Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20110220.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Nehemiah: Excelling In Leadership In Hard Times
Part XI: Handling Deceptive Treachery By Sticking To God's Assignment And Scripture
(Nehemiah 6:10-14)
  1. Introduction
    1. A hard trial to face is deceptive treachery that plays with our minds so as to manipulate us to our harm.
    2. Nehemiah overcame such treachery by sticking to God's assignment and Scripture (as follows):
  2. Handling Deceptive Treachery By Sticking To God's Assignment And Scripture, Nehemiah 6:10-14.
    1. After Nehemiah's enemies had tried to inflict harm on him and his workers by debilitating mockery (Neh. 2:19-3:32), manipulative speech (Neh. 4:1-6), threatening conspiracy (Neh. 4:7-23), harmful entrapment (Neh. 6:1-4) and slander (Neh. 6:5-9), Nehemiah was understandably very defensive toward them.
    2. Thus, they tried to use Nehemiah's defensiveness toward them to manipulate him by treachery to act in a way that would discredit him and cause other Hebrews to cease helping him work on the wall, Neh. 6:10:
      1. Nehemiah 6:10a reports Nehemiah came to visit Shemaiah at his home, a man that Nehemiah doubtless trusted or he would not have met him in his house away from the wall, Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 686.
      2. Shemaiah presented himself as a prophet with foes who locked himself in his house like the past godly man Jeremiah was shut up due to opposition from his foes, Ryrie St. Bib., KJV, 1978, ftn. to Jer. 36:5.
      3. When Nehemiah arrived, Shemaiah told him to meet with him in the temple behind closed doors, suggesting Nehemiah needed to be protected from their mutual foes who planned to kill him at night.
      4. In reality, Sanballat and Tobiah had paid Shemaiah to lure Nehemiah into the temple in violation of Scripture that forbade all but the priests to be there (Numbers 18:7), thus to discredit Nehemiah before other Hebrews and sabotage his work on the wall, Neh. 6:12b; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Nehemiah 6:10-14.
    3. Shemaiah's words would be humanly easy for Nehemiah to believe: Nehemiah trusted this man, and his warning from his home about evil intentions of foes fit the pattern of the past godly Jeremiah 's life, so Shemaiah's claim that they would try to kill Nehemiah at night could appear very believable!
    4. However, Nehemiah knew God wanted him to stick to His wall-building assignment and to obey His Word, so he discerned his need to resist Shemaiah's message in reliance upon Scripture, Neh. 6:11-14:
      1. First, Nehemiah realized God would not ask him to flee and so leave his work on the wall when God had led him to start this assigned task, Ibid., Bible Knowledge Commentary, Old Testament.
      2. Second, Nehemiah knew Scripture taught that a true prophet would never direct him to disobey a clear Scripture command, Ibid.: Shemaiah's call for Nehemiah to enter the temple when he was not of the priestly Aaronic line in direct violation of Numbers 18:7 would have led Nehemiah to recall Moses' Deuteronomy 13:1-4 warning that even a miracle-working prophet who told God's people to disobey Scripture revelation was to be viewed as a false prophet!
      3. Accordingly, Nehemiah replied to Shemaiah that he could not flee from God's assignment on the wall (Nehemiah 6:11a), neither could he enter the temple in violation of Scripture to save his life [especially when Scripture called for his execution were he to enter the temple anyway, Nehemiah 6:11b with Numbers 18:7!]. Nehemiah would thus not heed Shemaiah's message as from God, Nehemiah 6:11c.
      4. This way, Nehemiah discerned that even the formerly trustworthy Shemaiah had been paid by his foes to trick him to discredit himself and so to sabotage his leadership and work on the wall, Neh. 6:12-13.
      5. In the end, Nehemiah prayed to God, committing his enemies Tobiah and Sanballat along with the woman prophetess, Noadiah, who was part of the scheme with the other false prophets like Shemaiah who had plotted to intimidate him by deceptive treachery into taking sinful action, Nehemiah 6:14.
Lesson: May we respond to seemingly benign suggestions that violate Scripture and God's assignments as being errant at best and treacherous at worst, prayerfully depending on God over our own thinking!

Application: (1) May we heed Nehemiah's example to deal with deceptive treachery. (2) Learning from Nehemiah's experience, may we evaluate the proposals of religious folk, women and friends in light of Scripture, for these are able greatly to mislead us as we are often vulnerable to letting our discernment guard down in their presence! (3) May we heed Scripture over our own views, Deuteronomy 13:1-4.