Facing the Enemy - Nehemiah 4

Whenever we do Go’s work, opposition always shows up. Satan, the evil mastermind, opposes everything God does. He is always trying to overthrow our work. 1 Peter 5: 8-9 says:

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” 

Often his hand is revealed in suspiciously bad timing. A kid will cry just when your washing machine breaks down. Your husband comes in griping just after you’ve been up all night nursing a sick child. When you are praying, a salesman calls. When you are going to church, someone gets sick. He hits us when we are the weakest. 

When the Jews rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, the devil raised up three princes of neighboring kingdoms--Sanballat, Tobiah, and Gershom—to attack the Jews. As the story progresses, the threat level escalates.

Satan attacks us, our families and our churches. That’s why we need walls, not to force our will on others, but to live in peace with our neighbors. But if we do not have a wall, there is nothing to keep Satan from having his way from us. God is our wall, but we must lean upon Him. 

Here’s a family who needed a wall. They had four teenage children. The oldest one had gotten married at age seventeen. The second one was sixteen and pregnant, and they had begged me to perform the wedding. One night they had a medical emergency and they all went to the hospital. With them in the waiting room was a stranger in his twenties who had his arm around their daughter, barely sixteen. They were an obvious couple.

I was incensed. I asked the father and mother to step outside and let them know what I thought.  “You’re right,” they said. “But what can we do? If we don’t let them be together, she might never have anything to do with us.” This family had no wall.  The parents did not protect their children, and they were reaping the harvest of that neglect. 

You need a wall, for yourself. Satan is after you, and you need God’s protective power. Churches need walls. Satan will send enemies in the church to destroy it. There are plenty of enemies in the world, who’s only purpose is to bring down what God has done. We who bear the responsibility must stay on guard constantly.

So what do we look for? First, against judgmental and critical spirits. Sanballat mocked the wall-builders in Nehemiah 4:2:

"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?"

No doubt they thought they were being funny.  Making jokes are one of the most serious things we do. When we argue with a person, we expect them to argue back. But being funny cannot be debated. It cannot be countered, without the person saying, “Look, I was only making a joke!” Our comedians in America are more influential than our politicians, because they determine who is supposed to be ridiculous without ever having to prove it,

“What are those feeble Jews doing?” Sanballat jokes that the Jews are weak and helpless. The weakness is implied, not argued.

“Will they finish in a day?” No one seriously thought the wall would be rebuilt in a day. It’s an exaggeration.

“Can they bring these stones to life?” No one thought they could bring stones to life. They meant that they were too late to build it.

Sanballat’s associate, Tobiah, added a fourth own taunt, "If even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!" If you made any progress, it’s worthless. Satan wants to make us think that our work has been in vain.

Too weak. Too little time. Too late. Worthless. Whether we are rebuilding a church, a life, or a marriage; the devil still makes the same outworn jokes. We aren’t strong enough. We don’t have enough time. The situation is too far gone. He doesn’t actually argue, he just jokes. If it is so obvious to the comedian, it must be true. These are not arguments, but lies sewn by the devil. People believed it, because someone made a joke out of it. 

When jokes fail, they move on to threats. They aren’t just ridiculous—They’re dangerous!  Christians oppose free speech! They’re plotting to kill Muslims and gays! Christians are going to overthrow the country! They must be stopped! 

The persecution of Christians is seen as self-defense. People argue that the rules of tolerance and civility ought not to apply to certain groups, because they are “dangerous.”  These men implied that the Jews could not be tolerated, because they were too ‘different” from others.

When that didn’t work, they turned to the use of force. There are all kinds of coercion, and most of it isn’t physical. There’s professional violence, which is banning Christians from certain occupations. Blocking them from public discourse. Laws are passed that discourage the practice of free conversations. Today, there is an increasing rationalization of censorship of ideas. When all this fails, only then does it become a matter of physical violence. Listen to this next part in Nehemiah 4:6-8:   

“So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. “But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.”

They faced an invading army. Swords against prayers. Could the prayers of the Jews be enough to deflect the advance of a murderous army?  Nehemiah’s response is a resounding “Yes!”  Nehemiah said:

“‘Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”

There are three significant statements in his speech— Don’t be afraid, remember the Lord, and fight for your brothers. 

Don’t be afraid. Don’t become paranoid or fearful. There is no reason to fear our enemies if we are confident of God’s love and protection. Don’t hate your enemies—love your enemies.

What is a terrorist? A terrorist is a person who sets out to provoke terror—fear—in his enemies. He does this by random acts of violence. When we fear terrorists, we are giving them what they want. The whole purpose of their actions is to make us afraid to go out of our houses, to force us to live behind locked doors. 

But God has not given us a spirit of fear. If we fear the world around us, we are not trusting God.

Remember the Lord. Nehemiah and the people of Judah gave us an example of how to respond to this kind of persecution. Don’t worry about defense, but look to God to defend you. Instead of looking for their swords, Nehemiah prayed to the Lord. Look at verse 4.

 “Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.”

People are not out enemies--Satan is. Jesus didn’t rebuke Peter when he tempted Him not to go to the cross--He rebuked Satan. The devil entered in the heart of Jesus’ dearest friend. His enemy wasn’t Peter, but the devil in Peter. 

We can’t prevent all attacks of the devil, but Jesus will support us through persecution. We will be attacked, but God gives us the strength to resist.

But prayer is not all they did. They also paid attention to the situation, and defended themselves.

Fight for your brothers. The Christian life is a battlefield, not a recreation room. We are at war, and we must fight. We do not fight for ourselves, but for our brothers and sister, our sons and daughters. When we remain apathetic, we allow the devil to hurt them.

In the rest of the chapter, Nehemiah spells out the steps he took to assure protection of the people.

 First, every man was to arm themselves. For us, this has nothing to do with physical weapons. Remember where the battlefield is. It is in the spiritual realm. 2 Corinthians 10:4:

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds.”

 You must be trained in prayer, Scripture and love. One unprepared believer can cause havoc in the church. Eternal vigilance is the price of godliness. When we follow Christ, we must always be ready to defend ourselves against the devil.

Second, everyone defended each other. While half worked, the other half defended. For us that means praying for each other, encouraging each other, educating and noticing each other. When you see a brother in trouble, do you pray for him, or abandon him to the enemy? They bound themselves together to help resist attacks. 

Third, they encouraged each other. Verse 10 shows more than anything in this passage the desperation of the situation. “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”

Wars are decided by two sides fighting until one becomes too tired to fight. Soldiers need breaks, and people need encouragement. Some of the biggest battles in history have been decided over which side had a good night’s sleep or a good breakfast. Care of the troops is critical. Care of God’s people is critical, too, if we are to defend against a hostile world. 

Third, they never forgot that it was God who defended them.  Their strength was not in themselves, or in their brothers, but in God.

It isn’t hard to live a godly life. It’s impossible!  You’ll get tired. You will make mistakes. You will give in. Only by God’s grace can we survive. But Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.” Jesus will fight for you.  Don’t be afraid. Lean upon His grace and His power, and He will help you through.