Have you ever wondered:
- Why is life so difficult?
- Why is life such a struggle?
- Why am I tired all the time?
- Why do so many things go wrong?
- Why is it that when I try to accomplish something for God it's never easy?
This episode is for those who are finding that pleasing Jesus with your life is hard, full of resistance, and sometimes generates so much discouragement that you feel like not even trying.
In 2 Kings 13:14-19 Joash the king of Israel went down to visit the dying prophet Elisha to seek his blessing against his enemy Syria. We read:
Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows.” So he took a bow and arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, “Draw the bow,” and he drew it. And Elisha laid his hands on the king's hands. And he said, “Open the window eastward,” and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot,” and he shot. And he said, “The Lord's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria! For you shall fight the Syrians in Aphek until you have made an end of them.” And he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground with them.” And he struck three times and stopped. Then the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only three times.”
This text is always a reminder to me that whenever we set out to please God by seeking to implement his agenda, we can expect opposition that will not be defeated easily through one or two victories. We must realize that success only comes through perseverance. Observing this reality, Anne and Ray Ortland, in their book, You Don’t Have to Quit, write:
Is there a secret that could help you stick it out through your darkest most trying situations until you emerge truly victorious? How do you get the staying power? When you think about it, everybody's had those periods. And the people who have succeeded have come through a time sequence—a time sequence that could be the clue to your making it too. A) They began in some new situation or effort. B) They hit problems and somehow worked their way through them. C) They came out on top. For instance, there was Noah: A) Noah walked with God. B) Then came the threat of an impending flood. But Noah trusted God and obeyed him. C) Noah emerged with his family intact, to start life again. You see the pattern: Begin, persevere, win. Or look at the whole nation of Israel. A) God promised them the land of Canaan. B) In a few generations they were in a completely different country in deep trouble. But they trusted and obeyed….C) And eventually into the land of Canaan they went. Begin, persevere, win.
That is the pattern we also see in the book of Nehemiah as Nehemiah sought to fulfill the task God had assigned to him of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. We've already seen Nehemiah face two kinds of external threat: the ridicule of Sanballat and Tobiah intended to discourage the workers and the threat of violence, which required posting a guard. He also had to face and overcome the internal threat of dissension within the body. The nobles and officials were exploiting the poor farmers. As we come to chapter 6, Nehemiah again faces opposition as he has almost finished the wall.
When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates— Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.” But they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written:
“It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together.” I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.” They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”
But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”
One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.”
But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.
Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how he and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me.
With internal dissension behind him, Nehemiah once again returned to the task of rebuilding the walls. They made such rapid progress that before long the entire wall was complete; only the gates remained to be hung. But just as they came within sight of the finish line their enemies renewed their attacks. These differed from the earlier opposition in two ways: 1) These attacks were subtle as we'll see in a moment. 2) These attacks were all aimed personally at Nehemiah. He is now the target of three deceptive plots. Let's look at each one of them.
Plot # 1. The first plot involves an invitation to the peace table. Verse 2: Come let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono. The reason this communication was subtle and therefore dangerous was that on the surface it sounded quite plausible. James Boyce in his commentary on Nehemiah explains the invitation:
It seemed to be a concession speech by a person who had just lost a political campaign. “Nehemiah, it's no use pretending that we have not been opposed to your project; we have been. It's not been in our best interests. We have had our differences over it, but you have succeeded in spite of us, and now there is no use carrying on our opposition. For better or worse we are going to have to live together—you as the governor of Jerusalem and ourselves as governors of our own province. So, let's be friends. What we need is a summit conference. Why don't we meet on the plain of Ono? It is a neutral site about equidistance from each of our provinces. You pick a village in Ono and we'll meet you there.” Since Nehemiah was already looking past the completion of the wall to further reforms, as the remainder of this book shows, an approach like this must have seemed both reasonable and attractive.
But Nehemiah smelled a rat. There was also another problem. The job was not done. True, it was almost done. The walls were completed to their full height. Only the gates remained. But the gates remained. And until they were completed, the entire, great project was in jeopardy.
This deceptive tactic of Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem is one that has been used many times to capture an enemy. In fact, it took place regarding persecution of Christians. John Huss, a Bohemian reformer and William Tyndale, an English reformer both had experiences similar to those of Nehemiah, but with tragic ends. Huss was invited to the council of Constance in 1414 to answer charges against him and was promised safe conduct both ways by the emperor. But he was seized, thrown in prison, and later burned at the stake. William Tyndale, the translator of the English Bible, was living in exile in Belgium when he was invited to have lunch with a supposed friend. It was a trap; he was arrested and several months later he was strangled and burned.
Nehemiah, however, was wiser. He recognized that this proposed “peace summit” was a trap and declined to attend. But notice that Nehemiah’s enemies tried to wear down his suspicions. “Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.” Nehemiah persevered in his judgement. So, Sanballat changed his tactics.
Plot # 2. Sanballat deliberately left open the fifth letter so the public would read his words and pressure Nehemiah to act.
I reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together” (vs-6-7).
Three false accusations were made-up: 1) that Nehemiah and the Jews were plotting treason, i.e. that the work of rebuilding the wall was being carried out with the goal of rebelling against the Persian government, 2) that Nehemiah had pretensions to the throne. Look at the end of verse 6. “According to these reports you are about to become their king” and 3) that Nehemiah was bribing some enthusiastic prophets to support him in his quest to be king by declaring “There is a king in Judah.”
