Book of Nehemiah Series #7
Sanballat Attacks Again - Physical Persecution
By Pastor Jim May
Last week we completed with the wall being half finished. It was half the height that the original wall had been. Even though the gates had been rebuilt and the walls connecting each of those gates was in place, there was still much work left to be done before the city of Jerusalem could feel safe from outside threats. A wall that was only half as high as it should be was almost as bad as no wall at all. It was still far too vulnerable to any besieging army.
Sanballat and Tobiah had attacked those who were rebuilding the walls with mind tricks, trying to hinder their work. They didn’t want to see the city rebuilt, nor did they want to see the worship of God restored to the temple and they were going to do everything in their power to stop the work.
We learned that Sanballat was a type of Satan, our worst enemy, as he tries to destroy and hinder our lives with Jesus. We also learned that Tobiah, his cohort, was a type of our own flesh. Often times we find ourselves more on Satan’s side than we want to admit because of our battle with “Self”.
There is an old saying that says, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me", and for a while that seemed to be the case with Nehemiah and his workers. Sanballat and Tobiah would use every sort of mind-game that they could find, but the work continued on. Now the attacks were going to be more serious and more physical in nature. Sanballat and Tobiah were not enemies that would quit easily, anymore than we can easily overcome the devil or the desires of the flesh.
Nehemiah and his band of workers had resisted Sanballat so he ceased from attacking them for a while. Sanballat fell back to regroup and plan a new strategy designed to bring the work to a halt, and he also hoped that the lull would give the Jews a false sense of victory, so they would drop their guard. Sanballat and Tobiah had lost the first round and stopped their attacks, but they weren’t ready to quit yet. They were determined to stop the work on Jerusalem at all costs.
When “Plan A” failed, Sanballat and Tobiah reverted to “Plan B”. What was “Plan B”? Well, when you can’t talk them to death in “Plan A”, then you have to go in and kill them all. That was “Plan B” and it was now quickly being put into action!
Nehemiah 4:7-8, "But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth, And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it."
They were finished playing games now. It was time for some real action. It was time to get rough. Nehemiah and the Jews had to be stopped before they could finish the wall at all costs.
None of the enemies of Israel were going to stay out of this fight. Just as all of the surrounding Arab nations right now want to see Israel utterly wiped out, so did Sanballat, Tobiah and all of their friends.
Sanballat was the leader and the commander who planned the offensive, but Tobiah and all of the Arabian nations were there too.
The devil never works alone. He loves to find someone that we will trust to use as his instrument of attack. It seems to me that our worst enemies are often found within the church walls. Satan has used his deceitfulness to get even those who claim to be Christian to bring on our worst persecution. We can deal easily with an attack from outside, but when the enemy infiltrates our lives and attacks from within, it’s much harder to overcome him.
We live in a country where physical persecution doesn’t happen to us like it does elsewhere in the world. Our persecution is mostly still in the mind-games stages. But the church is persecuted and Christians have to suffer much more everywhere else. In the midst of all of this persecution, God is looking for how we will respond. Will we quit working or will our faith become stronger?
Nehemiah 4:9, "Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them."
Nehemiah’s response to their threat of attack was that he called a prayer meeting to ask God to be their guard and to put down their enemies. But it didn’t just stop with the prayer meeting. Nehemiah also used some practical means of protection by setting guards in place to sound the alarm. He couldn’t stop the attack but he could keep it from being a sneak attack.
I heard about two men who were arguing one time. The first one said, “I’m going to jump on you and teach you a lesson.” The second man said, “I can’t keep you from jumping, but I can sure mess up your landing.” That’s the attitude that Nehemiah had. He knew an attack was in the making, but it would not be allowed to stop the work on the walls of the city.
We can’t always stop the attacks of the enemy, but if we will stay on our face before God and keep in His Word, and listen to those who are our “Watchmen on the walls”, we won’t be taken by surprise. And let us not forget that Satan will never destroy the church of Jesus Christ because of Jesus’ promise that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Neither can Satan and all of your enemies keep you from building your personal walls of salvation. In fact, the persecutions and attacks of the devil in your life should serve to only strengthen your faith in God and help you to build your walls even higher.
Even though we have this calm assurance of victory, let us be as wise as Nehemiah and understand that when the enemy attacks there are always areas of our life that could be called "the exposed places." The wall has not yet been built in some areas and they were still vulnerable to an attack. Sanballat wasn’t an ignorant enemy. He was pretty smart and he knew where their weaknesses were and that’s where he planned his attacks.
What are some of the weaknesses in our personal wall that Satan can probe to see if we will fall? It may be pride, greed or being a worrywart, or maybe we get into a state of depression very easily. Maybe it’s some sort of habit or addiction to TV, prescription drugs, sports, or the wrong kinds of music that he can use against us. It doesn’t matter what it is - guard the lower parts and exposed places. We must always be on the alert and put on the whole armor of God.
The greatest enemy that we all have is just the fear that an attack will come and defeat us. If the devil can get us focused on an impending attack, or a persecution that might be; if he can get us to focus on what could happen and get our minds off of what God has called us to do, then he can stop us in our tracks.
President Franklin Roosevelt made this statement during World War II to the American people, “The thing we have to fear the most, is Fear itself”.
If American would learn that and overcome our fear, what could we accomplish as a nation. If the church would learn that what could we accomplish for the Lord. Fear stops faith and the absence of faith fuels more fear and eventually the work grinds to a halt.
Nehemiah 4:10-11, "And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall. And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease."
