Nehemiah - Restore our Resolve

Introduction: Imagine you are finishing up a project at work or for school. Time is running out and you are resolved to finish and finish well. The closer you get the more distractions pop up. People vying for your attention. People criticizing your work. People. How will your persevere through this time and finish?

That’s what our text is about today. Nehemiah is about to lead the people to finish the work they start. But guess what, opposition returns.

Transition to the Text: We met Sanballat and Tobiah back in chapter 2. They didn’t particularly care for Nehemiah’s vision for a restored Jerusalem. That would have taken away the power that they had in the region. And of course Nehemiah was a particular powerhouse in the political world of ancient Medo-Persia. Nehemiah’s vision was a problem that threatened upset the power-lines in that contentious world. And of course we know that it did. as God was getting ready to send His son into the world.

But something as big as this was bound to have temptation to quit and give up. So as Nehemiah approaches the end of his great work, we see that there is about to be a final last ditch effort to thwart this work. While opposition by these 2 has been generally directed at the people, now they are going to go full force on Nehemiah.

Nehemiah 6:1–19 ESV

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. 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?” 4 And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. 5 In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. 6 In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. 7 And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.” 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.” 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. 10 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.” 11 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.” 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. 13 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. 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. 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. 17 Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. 18 For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. 19 Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.

nehemiah 6:1-

Big Idea: Avoid distractions and focus on finishing the task at hand.

Nehemiah 6:1–14 ESV

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. 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?” 4 And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. 5 In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. 6 In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. 7 And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.” 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.” 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. 10 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.” 11 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.” 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. 13 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. 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.

1. Resolve to persevere. ()

Explanation: They are almost done. The breaches in the walls are complete. All that is left is to set to doors and the gates. There is light at the end of the tunnel. And it is when victory is in sight, that opposition ramps up. Sanballat and Tobiah are back. And while initially they are tried to dissuade the people of Jerusalem from doing the work, having failed they turn to the leader. Nehemiah is now the target of their opposition.

They use 3 ways to try to oppose Nehemiah.

Worry - They try to get in his head. They say “We need to talk.” About what? When people say this, it becomes a distraction because you usually spend the time between the invitation and the meeting worried about what the meeting is about. Just be up front and say this is what I want to talk about. Nehemiah doesn’t bite. And says, “nah.” 4 times they ask for a meeting and 4 times he says no. He will not be intrigued by their bait. “I’m busy doing a great work, I will not be distracted by your deceit.”

Lies - Since Nehemiah won’t meet with them, they will make a baseless accusation that he will need to defend again. You see their goal is to get the wall to stop. It is Nehemiah who is the driving force behind this wall. Get Nehemiah to stop and the rest will fall a part. They say, “We’ve heard....” “It’s reported...” Baseless accusations are an incredibly distracting thing. And we all know when someone says, “We’ve heard...” they are talking about themselves and 1-2 other people. And look at how Sanballat positions himself as a friend, “Let us take counsel … I can help you.” So many of us fall into the trap that we need to defend ourselves. Nehemiah knew he didn’t need to defend himself. So he wasn’t buying it. “That’s not true, I will not be distracted by your gossip, slander and lies.” And Nehemaih prays...”O God, strengthen my hands.” Back to prayer.

Fear - Sanballat and Tobiah’s reach is far into the inner circle of those in Jerusalem. Shemaiah the son of Delaiah positions himself as a supporter of Nehemiah, but really he has been paid by Sanballat and Tobiah to do something. He was a prophet for hire. To make Nehemiah fear for his life. He invites him to go into hiding. Now again, they want the work to stop and that starts with getting Nehemiah to leave the wall. Shemaiah suggests that Nehemiah hide in the Temple. Now can you imagine how the people would respond if it is perceived that Nehemiah is afraid. Fear is a sign of weakness and if they can get Nehemiah to be afraid, the people will faint in fear. There is a time for showing weakness, but this is not it for Nehemiah. But Nehemiah’s boldness in the face of intimidation, the people will be strengthened in faith and boldness. How the leader goes, so the people will follow. “Should a man like me run away?”

At every turn, Nehemiah saw through the lies of the enemy. But how did he know? Nehemiah believed that God had called him to do this great work and anything that would seek to distract him from that work was to be ignored. He did not allow himself to be distracted. He kept his faith strong and because of it, it strengthened the people to finish the great work that they had before them.

Illustration: The truth is we don’t always see light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes we are just stuck in a situation not knowing when it will end. But in this we can continue to persevere. [Slide] I saw this picture and think that the message is clear. We are so often ready to through in the towel when we’re about to reach out goal even if we don’t know it. But here is the truth…if we are doing a good work, then we keep going no matter what come our way.

