhaps this step, selfishly taken as it may be in Esther’s case, is what opens her heart to God’s purposes.The second step is service. Identifying now with her people’s mortal peril, Esther takes on the service of intervening with the king. She risks her position, her possessions, her life. Her high position now becomes a means of service, instead of self-service. Despite her initially faithless and unobservant history, God uses Esther, no less than he uses the morally exemplary Ezra and Nehemiah. Esther’s service corresponds to today’s workplace in several ways:[8]Many people — Christian or not — make ethical compromises in their quest for career success. Because we all stand in Esther’s shoes, we all have the opportunity — and responsibility — to let God use us anyway, despite our history of moral failure. Did you cut corners to get your job? Nonetheless, God will use you to call an end to the deceptive practices in your workplace. Have you made improper use of corporate assets? God may still use you to clean up the falsified records in your department. Past hypocrisy is no excuse for failing to heed what God needs from you now. Prior misuse of your God-given abilities is no reason to believe you cannot employ them for God’s good purposes today. Esther is the model for all of us who have fallen short of the glory of God. You cannot say, “If you knew how many ethical shortcomings I made to get here — I can’t be of any use to God now.”God makes use of the actual circumstances of our lives. Esther’s position gives her unique opportunities to serve God. Mordecai’s position gives him different opportunities. We should embrace the particular opportunities we have. Rather than saying, “I would do something great for God, if only I had the opportunity,” we should say, “Perhaps I have come into this position for just such as time as this.”Our positions are spiritually dangerous. We may come to equate our value and our very existence with our positions. The higher our positions, the greater the danger. Esther ceases to see herself as a young Jewish woman, but only as the queen of Persia. To do the same makes us slaves to factors beyond our control. If becoming CEO or getting tenure or keeping a good job becomes so important that we cut off the rest of ourselves, then we have lost ourselves already.Serving God requires risking our positions. If you use your position to serve God, you might lose your position and your future prospects. This is doubly frightening if you have become self-identified with your job or career. Yet the truth is our positions are also at risk if we don’t serve God. Esther’s case is extreme. She may be killed if she risks her position by intervening, and she will be killed if she doesn’t intervene. Are our positions really any more secure than Esther’s? It is no foolishness to risk what you cannot keep in order to gain what you cannot lose. Work done in God’s service can never truly be lost.For Esther and the Jews, the story has a happy ending. Esther risks approaching the king unbidden, yet receives his favor (Es. 5:1-2). She employs a clever scheme to butter him up over the course of two banquets (Es. 5:4-8; 7:1-5) and to manipulate Haman into exposing his own hypocrisy in seeking to have the Jews annihilated (Es. 7:6-10). The king revokes the judgment against the Jews (Es. 9:11-14) and rewards Mordecai and Esther with riches, honor and power (Es. 8:1-2; 10:1-3). They in turn improve the lot of Jews throughout the Persian Empire (Es. 10:3). Haman and the enemies of the Jews are slaughtered (Es. 7:9-10; 9:1-17). The dates of the Jews’ deliverance — Adar 14 and 15 — are marked thereafter as the festival of Purim (Es. 9:17-23).God’s Hidden Hand and Human Response (Esther)As noted earlier, God is not mentioned in the Book of Esther. Yet it is a book of the Bible. Commentators therefore look for the veiled presence of God in Esther and generally point to the crucial verse: “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for such a time as this?” (Es. 4:14). The implication is that she has come to her position not by luck, or fate, or by her own wiles, but by the will of an unseen actor. We can see the divine handwriting on the wall here. Esther has come to her royal position because the “good hand of God was upon [her],” as Ezra and Nehemiah might have said (Ezra 8:18, Nehemiah 2:18).This challenges us to ponder how God might be at work in ways we don’t recognize. When a secular company eliminates bias in promotions and pay scales, is God at work there? When a Christian is able to end deceptive record-keeping practices, does she have to announce that she did so because she’s a Christian? If Christians have a chance to join with Jews and Muslims to make a case for reasonable religious accommodations in a corporation, should they see it as a work of God? If you can do good by taking a job in a compromised political administration, could God be calling you to accept the offer? If you teach in a school that pushes you to the limits of your conscience, should you seek to leave, or should you redouble your commitment to staying?Conclusions to Ezra, Nehemiah & EstheThe books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther have several common features. All three are relatively short narratives about events happening during the reign of the Persian Empire. All three involve Persian kings and other government officials. All three focus on the activities of Jews who are seeking to thrive in an environment that is, in many ways, hostile to their exercise of faith in God. All three books bear witness to the fact that a Persian king could be helpful to the Jews in their effort to survive and thrive. All three feature key leaders whose actions are held up as models of imitation. And all three books show people at work, thus providing an opportunity for us to reflect upon how these books impact our understanding of work and its relationship to God.Yet all three books represent a wide difference in opinion about crucial matters. This is true even of Ezra and Nehemiah, which were originally two parts of one book. In Ezra, trusting God requires that God’s people travel through dangerous territory without a royal escort. In Nehemiah, the offer of a royal escort is taken as evidence of God’s blessing. Ezra represents what might be called “idealistic faith,” while Nehemiah practices “pragmatic faith.” In Esther, God’s hand is hidden, revealed primarily in Esther’s shrewd use of her wits and position in the service of her people. We could call hers a “clever faith.”Nevertheless, Ezra and Nehemiah uphold a similar vision of God’s work in the world. God is involved in the lives of all people, not only his chosen ones. God moves in the hearts of pagan kings, leading them to support God’s purposes. The Lord inspires his people to devote their work to him, using a wide variety of strong leaders and prophetic voices to fulfill his purposes. In Ezra, God uses a faithful priest to rebuild his temple. In Nehemiah, God uses a faithful lay person to rebuild the walls of his capital. In Esther, God uses a deeply compromised, initially unobservant Jew to save the Jewish people from genocide. From the perspective of all three books, God is at work throughout the world, making use of the work of all kinds of people.Key Verses and Themes in Ezra, Nehemiah & EstherTheme. Verse(s)Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom and also in a written edict declared...God is at work throughout the world, even in and through a pagan kingEzra 7:28b I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.Human work is successful when God blesses the workEzra 8: 22 I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and cavalry to protect us against the enemy on our way; since we had told the king that the hand of our God is gracious to all who seek him, but the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.”Sometimes trusting in God means not relying on human helpNehemiah 2: 8b-9 The king granted me what I asked, for the gracious hand of my God was upon me. Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and cavalry.Sometimes trusting in God means recognizing his provision of human helpNehemiah 4:9 We prayed to our God, and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.Trust in God should not lead to passivity5:19 Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.The key to determining the right thing to do is how it affects the people involvedNehemiah 13:19 When it began to be dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the sabbath. And I set some of my servants over the gates, to prevent any burden from being brought in on the sabbath day.Keeping the Sabbath is commanded, even when it puts believers at an economic disadvantageEsther 2:14 In the evening she went; then in the morning she came back to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines; she did not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.People — especially women— may find themselves in economic circumstances where there is no completely virtuous resolution. Nonetheless God is with themEsther 4:13b Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.It is an illusion to think that power, position or wealth insulates us from the hazards of lifeEsther 4:14b Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for such a time as this?God’s work among us is sometimes subtle, and sometimes should not even be identified specificallyEsther 4:16b If I perish, I perish. The only way to serve God is to acknowledge that we cannot control the outcomes of our actionsTheology of Work Project | What Does the Bible Say About Faith and Work?