The Wall Completed
June 2, 2022
Commentary
Nehemiah’s enemies left no stone unturned in trying to keep him from building the wall (vv. 10-13). First they tried to draw him into the country to talk to them. When this didn’t work, they tried to get him to go into the temple and hide, saying it was for his own safety.
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Their goal – to cause Nehemiah to do a foolish thing so that they might laugh at him and insult him for doing it.
- The tools they used – Sanballat and Tobiah hired Shemaiah to persuade Nehemiah to quit his work and go into the temple for his own safety.
- Their pretense – they suggested to Nehemiah that the enemies would come and slay him which he could have easily believed. They pretended to have much concern for his safety.
Nehemiah bravely withstood this temptation. If he had yielded, the people would have left their work and thrown down their arms and looked for their own safety. As a result, the enemy, without opposition, would have demolished the work, broken down the wall again, and gained their goal. Tobiah and his friends were very disturbed to see the wall being built despite their efforts to stop it (vv. 14-19). Their threats, which were intended to weaken them only caused the workers to work harder and get the job done before the enemy came. When the enemy heard the wall was finished “they were much cast down in their own eyes” (v. 16).
Application
I need to pray for people in leadership, like Nehemiah, that God will give them strength to stand against personal attacks(I Tim. 2:1-2).
Nehemiah 6:10– 19 (NET)
10 Then I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel. He was confined to his home. He said, “Let’s set up a time to meet in the house of God, within the temple. Let’s close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. It will surely be at night that they will come to kill you.”
11 But I replied, “Should a man like me run away? Would someone like me flee to the temple in order to save his life? I will not go!” 12 I recognized the fact that God had not sent him, for he had spoken the prophecy against me as a hired agent of Tobiah and Sanballat. 13 He had been hired to scare me so that I would do this and thereby sin. They would thus bring reproach on me and I would be discredited.
14 Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat in light of these actions of theirs—also Noadiah the prophetess and the other prophets who have been trying to scare me!
15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in just fifty-two days. 16 When all our enemies heard and all the nations who were around us saw this, they were greatly disheartened. They knew that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.
17 In those days the aristocrats of Judah repeatedly sent letters to Tobiah, and responses from Tobiah were repeatedly coming to them. 18 For many in Judah had sworn allegiance to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah. His son Jonathan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah. 19 They were telling me about his good deeds and then taking back to him the things I said. Tobiah, on the other hand, sent letters in order to scare me.