Nehemiah 4:1-14--Opposition to the Work

Nehemiah 4:1-14
English Standard Version

Opposition to the Work
4  Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” 3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!” 4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. 5 Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.

6 So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

7  But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. 8 And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. 9 And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

​10 In Judah it was said, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.” 11 And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.” 12 At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, “You must return to us.” 13 So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. 14 And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”

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The last chapter gave us an overview of the entire project, but now we're zooming in on the opposition that happened during the construction process.  Sanballat is not happy when he hears the wall is being built because he didn't want anyone caring about the welfare of the Jews (I don't know how to read this other than to say that he was a Jew-hater).  So, he tried to jeer at those who were working and discourage them so that they would not be efficient in what they were doing.

“What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?”  These are the kinds of jeers that Sanballat made, and Tobiah joined him saying things like, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”.  We get the idea that Sanballat is the primary actor and Tobiah is just his sidekick thinking that he's cool for hanging out with Sanballat and trying to act like him.

Nehemiah prays to the LORD to turn the curses back upon the men who were making them so that they would be cursed, and Israel would be blessed.  He also prays that their sin not be atoned for or forgiven or forgotten (I don't disagree with telling God how we feel, but I would hope that we as Christians could pray for the salvation of our enemies and love them as brothers and sisters once they were saved.  It is really difficult to want them sometimes though when we know we should not take vengeance, but we want God to do so and do it now.)

The people worked quickly and before long the wall was built to half of its intended height.  They knew it was more important to have a wall all the way around the city that connected than to have a tall wall in some places and no wall in other places.  However, this gave Sanballat and Tobiah a chance to see that their insults and jeers were having little to no effect on the people getting the work done, and that the work would be completed much faster than any of them would have expected.

Sanballat and Tobiah get reinforcements from the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites.  They made a plan to come fight against Jerusalem by force and destroy the work that had been done before the wall could be built to its full height.  Remember that this is in direct opposition not only to the Jews, but also to the King of Persia who had written letters saying that this project had his blessing, that everyone who opposed it would be killed, and their houses would be destroyed and turned into trash heaps with them being impaled on a beam from their house in front of it as an example to all.  This is how much these people hated the Jews--they were willing to go up against the "super-power" of the world at that time hoping that Persia really wouldn't go to war with all of them and would abandon Israel in its time of need.

Did Nehemiah pray to the King of Persia to save him?  No, even though he was there with Persia's blessing and protection, he prayed to the LORD, the King of Heaven who is the greatest king who had given Nehemiah this mission and the power and authority to accomplish it.  It was up to the LORD to keep the covenant with His people and protect them--to fight for them and defend them from all enemies foreign and domestic.

While the people saw the need to finish quickly, the strength of those who were bearing the burden of carrying away the rubble was fading.  They began saying there was too much work and too little time and that the job could not be completed.  The enemies that were gathered for war at the same time said that they would come in the night and kill all the workers so that they would stop the work, so these men who were exhausted were afraid to go to sleep for fear of an attack under the cover of darkness.  Even the Jewish brothers who lived in the area tried to tell them to run for safety and abandon the work.  They were well-meaning, but their words were discouraging to Nehemiah and the men doing the labor that not even their fellow Jews supported them as they did not want to come and work alongside them for the work to be done faster, nor did these Jews take up arms to defend their brothers while they worked.  No, they wanted the Jews in Jerusalem to run to the safety of Persia for refuge and defense and to be happy and content living as aliens and exiles because life was pretty good there.  They were willing to abandon the Land of their eternal covenant with the LORD to men like Sanballat and Tobiah who had no part in possessing it.

Nehemiah knew that this would be the time for an attack to come if it was coming, so he stationed armed guards with swords, spears and bows at the places where the defenses were weakest.  Then he gathered everyone else together and spoke to the leaders and the common people telling them, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”  We'll see next time if this is enough to restore to spirit and the strength of the laborers.