Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20110116.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Nehemiah: Excelling In Leadership In Hard Times
Part VI: Handling Manipulative Speech By Prayer For Godly Action
(Nehemiah 4:1-6)
  1. Introduction
    1. Evil foes to the believer's performing God's will may try to hinder him from fulfilling God's assignment for him by way of manipulative speech, a problem Nehemiah faced in Nehemiah 4:1-3.
    2. Nehemiah's response offers a great lesson on handling such a trial with God's blessing (as follows):
  2. Handling Manipulative Speech By Prayer For Godly Action, Nehemiah 4:1-6.
    1. When Nehemiah led the people of Israel to begin to rebuild Jerusalem's city wall, Sanballat, the Gentile ruler of Samaria who then controlled Judaea (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Neh. 2:10), was very angry at this challenge to his control, so he began to mock the Hebrews at work on the project, Neh. 4:1.
    2. This was not a mockery aimed at merely discouraging the Hebrews, but was meant to manipulate them into being intimidated so as to stop their rebuilding effort altogether (as follows), Nehemiah 4:2-3:
      1. Sanballat addressed his Samaritan people and army to muster great, strong opposition to the rebuilding work to intimidate the Hebrews to cease their work on the wall to escape possible harm, Neh. 4:2a.
      2. He told this group that the Hebrews were feeble, implying their inability to achieve the project, further trying to demoralize the Hebrews from trying to withstand his many, strong people, Nehemiah 4:2b.
      3. Sanballat questioned that the Hebrews would even reach their objective of restoring their city wall, implying they were unable to complete their initial reconstruction plan to their shame, Neh. 4:2c.
      4. He mocked the capacity of the Hebrews to be able to restore the wall so as to sacrifice in dedicating it in the end, seeking to sabotage their anticipated joy at completing the job, Nehemiah 4:2d.
      5. Sanballat mocked the time they felt was needed to do the project, suggesting they thought it might be done in a day, a much shorter time than would be needed in his effort to demoralize them, Neh. 4:2e.
      6. Finally, Sanballat mocked the materials the Hebrews had available to rebuild the wall, suggesting that rebuilding it from the rubbish of burned stones of would be futile, Nehemiah 4:2f.
      7. Tobiah the Ammonite who stood beside Sanballat took his idea a step further to claim that if a light little fox were to go up on the wall they were building, the inferior materials used with the feeble efforts of the Hebrews would cause the whole wall to come tumbling down, Nehemiah 4:3!
    3. Nehemiah knew that such manipulative mockery was difficult on his helpers, for the task was great given their lack of skill, the inferior materials used in the building effort and the size and power of Israel's foes, so he countered with prayer for the mental commitment needed to keep doing God's will, Neh. 4:4-5:
      1. In line with the "imprecatory prayers in which the psalmists invoked God's condemnation on His enemies" (Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 682), Nehemiah asked God to hear the damaging mockery of Israel's foes and to turn their reproach back upon their own head that they be taken captive in contrast to the military action they hinted they might exercise against Israel, Nehemiah 4:4.
      2. Nehemiah further asked God not to forgive their enemies' sin, for their mockery of Israel as she did the will of God was a mockery of the Lord Who had directed them to do this work, Nehemiah 4:5 .
      3. Nehemiah's basis for the belief that God was supporting them was built in part on God's evident past work to make the king of Persia supportive of the wall reconstruction effort, Nehemiah 2:4-8, 18: he recalled how God had opened the king's heart to heed his concern, and to give him letters for his safe trip and even for access to the king's forest for the timber needed to rebuild the city gates.
    4. In response to this prayer, God gave the people with Nehemiah a high level of motivation to continue working in the face of the manipulative mockery, and the wall was joined together up to half of its finished height, overcoming the undermining effort of Israel's enemies, Nehemiah 4:6!
Lesson: If our efforts to perform God's assignment as validated not only by Scripture, but by God's past precedents, is countered by manipulative speech designed to sabotage our motivation to do God's will, we must pray for His aid, relying on His past signals of His will that we do that task in full recognition that the real battle is not just between us and our manipulative foes, but between them and the Lord!

Application: May we heed Nehemiah in responding to manipulative speech that we fulfill God's will!