Please turn with me in your Bible to Nehemiah chapter 6 as we continue our Sunday night series in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. Tonight we’re looking at Nehemiah chapter 6, verses 1 to 14. And before we jump in and read, let me pray for us. Let’s pray.
Our great God and heavenly Father, we pray that You would come and that You would give Your Word success tonight. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing and acceptable to You, O Lord our strength and our Redeemer. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Nehemiah chapter 6, beginning in verse 1. This is God’s Word:
“Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, ‘Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.’ But they intended to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?’ And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, ‘It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.’ Then I sent to him, saying, ‘No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.’ For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.’ But now, O God, strengthen my hands.
Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, ‘Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.’ But I said, ‘Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.’ And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.”
Amen.
I once heard Sandy Wilson tell a story of a woman who was traveling through the southwest and she came to Santa Fe, New Mexico. And she walked into an ice cream parlor and she ordered ice cream and she sat in a booth and in walked the famous actor, Robert Redford. And Sandy Wilson said that she is southern and so she pretended that it had absolutely no effect on her whatsoever, but of course she was stunned. She continues to eat her ice cream and then she decided she was going to go to the register and pay and leave. And so she got up, she didn’t look towards his table at all, she didn’t say anything to him, she paid for her ice cream and she made her way to her car. As she got into her car, she noticed that she left the ice cream cone inside, and so embarrassed, she walked back in, she went to her booth, and there was no ice cream. She went up to the checkout line and there was no ice cream. And Robert Redford yelled at her and said, “Excuse me, are you looking for your ice cream cone?” And she said, “Yes, I’m looking for my ice cream cone.” And Robert Redford said, “It’s in your purse where you put it! It’s in your purse!” And I love that story because we can all be a little fearful sometimes. “It’s in your purse where you put it.”
I want you to remember where we are in the story. Nehemiah is Jewish. He lives in Persia. He’s the cupbearer of the king. This is after the exile, after Babylon, after the Persian Empire has laid waste to God’s people, to God’s city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah has been called to go and to restore the ruins of God’s people, God’s city. And we’ve seen throughout our study that Nehemiah has been faithful to that call. He’s encountered opposition from without. He’s encountered opposition from within. If you were with us last week you remember – and you can turn back to these verses – you remember in Nehemiah chapter 5 verse 9 and in Nehemiah chapter 5 verse 15, we learned about grace teaching our hearts to fear. The fear of God. So if chapter 5 is about God’s grace teaching our hearts to fear, then borrowing from John Newton’s hymn, chapter 6 is about “our fears relieved” by God’s grace.
Chapter 6 begins, you see this in verse 1, with the reappearance of what one minister called, “an unholy trinity” – Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem. They’re up to their normal program of intimidating Nehemiah, attempting to make him fear. And I want you to notice the emphasis in our chapter, in our reading, on fear. You see this in verse 9, verse 11, verse 13, 14, and then jumping a few verses ahead, verse 19. So look with me at the text. You see this in verse 9. Nehemiah says, “For they wanted to frighten us.” Then in verse 11, he said a false prophet was hired “to make him afraid.” Verse 13, “For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid.” Verse 14, he prays and asks God to remember these people – Tobiah, Sanballat and these prophets – “who wanted to make me” – what – “who wanted to make me afraid.” And this was not in our reading; you can jump ahead to verse 19. Tobiah sent letters “to make Nehemiah afraid.” And so these are fear tactics. Fear tactics that the enemy is using against Nehemiah.
You see in verse 1 as well that the walls of Jerusalem have been nearly completed. Only the gates remained. And so the work is almost finished, but still, with just a little work left, Satan, through these three men, he aims to make Nehemiah afraid; to bring him down to stop the work. And this evening, it’s not so much that we are introducing a new layer of opposition as much as we’re seeing just how unrelenting that opposition is. We’re getting back to things we’ve seen throughout our study, but amazingly we’ll see that Nehemiah’s fears are relieved by grace. I want to consider together two things in our text. And the first is the unrelenting opposition. That’s where we’ll spend most of our time – the unrelenting opposition. And then second, our needed defense.
