Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning.

Over the past three weeks we have been looking at the story of Nehemiah.

This morning we are going to be continuing with that and looking at how unresolved anger and contempt in our own lives can lead to conspiracy.

And the importance of prayer and vigilance in challenging those who conspire and plot the ruin of others.

Good morning.

Over the past three weeks we have been looking at the story of Nehemiah.

This morning we are going to be continuing with that and looking at how unresolved anger and contempt in our own lives can lead to conspiracy.

And the importance of prayer and vigilance in challenging those who conspire and plot the ruin of others.

Please open your Bibles to Nehemiah, chapter six.

We come this morning to a section in which Nehemiah finds himself in trouble once again.

He is the victim of plots and schemes.

He finds himself in trial and difficulty.

Maybe that's where you are today.

You’re a believer, you trust in Jesus Christ, you try to do His will; and your life is filled with trials and difficulties, and they’re not of your own making.

You are conscious of enemies who are plotting against you…whispering, perhaps, against you.

Well, this passage is certainly for you.

Let's meet Nehemiah.

Before we meet him in chapter six, let's come before God in prayer.

Let us pray.

Nehemiah finds himself in trouble once again.

He is the victim of plots and schemes.

He finds

himself in trial and difficulty.

Maybe that's where you are today.

You’re a believer, you trust in

the Lord Jesus Christ, you try to do His will; and your life is filled now with trials and

difficulties, and they’re not of your own making.

You are conscious of enemies who are plotting

against you…whispering, perhaps, against you.

Well, this passage is certainly for you.

Let's meet

Nehemiah.

Before we meet him in chapter six, let's come before God in prayer.

Let us pray.

When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates— 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages[a] on the plain of Ono.”

But they were scheming to harm me; 3 so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down.

Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” 4 Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.

5 Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter 6 in which was written:

“It is reported among the nations—and Geshem[b] says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall.

Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king 7 and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together.”

8 I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”

9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”

But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”

10 One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home.

He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.”

11 But I said, “Should a man like me run away?

Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life?

I will not go!” 12 I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

13 He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.

14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me.

What does conspiracy mean?

Conspiracy

1. a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.

2. the action of plotting or conspiring.

We live in a world that is full of conspiracy.

From news, politics, religion and everything in between.

From a quick google search there are more than 100 notably famous conspiracy theories.

People are always trying to plot and scheme and get their way, sometimes without apology and sometimes covering it up behind good intentions.

We live in a world that is full of conspiracy.

From news, politics, religion and everything in between.

From a quick google search there are more than 100 notably famous conspiracy theories.

One of the most well known conspiracies among Americans and political enthusiasts is the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

It is estimated that over 1,000 books have been written about the Kennedy assassination, at least 90 percent of which are works supporting the view that there was a conspiracy.

As a result of this, the Kennedy assassination has been described as “the mother of all conspiracies.”

The countless individuals and organizations that have been accused of involvement in the Kennedy assassination include the CIA, the Mafia, sitting Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, the KGB, or even some combination thereof.

It is also frequently asserted that the United States federal government intentionally covered up crucial information in the aftermath of the assassination to prevent the conspiracy from being discovered.

Nehemiah here is being conspired against.

He is paranoid, and he has already dealt with one series of trials and difficulties, another now comes immediately on its wake.

Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem–we've met them before in chapter 2. Sanballat is a Babylonian name.

He's from Beth-Horon, a place maybe 16-17 miles northwest of Jerusalem.

His daughter will marry Eliashib the son of the high priest, and he will have an introduction then into high society and high priestly society within Jerusalem.

Historical records tell us that he was the governor of Samaria and that his two sons had Jewish names.

He wasn't Jewish, but that his wife was probably Jewish.

He's an ambitious politician.

He's the governor of Samaria to the north of Jerusalem.

Like Nehemiah, he is under the authority of the Persians, but he wants to make a name for himself.

He probably sees Nehemiah, and especially the building of the walls in Jerusalem, as a threat to his political ambitions.

Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem–we've met them before in chapter 2. Sanballat is a Babylonian name.

He's from Beth-Horon, a place maybe 16-17 miles northwest of Jerusalem.

His daughter will marry Eliashib the son of the high priest, and he will have an introduction then into high society and high priestly society within Jerusalem.

Historical records tell us that he was the governor of Samaria and that his two sons had Jewish names.

He wasn't Jewish, but that his wife was probably Jewish.

He's an ambitious politician.

He's the governor of Samaria to the north of Jerusalem.

Like Nehemiah, he is under the authority of the Persians, but he wants to make a name for himself.

He probably sees Nehemiah, and especially the building of the walls in Jerusalem, as a threat to his political ambitions.

Tobiah is a Jewish name.

His son will also marry a high society daughter within Jerusalem.

And Geshem — Geshem is an Arab.

He's the governor of Edom and Moab, to the south and to the east of Jerusalem.

He also has power of those regions on the way to Egypt.

So we've got three would-be politically ambitious rulers to the north and to the east, and to the south and to the southwest — surrounding, more or less, Jerusalem.

They have nothing in common except that they don't like what's going on in Jerusalem.

They do not like Nehemiah or what they see as Nehemiah's own political ambitions, and they've come together as a trinity of political power for the purposes of bringing down Nehemiah.

Now, three things are going to happen in this section that we're looking at today, three strategies of conspiracy in order to bring Nehemiah down.

We’re going to watch Nehemiah.