LET US RISE UP AND BUILD (PART – 2)
(Please read the previous post for part - 1 of this message)
So I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build” (Nehemiah 2:20)
When Nehemiah was just a cupbearer in Persia, his life was easier. But when he wanted to fulfill God’s plan for his life, that’s when his struggles started. In this part we are going to see about the oppositions Nehemiah faced and how he overcame them.
But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?” (Nehemiah 2:19) This is the first tactic the enemy uses mocking, ridiculing, insulting. Many times, when we are faced with such a situation, our immediate instinct is to retaliate with similar words and in a similar tone or to threaten. But Nehemiah’s response was different.
Nehemiah’s Response:
I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself
will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem
(Nehemiah 2:20). Nehemiah’s response was not based on how they
spoke to him. It was based on how he identified himself. Nehemiah had many
identities - a cupbearer, a friend of the king, a jewish man, a man in
captivity, a servant of God and many more. Nehemiah considered himself as a
servant of God more than anything else. That was the identity he wanted to show
to others. For a Christian, our identity is “child of God”. We cannot win our
battles through any other identity. Nehemiah’s response to all his
opposition was based on this identity - “We his servants will arise and build”.
Nehemiah did not retaliate; he did not threaten and he did not try to explain
himself. He was not scared either. He was bold and confident and he simply said
“you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem”.
The rebuilding work started and one by one people started to
get involved in the work. “The Tekoites made repairs; but their nobles did
not put their shoulders to the work of their Lord” (Nehemiah 3:5). The
people of Tekoa made repairs but their nobles did not want to take
responsibility and want to get involved.
Nehemiah’s Response:
Nehemiah did not respond. There is no record of him
questioning or doing anything to the nobles. He just made a record in his book
that the nobles did not cooperate and we read about it even till today.
Moreover, Nehemiah did not consider it as his work, that’s why he was not
affected by their noncooperation. It is the work of the Lord and if they didn’t
cooperate it is up to God to take care of it. (We can see the real reason why
they didn’t want to be a part of this work at the end).
3rd Opposition – Sanballat becomes furious, indignant and mocks
Initially, Sanballat would not have thought that
the work would go this far. Now he started to feel insecure. He got furious and
indignant and began to mock the people who were rebuilding the wall. “And he spoke before his brethren
and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they
fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day?
Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish—stones that are
burned?” Now Tobiah the
Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if even a
fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall” (Nehemiah
4:1-3). Their
insults got bolder and worse.
Nehemiah’s Response:
Again, Nehemiah responded as a
servant of God. His answer was a simple prayer. He did not direct his response
towards his enemies. Instead, he got his strength from above, with a prayer, “Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their
reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of
captivity! Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be
blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger
before the builders” (Nehemiah 4:4).
Had Nehemiah responded to their insults, they would have returned with more
insults and his time and energy would have been wasted. Instead he used his
time and energy in fulfilling his mission rather than on responding to
meaningless insults.
4th
Opposition – The enemies conspire to attack and create confusion
When Sanballat
and Tobiah understood that Nehemiah is not going to respond to their insults,
they thought of doing something that would force Nehemiah to respond. So, they
conspired together to attack and create confusion among the builders. Now it happened, when Sanballat,
Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls
of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed, that
they became very angry, and all of them conspired together to
come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion (Nehemiah 4:7,8).
Nehemiah’s Response:
Again, Nehemiah responded as a true leader and a
servant of God. He prayed to God
and set a watch to look for their enemies’ moves without making any noise. He
did not threaten them or try to intimidate them or did not display any sign of
aggression. “We made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a
watch against them day and night” (Nehemiah 4:9).
5th Opposition – Failing Strength of
the Laborers
The people who came to build the wall were the
remnant jews. They may not have been in the best of their health. When Nehemiah
requested their help, they came to build. They did a lot of hard work, but so
much rubbish had accumulated that, after carrying lot of burden, their strength
is failing now.
Nehemiah’s Response:
Nehemiah’s response is not recorded. Probably he
would have supported them and encouraged them, because people continued to work.
