More bad news

More bad news

Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.”

Nehemiah 4:11

Recap: 

🔹 Half the wall has been built

🔹 The progress has made the enemies very angry

🔹 They are plotting against the building

🔹 Nehemiah and the builders prayed

🔹 Guards have been set day and night

🔹 The strength of the laborers are giving out

🔹 There is a lot of rubble to be cleared

After the wall has reached half the height, Nehemiah and the builders encounter a new set of problems. In this verse, the enemies come back with full force, anger and vengeance.

❓ What do they plan to do?

⚔ To attack them

⚔ Kill them

⚔ Stop their work

❓ When does this threat come?

It comes when the people are discouraged, tired and scared. Till this time, the threat was for the wall. Human lives were secure. But, at this point, human lives are being threatened! The stakes have been raised!

❓ Why do the intensity of the threats increase?

Mocking -----> Ridiculing -----> Plotting ------> Killing

"The enemies of God's people paid a back-handed compliment by saying this. They knew by now the only way to get them to stop serving God and doing His work was to kill them.

David Guzik"

Threat upon threat!! But Nehemiah and the builders did not back off! They kept on building! They kept on working! So the threats increased! But God protected them!

APPLICATION

"For many, the devil does not have to kill them because discouragement, compromise, money, relationships, frustration, or trouble get them to stop serving God.

David Guzik "

People who come back home from ministry may experience some problems. The first thought that the enemy will give is, "Did I get this problem because I did ministry?". Some might back off. But we must not let anything stop us from serving God!

⚔ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

Romans 8:35⚔

Life connect

 Life connect

Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”

Nehemiah 4 : 10

👿Satan has always been trying to get us to build upon rubbish instead of the ROCK.

👨But the Lord keeps sending men like Nehemiah to remind us to clear the rubbish first!

🗻If it is not built upon the ROCK then it is built upon the "rubbish" and must be cleared so the foundation can be seen and the building process started over!

The rubble  is the wood, hay, and straw Paul was referring to in 1Cor 3:12-13

🌾If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light.

1 Corinthians 3:12,13🌾

Wood, hay, and stubble are rubbish. They burn!

Application

Satan will always try to get you and I to build upon the rubbish and miss the sure foundation!

Pride, unbelief, anger, temper, despondence, self-importance, evil desires, is all rubbish!

REMEMBER: the rubbish has to be cleared, and the ROCK (the FOUNDATION) exposed before the re-building can begin!

Willful and intentional sin is a "veil" between you and the Lord that He Himself died to remove?

1. We can't build a decent life "on top" of it!

2. We must "clear it out" and start fresh and new as did Nehemiah!

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/brown_john/Neh/Nehemiah_6.cfm

Discouragement from inside

Discouragement from inside

Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”

Nehemiah 4 : 10

In the previous verses, we saw that the enemies of Nehemiah and Jerusalem rose up against them. They discouraged them, ridiculed them and mocked them. But now the people of Judah, their own people are speaking discouraging words to Nehemiah.

Satan uses two strategies :

🔹Opposition from outside

🔹Opposition from inside

In the past few verses, we saw that Satan used the first strategy to discourage Nehemiah and the builders. Now he is using the second strategy to discourage them.

❓Where does this discouragement come from:

It comes from JUDAH - the cream of the army; they were the strongest and the best!Nehemiah must have been discouraged! Those whom should have been sharing the burden and vision most deeply - had no vision at all!

----David Brown(Blue letter Bible)

Application

Yes, we would have faced discouragement from friends and family in our life. But let us never give up but cling to God's promises. At the same time, let us analyze ourselves and find out if we are supportive to our husband and children.

❓Is your child struggling in his studies? Do we say discouraging words or encourage them and help them to do better?

❓Is your husband trying to do something new in his business? Do we encourage them and pray for them or discourage them?

God chose so many people who were not "perfect" for the mission! But He chose them, called them and encouraged them!

👄Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

Exodus 4:10👄

How does God respond?

🔥“Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

Exodus 4:12🔥

May we always encourage others and help them shine for the Lord!

Complete coverage

Complete coverage

But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.

Nehemiah 4 : 9

Nehemiah was very concerned about the safety. So he posted guards to guard the place day and night.

❓Why did Nehemiah do this?

The people work really hard during the day. So much of money, material, hard labour and time is involved. People may come in the night and tear down all this. So he placed a guard to protect the wall.

Samson and the foxes

Samson in his anger caught 300 foxes and burned down the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. All their hard work has come to nothing.

🔥He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.

Judges 15:5🔥

In the same way, we work hard for our family, children. But if we do not guard them, the enemy will creep in and destroy the hard work. We must be very watchful and careful.

🐳During the "Blue Whale Challenge" issue, awareness was created among parents that they must be watchful over their children. 

The parents work hard to give their children a good life but they fail to stand guard

❓Are we guarding our children from harm?

❓Are we teaching them the right path?

❓Are we spending time with them to know what's in their hearts?

❓Do we know what our children are watching on TV?

