Experiencing Opposition

INTRO

As you are doing what God has called you to do, you will experience opposition. Jesus said if we follow Him, we will experience persecution. Jesus said as we follow Him, people will say false things about us. Warren Wiersbe observed, “Under Nehemiah’s gifted leadership, the people completed the rebuilding of the walls. Now all that remained to do was the restoration of the gates and the strengthening of the community within the walls.”¹

Harry Truman famously said, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” The enemy will always send opposition against leaders. In this chapter, opposition came as the work was almost done.

TEACHING

Nehemiah 6:1–4: Since the doors were not yet in the gates, there was still a small gap in the wall. But the enemies did not know that. They only knew that the wall was nearly finished, so they tried to oppose Nehemiah one more time. As you are almost done with the task the Lord has given you, the enemy will try to get you to do a few things. First, the enemy will try to get you to compromise.²

Nehemiah’s enemies repeatedly sent him a message to try to lure him into the Ono Valley to harm him. But each of the four times they sent their request to Nehemiah, Nehemiah replied that he would not come because he was doing a great work. Their request was persistent because they wanted Nehemiah to compromise. It’s almost as though they said, “You’re almost done. What harm will it do to come?” The enemy wants us to compromise just a little to begin to pull us off of the work the Lord has called us to do. Before long, a little compromise leads to drifting, and soon we find ourselves a long way off from where God wants us to be.

Nehemiah 6:5–7: Wiersbe states that if we resist compromising, the enemy will slander us.³Nehemiah’s enemies created a gossip mill to try to intimidate him. John Macarthur noted, “Official letters were typically rolled up and sealed with an official signet by the letter’s sender or one of his assisting officials.⁴” The fact that this letter was “open” was a sign of disrespect and open criticism. It was also a sign that its contents were public knowledge.

What was in the letter became gossip that spread quickly. The letter’s charge was that Nehemiah had betrayed the trust of the king of Persia. When Nehemiah was granted permission to return to Jerusalem, he gave the king a definite timeframe for the work to be completed before his return to Persia. If the king were to hear the charges in the letter, he would feel Nehemiah had betrayed him in order to set himself up as king. The king would most likely send troops to take care of the problem…if the accusations were true, that is.

Nehemiah 6:8–9: When slander happens, don’t get distracted. Every time compromises and slander were thrown at Nehemiah, he leaned on his relationship with the Lord. Nehemiah constantly talked to the Lord. The Psalmist wrote, “I have heard the gossip of many; terror is on every side. When they conspired against me, they plotted to take my life. But I trust in You, Lord; I say, ‘You are my God’” (Psalm 31:13–14). Proverbs 4:27 encourages us, “Don’t turn to the right or the left; keep your feet away from evil.” Don’t let the comments of gossipers get to you. Stay the course in your work.

Nehemiah 6:10–14: Wiersbe states that when distractions and slander fail, the enemy will make threats against us.⁵Nehemiah went to visit Shemaiah who advised him to hide in the temple because his enemies were coming to kill him. Nehemiah realized Shemaiah was working for Tobiah and Sanballat to again try to distract him from his work on the city walls. Since they could not draw Nehemiah out from the city, they attempted to make him retreat into the temple.

But Nehemiah was not a priest. He knew he could not go into the temple like that. Israelites could seek refuge at the altar outside the temple, but they could not go into the temple (Exodus 21:13–14). This was a temptation to distract and discredit Nehemiah. No one would think to look for him there because they all knew he wasn’t supposed to be there.

If Nehemiah were to hide in the temple, it would also discredit the boldness with which he had acted in the eyes of the people. Nehemiah would be like every other disloyal Jew. He would have sinned, and his leadership would have been undermined in the eyes of the people.

Nehemiah 6:15–19: Wiersbe notes the enemy will not give up.⁶It only took fifty-two days for Nehemiah and the people to rebuild the walls, but Nehemiah’s enemies challenged him throughout every single one of those days. Wiersbe observed, “Many a careless Christian has won the war, but afterwards lost the victory.”⁷The enemy knew the task was done, but they still persisted in opposing the work. Even after the work on the wall was done, some of the Jews began gravitating to Tobiah, Nehemiah’s enemy. Through letters to the nobles of the Jews, Tobiah still tried to intimidate Nehemiah. The people lost their focus on their task and to the one whom they were committed.

CLOSING

When the work was done, the people’s allegiance shifted from Nehemiah to the enemies who had opposed them. Your ultimate loyalty in the work that God has called you to is to Christ. Other things, even good things like family, can be a distraction from the task that you have been called to by God. When we experience victory, it is important for us to not settle and get comfortable because God may want to press on and do even more. Don’t win the war and neglect God’s victory.