Bible Study Library

Dear Disciples:

Great news! The wall will be finished today!

But why are there still six chapters to go? Because your ministry isn’t done until you make sure it can last.

Here’s where we begin today’s lesson:

• In the work of rebuilding the city wall, Nehemiah and the workers in Israel encountered two types of opposition - external and internal.
• Externally, the opposition came from Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab. They tried to stir up political trouble. First, they tried to taunt the workers with ridicule, implying that they were rebelling against the king and insinuating that the wall was too far gone to be rebuilt.
• When that didn’t work, they made plans to destroy Jerusalem. Nehemiah found out about it and did the most effective thing He could do: Pray and post guards. It worked.
• Internally, the opposition came from distraction that was a result of peoples’ sin and disregard of God’s law. The land was experiencing drought and famine, the wall-building project was costly (and everyone was paying out of their own pockets), and the king’s taxes were high. The wealthy citizens of Jerusalem were loaning money to the poor with interest and were forcing the poor to sell their sons and daughters for money so that they could eat. These practices were strictly forbidden in the Law of God.
• These internal threats were much more destructive than the external threats. Nehemiah called the wealthy to repentance, they repented, and the work continued.
• The answer we learned last time to dealing with opposition to your ministry is to pray, set up defenses against the attack of the enemy (Satan), and marinate the ministry in God’s Word.

So what made Nehemiah think that he could rebuild the wall anyway? It had laid in destruction for nearly 100 years!

Nehemiah was what Jim Collins, in his wonderful secular business book Good To Great, calls a “Level 5 Leader.” According to Jim Collins:

• Page 21: “Level 5 Leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company… Their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.”
• Page 39: These leaders:
  • “set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation”
  • “display compelling modesty”
  • “are self-effacing”
  • “are understated”
  • “are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or how hard the decisions”
  • “display a workmanlike diligence - more plow horse than show horse”
  • “attribute success factors to factors other than themselves”
  • “When things go poorly, however, they take full responsibility”

That is just the kind of man Nehemiah was. Here in verses 14-19 we see him decidedly not taking advantage of privileges rightfully his as Governor.

For 12 years, 

Neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the earlier governors–those preceding me–placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we did not acquire any land. Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people. Remember me with favor, O my God, for all I have done for these people.

So the enemies tried three different attacks to throw Nehemiah off course. No doubt these are familiar tactics. What is significant is Nehemiah’s way of handling them.

1. Attack By Confrontation (6:1-4)
The wall was nearly built. Only the doors needed to be hung. So the enemies Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab tried a different approach: Take out the leader and the rest will fall with him. They invited Nehemiah to a conference.

Nehemiah knew what they were up to because he knew what they were up to, but his response in v. 3 is significant:

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?

They tried this 4 times but Nehemiah wouldn’t bend.

2. Attack By Rumor (6:5-9)
Note that on the fifth attempt the enemies sent an unsealed letter to Nehemiah (6:5-7).

It’s important to understand that letters back then were normally rolled up, tied with a string, and sealed with a seal impression to guarantee their authenticity. But Sanballat’s intention wasn’t for just Nehemiah to read the letter.

He wanted the letter to be read by other people. He wanted the rumor mill and gossip fences to stir up the people around. The letter itself contained lies — that Nehemiah and the Jews built the wall because they wanted to revolt and that he was going to become their king.

We see in political debates at election years how politicians stir up the people against their competitors by spreading lies and gossip, very often indirectly rather than through direct, public statements. This can be a very destructive force.

Nehemiah’s reply to this was simple: No I’m not. You are a liar (6:8-9). What are our natural responses to such attacks? I don’t know about you, but I’d guess you’re not all that different from me… my natural response is to fight back. You might even be tempted to anger. You may even feel like attacking the attacker in the same way you were attacked. Isn’t that usually what we see with the political mudslinging?

Instead, Nehemiah prayed for strength from God. He stuck to what he knew was right, and wasn’t swayed from pursuing the calling he knew God had given him. What a man of character! What a man of faith! What a man who knew that this wasn’t his own work he was doing! But do you think that was his natural reaction? I don’t think so. Nehemiah had the same urges you and I do. He just rose above them, and found the strength to do so in God’s call.

3. Attack From The Inside By Deception (6:10-14)
The enemies then tried another attack — from the inside. They had a man named Shemaiah, who was evidently a priest (since he had access to the temple), to call Nehemiah to his home. Shemaiah said “let’s get out of here. Meet with me inside the temple doors because people are trying to kill you.”

Nehemiah again stood fast to his mission:

But I said, ‘Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” (v.11)

Nehemiah’s concern was, as Jim Collins worded it, “first and foremost for the institution, not himself; resolved to do whatever it takes to make the [organization] great, no matter how big or how hard the decisions.”

I find 6:12-14 to be very significant:

I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 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. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me.

Nehemiah “realized that God had not sent him.” How? Because knew exactly what God wanted him to do, and running for his life wasn’t it. Nehemiah didn’t get distracted, because anything that was contrary to what God had lain on his heart was obviously from the enemy. So he pressed on.

It’s Done!!?

Are you ready for this? Here we go…

So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God (6:15-16).

Can I get a great big “Amen!!!” and a sigh of relief?

Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me (6:17-19).

OK, so the enemies still want to taunt. Who cares? You’ve got the wall around you now. The work is done now, and you’re protected. It’s time to celebrate success!

Well, almost…

Succession Planning

After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors in place, the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites were appointed. I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most men do (7:1-2).

Remember Jim Collins’ words about Level 5 Leaders? “[They] set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation.”

Nehemiah had to stay true to his promise to return to the King of Susa, so he identified someone who could maintain leadership when he was gone — a man of integrity who feared God.

(We’ll avoid the topic of nepotism in the study ).

Nehemiah ordered that the gates and doors remain shut and that the guards remain in place  (7:3). Then, almost as an afterthought, comes 7:4:

Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt.

What was the reason we built this wall in the first place? Don’t miss our next lesson.