The Voice in the Rubble: Drowning Out the Enemy's Song
Nehemiah: From Rubble to Restoration • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 45:21
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Have you ever gotten a song or jingle stuck in your head that you couldn’t get rid of?
Maybe you were driving,
folding laundry,
or just sitting there minding your own business,
But suddenly, it entered your head and you couldn’t get rid of it.
The Germans actually came up with a word for this.
They called it an Ohrwurm.
Or as we call it, an earworm.
And we call it that because that’s exactly what it feels like.
Like something crawled into your ear and made a home inside your head.
And this happens to us more often than we think.
Let me show you what I’m talking about.
So I’ll start this,
and you finish it.
“Gimme a break, gimme a break. Break me off a piece of that…
“Kit Kat Bar.”
Or how about this one…
Ba - by…
Shark…
“doo doo, doo doo doo doo.”
Some of you parents just felt a flash of trauma.
But sorry, I’m not sorry - because misery loves company.
And I gladly welcome you all into my pain.
One more.
And some of you are thinking: “please no.”
Well too bad - cuz here it is:
“The best part of waking up…”
is”
“Folgers in your cup.”
Why do most of us know these jingles?
How did they get into our head?
The answer is through repetition.
See, if you hear a thing enough times,
your brain builds a little loop,
and the loop starts playing whether you asked it to or not.
That is why companies will spend millions of dollars
to put a jingle in front of you again and again.
They are not trying to entertain you.
They are trying to get their message inside you.
But here’s the thing…
when it is a jingle, it’s mostly harmless…
except for baby shark… yes I know - instant trauma.
But do you know what kind of earworm can do real damage?
It’s the ones that aren’t just jingles, but judgments.
I’m talking about the verdicts we constantly hear:
"Things will never change."
"It doesn't matter what you do.”
"You are going to fail - so why not just give up now…”
A lot of us never suddenly choose to believe those things.
But we hear them enough times.
And then one day, when we are worn down and tired,
we open our mouths,
and the voice that comes out does NOT sound like faith anymore.
It sounds like the enemy.
That is exactly where we find God’s people in Nehemiah 4.
The enemy’s voice is trying to get into the workers’ heads.
And the question this chapter answers is how God's people drown it out.
To keep going when the enemy's voice rings loud, we must:
Redirect the voice. 4:1-6
Replace the voice. 4:7-14
Resist the voice. 4:15-23
So far in our study through this book,
we’ve seen how Nehemiah’s heart broke when we heard that Jerusalem was in ruins.
Then Nehemiah fasted and then prayed for months,
and the good hand of his God moved the heart of a pagan king to grant his request.
Nehemiah then made a long journey,
surveyed the damage by night,
and called the people to rise up and build.
And as we saw last week, that’s exactly what they did.
From the priests, to the perfumers, to the rulers, daughters, and ordinary servants,
the people banded together,
in the face of opposition,
to engage in the work of restoration.
And chapter 3 reminds us that God records all of our labor,
and labor done for Him is never wasted.
But in chapter 4 the work continues,
And it’s going quite well actually.
But then opposition shows up with a jingle they want to put in the people’s heads.
In verses 1-3, Nehemiah’s enemies Sanballat and Tobiah show up,
And their first attack isn’t with a sword,
it’s with the tongue.
Sanballat starts mockings and insults,
Saying:
“Look at these feeble Jews.”
“They really think they can accomplish the task?”
Sanballat even mocks their worship,
as if a prayer can raise a wall,
saying:
“Will they sacrifice?”
“Will they finish this in a day?”
He even starts mocking the stones in their hands,
calling them burned and useless rubble that won’t work for rebuilding the wall.
And then there is Tobiah - Mr. funny guy.
He says:
“Look at this wall… it’s so flimsy that if a fox climbed on top of it the whole thing would collapse!”
Verse 1 tells us what this is,
It’s “jeering.”
It’s using insult and ridicule to tear someone down.
See, Sanballat and Tobiah aren’t giving constructive criticism,
they are giving cutting critique.
We talked about these kinds of people back in Nehemiah 2.
They are kinds of people who have an opinion about every brick,
but won’t lay a single one.
They use ridicule,
intimidation,
rumor,
slander and gossip.
And it’s all usually done under the banner of
“I’m just joking around,”
or
“I’m just trying to help.”
Sure, you might be trying to help,
but you’re just trying to help yourself.
And that is exactly what Sanballat and Tobiah are doing.
They don't want a rebuilt Jerusalem,
because a rebuilt Jerusalem threatens their power and their wallets.
