Sanctified Scare Tactics (Hehemiah 6:10-14)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
A. Preliminaries
A. Preliminaries
Good Morning.
We will continue our series in the Book of Nehemiah this morning.
We are in the sixth chapter of Nehemiah. The text for the sermon this morning will begin at verse 10, and go to verse 14. You can find it on the bottom of Page 472 of the Bibles in your pews.
B. Sermon Text
B. Sermon Text
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.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!
C. Review
C. Review
So just to refresh your memory about what is going on in Jerusalem, you have these bad actors—enemies of Israel. Their names are Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. And they were causing trouble.
They tried to arrange a peace conference to waste time, and possibly to lure Nehemiah into a trap, so Nehemiah says “No, we won’t come down from the work” (Neh. 6:3). They bothered him four times with this (Neh 6:4), and his answer remained the same.
So then, in verses 5-7, they published this open letter in order to intimidate. It is written for public consumption but its purpose is to grab the attention of the King of Persia, and tell him, “Attention! King! These Jews intend to rebel! That’s why they are building that wall! And they’ve set up prophets saying ‘There is a King in Judah!’”
Then, with that intimidation in play, they say “Now let us take counsel together” (Neh 6:7).
And Nehemiah says “No. You’re lying. You’re trying to frighten us (vv.8-9). O God, strengthen my hands” (v.10).
Now there is something I want you to note. It’s really important for the whole Book of Nehemiah in general. Three things.
God has told them to do the work of restoring the wall.
The work is almost finished.
The enemies of Jerusalem have one objective: To stop the work.
Those were the closing words of our text from last time, in verse 9:
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.
D. Textual Walkthrough
D. Textual Walkthrough
So what we have in our text this morning is that after all that happens, Nehemiah goes to the house of Shemaiah. This fellow seems to be under a kind of house arrest (we aren’t told why). Which is curious, because in verse 10, he says let’s flee to the temple and lock the doors, because they are coming to kill you.
So first, it is strange that a fellow who is confined to his house is inviting Nehemiah to meet in the temple and lock themselves in. But he has a reason—he says that these schemers have updated their plan. They’ve gone from veiled threats to actual threats.
And remember, Nehemiah’s enemies have one objective: To stop the work.
And what happens in this part of the story is that Nehemiah detects that there’s something fishy going on here.
And Nehemiah tells him in verse 11:
“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 as it turns out, this fellow who claimed to be speaking a prophetic word, is a liar who has been paid off.
And so Nehemiah figures out that this man is a traitor, he’s been hired by Sanballat and Tobiah. So that Nehemiah would look like a coward in front of the people.
And so in verse 14, Nehemiah prays that God would deal with these false prophets who are trying to make him afraid.
E. Sermon Points
E. Sermon Points
And so I want to give you at least three things that are in this text that we’re going to consider this morning:
First Point: The Temptation of Fear
Second Point: The Necessity of Discernment
Third Point: The Sound of Courage
Let’s Pray
F. Sermon Prayer
F. Sermon Prayer
O Lord, make your Word a swift Word, passing from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip and conversation; that, as the rain returns not empty, so neither may your Word, but accomplish that for which it is given. Amen.
(Prayer by George Herbert)
I. The Temptation of Fear
I. The Temptation of Fear
So Nehemiah goes to the house of this fellow, Shemaiah, who was confined to his home, and Shemaiah has an idea. He says:
“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.”
The first thing I want you to notice about this plan is that it is surprisingly reasonable. And it even sounds spiritual. He says “They are coming for you. It’s time to stop the work, and flee to the house of the Lord.” Doesn’t that sound spiritual? These are Sanctified Scare Tactics.
But Nehemiah resists this because he knows three things:
God has told them to do the work.
The work is almost finished
Jerusalem’s enemies want to stop the work.
And so he knows this is still part of the plot to terrify him into stopping the work.
So he says, verse 11:
“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.”
What I want you to see here is that Nehemiah’s enemies are trying a different tactic. Head on attempts to intimidate and make him afraid did not work. So now they are trying something more subtle.
It’s what we might call “reasonable” fear. Because fear often wears the clothing of reason and even religious piety. Nehemiah had orders from God. And Shemaiah is trying to give him new orders: Put your safety before your obedience. Just stop the work to protect yourself. And you can even be real religious about it. Flee to the Temple. That sounds very spiritual, doesn’t it?
