Nehemiah 4:13-23...

The reaction of the Jews (4:7–15)

When Sanballat and his allies realized that their ridicule had failed to stop the work they threatened the Jews with violence (4:8).

This intimidation was dealt with by earnest prayer for divine assistance and increased labour on the wall (4:9).

There was prayer and perspiration!

As the Jews pressed on with their assignment they could hear the relentless and disheartening words of three groups pounding their eardrums.

Some of their own number, who had prayed with them for God’s help, were still overwhelmed at the enormity of the task:

‘The strength of the labourers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall’ (4:10).

When does realism become pessimism?

It is true that we should weigh up carefully the difficulties in any spiritual enterprise,

but we ought not to let our evaluation depress and defeat us. Nothing is too hard for our God!

— ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.

The builders were also bombarded with further menacing words from their adversaries:

‘Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work’ (4:11).

The third group was comprised of Jews who had swallowed the propaganda of the opposition:

‘Wherever you turn, they will attack us’ (4:12). They repeated their dismal message ‘ten times’;

sometimes our friends are our worst enemies!

Exhaustion (‘The strength of the laborers is giving out’),

fear (‘They will attack us’) and

incessant harassment were getting through to some of God’s people.

So last week we saw that Conflict is Inevitable in the work of God, which made Prayer Crucial in the work of God.

Today we’ll see (first of all) that Unity is Essential.

Very much aware of such intense discouragement, Nehemiah devised a strategy to meet the immediate crisis and implemented change.

First, he mobilized the Lord’s people by making sure that the most vulnerable parts of the wall were protected by appointed guards.

— Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall, at the openings; and I set the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

Nehemiah’s response was to do things that, on the face of it, looked mutually exclusive: “And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night” ().

Prayer to God and preparation for battle. Nehemiah posted guards day and night and, when things got decidedly worse,

stopped the work (v. 13), armed the people, and arranged them at the most exposed places along the wall (v. 13),

urging them not to be afraid, but to “remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for … brothers, … sons, … daughters, … wives, and … homes” (v. 14)

The motivation to fight when family and home are threatened is a powerful one.

These are not soldiers but ordinary people: men and women whose lives and existence are now threatened.

observe that pacifism in the face of this kind of opposition is not an option for them.

Morale is low; some already voicing frustration with the building process complain that their strength

(of will as much as physical stamina)

has given out ().

Something of the taunts of their enemies and the threat of violence has gotten through to them,

and there is evidence of a lack of resolve among the people.

Energy is dissipating and zeal abating—

So what’s a leader to do? Did Nehemiah know what it was to be overcome with terror (2:2)?

He could enter sympathetically into the fears of his colleagues, but he also believed that fear is conquered

by reflecting on the sufficiency of God: Remember the Lord.

Nehemiah uses the words of his opening prayer (1:5), when he first heard of Jerusalem’s plight.

Now he is leading the venture in the city he reminds himself and his contemporaries of the uniqueness,

power (great) and holiness (awesome) of God.

The Lord had promised to meet the needs of his people,

however serious their adversities, and would not go back on his word.

Their circumstances had changed, the work was more difficult and the enemy more active,

but the Lord was exactly the same.

They must remember God. Here in v14 we are introduced to a very important theme, remembering God.

It is apparent from the Old Testament that remembering the great acts of God is essential to the spiritual well-being of God’s children.

In fact, God is very directive about this.

The Passover (turn over to ).

On the night before the Exodus, when God instituted the Passover rite as a perpetual ceremony in Israel, he instructed Moses to say,

And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

Passover was meant to bring about heartening spiritual memory and reflection.

The Law (Go over to ).

Later, after God thundered the Ten Commandments from Sinai and charged Israel with the Shema and specific instructions to “impress them on your children”

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

Moses went on to say:

“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22 and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. 23 Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers.

Flip over to . The most notable example of God’s concern for his people’s memory

was at the crossing of the Jordan,

when he instructed the priests of Israel to take twelve stones from the Jordan and pile them in Gilgal in the Promised Land.

His subsequent instructions were explicit:

that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”

The Israelites were to look on the stones and remember that they did not get across the Jordan through their own ability.

It was all the work of God. And realizing this, they were to conduct all of life accordingly, whether warfare, business, or family life.

