Today in God's Word—April 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
April 19, Nehemiah 6
So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. - Nehemiah 6:15-16
We're never surprised when an enemy nation finds fault with any success our country achieves. Political rivals are sometimes bitterly opposed to any piece of legislation or policy introduced by members of the opposing party. Some sports fans are so emotionally invested in their team that they sometimes speak and behave in hateful ways to news of success or achievement by their arch-rivals.
So when the people of God are busy doing the work of God in an ungodly world, we should not be surprised when our efforts are met by cynicism and resistance. Chapter 5 was a brief parenthesis about how Nehemiah handled an internal economic crisis that threatened the returned exiles. Then Chapter 6 resumes the narrative about the wall-building project, and describes more dirty tricks and strategies Judah's enemies used as they tried to stop the wall builders from finishing their task.
Nehemiah's enemies Sanballat and Tobiah tried four times to get Nehemiah to stop working and come to a meeting with them. Planning is good. A team can accomplish more by working together. But you've probably been involved in some task at work or at church where unnecessary meetings actually inhibited the progress of the work the meeting was supposed to help. Sanballat and Tobiah had ill will and evil intent as they tried to draw Nehemiah away to “meet” with them. Nehemiah knew they only wanted to do him harm and stop the wall. His strategy was a good one for us to remember when opponents of God's work want to meet and talk about it.
Remember the name of the plain where the meeting place was located? It was the plain of Ono. Nehemiah told them he was busy doing a great work and would not come down to meet with them. "Oh, no” is a good answer to all such requests we get to distract us from serving God.
On their fifth attempt, Sanballat and Tobiah tried to stop Nehemiah with an open letter filled with lies about Jerusalem, the wall and Nehemiah himself. The open letter was a demonstration of contempt for Nehemiah as a great leader. But Nehemiah replied with a clear denial: “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind." Sometimes when accusations are flying, a flat denial is the most effective and efficient response.
Then the enemies tried to work through people within Judah to stop Nehemiah and the wall. They hired a prophet to lie to Nehemiah and try to get him to go into the temple. Nehemiah was too smart for that one, too. Tobiah had some sympathizers among the nobles of Judah who opposed the project, and praised the good deeds of Tobiah. It was more misinformation, and it did not work.
There's a lot for us to learn and apply from all of this. We should not be surprised when the enemies of God and his people interfere with the work of the church, tell lies about us and try to harm us. We should not allow ourselves to be tricked by lies or distracted by slander. Painful as it may be, we must not allow disloyalty among our own people to discourage us. Through it all, we should not retaliate, but leave vengeance to God. We must rely on God's strength and not our own to do God's will and keep us on task as we serve him. And when we are successful, let's remember to give God the glory and confess that whatever good we were able to do we did with the help of God.
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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