The Unrelenting Opposition
And so first, the unrelenting opposition. Chapter 6 has Nehemiah dealing with an unrelenting opposition. There are these three stratagems or three waves to this opposition. I think each has a lesson for us in the church. The first wave of opposition is in verses 1 to 4. We see the persistence of the opposition. The enemy attempts to wear us down. The persistence of it. And there’s a lesson, I think, there for us about persevering courage in the work that God has called us to. The second wave of opposition is in verses 5 to 9. We see that in the slander of the opposition. And there is a lesson for us, I think, in the church about the tongue. The third wave of opposition is in verses 10 to 13, and I think we see the intimidation of the opposition. And there’s a lesson there, again this week, about the fear of God. And so the persistence and the slander and the intimidation – those three waves of opposition.
The First Wave of Opposition: The Persistence of the Opposition
And so first, the first wave, verses 1 to 4 – the persistence of the opposition. What we see in verse 1 is that unholy trinity. They hear that the walls are being built. They hear – we read this – that the breaches are being mended. They fear what is apparent to them – that God is at work. That God is at work rebuilding and restoring and giving grace to His people that they thought were just rubble and dispersed and of no consequence. Fifty-two days of construction and all of a sudden there are walls that weren’t there before. As Derek Kidner put it, “The work had now reached that crucial stage, this critical point on the very brink of completion at which all could still be lost or soon be won.” And so this is a critical point. These gates were the enemy’s last hope, these open gates. And so in verse 2 they begin to scheme. We see this; they come up with a plan to minimize the threat, Nehemiah, or to get rid of the threat. And they want to distract the work; they want to disrupt it. But Nehemiah sees through all of that. You see this in verse 2. Nehemiah sees that their plan is not to have this great conference, but their plan is to do harm to him. He says, “They intended to do me harm.”
The plain of Ono, commentators will tell you, is old Philistine country. And so for Nehemiah, a Jewish man, a Jewish leader, going to the plain of Ono would be hostile territory. And so Nehemiah refuses to go. It’s worth noting here in verse 4 they sent to him four times and Nehemiah, four times, answers in the same manner saying, verse 3, “I am doing a great work.” I think that’s a remarkable line. “I’m doing a great work.” Why is the work great? It’s great because it’s God’s work. This is a part of what God is doing in the history of redemption to assure His promise that Jesus Christ will come and save sinners. This restoration of the people of Israel was a promise that God made, a part of the promise that will eventually lead to a king coming to them whose name is Jesus Christ. And Nehemiah knows he is involved in a great work. “I am doing a great work.”
Maybe you remember in the New Testament, Satan – the tactics that I used, those waves of opposition that I mentioned of persistence and slander and intimidation – Satan, in the New Testament, used every one of those tactics that’s used in this passage against Nehemiah, he used them in the New Testament against one far greater and far more faithful than even Nehemiah. For Nehemiah, it’s actually just a little picture. His preserving courage is a little picture of Jesus Christ who will be much more faithful in the future. There’s a verse in the gospel of Luke that commentators would say is the hinge of the gospel; it’s the heart of that gospel where everything changes. The gospel of Luke, chapter 9, verse 51. And Luke writes, “When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, He set His face, He set His face to Jerusalem.” And so Jesus, He set His face to the great work. He set His face to God’s work. He set His face to the cross. And from that moment forward in that gospel, Jesus set His face to do the work that God gave Him to do.
Do you know that this is the great work, this is the great work – that Jesus has come to save sinners and build His Church. This is the great work. Do you believe this? “I am doing a great work.” Do you believe this? Do you believe this is the greatest work? This is more important than the work of your kingdom. I think it’s easy for us in the Christian life to get sidetracked; to waver between the work of building our own kingdom and the work of building God’s kingdom. “I’m doing a great work.” I want you to think tonight – “When was the last time you said what Nehemiah said? When was the last time you said, ‘No, I’m doing a great work’? When was the last time you said, ‘I am involved in a great work, this work that is more important than the work for money and the work for power, the work for ease, the work of politics, the work for approval.’” But this is the most important work of your life. “I’m doing a great work” – this remarkable line – meaning that all the other work that I do, of all of it, there is one work that overrules and orders them all. It’s the work of God’s kingdom. It’s God’s work. Do you believe you are involved in the greatest work under heaven? Is this how you interpret your life? Is this how you interpret your story? “I’m doing a great work.”
It’s easy, week after week and day after day to forget this in mundane jobs with disposable incomes, changing diapers, family drama, sitting in carpool, going to the doctor, doing math homework. It’s easy to forget this. And Sunday after Sunday, with the same hymns, the same pastors, the same Sunday school, the same D group, the same youth group. But in all the smallness and all the sameness, God is doing this great work. Do you realize that when you say, “No,” to other things to do this great work, to come to corporate worship, that when you volunteer with VBS, that when you share the Gospel, you bring the Gospel of grace of Jesus Christ to the poor and needy in our city, that you are doing the greatest work under heaven? It’s the greatest work; that you are involved in the greatest work under heaven. “I am doing a great work.” Nehemiah had this persevering courage in that work.