(Turn to )Why all this emphasis on remembering?

Because God’s children have always tended to forget the wonderful things he has done.

Give ear, O my people, to my law; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, 3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. 5 For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; 6 That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children, 7 That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments; 8 And may not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not set its heart aright, And whose spirit was not faithful to God. 9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.

The seventy-two verses of mourn Israel’s tendency to forget God’s faithfulness. Verses 10, 11 sum it up.

:10They did not keep the covenant of God; They refused to walk in His law, 11 And forgot His works And His wonders that He had shown them.

Turn to . We present-day children of God confirm our sad continuity with the children of old

by our forgetfulness of things that were once so vivid and vital to our faith and way of life.

But the emphasis here in is altogether positive!

Those who remember what God has done, those who cultivate the memory of God’s great works on their behalf, will live to God’s glory.

The Apostle Peter did just this when he remembered how God preserved Noah and delivered Lot

and concluded with a resounding statement of confidence: “if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials” ().

“if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials” (). “If God did it for them, he will do it for us!” How important theological memory is.

“If God did it for them, he will do it for us!” How important theological memory is.

This matter of remembering was on Paul’s mind as he wrote his second letter to Timothy.

Immediately after the greeting, he heartened Timothy by calling to memory

the faith of their forefathers (1:3),

his and Timothy’s own deep friendship (1:4),

Timothy’s rich spiritual heritage (1:5),

the day of Timothy’s call and gifting for ministry (1:6, 7; cf. 3:14, 15), and

lastly the pattern of sound teaching he had given Timothy (1:13).

Remember, remember, remember, remember.

—Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel,

Did the apostle really imagine that this dedicated young minister could ever forget Jesus

The source of his life,

The secret of his strength and

The substance of his preaching?

But when trouble comes, Scripture’s great realities

can be temporarily displaced by anxious thoughts.

Believers often need that timely reminder.

So he unifies them by bringing them all into remembrance of who their God is!

The leader made sure that, from now on, the entire work force was permanently and efficiently

protected so he divided his team into builders and soldiers:

— So it was, from that time on, that half of my servants worked at construction, while the other half held the spears, the shields, the bows, and wore armor; and the leaders were behind all the house of Judah.

Even the laborers who carried rubble away from the city were supplied with armor and did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other (17).

Each of the builders was equipped with his sword at his side as he worked (18).

To ensure that builders, laborers and residents were aware of approaching danger,

their leader devised a temporary warning system.

A trumpeter stayed by Nehemiah’s side so that the troops could be quickly gathered together at the place of most urgent need:

—Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”

Each person, worker or guard, kept an ear open for the warning sound of the trumpet summoning them to fight an invading foe (4:18–20).

The work of the Jews was so urgent and the danger of a raid so pressing

that they did not even have time to change their clothes or to sleep (4:22–23).

The despondency of verse 10 was replaced with renewed vigor for their God-given mandate to build the walls of Jerusalem.

What had brought about this change?

It was a fresh realization of the presence of their mighty defender; ‘Our God will fight for us!’ (4:20).

God fought for his people, not because he was the tribal god of the Jews,

but rather to move forward His predestined plan

to bring salvation to sinful men and women through Christ, born within the pale of the Jewish race.

We too are engaged in a warfare, ‘not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms’ ().

The apostle Paul’s teaching in this verse is that behind all human antagonism to the gospel message and

against ourselves as Christians

is the might of Satan and his powerful regiment of demons.

But the Lord who has enlisted us in his army is more powerful than the devil.

Our divine Captain equips us with armour and gives us strength to conquer ().

In the language of Nehemiah, ‘Our God will fight for us!’ God’s work, then and now, is accomplished

by faith—‘Our God will fight for us’ (4:20)—and

‘Our God will fight for us’ (4:20)—and hard work— —So we labored in the work...

—So we labored in the work...

hard work— —So we labored in the work...

This is what makes unity so crucial to the work of God! As followers of Christ we are both warriors and builders.

And in every stage of our pursuit in building the temple of the Lord, we certainly will meet with opposition.

As these servants of the Lord did, we must have the sword of the Spirit to oppose the adversary and the whole armor of salvation, on the right hand and on the left.

This is how Paul tells the Ephesian church to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might! ().

Again, this is what makes our Unity so Essential.