And selfish men do not give up control quietly.
So they reach for the Devil's favorite tool.
The tongue.
Ridicule is the language of the devil.
And that fits the Bible's picture of the scoffer,
who is the one person Proverbs ranks worse than a fool.
The scoffer does not build.
He sneers in his pride - because he knows better than everyone.
He turns obedience into a punchline.
And that is what Sanballat and Tobiah are doing here.
And here is what we so easily forget, church.
We are often surprised when the bullets start flying, like a soldier shocked to find himself in a war.
But we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, and the unseen rulers of darkness in this present age.
Sanballat is the mouth.
But the voice is our true enemy’s who is looking for a way into our hearts.
While Satan’s mockers are laughing at God's people,
God is not wringing His hands in frustration in heaven.
Listen to Psalm 2.
“The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed.”
And what does God do?
"He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord scoffs at them."
Sanballat mocks God’s people,
But God mocks the mockers.
The opposition that looks so threatening from the ground is marked for defeat from heaven.
Which is exactly where Nehemiah goes next.
He doesn’t climb the wall and start shouting back insult of his own.
He doesn’t pull out the king’s letter and start waving in their faces.
He does not stop the work to argue with dishonest men.
Instead, as verses 4 and 5 show us,
Nehemiah takes it to God and asks Him to deal with the mockers in a Psalm 2 way.
4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. 5 Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.
Nehemiah is praying for his enemies,
but in a way that seems quite at odds with Jesus’s teachings on the sermon on the mount
“to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Look at what he’s requesting…
He’s asking God not to overlook their sin,
to turn their insults back on their own heads,
and for them to be taken into exile as captives themselves.
And as New Testament Christians we flinch when we hear that.
But we don’t need to.
Nehemiah’s prayer, which is called an imprecatory prayer,
makes complete sense once we understand what he is actually asking,
It’s not at odds with the heart of Jesus's teaching at all.
Let me explain why.
First, this is not revenge.
Nehemiah is not grabbing a sword to make them pay.
He is taking it to God and saying, "Lord, You handle this."
And there is a world of difference between revenge and a cry for justice.
Revenge wants to make them hurt because they hurt me.
Justice says, "God, this evil is real, and it’s an offense to Your holiness. So I am asking You to deal with it."
Second, this is not wounded pride.
Sanballat and Tobiah are not mocking Nehemiah's personal project.
They are mocking the work of God, the restoration of His people.
So Nehemiah is not concerned about his name being dragged through the mud
He is concerned about God’s name.
And third, notice the word he uses.
He asks God to turn back their "taunt."
That is the same word, reproach, that broke his heart back in chapter 1.
The reproach that sat on Jerusalem,
he now asks God to turn back on the ones heaping it up.
Instead of letting the voice of the enemy run on repeat inside his head,
Nehemiah sends it upward to God before it can settle inward.
That is what faith under fire looks like.
You do not ignore the voice.
You do not argue with the voice.
You bring it to God.
Not only is this the mark of a Godly leader church,
it’s the mark of a Godly Christian.
When your spouse or kids have disrespected you.
When your boss or coworker insults you for your faith.
“You don’t return the blow. You let God know.”
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Nehemiah doesn’t believe the voice from over the wall,
he believes the voice of heaven and entrusts himself to God Who will bring perfect Psalm 2 justice.
And then watch what happens next.
6 So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
The enemy gave a speech.
Nehemiah gave a prayer.
And the people picked their tools back up and kept going.
After all of Sanballat's ridicule,
and all of Tobiah's mockery,
The answer is five words:
“So we built the wall.”
The answer to mockery is NOT obsessing over the mockers.
When the enemy's voice gets loud,
the first question is not, “How do I prove him wrong?”
The first question is, “Have I brought this before God?”
Nehemiah did.
And then he got back to work.
But not everyone kept that voice outside the wall.
To keep going when the enemy's voice rings loud, we must:
Redirect the voice. 4:1-6
Replace the voice. 4:7-14
After the mocking didn’t work,
the enemy changed tactics.
Look at verse 7.
7 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. 8 And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. 9 And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.
Now the insults turn into physical threats.
Sanballat and Tobiah go recruiting for allies,
and the result is that Israel is surrounded on all sides:
Sanballat and Samaria in the North,
Geshem and the Arabs in the South,
Tobiah and the Ammonites to the East,
And the Ashdodites to the West.
They are no longer just laughing at the work.
They are planning to attack it with force.
And in response Nehemiah does what he always does:
He prays to the God of heaven.
