Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 185 - Nehemiah, God's Builder - Part 7 (Nehemiah 6:1-16 NKJV) Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that there were no breaks left in it (though at that time I had not hung the doors in the gates), {2} that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, "Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono." But they thought to do me harm. {3} So I 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?" {4} But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner. {5} Then Sanballat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand. {6} 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. {7} 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. {8} Then I sent to him, saying, "No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart." {9} For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, "Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done." Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands. A great leader is strong and proactive not weak and reactive. Poor leaders go around putting out first this fire then that. They rely on circumstances to set their agenda. Great leaders start the fires! They set out with their God-given agenda firm in their mind and do not deviate from it. They make the Devil respond to them, but they do not respond to the Devil. Satan will poke and provoke, tease and annoy, irritate and undermine just to get us to pay attention to his nonsense. Like a hobgoblin in the cellar he will create havoc to distract us from the real work at hand - and in this he often succeeds. Satan had a bunch of ugly hobgoblins in Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab! They were trying to get Nehemiah out to the plain of Ono under some political pretext when the truth was "But they thought to do me harm." Nehemiah brusquely fobbed them off - as we should fob off the Devil's distractions. Hobgoblins should be trounced and rebuked! So they get nasty and provoking and send a letter full of ugly allegations. "{6} 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. {7} 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." Pause.. How would you react to a letter like that sent to your boss? Would you explode? Would you go down and defend your reputation? Or would you ignore it and say "Bah humbug"? Nehemiah chose that latter course - "Then I sent to him, saying, "No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart." {9} For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, "Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done." Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands. Nehemiah saw through the malicious intentions - assassination, distraction, and discouragement and their objective , "Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done." Nehemiah told them they were making things up, ignored the clear implications of their threats and called on God for strength. He then got on with the work of God! So the enemies got personal: {10} Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was a secret informer; and he said, "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." {11} And I said, "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!" {12} Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. {13} For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me. {14} My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these their works, and the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid. They send Nehemiah a bogus intelligence report about his own assassination, and knowing Nehemiah's faith they call in a few (false) prophets to bolster the case. The trap was to get Nehemiah to take refuge in the Temple, to desecrate it, and to look weak, cowardly and foolish. "For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me." Nehemiah's salvation was his own honor. His first reaction was "Do you think I am a wimp? I'm not that sort of a man! Do people like me run away! Forget it!". (verse 11 paraphrased). Manly honor is from God. God does not make us to be weak. Strength undergirds all virtues. Without it they are pale and ineffective. Strength leads to success and to triumph: {15} So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days. {16} And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God. Nehemiah was strong, in the strength of the Lord, who got all the glory for the accomplishment. The nations "perceived that this work was done by our God." In just fifty-two days the mighty wall was built and the gates were hung. The city of Jerusalem was back in business and secure! It was a massive and remarkable engineering feat. But did the nations celebrate? No they were "very disheartened in their own eyes". It activated their feelings of inferiority. God was with the Jews, therefore not with them, they were the outsiders. When we do mighty things for God we will stir up critics, dishearten the insipid and discourage the unbelieving. The surrounding nations were not converted, they did not say "O lets believe in the God of the Jews!". They just got dejected. When a mighty answer to prayer comes to pass what do people say "Oh well, nothing like that happens to me.." and off they mope as miserable and unbelieving as ever! Unbelief and misery have their own self-centered, self-validating logic. Deep inside it is a stubborn persistent determination that God will not get any glory from them. They would rather weep and wail and gnash their teeth than acknowledge that God is good. Mighty leaders are proactive, persistent, strong, honorable, courageous, prayerful, believing and in the end triumphant in God and rejoicing in His goodness. Blessings, John Edmiston Were you blessed by Eternity Daily Bible Study? To subscribe just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org Visit the Eternity Daily Bible Study Archives - http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ Study at the Asian Internet Bible Institute- Free online non-formal, in-service, bible and ministry training: http://www.aibi.ph