And what we should learn from this is that fear becomes idolatry when it encourages disobedience.
Nehemiah was tempted to fear, and we are also often tempted to fear. And our temptation in those moments is to baptize our anxiety and call it discernment. But if your pious-sounding caution replaces your obedience, that’s just fear dressed up in church clothes. Because we rarely admit our cowardice. When prefer to call it “caution” and “discernment.” I am not saying caution and discernment are bad things. I am saying that when we are doing the bad thing of cowardice, that’s how we dress it up. And I’m sad to say the people who are the very best at this are the ones with seminary degrees.
So let us remember when we are confronted with fear that Christ told us that following Him would be costly. And we should answer our fear with “Should I run? Should I run away? In front of the world, in front of my kids, in front of my church?”
And let us also remember that fear is a terrible accountant, because it exaggerates every cost and forgets every reward.
So how should we answer fear?
I think our text gives us two answers, and those two answers are our next two sermon points: Discernment and Courage.
So, next
II. The Necessity of Discernment
II. The Necessity of Discernment
Shemaiah tries to get Nehemiah to flee, and Nehemiah sees right through the plot. Look at verse 12:
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.
So he saw right through the plot.
But you have to wonder how.
How does Nehemiah know that something is up?
Well, let’s look at the evidence.
He’s told they should both (“Let us...”) run to the temple? Hard to do when this fellow was confined to his house. Fishy.
Nehemiah cannot enter the temple and use it as his own safehouse. He’s not even a Priest.
Jerusalem doesn’t even have a “sanctuary rule.” That’s not the purpose of the temple.
Discernment is when we apply the word of God to propaganda and worldly nonsense. It’s not just being skeptical, it’s being wise. Nehemiah knows that what is being offered to him is fear that’s dressed up in spiritual clothes.
So what does Nehemiah do? Well, it seems to me that he did a quick review of what he knew to be true. What did he know?
He knew that
God has told them to do the work.
The work is almost finished
Jerusalem’s enemies want to stop the work.
And I have in mind especially that first point: God had told them to do the work. And Nehemiah is wise enough to know that God does not issue new commands to invalidate the old ones.
Wisdom never contradicts God’s Words.
So I want to make some things clear here. This is a call to discernment. But discernment isn’t just mere suspicion. It’s the ability to recognize a lie even when it comes in a devotional email. It’s the ability to recognize religious nonsense even when it sounds sweet and sentimental.
Discernment also knows when it’s getting forced into unbiblical ways of thinking. It asks what standards we are using to make our decisions. Most importantly for our story here in Nehemiah, Discernment asks, “Who benefits if I stop obeying God?”
Because if the counsel you are getting lets you disobey God and still look like a good Christian, you are getting played by a Shemaiah.
If a father were to say “I can’t lead my home. I can’t lead my wife. That sounds too proud and presumptuous.”
It sounds like humility. But it’s just cowardice.
When a Pastor says “I don’t want to preach too hard against the most common sins of the day. That could alienate the young people. Or alienate the women. Or alienate the seeker. That sounds like concern for souls, but it’s really just cowardice.
When we excuse some compromise with the words “But God just wants me to be happy,” that sounds like warm theology, but it’s really just cowardice. So we need discernment. We need it for the lies we hear, but especially the ones we are tempted to tell ourselves.
III. The Sound of Courage
III. The Sound of Courage
Look at verse 14:
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.
Now we aren’t exactly sure who Noadiah the prophetess is, but apparently the problems in Jerusalem’s religious community were worse than just Shemaiah. There was a deeper problem here with the wider religious community.
But what you should notice is that he turns his enemies over the God. He says “You remember them. You take care of them.”
Nehemiah’s answer to this temptation to fear has been the same answer he has given every single time he has been afraid, and that has been To pray. And to trust the Lord.
This should remind you that whatever the world and the devil intend for fear, God repurposes it for faith. The devil builds a snares, but God uses them to forge saints.
Now this is certainly an imprecatory prayer. Which means a prayer asking for God’s curse and judgement. He’s praying for God’s judgement on his enemies. So what do we do with that?
(Sidenote: This is a good follow-up to last week’s sermon).
Some commentators at this point simply say “Nehemiah was wrong, and he shouldn’t have prayed for God to judge his enemies, he should have been more like Jesus, and prayed that his enemies would be forgiven, or like Stephen who prayed the same.”