Verse 9 says: "We prayed to our God and set a guard."
That word “and” in that verse is doing a lot of work.
Nehemiah didn’t just pray and sit there passively waiting for God to act.
He prayed and then ACTED.
Because prayer and action always go together.
Faith isn’t just sitting on your hands,
It’s first getting on your knees before rising to your feet.
And that was vitally necessary because of what happened next.
10 In Judah it was said, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.”
At first, the voice came from the enemies over the wall,
but now it’s coming from within the wall.
And what are they saying?
EXACTLY what Sanballat and Tobiah were saying!
“There is too much rubble.”
“We can’t rebuild the wall!”
The enemies taunts had become an earworm that had burrowed itself in deeply.
That is exactly how an earworm works.
They did not sit down one day and decide,
"You know what, Sanballat is right. We are feeble and we can’t do this.”
They just heard it.
And heard it.
And heard it again and again on repeat in their heads.
Until one day,
worn down and tired,
they opened their mouths,
and the voice that came out did not sound like faith anymore.
It sounded like the enemy.
In our pharisaic pride,
it would be easy to look down on the people.
And we should be slow to do that,
because their exhaustion was real.
The rubble was real.
Go read chapter 2.
Nehemiah himself could barely get his horse through it.
The exhaustion was real.
They had been hauling stone for weeks.
The threats were real.
There was a ring of swords around the city.
But this isn’t defiance, it’s depletion.
This is Elijah under the juniper tree, saying "I have had enough, Lord."
And God did not lecture him.
He fed him and let him sleep.
Because the lie sounds the loudest when the body is most empty.
Now make no mistake, "we cannot rebuild" is still unbelief.
It is the same words Israel spoke at the edge of the Promised Land.
But this is not the hard heart of the spies.
It is a tired saint running on empty needing the tank refilled.
And that kind of unbelief needs a hand,
not a hammer.
What they had done was stop listening to the only voice that matters.
Which was not the voice outside the wall.
Not the voice inside the wall.
The only voice that matters is the one from heaven.
So what voice is living rent free in your head?
Is it the voice of this world,
that tells you your God’s ways will fail and you’ll never be happy if you follow them?
Or is the voice of the flesh, that tells you things will never change.
Your marriage will never get better - so why even try?
People will always disappoint you - so you keep them at an arm’s length distance?
Or the work of the ministry is too hard - so give up!
Maybe for you it’s the voice the devil.
Who the Bible calls “The accuser of the brethren.”
It’s the voice that says:
“Who are you to call yourself a Christian?!”
“Who are you to disciple anyone - you remember how bad last week was.”
“You barely touched your Bible.”
“You didn’t pray like you should.”
“And remember how angry you got…”
But notice what are all of these voices saying.
Because it’s really all variations of the same thing:
“The rubble is too much. So give up.”
But if we listen to that voice,
it will become an earworm that won’t let up.
Which is exactly what happens in verses 11 and 12.
11 And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.” 12 At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, “You must return to us.”
Now, to understand these verses,
You need to remember what we learned last time in chapter 3.
Which was that not all of the workers lived inside the wall.
Many of them came from many miles away.
And they come to them - 10 times - and say:
“You must stop the work and return to us.”
And they say this, because if the enemy attacks, it will begin with them.
Ten times they say this.
Which shows the earworm has gotten in and the message is now on repeat.
But it hasn’t gotten into Nehemiah’s head.
13 So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
Nehemiah doesn’t just dismiss the people’s concerns saying:
“Why don’t you be more spiritual? Just trust God and all will be fine.”
He doesn’t do that.
Yes, he trusts God,
but also isn’t passive,
and so he takes steps of faith by implementing a wise plan.
He stations the people by families, at the exposed places,
with their swords and spears and bows.
And he puts them by families
so that the man on the wall is standing next to his own wife, his own sons, his own daughters.
They aren’t working while worrying about their loved ones.
They are equipped to work and protect.
And then Nehemiah speaks in verse 14 saying:
14 And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
Nehemiah does NOT turn into a motivational speaker saying, "Remember your strength and just believe in yourself."
He does NOT say, "Remember how far you've come."
or ”Look how much of this wall you've already built."
He says,
"Remember the LORD, who is great and awesome."
Church, this is the answer to the earworm.
You do NOT get the devil’s song out of your head by gritting your teeth and trying NOT to think about it.
That never works.
You get it out by turning on a louder one.
And that is exactly what "remember the Lord" does.
It’s Nehemiah drowning out the enemies’ melody with a better song.
