totallylovedbygod65
Member
- Mar 12, 2024
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Reading Nehemiah Chapter 4
HAVE YOU A SANBALLAT OR TOBIAH IN YOUR LIFE?
When you start a work for God, you will suffer persecution and opposition.
We have already met in Chapter 2, the three opponents of Nehemiah and here they come again.
Opposition will come in varying ways, but it will come. Once a work of God starts, you can bet your life, that the devil will use people to oppose you.
Nehemiah and the people had started the great work of building the wall, and these two men, who had oppressed the Jews, they had the whole of Jerusalem under their power. They had the run of the city, they came and went and did everything that they wanted, trampling on God's people, they knew that if the walls were built, their access to the city would be blocked.
Discouragement is the great enemy of Christian work, The people who were building the wall, could of seen the stones piled one upon another and become discouraged, after all, they were not professional wall builders, they were just ordinary people.
Let's see the tactics of the enemy and how Nehemiah deals with them.
The first reaction of the opponents of the work is always anger, but it is clothed in a variety of guises, these two men are angry, but before they show fierce anger, they clothe their anger in words of:
Personal Mockery
These men who had the run of Jerusalem for many years, thought that they could come and go as they pleased, they were in for a shock.
How often do we have to face up to this, the mocking words of the enemy.
First of all, they use words like feeble, the devil casts doubt into our minds.
Are you really able to do this?
Look at you all, your so feeble.
Can you lift all those heavy stones.
Can you hear those mocking words?
Ever heard these words? I have many times.
When those kind of mocking words come from the enemy, what can we do and say?
I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME.. AMEN
Personal mockery won't stop there, it goes like this, look at the size of this work, do you really think you will complete it?
And even if you do finish the work you are doing for God, it will collapse, if a little adversity happens, it will completely fail. We have all heard these words, so what should we do about it.
They prayed
They knew they were despised and hated, so they prayed that God would deal with them, so often we react ad try to sort out the situation ourselves,, they let the Lord handle it, and they went back to building the wall.
The wall was being built, the breaches in the wall were being closed up and this made the enemies of the people even more furious, so instead of mockery, they made a show of force.
Opposition to God's work is often seen in numbers, if they mobilise enough people, they can surely persuade these Christians to back down. Let's take the full force of all our armies, surely, they will realise they have no chance.
The answer is prayer and watchfulness, the enemy is very sly, it says they conspired against them.
Internal issues can come to the fore, the people were very tired by this point, this was back breaking work, that many of them were not used to, the stones were harder and harder to dig out, they had to be dragged upwards and there was much rubbish to move, discouragement from within is a great obstacle to building any work for God.
Again, what is the answer to this, Nehemiah was one of the great organisers of the bible, he was after all, the cupbearer to the king, he was like the prime minister and God had placed him in this role, he had a very organised and clear mind, God had given him a plan.
He organised the people, he firstly reminded them, and this is something we need to remember, that God is great and that he is with us. verse 14. We also need to remember that we as a people of God are to be unified and to fight for each other, we are in this together. verses 14-15
They then returned to the work on the wall, some built the wall and some held the weapons, does that remind you of Moses and Joshua in Exodus 17? Joshua fought, Moses prayed. Look at verse 16, half of them worked, half held the spears, this is how it is in the church, some can't get involved physically in the work because of illness etc, but they can hold the spear of someone who is.
HAVE YOU A SANBALLAT OR TOBIAH IN YOUR LIFE?
When you start a work for God, you will suffer persecution and opposition.
We have already met in Chapter 2, the three opponents of Nehemiah and here they come again.
Opposition will come in varying ways, but it will come. Once a work of God starts, you can bet your life, that the devil will use people to oppose you.
Nehemiah and the people had started the great work of building the wall, and these two men, who had oppressed the Jews, they had the whole of Jerusalem under their power. They had the run of the city, they came and went and did everything that they wanted, trampling on God's people, they knew that if the walls were built, their access to the city would be blocked.
Discouragement is the great enemy of Christian work, The people who were building the wall, could of seen the stones piled one upon another and become discouraged, after all, they were not professional wall builders, they were just ordinary people.
Let's see the tactics of the enemy and how Nehemiah deals with them.
The first reaction of the opponents of the work is always anger, but it is clothed in a variety of guises, these two men are angry, but before they show fierce anger, they clothe their anger in words of:
Personal Mockery
These men who had the run of Jerusalem for many years, thought that they could come and go as they pleased, they were in for a shock.
How often do we have to face up to this, the mocking words of the enemy.
First of all, they use words like feeble, the devil casts doubt into our minds.
Are you really able to do this?
Look at you all, your so feeble.
Can you lift all those heavy stones.
Can you hear those mocking words?
Ever heard these words? I have many times.
When those kind of mocking words come from the enemy, what can we do and say?
I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME.. AMEN
Personal mockery won't stop there, it goes like this, look at the size of this work, do you really think you will complete it?
And even if you do finish the work you are doing for God, it will collapse, if a little adversity happens, it will completely fail. We have all heard these words, so what should we do about it.
They prayed
They knew they were despised and hated, so they prayed that God would deal with them, so often we react ad try to sort out the situation ourselves,, they let the Lord handle it, and they went back to building the wall.
The wall was being built, the breaches in the wall were being closed up and this made the enemies of the people even more furious, so instead of mockery, they made a show of force.
Opposition to God's work is often seen in numbers, if they mobilise enough people, they can surely persuade these Christians to back down. Let's take the full force of all our armies, surely, they will realise they have no chance.
The answer is prayer and watchfulness, the enemy is very sly, it says they conspired against them.
Internal issues can come to the fore, the people were very tired by this point, this was back breaking work, that many of them were not used to, the stones were harder and harder to dig out, they had to be dragged upwards and there was much rubbish to move, discouragement from within is a great obstacle to building any work for God.
Again, what is the answer to this, Nehemiah was one of the great organisers of the bible, he was after all, the cupbearer to the king, he was like the prime minister and God had placed him in this role, he had a very organised and clear mind, God had given him a plan.
He organised the people, he firstly reminded them, and this is something we need to remember, that God is great and that he is with us. verse 14. We also need to remember that we as a people of God are to be unified and to fight for each other, we are in this together. verses 14-15
They then returned to the work on the wall, some built the wall and some held the weapons, does that remind you of Moses and Joshua in Exodus 17? Joshua fought, Moses prayed. Look at verse 16, half of them worked, half held the spears, this is how it is in the church, some can't get involved physically in the work because of illness etc, but they can hold the spear of someone who is.