❓Do we know what they are seeing on the phone?

🔹May we stand guard and pray for our children that our Lord has given us!

🔹May we be like Nehemiah, watchful! 
🔹May our efforts be blessed by the Lord!

🔹May our efforts never go to waste!

Pray and do your duty

Pray and do your duty

But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat💂‍♀

Nehemiah 4:9

The builders were in a tough spot. Many high officials were plotting against them. The opposition and anger was growing by the day.

❓What did they do?

🙏They prayed

💂‍♀They posted a guard

🔹Some people pray and forget to do their part.

🔹Some people do their part but forget to pray.

Let us learn from Esther. The Jews were in a tough spot. They were about to be destroyed.

❓What did Esther do?

🙏 She fasted and prayed.

🤴 She approached the king and gave her petition to the king wisely.

Nehemiah posted a guard day and night. In the same way, Esther took a lot of pains to make this work:

🙏 Esther along with the Jews and attendants fasted for three days.

👗 She put on her royal robes and went to the king
🍽 She arranged for a feast. 

✉ She submitted her petition with humility. 

In the end, God gave victory for all the prayer and efforts.

 Application

❓Are you going through a tough phase in your life?

❓Are you doing both - praying and working?

Let us never become weary, let us pray and take efforts to make things work in our life.

As I was typing this, I was reminded of my nephew. He used to struggle in his studies. But his parents would always pray for him. At a certain point, he started attending prayer meetings and growing close to God. He also started working very hard in his studies. By the grace of God, he got a good NEET score and joined a good medical college. In the beginning, he was finding it difficult to pass all the subjects (smaller classes). But God gave him a huge victory for His prayer and hard work!

Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work.

Gordon B. Hinckley

Opposition increases

Opposition increases

But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.

Nehemiah 4:7

In the beginning of the chapter, we saw that Sanballat and Tobiah ridiculed Nehemiah and the work that he was about to do. But after the wall reached half its height, the opposition did not reduce. It actually increased.

Sanballat, Tobiah, Ammonites, Arabs have been opposing this from the beginning. Now the people of Ashdod have joined with them.

Old enemies stay

From the beginning, Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem(Arab) have been opposing this. They do not get tired of opposing Nehemiah. They do not leave Nehemiah. They continue to stay and disturb Nehemiah.

😡New enemies have come

😡Old enemies refuse to go

Even under these negative circumstances, Nehemiah does not get shattered.

Enmity against Jesus 

Jesus had to face a lot of enemies and opposition. People were out to destroy Him even before He was born.

🔹Herod

🔹Satan

🔹Pharisees

🔹Saducees

🔹Jewish leaders

But He continued in the path that His Father had kept for Him. He never stopped but kept going. He did not get frustrated but faced the opposition in several ways:

📘Jesus applied Scripture

🙏Jesus prayed

⭕Jesus remained silent

❤Jesus loved

Application

When people rise against us, it is very difficult. Satan brings opposition to distract us from our goals. People rose against Nehemiah. But he did not waste his time fighting with the enemies. He had his eyes on the goal.

Let us learn from Jesus how to handle our enemies. Old enemies will refuse to leave, New enemies will rise up! But God is always with us! May we never become weary or frustrated. May we run towards the goal!

🏃‍♀And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

Hebrews 12:1🏃‍♀

Half height reached

Half height reached

So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.

Nehemiah 4:6

Yes! Half the work is done! The total height is 12 metres. Here they have reached 6 metres! What is interesting about this fact is : so many people were working on different portions. But the entire wall reached half its height! Such a beautiful example of team work and a good team leader!

There were many kinds of people involved in this project :

Young and old

Men and women

Strong and weak

Skilled and unskilled

They supported and helped each other to reach their goal. Nehemiah did not say, "some portions of the wall reached half the height while some reached quarter the height". He says that, they rebuilt till the wall reached half its height. It was not a competition, but a project given to them by God! The groups did not work separately, they worked together!

I was reminded of the journey of Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. There were many kinds of people in that group.

Men and women

Young and old

Strong and weak

Babies and animals

But they traveled as a group. They did not separate. I can imagine some young teenagers carrying heavy things. I can imagine young girls helping out with babies. It was not a race to see which tribe reached Canaan first. But a place to reach together!

Application

God wants us to be a blessing to others. We might have worked hard to get a project ready for our children. When someone asks us to share it with them, do we do it happily?

People may ask us for help. Do we help them happily or do we make excuses?

May we always be ready to lend a helping hand to those who need us. May we run the race together! The goal is to reach the finishing line - it is not to reach it first!

😊And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Hebrews 13:16😊

Our words are being heard by others

Our words are being heard by others  👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria , he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble —burned as they are?”

Nehemiah 4:2 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

In the previous verse, we read that Sanballat came to know that the Jews are rebuilding their wall. This made him very angry. In his anger, he started ridiculing the Jews. He did this in the presence of his associates and the entire army of Samaria.

During bouts of anger, people say so many things. They do not mind that other people will hear what they say. They do not realize that their words will cause an impact on others.

