Nehemiah 04: Restoration Brings Opposition Pt2

INTRODUCTION

Nehemiah: Restoring A Nation:

“Restoration Brings Trials”

INTRODUCTION

We are continuing our series on the book of Nehemiah, studying Nehemiah’s efforts to bring restoration among the remnant who had returned from exile to Jerusalem. Throughout this book, he leads the people of God in restoring the nation, beginning with the walls of Jerusalem in chapters 1-7, and then moving on to the restoration of the people themselves in chapters 8-13.

The things that Nehemiah does for his nation serve as a good example for us as we seek restoration in our own lives as Christians.

WHAT IS RESTORATION?

And what do I mean by restoration? A good parallel that I have used to illustrate what I mean when I use this term is restoring automobiles. You begin with a vehicle that does not look like it did when it first left the showroom floor, and your desire in restoring this vehicle is to get it to look like it did when it was originally designed and built.

This is what we are aiming for as God’s people — to return to what God first intended at the creation of mankind — that we would be individuals who submit to His rule as those who are made in His image. We are being transformed into the image of Christ so we can enjoy the relationship with Him that He made us to have. This is a daily, life-long process for all of us as we help others to be restored to God and grow in a relationship with Him and as we ourselves work in our hearts to accomplish the same.

THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH

As we have been studying, Nehemiah did the work of restoration among the remnant that returned from captivity around 445BC and the years following. Because the hand of the Lord was with him for good, his desire to help the people of God in Jerusalem and his prayers were answered. King Artaxerxes, who Nehemiah served as the cupbearer, allowed Nehemiah to go to Jerusalem and gave him everything he needed for the job of building the walls and rebuilding the city.

OPPOSITION

But, as we began to see in our lesson during the first hour this morning, it is not the case that Nehemiah’s efforts were without opposition. God’s work seldom happens without some kind of opposition. Satan always looks for opportunities to oppose the purposes of God, so it should not surprise us that he desires to do this in Nehemiah’s situation.

Nehemiah and the builders had many who opposed their work. Throughout the time that they are building the walls, these enemies try to stop the work, and there are some good principles for us to take from these chapters to apply to our own efforts of restoration.

Just as God’s work received opposition from these men, I believe wholeheartedly that Satan will respond the same today when we decide to get to work in bringing restoration.

During our first hour we considered some passages in chapter 2 & chapter 4. We considered three ways in which the enemy tried to stop the work Nehemiah and the builders were doing.

DOUBT (2:19): DERISION (4:1-6): DREAD (4:7-14):

For our second lesson today, I would like us to look at three more ways the enemy tried to stop the work that Nehemiah and the builders were doing, then we will talk about how Satan tries to do these things with us to stop our work of restoration.

DISCORD AMONG BRETHREN (CH5)

Let’s look at chapter 5. In the midst of the work of building the wall of the city and facing opposition from those outside God’s people, Nehemiah had to deal with problems among God’s people. People who were Jews, men and their wives, raised a complaint against their Jewish brethren.

There seems to be three groups making complaints to Nehemiah in verses 1-5.

The first complaint was that men could not provide enough food for their sons and daughters.Some had even mortgaged their fields, vineyards, and houses to get money to buy food, because there had been a famine or drought.Some had to borrow money to pay the taxes that the king had levied on fields and vineyards. And their Jewish brethren were charging them interest.

Without means to provide income for their families, they ended up selling them as slaves.

DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM (5:6-13)

This outcry amongst the Jews against one another led Nehemiah to be filled with anger. They were dishonoring the Lord by treating each other in such ways. They were not treating their brothers as the law of Moses prescribed in the matter of giving loans. They were charging interest that their fellow Jews could not pay. According to the law, the Jews were forbidden to take interest from their brothers on loans (Ex 22:35; ; ; ). The depth of the poverty called for gifts —for generosity towards their brethren — not making loans and charging interest to make money off of their brothers.

Nehemiah spent some time reflecting on this problem and how to solve this problem, and then he calls a great assembly to set things right. Sometimes the best way to set things right is to confront the problem directly. That’s what Nehemiah does here. He rebukes the people for what they had done to one another. He shares his amazement over their actions against one another. In verse 8, he talks about how he and others had done what they could in the past to redeem their Jewish brothers. They bought them back out of the slavery they were in to people of other nations. And then now, in return, they go and sell their own brothers and relatives into slavery! This is ridiculous!

