Wednesday Bible Study: Reconstructing Nehemiah Part V

 

As I look at the task before me- the informations I want to include in this post- I am tempted to do as the people of Jerusalem did:

Neh 4:10  In Judah it was said, "The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall." 

But just as Nehemiah had a unique solution to this, I will avail myself of his solution- divide the work!  So, this week, I want to concentrate on the opposition faced in building our walls, as well as the reaction our response generate from the enemy,  The people had the wall coming along-

Neh 4:6  So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. 

As you can see, I have two points in mind here.  The foundations of the wall had been laid.  It was progressing.  Second, the people had a mind to work- and the Enemy needed to take them/us out of the game.  First, they tried a group of insults- insults we will hear when we want to change.

1- You are feeble, weak.  Before you even start drooping, you are TOLD you are drooping.  This didn't affect them- yet.  But hearing it over and over has a long term consequence.

2- "...feeble JEWS..."  Racism, prejudice, or just being inferior.  "You CAN'T do the job."

3- The next three insults, the K&D commentary notes, stem from the enemy trying to make you cast doubt on your God.  WILL God strengthen you to do this- really?  DO your prayers do any good? CAN you finish before it all becomes too much?

4- Do you have the materials- the faith required- to do the job?  'Haven't you already ruined that part of the equation- "...Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?" '

5- Do you have the WILL to do it?  Or isn't it more likely you'll fall apart long before it's done?  " Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, "Yes, what they are building--if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!" 

But see, if you read this in the order in the Book- all of these came BEFORE Nehemiah mentions that the people had accomplished much, with their mind to work!  They just didn't listen- which upped the anger of the enemy.  Observe: first the work started made them mad...

Neh 4:1  Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 

The first word is a colorful one- it means to glow with incandescent anger; the second phrase means it increased the trouble in his mind.  But once the insults DIDN'T work:

Neh 4:7  But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. 

This takes that 'glow' and intensifies it with the idea of 'vehemently' glowing- even melting!  Doesn't that remind you of these words of Paul some 500 years later:

Rom 12:20  To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." 

So the Enemy goes to the next stage:

Neh 4:8  And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. 

Note: they PLOTTED.  Plotting isn't taking action- but it does incite FEAR.  You see, since Christ died for our sins, the Enemy cannot TRULY harm us- but it can feel like it.  And that fear can start to make those insults more effective:

Neh 4:10  And Judah said, The strength of the carriers of burdens is weakening, and there is much rubbish, so that we are not able to build the wall. 

Neh 4:11  And our foes have said, They shall not know, or see, until we come in the middle of them, and kill them, and cause the work to cease. 

Neh 4:12  And it happened when the Jews who lived near them came in, they said to us ten times, From all places where you shall turn to us, they will be against us. 

With fear added, now they were thinking, "I can't do this.  And if can't do this, the enemy will get me!"

Nehemiah, though, would apply his three pronged solution, which we'll look at more next time- prayer, encouragement- and like I am doing here, creating a division of the task that would both lighten the burden AND erase the fear.  And it worked:

Neh 4:15  And it happened when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that God had brought their counsel to nothing, all of us returned to the wall, each one to his work. 

But here was the thing: Each of them/us are infected to a degree by what we USED to do.  In their case, the rich had developed the habit of loan-sharking their people to the point of enslaving the children of the poor.  (One reason I disagree with pastors who teach that bankruptcy is sinful, but that's an individual need/conscience deal.)  In my context here, it means that old habits are an enemy we CANNOT COMPROMISE with- and that enemy alone is enough to stop me!

The next enemy attack is REPEATED TEMPTATION.

Neh 6:1  And it happened, when Sanballat, and Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall, and that there was no break left in it (though at that time I had not set the doors on the gates), 

Neh 6:2  Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me harm. 

Neh 6:3  And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, so I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you? 

Neh 6:4  And they sent to me four times in this way. And I answered them in the same way. 

Think it a coincidence that Jesus faced His temptation in the Desert by quoting Deuteronomy 3 times?  Every temptation geared to you is essentially the same one repeated endlessly, no matter what it is.  "Come, eat the fruit, you will not die!"  We'll go on to how Nehemiah faced it next time (Lord willing).  But when it failed, the enemy again played the same game with a slightly different angle:

Neh 6:5  Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in the same way the fifth time with an open letter in his hand, in which was written, 

Neh 6:6  It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says it, that you and the Jews are thinking of rebelling, for this reason you build the wall, so that you may be their king, according to these words. 

Neh 6:7  And you have also set up prophets to preach about you at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah. And now it shall be reported to the king according to these words. And now come and let us talk it over together. 

This time, the letter is open- so that anybody can read it- and the text is FALSE ACCUSATION.  "Your motives are suspect, and God will not respect you. You are a FRAUD."  This is why self-examination on a constant basis is so important.  Not because the enemy might have a point, but to encourage yourself against it.

The enemy was running out of tactics.  So why didn't they just attack physically before the walls got any higher? I'll flesh that out later, but it will start like this:

Neh 6:16  Then all our enemies heard that we had completed the wall, and all the nations around us saw that it was finished. So they lost their courage, because they understood that this work had been done with the help of our God. 

But we have two more attacks to survive yet.  One of them was LYING SPIRITS.  What I mean by that is, the enemy sent at least two "prophets" to convince them that their view of God and what He wanted to accomplish was wrong.  One such came to him, the other was "shut up" in his house- an example to Nehemiah, one he had to challenge.  Both of them were preaching to him the same thing- "The enemy is coming to assassinate you, the best response is to hide in the Temple and DO NOTHING".  For us, there are several points to look at:

1- We need to be discerning in our listening.  True preachers of the word will always tell us, "Don't just believe me- check for yourself!"

Act 17:10  The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 

Act 17:11  Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 

2- We need to not be influence by the fear-example of others.  We need to set a GOOD EXAMPLE.  

3- By doing as they suggested and NEVER GOING OUTSIDE THE CHURCH with his work, Nehemiah would have gotten nothing done that the Lord desired.  To be effective, we must follow outside the church.

Finally, the last attack, and one familiar to us from last time: 'The Worm'...

Neh 6:17  Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters came to them. 

Neh 6:18  For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. 

Neh 6:19  Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid. 

Nehemiah's solution to this one- he had to cast out the Worm in his people's lives.  Next time, we'll start working on God's- and through Him, Nehemiah's- plan to combat these challenges from the enemy.