Our family hears our words

God has called us to build families and not break them. Nowadays, many people speak ill of others in front of their children. This plants seeds of hatred in their young hearts too. We are called to plant seeds of love and not seeds of rage in the hearts of our children.

One day, my children were asking me who I like the most. They were telling me to arrange them in an order. When I came to a particular person(someone close to me), my son told me, "No ma, you don't like that person!". I was so shocked and ashamed. I told him, "I do like that person da!". Kids listen to what we say. We may forget what we said, but little children don't!

We need to be very careful about our words lest they affect the people who hear them.

🗣Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen .

Ephesians 4:29🗣

Pearl and a rock

Yes, at times, we may be hurt by others. We may feel like telling it to others. We may feel like telling someone the words they used to hurt us or the things they did to hurt us. Jeeva ka used to tell us. You have a burden in your heart. What do you do?

🗣You tell it to one person. Tell them everything. It comes out of your heart and becomes a stone.

🛐You tell it to God. Take it to Him in prayer. It turns into a pearl.

What do you want your burden to become? A pearl or a stone?

Tough prayers

Tough prayers

Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity! Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders.

Nehemiah 4:4-5

Tough prayers 

We have seen many kinds of prayer in the Bible:

😢Prayer with tears (Hannah)

🙏Prayer with a vow (Hannah, Jephthah)

💧Prayer with fasting (Esther)

But here we see a prayer with tough words! This is not the first place we have seen this. We have seen David praying many such tough prayers.

👄Breath their teeth in their mouth, O God! (Psalm 58:6) 👄

⛺Let their dwelling place be desolate; let no one live in their tents (Psalm 69:25)⛺

An eye for an eye : A life for a life --- all this happened in the Old Testament. But today God wants our prayers to be filled with words of mercy instead of words of anger!

How did Jesus respond to insults❓ 

People were hurling lies at him.  “… many false witnesses came forward… At last two witnesses came forward and said, ‘This fellow said ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’’ The high priest turned to the Lord and dug said, ‘Do you answer nothing? What is it these men testify against you?’ But Jesus kept silent.” (Matthew 26:59-63)

When on the cross people were accusing and taunting Him, jeering at Him and spitting upon Him, the Lord prayed,

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

Two things that Jesus did:

▪Keeping silent

▪A prayer of forgiveness

Application

❤who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously…” (1 Peter 2:23)❤

Jesus was reviled, but He did not revile in return. Can we learn this from Christ today?

Jesus didn’t like the thought of dying on the cross, but when He knew it was what He had to do, He embraced it and trusted His heavenly Father. He wasn’t on the cross, struggling to get off. Because He did embrace it, our sins are forgiven and we have an intimate relationship with Him.

Don’t let your disappointments in life become a place for you to stumble over and never recover from. Embrace them and let them bring you closer to God.

Let them make you better, not bitter!

United in mocking

  United in mocking👬

Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”

Nehemiah 4:3

🔺

Sanballat and Tobiah join hands in mocking Nehemiah and the Israelites.

🔺Sanballat, called a Horonite, was probably from Horonaim, a city of Moab.

🔺Tobiah the Ammonite was governing an area east of the Jordan River.

They are from different tribes but they come together to stand against Nehemiah!

" Those who disagree in almost every thing, will unite in persecution"

-Matthew Henry

❓🦊Why are foxes mentioned?

He mentions foxes because they were very numerous in those parts, and because in the late desolation of Jerusalem, the foxes did frequent the mount and city of Zion.

🦊for Mount Zion, which lies desolate,

with jackals prowling over it.

Lamentations 5:18🦊

Two features of the wall mocked at:

Height : It is so low that a fox can easily ascend to the top of it

Strength: It is so weak, and built so hastily and carelessly, that the least weight or thrust will tumble it down. 👬

Who are you standing next to?

👭 Who are you standing next to?

Tobiah theAmmonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”

Nehemiah 4:3

Tobiah was standing next to Sanballat. As soon as Sanballat stopped his mocking, Tobiah picked up and started his mockery.

There are two ways to look at this :

"Birds of the same feather flock together " like minded people come together.

                   OR

"The thread of the garland also smells sweet" we acquire the character of the person who we spend time with.

❓Are we in good company or bad company?

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take

or sit in the company of mockers

Psalms 1:1

We may not be mockers, but being in the company of mockers may make us one. Today, who are we choosing to be with? Whose words are we willing to listen to?

Rehoboam's downfall

The Israelites came to Rehoboam with a request - to lighten the yoke his father had laid on them. The elders advised him to lighten the yoke. But his friends advised him to increase the yoke.

🦂My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

1 kings 12:11 🦂

The people who were standing next to him led to his downfall. Israel was split into two by one decision!

Rehoboam was not wise in choosing the people who stood next to him. Their suggestions led to his downfall.

❓Today, who are you standing next to?

We may come across many people in our life. But who are we close with?? We must be very careful in choosing our friends.