The Second Wave of Opposition: The Slander of the Opposition
The second wave of opposition, verses 5 to 9, we see the slander of the opposition. After those four attempts to get Nehemiah to come to Ono, the next time, look at verse 5; we read that “Sanballat sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, ‘It is reported among the nations that you and the Jews intend to rebel and that you wish to become their king. And now the king will hear of these reports. Now come and let us take counsel together.’” This was all a complete fabrication. Nehemiah wasn’t attempting a coup; he wasn’t attempting to be king. He’s working at the king’s command; he’s working at the king’s commission.
I do think we need to remember back in Ezra chapter 4, about fifteen years prior, King Artaxerxes shut down all of the rebuilding in view of this kind of gossip. And so the purpose of the slander is similar here. Verse 9, “For they all wanted to frighten us so that our hands will drop from the work and it will not be done.” And so you see that they wanted to, again, they wanted to slow down the work and they wanted to make God’s people afraid. And Nehemiah in verse 8 responds with the truth. “No such thing as you say have been done for you are inventing them out of your mind.”
I think there is a lesson here for us in the church that our enemy loves to slander and loves to accuse God’s people. He will resurrect sins from your past. He will use them to frighten you. And the really sad thing, it’s not only does Satan slander but sometimes he even causes people in the church to slander one another. And that is a great victory for our enemy. I think that some of you have these memories as well. When I think of my grandfather, when I think of the childhood memories that I have with him, I remember, one of the things I remember is the aftershave. I remember just the aroma in the room when he would leave of that aftershave smell. He would walk out and there was kind of an after presence of him. And just by way of self-diagnosis, based on your words, what lingers in the air when you leave the room? What kind of atmosphere, what kind of aroma is in the room? You see, Satan loves it when God’s people forget about Him, forget about His work, and they start focusing on one another and there is an atmosphere of slander and suspicion and mistrust. And so he’s going to get a foothold to do everything he can to breed that mood.
The Third Wave of Opposition: The Intimidation of the Opposition
So we’ve seen the persistence; we’ve seen the slander. The third wave is in verses 10 to 13. We see the intimidation of the opposition. So the text helps us here. Tobiah and Sanballat, verse 12, had hired this prophet, Shemaiah, who falsely led Nehemiah to think that his life was in imminent danger. And so Shemaiah encouraged Nehemiah to flee, and not only to flee, but he encouraged Nehemiah to run into the holy place of the temple, so verse 10, “the house of God within the temple and let’s close the doors within the temple so that you can be safe.” But Nehemiah responds in verse 11 that if he had done that he would have lost his life. He says, “What man such as I can go into the temple and live?” See, Nehemiah wasn’t in the priestly line and so for going into the Holy of Holies he would have been guilty of breaking God’s law. Kidner says here, “Had Nehemiah tried to save himself in such a way he would have lost possibly his life, certainly his honor, and would have jeopardized the very cause, the very work that he had at heart.” And Kidner goes on to say – and I love this – that “Nehemieh here shows a proper humility.” And I like that line – that Nehemiah shows a proper humility. “What man such as I?” That’s a proper humility.
Nehemiah was a man who feared God more than he feared man. He has a true sense of the fear of God. This freedom, this freedom that Nehemiah has, don’t you want this? Where he can before God, before man, he can accept his limitations. “What man such as I?” You see, whatever you’re facing tonight, whatever you’re up against, what’s most needed for you is a posture of learning to fear God. And maybe that sounds old fashioned to you, “the fear of God.” Maybe that sounds like something we should be, in the church, moving away from and not something that we’re learning into. But the fear of God is knowing our condition. It’s knowing our place. How quickly we forget who we are. How quickly we forget, “What man such as I?” How quickly we forget when the opinions of other people become big. That Ed Welch book, the title, When People Are Big and God Is Small. When People Are Big and God Is Small.
But listen to the way that the Bible talks about the fear of God. “The Lord surrounds those who fear Him and satisfies them with good things. For those who fear Him, lack nothing.” And so this is a promise for us this evening that we can hold onto, that whatever we are up against, that whatever we are facing, that whatever we are eaten up with, if we are in a pit and we don’t know the way out, learning the posture of fear of God means that He will surround us, that we will lack no good thing. “What man such as I?”
