"And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. 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.' And our enemies said, 'They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.' At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, 'You must return to us.' So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, 'Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.'" (Nehemiah 4:9-14, ESV)
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Obedience to God is hard. Your faith will be tested and your patience stretched. There will be times when it seems that there is no hope of succeeding: that sin will never be defeated; that coworker will never be open to hearing the gospel; this church plant will never get off the ground. Threats arise on every side and at any time. The worst threats are those that come not from our enemies, but from our friends, those people that we thought had supported us, or from ourselves.
This is what is happening in Nehemiah 4. Sanballat and his gang were openly hostile to the work that God had called Nehemiah to do and were threatening the Jews with war. In these verses, we see their scheming again, "They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work" (Neh. 4:11). They knew that the Jews were beginning to be overwhelmed by the size of their task. The Jews' anxiety, or so Sanballat figured, would cause them to be careless and unprepared for an attack. The Jews wouldn't know what hit them until it was too late. This was a significant threat, but it wasn't the only one, perhaps not even the primary one.
There were significant threats from people who should have supported the work. The Jews who lived nearby, attempted ten times to get the volunteers to give up (Neh. 4:12). These were the brothers, fathers, friends, and neighbors of the men who had travelled from other cities to help restore the walls of Jerusalem. Perhaps the nobles of Tekoa were among the number (Neh. 3:5). These threats were not threats of violence or physical harm, but they were threats. They were threats to the completion of God's work. They were threats to the prosperity and blessing of the Jews. They were threats to the unity of the people. They were masked in kindness and wrapped in concern, but they were, indeed, still threats.
There was still another threat that encroached upon the work: the internal threat among the people involved in the work. They began to struggle with despair and questioned whether they would have the strength to finish what they started. They began to complain: "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" (v. 10).
This, perhaps, was the greatest threat of the three. A man can continue to pursue his work in the face of adversity if he believes that it is worth it and attainable. He will press on if he has hope. But where hope has begun to fade, the onslaughts of others become increasingly effective. The threats of violence cause a man to cower in fear and avoid the work. The threats of kindness offer comfort and security and cause a man to long for something other than the work. Once this hole of despair begins to open up in the hearts of people, all other threats become palpable. It presses down on the man both from within and from without until his resolve must crumble beneath the pressure.
So how are we to deal with this triple threat? How did Nehemiah deal with it? He dealt first, with God, and then he dealt with the people. Much has already been said about prayer and the way that Nehemiah trusted in God. He understood the work to be God's work and so, ultimately, God would be the one to give success. Any opposition that arose, therefore, was something that was aimed towards God, and something that God would take care of. So Nehemiah prayed about everything. But he didn't just pray, he also pursued his prayers. After praying to God for protection and deliverance, he "set a guard as a protection against them day and night" (v. 9). He prayed and then acted like God was really going to answer his prayers. God would deliver them from the hand of their enemies and he would use the guards to do so.
Nehemiah also dealt with the people. This he did in two ways. First, he addressed their fear. He said, "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome" (Neh. 4:14). This was not merely a pep talk, telling the people to keep their chins up because God was great and would deliver them. Nehemiah was pointing back to the mighty things that God had done in the past, the ways that God had delivered his people before from greater enemies than these. He was recalling the words of Deuteronomy 7:21, where God encouraged the children of Israel before they went in to take possession of the Promised Land. Were these present enemies greater than Egypt? Were they greater than all of the nations that Joshua drove out of Canaan? Were they greater than Assyria, Babylon, or Persia? If, then, the great and awesome God could deliver his people from such great enemies, what obstacle did Sanballat present?
Nehemiah also addressed the people's desires. He understood that they did not labor just under the threat of harm, but they also had the threat of promised pleasure. He said, "fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes" (Neh. 4:14). He made it clear to those working that the task in which they were involved was no trivial matter. It was a matter of life or death to those whom they loved the most. It had direct impact on their homes and families. Sure, they could leave the work and find immediate comfort back in the towns from which they came. But the cost of such short-term comfort would prove to be greater than they would really want to pay. Now was the time to give up a little comfort in order to secure the blessings and prosperity of their families.
Where are the threats in your life? They may be from the outside (those who are openly opposed to you pursuing God's will or those who wrap their opposition in concern) or it may be from the inside (despondency from fear or the promise of greater pleasure elsewhere). Take some time to identify the things that draw you away from actively pursuing God's will and then consider how you might counter these threats. Do you need to give your circumstances and their outcomes up to God? Do you need to remember God's unfailing faithfulness by recalling the mighty works that he has done in the past? Do you need to be reminded of the importance and the promises of doing the will of God? May God grant you grace to search yourselves and counter any threats that may arise.
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