Lesson Material
Phase #5 FORTIFICATION
How to Withstand and Counter Opposition
Nehemiah 4
It was a typical day at the construction site in Nairobi, Kenya – the sun beating down on the workers as they toiled away. But little did they know that their work would be interrupted in the most terrifying way imaginable.
As the afternoon wore on, a sudden commotion erupted among the workers as a lion was spotted prowling nearby. Panic ensued as the majestic beast approached, its eyes fixed hungrily on the unsuspecting men. In a split second, chaos reigned as the workers scrambled for safety, their hearts pounding with fear.
A man named Samuel stood directly in the path of the lion. As the lion charged towards him, Samuel’s instincts kicked in, and he made a desperate dash for the nearest shelter. But he didn’t make it. In a flash of fur and claws, the lion pounced on Samuel, knocking him to the ground with a bone-shattering force. The beast’s razor-sharp teeth sank into Samuel’s flesh, ripping through muscle and sinew as he fought for his life. The excruciating pain seared through his body as he grappled with the lion, his very survival hanging in the balance.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Samuel managed to pry himself free from the lion’s grasp, his body a patchwork of torn flesh and deep wounds. With adrenaline coursing through his veins, he staggered to his feet, the taste of victory mingling with the metallic tang of blood in his mouth.
Emergency services were called, and Samuel was rushed to the nearest hospital, where he underwent lifesaving surgery to repair the extensive damage inflicted by the lion. Miraculously, he survived the harrowing ordeal, though the physical and emotional scars would forever remind him of the sheer terror he had faced that day.
We must be wary of our enemy as we engage in God’s work. 1 Peter 5:8 says, Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
When God gives a task, Satan will often raise up opposition to that task. Nehemiah and the Israelites had the task of building a wall around Jerusalem. And dangerous foes arose to attack that mission. So Nehemiah had to have the heart of a warrior! Three primary enemies led many opponents: Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab. We were first introduced to them back in chapter 2.
10 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
Nehemiah faced many critics and dissenters in his ministry in Jerusalem, and that included religious leaders like priests and prophets. But these “three stooges” continuously cause the most problems.
Modern archaeological discoveries have now identified each of these men, and this helps to establish that the book of Nehemiah is authentic history. These ancient records indicate that they were, under the authority of Persia, rulers of territories surrounding Jerusalem.
Sanballet the Horonite was probably from Horonaim, a city of Moab. As you may remember, the Moabites were cursed by God for not helping Moses and the children of Israel when they were approaching the Promised Land. He was the governor of Samaria and had powerful and wealthy support under his control.
His region had no loyalty to God. After Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel, it imported non-Israelite people to amalgamate and create a racial and religious mix of people in Samaria who would no longer have the same national and spiritual loyalties. From the moment Nehemiah was preparing to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in B.C. 445, Sanballet, a name meaning strength, set himself to oppose every measure for the welfare of Jerusalem.
Sanballet’s right-hand man was Tobiah, the Ammonite. The Horonites and Ammonites were two of the people groups God had driven from the Promised Land for the Israelites. Tobiah appears to also have been a regional governor over an area East of the Jordan River.
Tobiah played a conspicuous part in the rancorous position made by Sanballat the Moabite and his adherents in their opposition to rebuilding Jerusalem. (B.C. 446.) The two races of Moab and Ammon found in these men represent that hereditary hatred toward the Israelites– a hostility that began before the entrance into Canaan.
Tobiah was possibly a slave (Nehemiah 2:10,19), but this might just be a title of opprobrium – a designation of disgrace. If he was, it was merely a legal distinction, for he was a person of influence and power.
Both men also had family ties to many of the Jews. Sanballet’s daughter became the wife of one of the sons of Joiada, a son of the high priest Eliashib. Tobiah was married to a daughter of Shecaniah, a Judahite leader, and Tobiah’s son, Jehohanan, was married to the daughter of Meshullam, another Judahite leader. They used both their political and family alliances in their attempts to fight God’s work and hurt the Jewish nation.
Geshem, also called Gashmu (perhaps an Assyrian form of the same name Geshem), was an Arabian. He was the chief of an Arabian tribe that had either settled in Southern Palestine during the exile in Babylon or had been placed in or near Samaria by the Assyrian leader, Sargon. Besides being a chief himself, he most likely led an alliance of other Arabian tribes in a region that stretched from the area southeast of Judea across Sinai to the Egyptian border. Geshem was a confederate of Sanballat and Tobiah.