Application: Now there are things that we should be striving for and things we should quit. How do we know the difference? Sometimes it’s not as easy as should I rob a band or should I not. No matter how much of the money you want to give to the church, its not a good idea. Sometimes a lot of good things vi for our attention. Cutting the grass or spending time with a neighbor and building that relationship with the goal of presenting the gospel. How do we choose? I think sometimes, opposition serve as evidence that we are right where God wants us to be? As Christians the good work that we are doing is living our lives to become more like the Jesus. To rest in His finished work on the cross. There is a lot to worry about, but at least we don’t have to worry about working hard enough to gain favor. When you are in Christ, the work is done. So now we just do what we are told to do and that is the great commission. We go into all the world and tell the proclaim the Gospel. We will find opposition. But it seems that the moment we are ready to give up is the moment of a breakthrough. Because God works when we come to the end of ourselves. Your job is to keep going to persevere regardless of the opposition and the consequences of that opposition.

Transition: Nehemiah persevered through opposition because he believed that what he was doing and for Whom he was doing it was greater than His opponents. So what happened next?

Let’s keep reading.

Nehemiah 6:15–19 ESV

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. 17 Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. 18 For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. 19 Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.

Nehemiah

2. Resolve to finish. ()

Explanation: By perseverance and focus, Nehemiah led the people to finish the wall in 52 days. Praise God. And look what happens. The enemies of God were afraid and felt bad about themselves. You see, when you do a great work that you coudn’t possibly do on your own, it affects people. To those who have a part in that great work, it greatly encourages and boosts their morale. To those who were on the other side, it shuts them up.

Sanballat seems to be gone at this point. But Tobiah is still working to try to intimidate Nehemiah. At first it seems like he is switching sides. He has people speak really well of him in the presence of Nehemiah. But we see that it was all just a ruse to stay under Nehemiah’s skin.

But Nehemiah isn’t having it. He is going to finish what he started and Sanballat and Tobiah will have no part in it.

Now there are some that will say that Nehemiah erred in this by wrongly excluding those 2. But there is nothing in scripture that lends credence to that idea. They are evil deceitful people who are under the judgement of God. Their actions speak louder than any words. Sanballat was a Samaritan and if we understand this story, the Jewish hatred for Samaritans in the time of Jesus begins to make a little more sense. Samaritans wouldn’t lift a finger to help rebuild Jerusalem and sought to oppose the work. And of course let’s not forget the irony of the good Samaritan who actually helped a Jewish person.

But it is not difficult to see that these were not misunderstood people that if Nehemiah would just see it from their perspective his mind would change. Nehemiah is going to lead the people to finish the wall and no amount of intimidation will allow him to soften his stance towards unrepentent sinners.

If they came in humility, would they not be accepted? Of course. But they are slithering snakes who only want to destroy and get in the way. Nehemiah was finishing that wall.

Illustration: I’ve always found that starting projects is easy. Finishing projects is hard. When Amanda and I were blessed to buy a house in Livermore in 2010, it was a real fixer upper. There were no floors, the kitchen was falling apart and there were cock roaches everywhere. They had literally tented the house but didn’t bother cleaning up what they killed. The first thing we did was redo the kitchen. I started that project in 2010. I finished it in 2016 the week before we sold the house. It’s so easy to get almost to the end, but do you have the resolve to finish?

Application: How much greater is the work of God than home renovations. Finish what you start. build relationships with people but tell them about Jesus. Join the church. Invite people and then invite them again. Nehemiah was focused on the great work that God had put before him and he would not be distracted by the naysayers. What great work has God called you do to? Is it sharing your faith with your neighbor? Is it going on a mission trip? Is it being generous with your money? In what ways might you get distracted and need to be resolved to persevere? Who are the opponents of worry? Of lies? of fear? And who is watching you? How will you model faith in such a way that you persevere, but those who are watching you are strengthened as well?

But let’s not forget that we are all a work in progress.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

But notice that the work isn’t finished in 52 days, but at the day Jesus returns and we join Him in Glory!

Even Nehemiah had growing to do. But His perseverance and faith did something that he probably did not intend…it strengthened the perseverence and faith of the nation.

Reflection: In what way does your perseverance restore the faith of others?

Now Nehemiah finished the work that he set out to do and probably loudly declared, “It is finished.”

Jesus’ work on the cross paid our debt and finished our salvation. And with this, Jesus didn’t found a nation, but the church. And then he commanded the church to make disciples.

There are many countries where the Bible is illegal. And what’s crazy is that throughout history, in the midst of opposition and persecution, the gospel has flourished and people are coming to Jesus.

Let’s remember that it’s not a bad thing to have opposition, because God will get incredible glory when we are used by Him in the midst of our weakness.