DEALING WITH OPPOSITION
When you start doing a work for God, the first thing you will have to do is fight off opposition.
Nehemiah 4:1 Sanballat was very angry when he learned that we were rebuilding the wall. He flew into a rage and mocked the Jews,…
The Hebrew word for “angry” in the verse is charah, and it means burning hot with anger. He was furious and indignant. He flew into a rage and mocked and ridiculed the Jews.
Nehemiah 4:2 “What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they’re doing? Do they think they can build the wall in a single day by just offering a few sacrifices? Do they actually think they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap—and charred ones at that?”
Sanballat had no authority to actually stop the work. Nehemiah and the workers had the legal protection from the king (refer to letters mentioned in Nehemiah 2:7). All he could legally do was to try to discourage the Jews so much they would stop. He discouraged by criticism and mocking.
In calling the Jews poor and feeble he was saying they were unfit for the task. By mockingly asking “can they build the wall in a single day by just offering a few sacrifices” he was asking if the Jews thought that by offering sacrifices to their God, the wall would magically be built. Then he points out they do not even have real stones to build with, but have to use rubbish to build the wall.
As noted before in this study series, many events in the Book of Nehemiah have parallels to ministry today. Here is another. The enemy will attack a ministry by discouraging the leaders and workers. The enemy will tell them the task is too big, and that they are not able to do it. Sanballat wanted the Jews to get discouraged and quit. The enemy wants anyone involved in ministry to get discouraged and quit.
Nehemiah 4:3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was standing beside him, remarked, “That stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked along the top of it!”
Tobiah piles on by criticizing the quality of the work on the wall. Critics like to hang together. They feed off of each other’s negativity.
Sanballat and Tobiah were not having a private conversation. It was a very public discussion with a lot of people around. Their words and mocking were meant to be heard and to get back to the Jews and Nehemiah. What would Nehemiah do? Would he hold a public meeting and give a speech? Would he mock them because they mocked him? No and no again. Nehemiah did what he knew was the right thing to do. He prayed earnestly.
Nehemiah 4:4 Then I prayed, “Hear us, our God, for we are being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads, and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land! Do not ignore their guilt. Do not blot out their sins, for they have provoked you to anger here in front of the builders.”
This was no feel-good Sunday School prayer! Nehemiah was angry, and the tone and words of his prayer showed it. But he did not lash out on his own. He turned over the situation and his enemies to God. He asked God to turn their shame back onto them and to remember their sins committed against the children of Israel. Once again, Nehemiah provides a valuable lesson in ministry. When you feel ridiculed or discouraged, turn it over to God in prayer. “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord in Romans 12:19.
Nehemiah and the Israelites did not stop and focus on the opposition. They focused on the building of the wall. They were united in their purpose and their work.
Nehemiah 4:6 At last the wall was completed to half its height around the entire city, for the people had a mind to work.
Nehemiah 4:7-9 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the work was going ahead and that the gaps in the wall of Jerusalem were being repaired, direction. they were furious. They all made plans to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw us into confusion. But we prayed to our God and guarded the city day and night to protect ourselves.
The opposition found they could not overcome the Israelites with discouragement and mocking. So they were coming together to plan on attacking and disrupting the builders. Nehemiah and the Israelites did what they knew to do – they prayed for God’s direction.
Coming in the 8th and final part of this study series, Nehemiah and the Israelites face threats and intimidation as the wall nears completion.
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