This dastardly threesome was united in their antagonism toward the Jews and any attempt to rebuild their nation. They were persistent and serious enemies to Nehemiah. In the coming pages, we will watch them engage in morale-damaging mockery, psychological warfare, planning a military attack, causing internal divisions, spreading false accusations, and plotting an assassination of Nehemiah.
These men were Nehemiah’s opponents, and if you are an active participant in God’s work, you will, at some point, have your own. Nehemiah 4 describes two waves of attack.
THE FIRST ATTACK WAVE (4:1-6)
The Attack: Spirit-breaking Remarks (1-3).
4 1When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?”
3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”
Someday you, too, will face opponents like Sanballat, Tobiah and Greshem. If you are a strong leader, it is not a matter of if but when. When that day comes, how will you react?
There is no one method of dealing with foes. Since difficult individuals vary in their natures and personalities, your approach to handling them must be on a case-by-case basis. The first step is to get to know your problem person and discover what drives them to act the way they do.
Your opponents may even be misguided Christians who, for some reason or another, rise up against you and the mission God has given you. Some are well-intentioned and just need careful handling. They may be late-adopters (they process things slowly), wafflers (they flip flop and frustrate), crybabies (complainers and whiners), wet blankets (they like to call themselves “devil’s advocates” for their ability to find faults with every plan… and it could be that’s exactly what they are) or competitors (they practice the art of one-upmanship). These folks may have tendencies toward negativity, anger, fear of change, lack of submission, etc. And often, they are great people who just disagree with you. These folks need to be handled with prayer, persuasion, and patience.
2 Timothy 2:24-25 24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25 Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,
If their attitudes become sinful actions, then you may need to try to win them back by using the reconciliation guidelines of Galatians 6:1, Matthew 18:15-17 and Ephesians 4:15.
But your enemies may be those in the world who hate Christ and His mission. They will engage in persecution of one sort or another. Christian Persecution is any hostility experienced from the world that results from one’s identification with Christ. From verbal harassment to hostile feelings, attitudes, and actions, believers in areas with severe religious restrictions pay a heavy price for their faith. Beatings, physical torture, confinement, isolation, rape, severe punishment, imprisonment, slavery, discrimination in education and in employment, and even death are just a few examples they experience on a daily basis.
In my various teaching trips overseas, I have been shocked by the amount of persecution faced by some of my brothers and sisters in other lands. In a teaching trip to India, a pastor told me how militants had burned down his church building. A week earlier, one of my students told me about how his father had been jailed and beaten some years ago in Nepal. In Jiri, Pastor Gyan Sunuwar gave his testimony of persecution. His very own village almost attacked him. But God delivered him, and he went on to start over 20 churches.
According to The Pew Research Center, over 75% of the world’s population live in areas with severe religious restrictions. Many of these people are Christians. Also, according to the United States Department of State, Christians in more than 60 countries face persecution from their governments or surrounding neighbors simply because of their belief in the person of Jesus Christ. A Pew study confirmed that Christians are “the most persecuted religious group in the world.”
There are dissidents like Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem who are divisive, destructive opponents of God’s people and projects. They can be compared to tanks, snipers, and grenades. Tanks are aggressive, angry bullies who are quite willing to blow you up or run right over you. Snipers will belittle you with sarcasm, rude remarks, and eye rolls. Behind your back, they will gossip, criticize, and make false accusations. Grenades tend to explode into rage and uncontrolled ranting that has little to do with logic or the facts. These are bad guys!
Like bees at a picnic, they show up whenever something good is on the table. They are the haters of Matthew 10, the gainsayers of Luke 21, and the enemies that the Lord said every true disciple would have (Matthew 5:44). David wrote, “Many are those that rise up against me” (Psalm 3:1).
Their weapon was their tongue. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
They used sarcasm, ridicule, and destructive criticism to try to demoralize the Israelites. They said:
- “You are too weak. What are these feeble Jews trying to do?”
- “The task is too great. You can’t finish this in a day. You can’t make walls out of rubble.”
- “You’re a failure already. The part of the wall you have finished is so unstable that it would crumble if a fox jumped on it.”
Satan works the same way. He tries to demoralize every Christian serious about putting his hands to God’s work. If you listen, he will say:
- You’re too weak. Who do you think you are; you’re crazy even to attempt it and besides,
- The job is impossible, anyway. It can’t be done. Furthermore,
- You’re a failure already. What you’ve done so far is the pits, it’s worthless!
Don’t let Satan demoralize you with such thoughts.