Of course, the most significant word in these three verses is the word, unsealed.
Sanballat was spreading lies and gossip to undermine Nehemiah’s leadership. Parenthetically, if these allegations had arrived in a sealed letter, it could have been a righteous attempt to alleviate misunderstanding. If you have questions about another person's intentions or motives it is entirely appropriate to go to that person with these questions, especially if he's in a leadership position. If you see some serious blind spot or what appears to be sin in your leaders, the right response is a sealed letter. The wrong response is an unsealed one. An important reason for going to the person you think has done something wrong is to understand the facts. I think this rumor that Sanballat spread was very plausible from the outside. Nehemiah had appealed to Jewish nationalism as motivation to rebuild the wall. He probably had already become their ruler, assigned by King Artaxerxes to be their governor and perhaps he was seen coming or going to the prophet's home. From a distance, we can draw many wrong conclusions. In verses 8-9, Nehemiah responds to these accusations.
I sent him this reply, “Nothing like what you were saying is happening. You are just making it out of your head.” They were all trying to frighten us thinking, Their hands we'll get too weak for the work and it will be it will not be completed. But I prayed now, “Strengthen my hands.”
As leaders, we can err in the face of an accusation two ways. We can be overly “spiritual” and not defend ourselves, just pray, quote the verses that talk about Jesus silently being led like a lamb to the slaughter, and say nothing. That is not what Nehemiah did. Or accusations can cause us to get completely defensive and take it upon ourselves to beat down the accusation. That is equally unwise. The better approach is to do both: trust God to protect our reputation but also defend ourselves as Nehemiah does here and as the apostle Paul often did.
Plot # 3. In verses 10-14 we see unfold the third plot to try to get Nehemiah and it is insidious. His enemies couldn't get Nehemiah outside the city; so, the plan was to try to discredit him by getting him to commit a grievous, flagrant sin. Shamaya was the tool used. He was a prophet and priest who apparently invited Nehemiah to visit him in his home. As a supposed friend of Nehemiah, he seems to have pretended to be in great personal danger and kept himself in seclusion. He also pretended to fear for Nehemiah's life, claiming to have the details of a plot to kill him. This priest suggests meeting secretly in the Holy Place of the temple. Verse 10. One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.” The word translated temple was a very specific Hebrew word which meant Holy Place.
The Law of God specifically prohibited all Jews but priests from entering the Holy Place. King Uzziah, for example, had violated this prohibition and had been struck by God with leprosy. King Saul similarly had taken to himself the prerogatives of the priesthood. He impatiently offered sacrifices because Samuel had not come on Saul's timetable. The result was that God took Saul's dynasty away from him. Sanballat and the boys hoped to scare Nehemiah into entering the Holy Place, a flagrant, obvious, violation of Old Testament Law. But Nehemiah was more than a match for them. Verse 11.
But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.
Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how he and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me.
Notice the source of Nehemiah’s consistency. By now, perhaps you’ve noticed a pattern in the way Nehemiah described these plots. He ended plots one and two, which ran together, with the words, But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” After Nehemiah described plot three, we again see him, looking to the Lord, in this case, leaving it to God to judge their evil done to him. Nehemiah had great leadership ability, but his success was because he leaned on the Lord.
THREE TAKE-AWAY CHALLENGES
Challenge # 1: Remember opposition can arise at any time even when you're in the home stretch. We must always be alert, but especially in the final laps, knowing that the lion may be ready to pounce at any time.
Challenge # 2: Don't be an “unsealed letter” sender. Don't take your negative impressions of someone to a third party. Go to that person, especially if he or she is a leader. Don't carelessly become a tool of Satan sowing dissension in the Body.
Challenge # 3: Grasp the importance of perseverance to God. James, the brother of Jesus, understood how important perseverance is, writing, Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (Ja 1:2-4).
God wants to gaze into our heart attitudes and see Jesus. This maturity of character comes only through perseverance. In fact, nearly any effort to seek the spread of Christ’s kingdom requires overcoming resistance. Here are some parting truths about this treasure of perseverance, from You Don’t Have to Quit.
- “The most meaningless statistic in a ball game is the score at halftime.”
- “By perseverance the snail reached the ark.” (Charles Spurgeon)
- “You will only discover excellence on the other side of work.”
- “A diamond is a piece of coal that remained on the job.”
- “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.”
- “Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.” (Vince Lombardi.)
- “If life hands you lemons, make lemon chiffon pie.”
- “My men are not braver than other troops—they are just brave five minutes longer.” General Wellington.
- “Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts.” Sir Winston Churchill.
- “If your ole truck is gonna make it up hills, get your speed up when you are in the valley.”
- “Of all the sad words on the loose, the saddest are these: “Oh, what’s the use?”
- “Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.”
- “Lord, help us remember that we are only limited by all that you are.”
- “The greatest use of a life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.”
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- What are the things that you find most discouraging about trying to please and follow Jesus?
- How would you explain the importance of perseverance?
- What insights stood out about Nehemiah persevering through three plots to murder him?
- Which phrases from the Ortlands’ book, You Don’t Have to Quit, did you find most motivating?