6th Opposition – Death threats from
his enemies:
Nehemiah’s enemies were frustrated that work was
continuing even after they had tried to stop it in many ways. So now they
planned to secretly kill Nehemiah. But that news was brought to Nehemiah by
people living around there. And our adversaries said, “They will neither
know nor see anything, till we come into their midst and kill them and cause
the work to cease.” (Nehemiah 4:11,12).
Nehemiah’s Response:
It is at this point that Nehemiah started to
involve the people to defend themselves. I would encourage anyone to read
Nehemiah 4:13 – 23 to see how he responded. I want to highlight certain points
7th Opposition – Outcry against the
fellow jews
Suddenly there was an outcry among the people
against the fellow jews (Nehemiah 5th chapter). If Nehemiah hadn’t
acted immediately, it could have led to unrest among the people and the
building work would have been affected. So why was there an outcry? Even during
those terrible conditions, after the city was destroyed by the Persians, some
of the jews had enslaved their own brothers and sisters.
Nehemiah’s Response:
Nehemiah called together a meeting to deal with
them.
8th Opposition - Opposition through
Deception
After they failed to control and contain Nehemiah
through maximum threats, they tried to use the next best tool. The tool of
deception! Opposition through deception is more dangerous than direct
opposition. The darkness of deception could be easily identified through the
light of honesty and faithfulness. If you are repeatedly being deceived, then
you have to sincerely search your heart and check, whether there is any lack of
honesty within you. If you are an honest person, you will be able to identify
the signs of deception in any person very easily. Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to Nehemiah
saying, “Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain
of Ono. But they thought to do me harm (Nehemiah 6:2). They had set a
trap for Nehemiah to do him harm and they sent for him in the pretext of having
a discussion.
Nehemiah’s Response:
Nehemiah sent messengers to them, saying,
“I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why
should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3). Nehemiah
knew very well if they sincerely wanted to have a discussion, they could have
easily come there. Even though Nehemiah identified their deception, he was
silent about it. Nehemiah responded as a servant of God. Nehemiah sent word to
them saying, because of his work he couldn’t come. Nehemiah could have exposed
their deception through openly stating it. Deceptive people rarely stop their
deception when they are exposed, instead they would release more deception and
create even more confusion. Nehemiah was focused and single-minded on
fulfilling his purpose as a servant of God and that saved a lot of trouble for
him.
They had sent this message four times to Nehemiah,
and he answered them in the same manner all the four times (Nehemiah 6:4).
9th
Opposition – Frightening letters
After repeatedly
sending messages to Nehemiah and failing to catch him in their trap, they took
their deception to the next level. Then
Sanballat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter
in his hand. In it was written: It
is reported among the nations, and Geshem says, that you
and the Jews plan to rebel; therefore, according to these rumors, you are
rebuilding the wall, that you may be their king. And you have also
appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, saying, “There
is a king in Judah!” Now these matters will be reported to the king.
So come, therefore, and let us consult together (Nehemiah 6:5-7).
Nehemiah’s Response:
Nehemiah gave a very simple response to such a massive and vile
threat. Nehemiah sent a word to them saying “No
such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart.”
It is amusing to see how Nehemiah maintains his cool and temper. His enemies
are forced to invent new ways of intimidating Nehemiah, but without any
success.
The antidote for deception is honesty and truth. We need truth and
patience to overcome deception. What is deception? Deception is when the intentions of the heart and the words of the mouth don't match (Psalms 28:3; 55;21). What is “truth”? The word of God is truth
(Psalms 119:160; John 17:17). When we speak and live out the truth i.e. the
word of God, we can defeat the effects of deception. Ignorance and deception go
hand in hand. Deception is sustained by ignorance. Deceptive people look for
ignorant people to advance their cause. Deception can never be defeated through
another deception. It can only be defeated through the truth. Truth is a seed
and it will produce fruits of righteousness. But we need patience to see its
results. The waiting time may be distressing but it is worth it.