It is no surprise that at the end of verse 8, it says, “They were silent and could not find a word to say” (ESV) What could they say to justify their actions? What words could they say for rejecting the law of Moses and charging their brethren interest? There was no excuse. So they were silent.

Nehemiah broke the silence by saying:

“9 So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?” (, ESV)

He calls them to repentance — to stop these things that they are doing. He tells them to stop charging interest, and he tells them to return the property, the money, and the crops that they had taken for payment of the debts.

Thankfully, the people responded well. They promised before the LORD to do what Nehemiah told them to do, and they did what they had promised.

MORE!!!! (verses 14-19) quote 19…

DECEIT (CH6)

There is one last tactic of the enemy that I would like us to consider. This one is in chapter 6. The last tactic I would like to consider that Satan and his servants use is deceit. This is one that Satan has been using from the beginning. Jesus says that he is the “father of lies.” He was the originator of deceit. And in chapter 6, we see his servants tried to lie to Nehemiah so that they could have an opportunity to put the leader of God’s people to death.

“1 Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm.” (, ESV)

If only they could get Nehemiah to come, they could pull a swift one on him. They could kill him and undo all the work that he had done for the Lord and His people. So they kept on sending messengers to Nehemiah to get him to come to them. Then the fifth time they send a letter to Nehemiah with some kind of manufactured story, saying that there were reports that they were building the wall so that they could rebel against Persia and install Nehemiah as king. They said that it was also reported that prophets were installed in Jerusalem who were proclaiming Nehemiah as king. This is just a few examples of the lies of their enemies in this chapter.

DISTRACTION

Nehemiah new that they were being deceptive and making up stories. And he knew why they were doing this. They wanted to distract him. They wanted Nehemiah’s mind to be taken away from the work, and if Nehemiah could be taken away from the work for a time, then the people would be able to be distracted also. This is a scheme that Satan often uses. If he can just get God’s people to become distracted, then he can get us to stop working.

But Nehemiah would not be persuaded by the servants of Satan. He would not be distracted, and he would not be moved to fear by the stories they made up.

I love Nehemiah’s responses to his enemies in this chapter. First, in verse 3:

“3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”” (, ESV)

Then in verse 8.

Here is what he says about their lies:

“8 Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.”” (, ESV)

Nehemiah knew what the truth was, and so did his God. So Nehemiah would not kept from the work.

The tactics of Satan would not be successful. The discord that was sown among the Jews was overcome. The attempts to deceive and distract Nehemiah and the workers did not work. They would not be demoralized or be paralyzed by fear, and they would not doubt the promises the Lord gave them.

No matter what the enemy tried to do to stop the builders, they would not stop working. They continued to build, and finished the walls in record time:

Look at verses 15-16

“15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.” (, ESV)

The love for the people of God and for the city of God led Nehemiah to put plans into place to get this work done, and the opposition did not slow them down because they trusted in the LORD and knew He would help them get the job done.

After the work was done, even their enemies understood that God was with His people! Those who tried to demoralize and discourage God’s people became demoralized themselves because of how God worked among His people.

APPLICATION

THE IMPORTANCE OF DEALING WITH COMPLAINTS AND WITH DISCORD AMONG BRETHREN

The Christians in had to deal with a big problem. Discord and complaints arose over certain widows not being taken care of. The Corinthians needed to deal with discord and division within their congregation. In all of these instances, good leaders rose to the occasion to help solve the problem. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the discord and division within the church. The Apostles in put plans into motion to solve the problem, appointing men to make sure every widow in need was taken care of. Whenever there is discord among brethren, or whenever there are complaints, they need to be dealt with so God’s people are not discouraged by the problem, but instead, encouraged to work together to solve it.

Whole congregations can become discouraged because of discord in the group that is not dealt with.

DEALING WITH THE LIES OF SATAN

Since the garden of Eden, Satan has been attacking God’s people with lies. After he tries to get God’s people to doubt, he often follows up with deceit — with lies, just contradicting what God says. He uses men who we trust to teach false doctrine to make the chances greater that we will be led astray by it. Paul’s concern for the Corinthians in was that Satan would deceive them as he did Eve — that their minds would be led astray from sincere and pure devotion to Christ by the false Apostles that infiltrated their number.

Satan will use deception and any other tactic that he can think of to distract us from working for the LORD. He has so many things and people in this world that he can use to distract us. But there is nothing in this world that is worth neglecting the work of God for. He has given us the important work of restoration that we cannot allow ourselves to be taken away from. We need to resolve not to be led astray and not to be charmed by what the world offers.

CONCLUSION