One commentator even says that the cross is a reminder that God will forgive Nehemiah and us for such prayers.
But if you take that tact, as well-intentioned as it may seem, you’re going to end up blotting out several of the Psalms out of your Bible.
But the reality is that if you’ve ever prayed for justice, or even if you’ve just prayed that people in trouble be delivered from their trouble, you are—in a real way—praying an imprecation.
A good quote from Alec Motyer on this. He’s talking about praying for persecuted Christians, and he says:
The deliverance [of the people of God] can often only come through the overthrow of their oppressors. When we pray, then, in our bland way, “Lord because you love what is right, bring them out of trouble”, we are in fact praying, “Because you love them, destroy their torturers.” In the same way we would rather not pray, “Lord, in flaming fire render vengeance to those who do not obey the gospel”, but it is a part of the unspoken realism accompanying a prayer we love to pray, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
Do you see what he’s saying? When we pray “Come, Lord Jesus” we are (inevitably!) praying for God to bring his just judgement into an unbelieving and rebellious world. Since that is part of what the Second Coming will bring. We don’t often think about it that way, because we in American evangelicalism have often had a faith that doesn’t know what to do with imprecations because it doesn’t have real enemies.
But my point here is that Nehemiah’s imprecation is actually an exercise of trust in God which is what our whole text is about this morning. A false prophet is trying to use Nehemiah’s fears to get to act stupid and to behave foolishly. And if you are not clear on what God has said in His Word, the words you have to trust in first of all, that is the tactic your enemy will use on you. Because if your trust is not rooted in what God has said, your enemy will provoke you to act in fear of the world, but that fear will look very pious and very religious.
Because when it comes to our enemies, we are called to love them. But we also must be wise enough not to be steered around by them.
Rather, we hand them over to God. And to trust God to deal with them, so we can get back to the work God has actually given us to do. Work in our homes, churches, and vocations.
And I think what Nehemiah’s example here brings out is that you can tell a lot about your faith by what you do when you’re slandered. Do you panic and lash out? Or do you, like Nehemiah, pray and keep building the wall?
And our trouble is that too many of us launch our imprecations to everyone else except God. When what a godly man or woman is called to do is to hand the file to the Judge of all the earth and gets back to the work.
Because godly courage is contagious. When fathers pray instead of panicking, the household becomes a small Jerusalem. A fortress of peace in an age dominated by fear and anxiety.
And children and young people, you have a part in this, too. When you trust and obey your parents, you are helping to build that same wall.
And in addition to that, your simple faith and cheerful obedience are stones in the fortress God is raising. When you sing loudly, when you listen to God’s Word, when you pray, you are showing that you belong to the same kingdom, built by the same King. Don’t think your work is small. In God’s hands, it is mighty.
And we should be praying that our church as a whole chooses courage over fear. Because when churches refuse to bow to fear, they become visible signs that Christ really is King.
So dear saints, our work today is to be helped and blessed by the example of our brother Nehemiah. To be, as it were, wall-builders in a generation of quitters. Because the world’s strategy is still the same. To frighten you, to distract you, to get you to stop the work. So do not stop. Trust the Lord. Entrust your fears to him. Ask Him to strengthen your hands, and keep laying stones.
Conclusion
Conclusion
And never forget that every stone Nehemiah laid was whispering a promise. That one day, God Himself was coming to build a wall the enemy could never breach.
In this way, we again find our Savior Jesus to be the Greater Nehemiah. Who faced a much sneakier Shemaiah. He faced the tempter in the wilderness who said, “Save yourself. Take the easy way out.”
And our Lord and King and Brother Jesus Christ replied, “Should such a man as I run away?”
And the Scriptures tell us He set His face like flint toward Jerusalem, to finish the work that would cost Him His life.
Christ, the one who didn’t only pray for strong hands, but saw his own hands pierced so that fearful scared-ey cats like us could be made strong.
And now, our risen and reigning, calls His people to pick up their shovels. And He gives us His Holy Spirit. Not a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.
So when you are tempted to run, remember: Christ did not run.
When you are tempted to stop the work, remember: Christ finished the work.
And when you are tempted to fear your enemies, remember: Christ has already crushed the serpent’s head under His heel.
Therefore, dear saints, build fearlessly. Because the Greater Nehemiah reigns, and the walls of His kingdom will never fall.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