Then we see that Sacrifice is Inescapable (v21-23)

We would be fools indeed to think that, the devil is not present.

As much our adversary as he was Nehemiah’s, Satan prowls like a lion,

hungry and threatening,

making himself appear bigger than he actually is ().

Like Nehemiah and the Ephesian Christians, we are to “put on the whole armor of God, that [we] may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” ().

Part of that armor is the shield of faith that quenches the fiery darts that come our way, as well as

the sword of the Spirit—Scripture—and the weapon of all-prayer.

All of these have their counterparts in !

— So we labored in the work, and half of the men held the spears from daybreak until the stars appeared.

So, although Nehemiah made careful plans to meet every possible emergency,

his organizing ability would have been useless without the radical sacrificial involvement of both leader and people.

The work continued throughout every available moment of the entire day, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out (21).

People who lived in nearby villages no longer went home to sleep, but stayed within the city’s slowly rising walls

so that they could serve as guards by night and workmen by day (22).

Nehemiah, his brothers and his personal escort set a choice example to the rest of the workers.

They even slept in their clothes so that they were fully dressed and ready at the moment of attack.

Many of the outstanding personalities of Christian history had to cope with immense hardship of one kind or another. They too proved that there was no service without suffering.

All these people derived their inspiration from Scripture, recalled that all its great characters experienced

some form of pain and recognized that

following Christ involves costly living at some point or another in life.

Sacrifice is Inescapable And we end this message with the Truth: God is Invincible.

The narrative of chapter 4, with its recurrent problems and imminent dangers, is deliberately interspersed with affirmations of faith and confidence in ‘the God of heaven’ (1:5; 2:20).

The story of adversity becomes a testimony to the abundant sufficiency of God.

Nehemiah renews their confidence in the Lord.

Their God, he points out, is unique (4, 9).

He enjoys a personal relationship with his people. With buoyant confidence they address him as our God (4, 9).

He is the God who treasures his people because he is bound to them in covenant love.

God is attentive. Nehemiah can turn to God in crisis and know that he will be heard (4).

Also, it was not simply the leader who prayed, but the people as well: But we prayed to our God (9).

He is righteous. Those who deliberately reviled God’s people would find that

their insults would come back on their own heads (4)

for that was exactly what Scripture warned about those who deliberately offended God and his people.

He is powerful. He is the great God (14) of the Israelite people who had repeatedly enabled them

to achieve humanly impossible things because of His invincible power.

He is holy. Those who hurl their reproaches at God’s leaders & people are insulting the truly awesome God (14)

to whom they belong.

He cherishes them and to hold them in contempt is to revile the God who makes them what they are.

He is sovereign. He not only strengthens the Israelite soldiers as they stand poised for action on Jerusalem’s walls

but he also works behind the enemy lines.

He frustrates the plots of Israel’s enemies (15) and reduces their vindictive plans to mere human vapors.

He is unfailing. In time of extreme crisis, Nehemiah can assure his team, Our God will fight for us (20).

He is not in the slightest doubt that the Lord he has told them to remember (14) is unchanging and dependable.

He cannot disappoint or fail them.

With such confidence and commitment, Nehemiah and his colleagues continued to build despite

verbal assault,

psychological pressure,

physical danger,

natural discouragement,

crippling fear and

extreme danger.

They were enabled to continue not because they gloried in a robust faith

but because they trusted in a reliable God.

It is clear from this passage that there were times when the people’s trust and heroism was frail (‘strength is giving out … we cannot rebuild’)

but Nehemiah’s confident words reverberated throughout the entire community, Our God will fight for us.

The leader knew that his people must work hard but, in the last analysis,

the success would not depend on their sustained exertion

but on God’s assured strength.

When Nehemiah assured his partners, Our God shall fight for us, they knew that,

although exertion is necessary,

dependence on the Lord is rewarded.

The exhortation not to fear () applies to us today,

as does the dynamic example of trust and obedience:

they prayed and set a guard (v. 9).

Nehemiah sums it up: “remember the Lord” and “fight” (v. 14).

Our God has fought for us, in Christ, and has won the victory.

As we battle on as His people to the end,

often despised

and rejected,

we must always remember our great and awesome Lord and

make every effort to guard and strengthen the household of God, the people of the Lord.