Hey everyone.
I have looking at Nehemiah and sharing what I have learned from it. I began by talking about how Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in just 52 days a while back. In my last post I talked about how Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem and examined the walls and the gates to determine exactly what needed to be done to build these walls. Today I will look at how Nehemiah dealt with the opposition that came his way once he started his great work. Any great work for God that we may undertake is bound to face opposition. So how do we do? What would Nehemiah do?
The book of Nehemiah mentions three men who opposed his work: Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab. They take different approaches to discourage the work, but Nehemiah keeps the work going. Their first appearance comes in Neh. 2:19-20. Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem start speaking against Nehemiah and his work, suggesting that they are in rebellion to the king. Nehemiah's responds; "The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it." He points toward God and let's these men know that they are are going to dissuade them from rebuilding these walls. Interestingly, he does not even comment on the whole rebellion against the king issue, even though he was not in rebellion, but rather had the total support of the king.
The opposition returns in chapter 4:1-4. Sanballat and Tobiah return with insults. Tobiah saying that something as small as a fox could knock the wall down. Nehemiah's response. He prays and keeps working. Then when their insults doesn't work, they get all get together to plan a fight against Jerusalem (4:7-8). Nehemiah's response to this threat is recorded in 4:8-9. They prayed, posted guards and kept working. I love what he says about this in v. 14. "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes." There is a whole other lesson in that statement alone, but it tells us here that Nehemiah strategy for dealing with this opposition is to constantly point the people back to God, pray a lot but don't let the work stop.
Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem return in chapter 6. This time they are scheming to harm Nehemiah. They sent him a message, "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono." They send this message four times. (6:4) Four times he responds, "I am carrying on a great work. Why should I stop this work to meet with you?" (Hughes paraphrase) He basically tries to ignore them. The are persistent and on the fifth request they accuse Nehemiah of trying to establish himself as a king in Jerusalem. Of course, this is a complete lie. Nehemiah responds, "Nothing like what you are saying is happening: You are making this up out of your head." Nehemiah was taking any non-sense. However, immediately after this in 6:9, Nehemiah says, "But i prayed, "Now strengthen my hands." I think that these men who had constantly opposed him were started to get him. Eventually opposition and discouragement will wear us down. But Nehemiah did what always did, He took it to God.
I see an obvious pattern for Nehemiah. He looks to God, prays and keeps working. If we want his type of success, we should follow the pattern.
Tom
