Nehemiah 2:14
Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king’s pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king’s pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.
Nehemiah came to Jerusalem in safety, bearing royal letters that won him honorable reception and prompt help along the way, and guarded by a military escort with the power of the Persian king behind him so that no enemy dared to molest him. His arrival on what was plainly an important mission stirred the jealousy of the heathen peoples around the city, above all Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, who watched his movements with critical eyes, eager to thwart his plans and hinder his work.
On the third night after his arrival he rose at midnight with a few trusted companions and rode on his mule from place to place to see the desolation for himself, surveying the broken walls and gates of the city of his fathers. He went on in that night circuit to the Fountain Gate and to the king's pool, but rubble and wreckage so choked the way that there was no place for the beast under him to pass, a proof of how complete the ruin of Jerusalem was. He looked on it with a sorrow-stricken heart as he gazed on the ruined defenses of his beloved Jerusalem, with painful reflections as the memory of Israel's past greatness stood in sharp contrast to the evidence of her humiliation.
He made the examination in secret and in silence, with caution and prudence, while the rulers did not know where he went or what he did, and without yet telling the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the rulers, or the rest that did the work anything of his plan. He discreetly concealed the nature of his mission while he personally beheld the weakness and degradation of the city and studied the ruined walls to form his plans, because he feared that a careless move would alert his bitter and determined enemies who stood ready to oppose and defeat the work, and he hoped to win the cooperation of the people and set them at work before that opposition was aroused. When the circuit was finished he spent the rest of the night in prayer, knowing the morning would demand earnest effort to arouse and unite his dispirited and divided countrymen.
The next day he did not tell his hearers that he had made this night inspection, yet having made it he could speak of the condition of the city with an accuracy and minuteness that astonished them. The impression the sight had made upon him gave earnestness and power to his words, winning the confidence and sympathy of the people and uniting their hearts as well as their hands for rebuilding. So the broken walls and gates picture the spiritual state of the church, where evils can grow so familiar that nothing is done to remedy them, while a divinely enlightened view lays the ruin bare.