Nehemiah 6: "Threats of Fear"

Intro:

I would like to invite you to join me as we look at facing opposition and Discouragement today…I understand this is going to be more one way in the communication style, but that does not mean that I don’t want you to interact with what is being said from God’s word.

All three sections are connected by the topic of fear, vers 9, 13-14, and 16. Fear has a tendency to stop us from doing what we know is right or provokes us to respond to our circumstances in a sinful way.

“In any great work of God the leaders are strategic; the enemy, whether human or satanic, will try to cause the leader to fall, lose credibility, or disappear altogether. Leadership always involves stress. Here Nehemiah’s personal danger added to his stress, but he was able to confront it, trusting the Lord and continuing to work toward the God-given goal.”

Breneman, Mervin. 1993. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. Electronic ed. Vol. 10. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Outline:

Public Slander: “An Open Letter” (vs. 1-9)

Personal Safety: “They are Coming to Kill You” (vs. 10-14)

Perpetuating Situations: “The Help of Our God” (vs. 15-19)

Summary: Threats of fear seek to keep me from doing the work that God has given me to do in obedience to His word.

Prayer:

Public Slander: “An Open Letter” (vs. 1-9)

Actual Moments (v. 1)

Now When- time has gone by since the last couple of chapters

Sanballat

Tobiah

Geshem the Arab

The rest of our enemies- blanket statement, it would seem that this group of people is growing. Growing from Ezra’s day, Solomon’s day, David’s day, etc. Enemies of Israel is not a new concept, they did not pop up overnight

Heard

I had built the wall- this is a fact!

That there was no breach left in it (althought up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates

Address Meeting (vs. 2-4)

Sandballat and Geshem sent to me saying- this is only addressed to Nehemiah. The odds are not in Nehemiah’s favour. They couldn’t stop the people from working so now they turn to the leader.

Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim- only mentioned once in the Bible

In the plain of Ono: “Work” SLIDE about 40 km northwest of Jerusalem (Port Dover) 6.5 hours, on the boarder of Samaria

But they intended to do me harm- they are not asking him to come for coffee and a chat, they are looking to get rid of him!

I sent messengers to them saying: it would have taken time for the messages to get back and forth

I am doing a great work

And I cannot come down

Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down (elevation) to you?

They sents to me 4x in this way- they were not willing to make peace, they were entrenched. If they really wanted to work towards peace they could have met him in Jerusalem.

“Repeated temptation can also weaken one’s resistance.”

Breneman, Mervin. 1993. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. Electronic ed. Vol. 10. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

I answered them in the same manner

Assumed Motives- slander (vs. 5-9)

In the same way Sanballat for the 5th time

sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand- equivalent to a vague post on social media that everyone knows who you are talking about. spreading rumours

In it was written SLIDE

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

According to these reports you wish to become their king

And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem

There is a king in Judah- Wow, where does this come from? Well there might have been a religious leader among the people that “interpreted Nehemiah’s presence as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies regarding the coming Messiah-King.”

Getz, G. A. (1985). Nehemiah. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 686). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Now the King will hear of these reports- this is sneaky, this actually happened in Ezra 4 when reports got back to the Persian king he stop the work. Sanballat is trying an old trick in the bag that worked before.

So how far do you go in order to stop the comments in the wind?

So now come and let us take counsel together- He tries to blackmail him into getting together

It would seem that they are concerned about Nehemiah and wanted to protect him

They want him to respond out of fear

The letter contains elements of the truth but not the full story

Then I sent to him saying

No such things as you say have been done- confronts the error

For you are inventing them out of your own mind- this is true, they did not meet with him to hear his response.

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.

Application/Implications:

Public slander seeks to frighten people into stopping the work of their hands. It seeks to keep people from doing the work that God has given them to do in obedience to His word.

So, how can you respond when someone is openly slanding against you? Pray, “but now O God, strenthen my hands” to respond in a humble way that obeys God even when it doesn’t feel good.

Sometimes I try too hard to figure out someone elses motives when what I really need to do is ask them. This gets extrememly complicated in marriage. It is not good, whether you have been married for less than a year or 50 years to assume the motives of your spouse! ask them, “when you did/said that, what did you mean?

We have all seen it in the movies, whenever an enemy tells you to meet at a place that you have never heard of, far from where you are it never goes well. I am not saying that you should not meet with those that are willing to meet in the middle of conflict, what I am saying is pic the location wisely. A really good place for this is at the Church House.