The poet, John Dunn, at the end of his life on his deathbed he wrote these words, “Give me, O Lord, a fear of which I may not be afraid.” “Give me, O Lord, a fear of which I may not be afraid.” And Dunn was saying you will have fear, but you have a choice. You can either fear God or you can fear everyone and everything else. You see this with Nehemiah. Nehemiah knew the fear of God and it makes him like a lion on the inside. It makes him like a lion because he’s not afraid of people anymore. But at the same time it makes him incredibly humble. “What man such as I?” He’s a lion on the inside but he’s humble.
Our Needed Defense
And it’s worth noting that we won’t fall into the fear of God. It doesn’t come naturally. We must fan the flame of the fear of God in our hearts. “What man such as I?” How do we do that? How do you make God big again in your heart’s eye? He’s already big, but how do you make Him big in your heart’s eye? “What man such as I?” Well we have to arrange our life around certain practices. We have to make room to rest and to reflect and to remember. And Nehemiah shows us this. And this is the second and last point – that needed defense. You see, prayer is one of those practices that keeps in front of us that God is big and God is good. Prayer. And Nehemiah once again – we’ve talked about this numerous times as we’ve looked at this book – that Nehemiah throws up these little arrow prayers. And there are two in our reading, verse 9 and verse 14. And so for many of us, our confidence in our ability to manage our lives without God shows up in our lack of prayer. Do you know these kinds of arrow prayers? We’ve said these little arrow prayers of Nehemiah are simply the outgrowth of a life of prayer. As we’ve seen repeatedly he’s a man of God, he’s a man of prayer, he’s committed to lengthy times of prayer, but in a crisis, in the chaos, he cries out to the Lord this prayer.
In verse 9, I love this – “Strengthen my hands.” Ralph Davis, in his sermon on this text, said of this prayer, “Here in the thick of it all, Nehemiah casts himself upon God’s strength.” “Strengthen my hands.” There’s an acknowledgment in the man of weakness. When we think about Nehemiah we usually don’t think of a man who is weak. But every man of God needs a strength that you don’t natively possess. And so blessed are you who come to God with empty hands, with weak hands. Blessed are you who have nothing to bring to Him but empty and weak hands, who possess absolutely nothing but your own weakness and poverty. Blessed are you. And that teaches you, knowing your lack of strength, teaches you not only not to depend on your own strength, your own stubborn self-sufficiency, but it teaches you to sing, “The Lord is my strength.” It teaches you to pray like this. “Strengthen my hands.”
I heard the story of a sculpture who was commissioned to do a sculpture of Billy Graham. And you have to spend hours together to complete a task like this and he finally got up the courage to ask Dr. Graham, he said, “What is it like to be Billy Graham?” And the story goes that Billy Graham smiled at him and said, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.” And everyone who knew him said that was his true posture. That he was always shocked that God could love him. Just like the story we heard in the missionary report of the man who was converted – he was shocked that God would open his eyes, that God would use him, that God would pursue him. That needs to be our posture. “Strengthen my hands.”
Let me close with this. The Crown is a television show which explores the life and reign of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. And in the most recent season of, The Crown, season four, there’s a scene where Princess Margaret is suffering a spiral of despair, is on her way to her first appointment with her therapist. And Margaret’s friend is driving and Princess Margaret can’t believe that she, the princess, has to drive to see the therapist instead of the therapist driving to see her. And more, Margaret rails against her need to see a therapist at all. She rails against her sorrows and rails against the way that her grand life has gone off track. And this friend that was driving her is driving through the fog and says this amazing line. The friend said, “Apparently the healing cannot start, the healing can’t start until that grandiosity is diminished.” “The healing can’t start until the grandiosity is diminished.”
That’s true for each of us. That’s true for our stories. Do you have, tonight, not a small part of grandiosity? Do you have that grandiosity? Then with me, pray one of these arrow prayers. “Help me, Lord. Keep me, Lord. Sustain me, Lord. Forgive me, Lord. I need You, Lord. I love You, Lord. I surrender to You, Lord. Strengthen my hands, Lord.”
As we saw, an unrelenting opposition. There are lessons for us about persevering courage, about the tongue, about the fear of God. Also, our needed defense – this arrow prayer. “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?” That’s how Nehemiah navigated chapter 6. Let me pray for us.
Our great God and heavenly Father, we pray that You would help us to fear You, that You would strengthen our hands tonight as we participate in Your great work. And we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.