Finish Without Getting Distracted

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Our series in Nehemiah continues this week. It’s titled Pray, Plan, Persevere. Today, we’ll see from chapter 6 how his plan and sticking with it helps Nehemiah to persevere through some additional attempts by some to harm the efforts to rebuild this wall.

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We are going to see three attempts by Nehemiah’s adversaries to distract him from the work he was doing. This is their last effort prior to the work being complete. However, when the wall is complete, that did not mean the enemy was done trying.

One of the greatest things we can do for ourselves is to define what it is that we are going to do, because will help us say no to the things we shouldn’t do. Our biggest enemy of accomplishing something great is settling for the good or OK.

I hope that by looking at the life of Nehemiah and some of the decisions he made along the way will encourage us, both as individuals and as a church, to find our holy burden, our purpose and prayerfully plan and persevere to the end.

Let’s start reading in Nehemiah 6 and see what the opposition has in store for Nehemiah...

Nehemiah 6:1–4 NIV

1 When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates—2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.” But they were scheming to harm me; 3 so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” 4 Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.

On the surface, this request to meet together seems like it could be a nice thing to do, but Nehemiah sees through their request. He sees their intention to distract and potentially harm him. They did not have noble intentions with their request.

What if one our adversaries asks us to meet up with them? How do we know what their intentions are? Notice something in Nehemiah’s reply to them. He doesn’t tell them that he thinks they are up to no good, he instead says that he is involved with something big at the moment and cannot take time away.

“I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”

It helps to know what it is that you are supposed to do, so you don’t get distracted by something else along the way. Nehemiah was adamant in completing the wall. He was not going to let a meeting with an adversary take him away from it.

I remember a time, a little after Pastor Bob had stepped away. I was preaching here once a month or so, sharing the responsibility with the other elders. I had been approached to speak at another church as a favor to fill the pulpit there.

I came to the elders with this and asked for their advice. They told me that they believed that I was being called to help with the work here, and that going there to preach would distract from that....so I declined the invitation.

I found at later that the invitation may have other intentions other than just pulpit supply. I don’t know what would have happened if I accepted, but I do know what happened because I said no.

Lastly, notice he was asked 4 times and he gave the same answer each time. Just because someone asks multiple times, it doesn’t mean that God is leading that way.

Let’s keep reading.

Nehemiah 6:5–8 NIV

5 Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter 6 in which was written: “It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king 7 and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together.” 8 I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”

Since the first 4 requests didn’t work, the tactic changed. A very serious accusation was leveled against Nehemiah. A revolt against the king…and I have witnesses.

This is where the integrity and honor that Nehemiah displayed in the last chapter comes in handy. Nehemiah knew that he was doing no such thing. There were no secret agendas or scheming that Nehemiah was a part of. That made it really easy for him to reply the way he did. There is a part of me that wonders how Sanballat responded when he got the reply.

Nehemiah knew what God had called him to do and Nehemiah knew how God called him to do it - with integrity.

Nehemiah had both of these because of his relationship with the Lord. The time he spent in prayer. The time he spent in knowing how God wanted him to act…what it meant to be holy and blameless…not perfect, but seeking the Lord and his will in all ways.

Nehemiah sees through their schemes and says this...

Nehemiah 6:9 NIV

9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.” But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”

Here is another one of Nehemiah’s short prayers in response to the attacks. I think there are times when we can get to in our heads about prayer. We don’t really know what to say or how to say it. What if we just kept it simple. In response to someone trying to discourage…Lord, give me courage. When we feel weak…Lord, strengthen me. Whatever it is. These simple prayers are often the most effective.

We have one more challenge to watch Nehemiah deal with...

Nehemiah 6:10–13 NIV

10 One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.” 11 But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” 12 I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.

The direct meeting and intimidation didn’t work, so they enlisted some help of someone else that Nehemiah knew. A man who had the title of “Prophet”. This kind of attack can be the most troubling. We want to trust those with titles and “a word of knowledge” or a prophesy. I think this is a type of attack we might even see today.

Nehemiah saw through this scheme as well. He knew God’s hand was in all of this because of all the favor he had up to this point. Both with the King and with the people of Jerusalem. If God was willing to do all of that of course God would protect him from any harm someone might want to do to him.

He also knew that if he went into the temple he would have defiled the temple and himself because only priests were allowed to go in. If he did this, then there is something people would be able to truly accuse him of.

I believe many good men have fallen to this very scheme. Where a trust person they knew gave bad advice and guidance that resulted in the good man or woman doing something wrong.

Doing the wrong thing, even for what seems like the right reasons…is still doing the wrong thing. I have seen God honor those who do the right thing even when it means facing difficult results.

Nehemiah 6:14–15 NIV

14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me. 15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.

Here we see another imprecatory prayer by Nehemiah, although is a bit more subtle than his previous one. I want to focus some time on verse 15. 52 days is all it took to complete the wall. Now most of the foundation of the wall was there, but the wall was pretty much destroyed before they got started.

Here are some facts about this wall. By scholars accounts based on archeological excavations and documents, this wall was 2.5 miles long. If the wall were on flat terrain and in a straight line, it would take an average person 40 minutes to walk the length of that wall. The wall included 8 towers and 10 gates. In most parts of the wall, the wall was 10-12 feet tall. The ceilings in this church are about 10ft.

The tops of the wall were at least 6.5 ft wide…wide enough for precession to march on it around the city. We’ll read about that when we get to chapter 12.

I have some pictures for you...

***Put up Nehemiah wall picture***

It is probably going to be hard to see. There are two ways you can get this on your phone to zoom in. You can go to the church app and there is a link you can click or you can text the word Nehemiah to 802-444-8707 and you’ll get a text back with the link.

So starting at the top right, there are remnants of the corner tower in the existing wall, a rendering of what the wall would have looked like, then the water gate outlined in blue, what it looks like today from just outside the wall.

At the bottom middle is the dung gate, some present day pictures of the dragon springs and tombs.

On the middle left, a picture of the top of Hezekiah’s broad wall. That wall is 22 feet wide. And then finally some pictures of present day of some of the landmarks around the wall.

Just for some present day fun, so you can relate to this with something familiar. I’ve gone to Google maps and created an outline around the city of Montpelier that could represent a 2.5 mile long wall. This is just an estimate…although I have found the measurements on maps pretty accurate.

If we built a wall that started at Sarduccis, ran up main street to the round about, then took a turn west through Hubbard park, to include hubbard tower to the end of Bailey Ave and then around the Montpelier high school and then back up route 2 back to Sarduccis, we’d have about the same length wall as Nehemiah rebuilt.

And the wall is 10 ft tall and 6.5 feet wide. And he did it in 52 days while holding a sword.

And the wall would last hundreds of years...

Now that we’ve put this accomplishment in perspective, let’s read the last 4 verses of Nehemiah 6...

Nehemiah 6:16–19 NIV

16 When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. 17 Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. 18 For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shekaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. 19 Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.

Nehemiah acknowledges that the only way this wall could have been done is with the help of our God. Not only did he know it, but everyone around Jerusalem knew it.

Even knowing this, that did not deter the critics. That did not stop the attempts at intimidation. But Nehemiah put those all in the right context. God cannot be intimidated. Likewise, God’s people should not be intimidated.

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Closing comments and invitation