Nehemiah 2:15
Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned.
Nehemiah reached Jerusalem in safety under the power of the Persian king, for royal letters to the governors along his route secured him honorable reception and prompt assistance so that no enemy dared molest him. He arrived with a military escort that showed he had come on an important mission, and this excited the jealousy of the heathen tribes near the city, foremost Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, who watched his movements with critical eyes to thwart his plans and hinder his work.
The personal inspection took place on the third night after his arrival, when he rose at midnight to view the desolation for himself. He went mounted on his mule and took with him only a few trusted companions, men he knew to be worthy of confidence. He made a circuit up by the brook and viewed the wall, passing from one part of the city to another to survey the broken-down walls and gates, examining the damage firsthand, and then turned back and returned by the Valley Gate.
He gazed on the ruined defenses of his beloved Jerusalem, the city of his fathers, with a sorrow-stricken heart and painful reflections, with memories of Israel's past greatness standing in sharp contrast with the evidences of her humiliation. The circuit was made in secrecy and silence at midnight, telling no one of the inspection, so that the rulers did not know where he went or what he did, and nothing was yet told to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that would do the work. This caution and prudence concealed the nature of his mission from his bitter and determined enemies until a study of the situation enabled him to form his plans, since indiscretion could alert enemies and endanger the undertaking, in order to secure the cooperation of the people and set them at work before opposition was aroused.
Although he held a royal commission for the inhabitants to cooperate with him, he did not depend on the exercise of authority. To the few men with him he told the circumstances that had led him to come to Jerusalem, the object he wished to accomplish, and the plans he proposed to follow, with the result that their interest was at once enlisted and their assistance secured. After completing the inspection he spent the remainder of the night in prayer, because he knew the morning would call for earnest effort to arouse and unite his dispirited and divided countrymen.
Seeing the weakness and degradation of the city with his own eyes gave him exact and minute knowledge of its condition and put earnestness and power into his words, so that when he called the people together on the morrow to arouse their dormant energies he could speak of the need with an accuracy that astonished his hearers, and that firsthand knowledge contributed greatly to his success and helped gain their confidence and sympathy and unite hearts as well as hands for rebuilding. His viewing of Jerusalem's ruined defenses pictures how divinely illuminated observers see the church's spiritual condition, for like the walls and gates its defenses can be ruined while its people grow accustomed to existing evils and do nothing to repair them.