This is the entire problem with the self-esteem movement.
The solution to the enemies’ song isn’t looking inward and trying to convince yourself that you’re great,
the solution is remembering that GOD IS GREAT!
And what does our great God say?
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
That’s the truth we need to drown out the enemies’ song.
“The Lord who is great and awesome!”
“The Lord who is great and awesome!”
“The Lord who is great and awesome!”
And in response to that glorious truth…
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
The answer is NO ONE.
That’s the song we need on repeat if we are going to resist the enemies’ voice.
To keep going when the enemy's voice rings loud, we must:
Redirect the voice. 4:1-6
Replace the voice. 4:7-14
Resist the voice. 4:15-23
In verses 15-23.
Nehemiah describes everything they did to safeguard against the enemies threats.
And it’s a lot.
Which also made the work a lot more difficult.
They returned to the wall.
Half worked while half stood guard - which slowed everything down by 50%.
The leaders stood behind the people.
The laborers carried materials with one hand and held a weapon with the other.
The builders worked with swords strapped to their sides.
Nehemiah kept the trumpet-blower beside him so he could rally the people wherever the attack came.
The people worked from dawn until the stars came out.
Everyone stayed inside Jerusalem at night so they could guard by night and labor by day.
Nehemiah, his brothers, his servants, and the guards stayed dressed and ready.
And even when they went for water,
their weapons stayed close.
Verse 15 says:
15 When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work.
Why were the people able to return to the wall and continue the work?
Was it because Nehemiah was a brilliant leader?
Was it because the people banded together and overcame their challenges?
No…
It was because “God had frustrated” their enemies’ plans.
And yet, how did God do that?
With a miracle from heaven?
No…
He did it through the faithfulness of Nehemiah and the unity of the people.
This is why Spurgeon once said,
“Work as if everything depends on you, but pray as if everything depends on God.”
His point wasn’t that everything actually does depend on us,
His point was that we can’t be passive.
That’s not what our God calls us to.
He calls us to remember and trust in Him.
And then faithfully engage in the work knowing He fights for us.
That’s what Nehemiah says in verse 20.
20 In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”
Notice why Nehemiah set up that trumpet.
The work was spread out,
and every builder was far from the next.
So if the enemy attacked one section,
the rest might never even know.
The trumpet meant that wherever the attack came,
the people would drop what they were doing and run to that spot.
In other words, no one fought alone.
And church, that is how this works for us too.
Some of you have an earworm playing so loud right now that you cannot drown it out by yourself.
You have heard the lie so many times that you can no longer hear the truth over it.
That is what the body of Christ is for.
When one of us is pinned down by the enemy's voice,
the rest of us hear the trumpet call and run to that spot.
We are the ones who remind each other of the louder song when a brother or sister has forgotten how it goes.
The point is, you were never meant to hold the wall by yourself.
Nor were we meant to by ourselves.
Instead, we do so knowing our Great and Awesome God fights for us!
And when you tune into that voice.
It drowns out all of the rest.
The reason we trust that voice,
is because it comes from the One Who fought and won the one fight we couldn’t possibly win.
Which was the fight against sin, hell, and the wrath of God.
Like Nehemiah, He endured ridicule and mocking.
But His did NOT come from voices outside the city.
It came from within, from His own people.
All through His life they sneered at Him.
"Look at Him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners."
"Now we know that You have a demon."
"It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons."
But unlike Nehemiah, God did not fight for Him.
He did not protect Him from the enemies’ attacks:
He was struck with hands,
saying: “Prophesy to us, You Christ! Who is it that struck You?’”
"He saved others; He cannot save Himself."
"He trusts in God; let God deliver Him now, if He desires Him."
The enemy's song had never been louder.
And like Nehemiah,
he didn’t revile back, but entrusted it to God.
23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
And why?
Not to rebuild a wall, but to restore the heart.
Don’t you see church,
that the only reason our God is for us
is because Christ willingly submitted to God being against Him?
That’s why our God can fight for us and not against us!
That’s why we can ignore the enemy's song.
It’s because Christ Jesus,
the Son of God fought for us by death, even death on a cross.
And by God’s grace, through simple faith in Him,
We can drown out the earworms of this world with the glorious song of heaven,
which says:
17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
So which song are you listening to on repeat?
The one that says: “There’s too much rubble… just give up.”
Or the one that says: “Our God will fight for us! And If our God is for us, Who can ever be against us?”
When the voice gets loud,
Remember the Lord.
And keep building.
Because our God will fight for us.
And at the cross, He already did and won.