Sandballat, Tobiah, Geshem, and company want something but they are not getting it. So they seek to take control of the circumstances by controling the one in the way of what they want, Nehemiah.

a lot to say about the three components of slander

It would seem that they are concerned about Nehemiah and wanted to protect him

They want him to respond out of fear

The letter contains elements of the truth but not the full story

“Strengthen my hands”- Keep doing what is right, stay focused

Jesus knows what it is like to be publically slandered

Gossip is the passing on of divisive information that is not yours to share without confirming it with the source. “Oh, did you hear what so and so said or did...”

Slander is giving unauthorized motives to that information “oh, did you hear what so and so said or did…and they did that because…Slander ads the unsean desire of the heart the visible/audible actions

Transitional phrase: Public slander can be very hurtful and frustrating. It is one thing when someone tries to cause doubt about your motives, it is another to threaten your personal safety.

Personal Safety: “They are Coming to Kill you” (vs. 10-14)

Powerful Person (v. 10)

Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah

Son of Delaiah- 1 Chr. 24:18 If this is the same guy than that means “Shemaiah was a priest and had special access into the temple.”

Breneman, Mervin. 1993. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. Electronic ed. Vol. 10. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Son of Mehetabel

Who was confined to his home- this is all one word, is he doing this symbolically in order to get Nehemiah’s attention?

He said

Let us meet together in 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- He is trying to convince Nehemiah to seek refuge in the house of God because of the threat on his life.

Problematic Evidence (v. 11-14)

But I said

Should such a man as I run away? What is my purpose for running? I haven’t done anything wrong.

What man such as I could go into the temple and live? This contradicts God’s commands, Uzziah tried and got stricken with leprosy

I will not go in

I Understood and saw- based on the questions asked above

That God had not sent him- God helps in the “seeing and understanding”, God would not ask him to do something that contradicts what is in His word.

But he had pronounced the prohecy against me- contrast between the fact that God had not sent him

Because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him- if the people directly couldn’t get to Nehemiah they tried to go through other people to cause fear

For this purpose he was hired

That i should be afraid

and act in this way

and sin

So they could give me a bad name

in order to taunt me- they are trying to pressure Nehemiah into acting in a sinful way.

Prayer

Remember Tobiah and Sanballat

Oh my God

According to these things that they did

Also the Prophetess Noadiah

and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid- it is coming from multiple places...

Applicaiont/Implications

Has anyone ever used someone else to get to you? Could be a co-worker, relative, spouse, child, etc. Sometimes this can be extremely difficult because they are trusted people.

Is it okay to pick personal safety over obedience to God when the two are in conlict? Some may say, “God wants me to be safe”. Where does it say that? Where in God’s Word are we told that following God will always be safe?

Not many of us are ever going to have to given the ultimatum between God and life in a marturdum sense. But everyone of us is met with threats of fear that would challeng us to act in a way that is sinful on a daily basis. Look at our culture, look at our economics, the pandemic, the climate of our country towards injustice… threats of fear are everywhere!

Fear thrives where the Character, works, and Word of God is unknown. but also unbelieved: 2 Timothy 1:7 “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” Where there is no power, love, or self-control there is fear!

Our life is way more than the quality of comfort I think I deserve. Our life is about so much more than personal safety, it is about promting our saviour with our words, actions, and emotions. Were not these the words of our saviour in the Garden when he was facing the threat of personal safety? “Not my will but yours be done...”

Transitional Phrase: Sometime we can endure the threat of fear through public slander or personal safety because we see the end in site. But what about those threats of fear that don’t have an end in sight?

Perpetuating Situations: “The Help of our God” (vs. 15-19)

Finished!

So the wall was finished

On the 25th day of the month Elul

In 52 days

When all our enemies hear of it

All the nations around us were afraid

Fell greatly in their own esteem

For they had perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God

Family

Moreover, in those days

The nobels of judah sent many letters to Tobiah

And Tobiah’s letters came to them

For many in Judah were bound by oath to him

Because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah

His (Tobiah) son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam (helped rebuild the wall) the son of Berechiah as wife one wants to stop the wall the other is building it. Almost like one wants the vaccination the others do not.

Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence- Tobiah had convinced people that he was a good guy, so this must have been hard for Nehemiah to constantly hear about his good deeds knowing full well what kind of person he was.

and reported my words to him

Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid

Application/Implication

How do you handle a perpetual threat of fear that comes from someone in your own family. If there has been sinful behaviour or criminal behaviour that needs to be dealt with. Which is so hard because fear is often used to keep people silent.

Even in triumph there can be threats of on going fear, “What do I do now”, “How will my family react to this”, “will what i put my time into last”...

Sometimes there can be a false sense of security in finishing something

When Jesus said, “it is finished” He ment it!