The Defense (4-6)
4 Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
Nehemiah and his fellow partners used a two-fold defensive strategy: prayer and action.
- Prayer (4-5). “Lord, what these people have been saying is an affront to your work. So, you take care of it. May it come back upon their own heads!”
- Action (6). The enemy had said: “You’re too weak, the task is too great, you’re a bunch of failures…so just give up now!” But the Jews prayed to God, renewed their determination, and “worked with all their heart.”
Satan doesn’t have to destroy Christians; he just must demoralize them so that they will quit working and no longer be a threat! But we don’t have to cave in; we can pray in faith and return to our work. Sadly, many Christians rarely practice spiritual warfare praying. After listing all the spiritual armor we should wear, Paul, in Ephesians 6, says, “18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
THE SECOND ATTACK WAVE (7-23)
The Attack: fear-producing threats (7-12).
7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.
Suddenly, those walls that couldn’t support a fox’s weight served as an imposing threat against the enemy, and Sanballet, Tobiah, and Geshem became enraged and determined to fight Israel. And they weren’t alone; they were just the spokesmen for many people groups antagonistic to the Hebrew people.
Jerusalem was surrounded by their enemies. To the West, by the Mediterranean Sea, were the fierce warriors of Ashdod. North of Jerusalem was Sanballat’s gang. To the East, on the other side of the Jordan River, were the people governed by Tobiah. And going South, almost to Mount Sinai, were all the dangerous Arab tribes that were under the control of Geshem.
Sometimes, we think that our warfare is just one battle, but each victory just sets us up for the next battle. Israel had won round one, but round two was tougher. To borrow language from the apostle Paul, they got “knocked down, but they didn’t get knocked out!” Here, we see them discouraged and demoralized. And the threats came at the very time when they were exhausted.
10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.” 11 Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.” 12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.”
They are at the halfway stage, where they are dead tired and personally discouraged. “Maybe we can’t do this; there is so much rubble, and we are tuckered out. There is too much to do.”
And at this very time of fatigue, they are not battered by external threats. The opposition said, “We are going to sneak in and kill them.” The Jews that were living near the enemy heard the threats and came and repeatedly told the workers about them. It was like a broken record. At least ten times, the work party received these frightening warnings.
The Defense
Their defensive strategy was the same approach they had used in the prior attack: prayer and action.
- Prayer
9 But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
Do you ever get the idea that these people believe in prayer? When God burdened Nehemiah with the task, he prayed. When King Artaxerxes was an obstacle, Nehemiah prayed. Now when the opposition threatens, the people pray. Furthermore, they claimed God’s strength. “God is great and awesome” (14).
- Action
Along with praying, they mounted a strong defense. Though he lacked military training, Nehemiah possessed wisdom. And he used it to retrofit his workers, so they could also become warriors.
13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work.
16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.
19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”
21 So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. 22 At that time I also said to the people, “Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and as workers by day.” 23 Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.
Prayers don’t always guarantee that the opposition will always flee. They needed to mount a resistance movement. They set up guards, united together, developed a plan, and became a fighting force.
As we face the enemy, we want to connect closely with our fellow warriors. There is safety in numbers. As you go to church, participate in small groups, or meet with accountability partners, transparently share your struggles, discouragements, temptations, and attacks. Your brothers and sisters will support you. We should put our shoulders together like defensive linemen in a football game and surge forward.
Most of all, look up to God in faith. Nehemiah said, 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.”
Verse 20 gives a promise we should all memorize: “Our God will fight for us!” And while you are at it, memorize this verse from the New Testament: “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
My friend Dana Olsen, the director of “Prayer First,” would often visit churches, lead them in prayer concerts, and help them develop a more comprehensive prayer ministry. When traveling to a city, he would think about how Satan opposed this ministry and would try to suppress it. So, Dana would prayerfully claim the promise that God would fight for him. In his words, “as I drove into a community to speak, I loved to turn up the volume and play Twila Paris’s “God Is in Control.” It was my “psyche up” music for the weekend!”
Go to YouTube (https://youtu.be/-H9JHdsn-EQ) and sing along!
Verse 15 said they continued their work with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. They trusted God, prepared themselves for battle, and then returned to work. The enemy would have won if they had just turned into an army and had failed to continue the task.
As it was, they watched and worked, and the enemy wilted. James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Together, let’s shout out these affirmations:
We are God’s Workers. We will succeed!
We are God’s Warriors. We will win!
1 Corinthians 15:58 – Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.