10th Opposition – False Prophet
Shemaiah
After they failed to stop Nehemiah, they went one
step further. They wanted to find that one person whom Nehemiah would trust
enough to listen. They found a prophet named Shemaiah. He was a prophet
Nehemiah cared about. Nehemiah cared enough to visit him, when he was confined
to his home. But lust of money had already invaded Shemaiah’s heart and he had
already collaborated with Nehemiah’s enemies. He had prepared his plan and was
waiting for unsuspecting Nehemiah to visit him to “create a cause for an evil
report” so they could reproach him among the people. Shemaiah told Nehemiah, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within
the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming
to kill you; indeed, at night they will come to kill you.” (Nehemiah 6:10).
Anyone who uses the name of God and the Temple of God for deception are the
vilest ones.
Nehemiah’s Response:
As mentioned before, deception could be easily
identified when seen through the lens of honesty. Nehemiah replied to Shemaiah saying,
“Should such a man as I flee? And who is there such as I who
would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!”. Nehemiah saved
himself from reproach because of his courage and his sincerity.
11th Opposition –False Prophetess
Noadiah & other prophets
The next opposition Nehemiah faced was from a prophetess
named Noadiah. Nehemiah has not given any detail about her acts. The only thing
we could make out from his statement is that she tried to intimidate him
“the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who would have made
me afraid” (Nehemiah 6:14). In the olden days female prophetesses were not very
common. In the Bible we can read about Deborah, Huldah and other prophetesses,
but only in lesser number.
For a man or woman to be accepted as a prophet,
their prophecies should have been fulfilled every time they were uttered. We
can learn it from the life of Samuel. We can read in I Samuel 3: 19 & 20, “So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none
of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba
knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the
Lord.” If Noadiah was established and accepted as a Prophetess it means that
her words had not fallen to the ground. So even now, when she speaks there are
chances that people may believe her more than Nehemiah. There are chances that
people may obey her and desert the building work.
Nehemiah’s Response:
Nehemiah was sure of his identity as a servant of
God. He knew that he had been sent on a mission by God. He did not leave it to
the people to judge between him and Noadiah but left it to God. Never take to
people what you should take to God. Nehemiah’s response to such a big threat
was a simple prayer. As Christians, so many of our problems are simply because
we are not sure of our identity in Christ or we depend on our temporary earthly
identities more than our eternal identity in Christ Jesus.
12th Opposition – The deception of the
nobles of Judah
The final opposition to the building work
recorded in the book of Nehemiah is an equally intimidating one. It was the
deception of the nobles of Judah (Nehemiah 6:17-19). We had already seen in the
second opposition that the nobles of Tekoa did not co-operate. The real reason
why they did not co-operate is because they wanted a good name for themselves
from Sanballat and Tobiah. They neither cared about building Jerusalem nor the
distress of the people. They even tried to convince Nehemiah that everything
Sanballat and Tobiah were doing, were meant for their good. A typical sign of
selfish and unfit leaders.
Nehemiah’s Response:
No response was given. He ignored them
Why did Sanballat and Tobiah oppose Nehemiah?
Sanballat and Tobiah were not going to be
affected in anyway by Nehemiah building the Jerusalem wall. In fact, they and
their family would have been more protected than before. Then why did they oppose
Nehemiah building the wall? They were neither interested in the welfare of the
people nor in rebuilding the city (Nehemiah 2:10). They wanted the city to be
desolate and the people to be poor, so that they can reign over them. It is for
selfish reasons that they opposed Nehemiah.
Nehemiah’s Victory:
Amidst all these oppositions, the Jerusalem wall
was completed within 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15). Nehemiah faced these intense
oppositions within these days. Nehemiah was opposed from every side. It is
difficult to comprehend how he was able to face all these oppositions as a
single individual. May be his heart was made of iron or steel! Nothing of that
sort. He was made up of the same materials we are made of! But he was a nail
fixed in a sure place. He was sure of his identity, sure of his mission and
sure of his help from God. Moreover, we also learn from Nehemiah that we can
win through silence, win through patience, win without aggression, win without
deception and more than anything “we can win alone” with help from
God.
- To be continued
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