The fear of the Jews of the impending attack nearly paralyzed their ability to work. Their strength was waning and all they could see was how much rubbish was in their way. They began to look at the obstacles and not the goal. Suddenly, their fear had made them stop work for a moment. Whether he ever really attacked or not, Sanballat had already won the battle. His mission to stop the work was already obtained if fear continued to reign.
Nehemiah had to do something, and do it quickly, lest all of the efforts of rebuilding would be in vain.
There will come a time in your walk with the Lord that you will feel like giving up. The battle will be too hard. The work will seem to stop. Nothing will seem to be happening. That’s them most dangerous time of all. What must we do to get through that time and go on with the work? We must fall on our face before God and get into His Word even more! We must learn to trust Him even more! We must allow faith to arise even higher!
Nehemiah 4:12-15, "And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you. Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses. And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work."
What were the results of Nehemiah’s faith, his prayers and his plan of defense? God moved on behalf of the Jews and brought the plans of Sanballat to nothing. Sanballat was defeated because he lost the element of surprise and Nehemiah had filled the gaps in the wall with guards to be on watch day and night. Nehemiah’s action allowed God to operate and receive the glory! And the work on the wall continued, providing greater protection and security each day.
Nehemiah 4:16-23, "And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me. And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another. In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for us. So we laboured in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared. Likewise at the same time said I unto the people, Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and labour on the day. So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing."
After watching the first two attacks of Sanballat and Tobiah come to nothing, it would have been easy for Nehemiah to conclude that they won’t try again. He could have dropped his guard and just went back to work without giving it another thought. But Nehemiah was too wise to think like that. He knew that they weren’t going to go away as easily as that. Israel’s enemies would be around for many years to come and this was no time to forget that they were still there.
I’ve seen a lot of Christians fall into that trap. They somehow think that they become invulnerable to the attacks of the devil. Somehow they get it into their head that they have arrived and that “nothing can touch them now”. What they fail to realize is that this very way of thinking is their most vulnerable place to be in. If Satan was to come against them with their guard down, thinking they were safe in their own conceit, he could wreak havoc in their spiritual life.
Nehemiah and Jews understood the very nature of their enemy and so must we. We must know that Satan never gives up. He is always looking for another way to get to us. His attacks are relentless and his methods are without number. He has had a long time to practice and his understanding of how we think and behave is nearly perfect. The only defense we have is not in our own powers and abilities, but in the power of God and the weapons of our spiritual warfare that Jesus has given to us through the power of the Holy Ghost.
We can learn a couple of things from the way that Nehemiah and the Jews acted in the face of their enemies.
First they realized that everyone within the walls was vulnerable to the enemy’s attack and therefore all of them needed to be able to fight when the time arose.
And secondly, their priority was not in attacking the enemy, but in continuing to rebuild the walls.
Rebuilding the walls was a victory in itself and would render the enemies activity useless.
In our living for Jesus the principles are exactly the same. Spiritual warfare is not just for some elite commando group within Christianity, but for all of us. The Preacher, Evangelist, and Pastor aren’t the only ones with a fight on their hands, we are all in this battle for our very souls and we are all open to attack.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:10-12, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
For Paul, and for Nehemiah, everyone is involved in this fight whether they want to or not, and whether they know it or not. Therefore, we must all be ready all the time.
When we were in the Army, in Vietnam, we didn’t carry our bulletproof vests, and weapons out to the foxholes and bunkers and then sit down and clean them, load them and adjust them while we were under fire. No sir! We cleaned those weapons and loaded them before we needed them. Our armor was already on. We had that helmet on, the ammo belts around our waists, grenades hanging on the webbing, and every weapon was locked and loaded. The time to prepare was past. If you weren’t ready when the attack came, you probably wouldn’t live to prepare later.
Some of you were in the US Navy, Marines, Air Force or Coast Guard. You know what it’s like. You don’t wait until the enemy attacks to be ready. That’s why we have the Strategic Air Command, and military presence all over the world. We want to be ready on a moment’s notice to defend America and it’s friends and interests anywhere on the planet in a moment’s notice. We have learned, at least I hope we have, that the best defense is a good offense. If you want to stop your enemy from attacking, then make him see that you are ready to defend yourself and fight back with all your might. That will make him think twice about attacking you. When you let your guard down and weaken your defensive stance, you invite an attack.
Nehemiah ensured that they all had their weapons ready before the attack came. Sanballat knew that an attack would be met with stiff resistance and he was reluctant to attack without the element of surprise.
The second point to note is that while they carried their weapons by their side, the focus was the work at hand - rebuilding the walls of the city. If the walls and gates went up, it would provide security for the people of God as well as an entranceway for new people to come into his presence. Through the protection of those walls the Kingdom of God would increase on earth and the enemy would be defeated even more.
We must do what Nehemiah did. We must be alert and watchful with our spiritual weapons ready, but keep on with the work at hand - praying and preaching the gospel so that the walls of salvation may increase.
If this wall was going to be built then each person needed to spend time in Jerusalem, to be a guard by night and a worker to build by day. Nehemiah alone couldn’t do it.
While we all have an individual walk with the Lord, we all form one family of God and it is that family which stands against the enemy when one member is being attacked. The Christian life involves both guarding and building. We need to guard against false teachers and their influence on our Christian brothers and sisters, and we also need to build others up with the truth so that they will not be so susceptible to the enemy in the future.
When one part of the body hurts the whole body is affected. When one part of the body is attacked with trials and hardships then the rest of the body should help out. Prayer and help for the one in need are required from all the rest. I need your prayers and support and you need mine – all the time – but especially when the enemy attacks us.
With this battle plan and the help of God, Nehemiah was able to be victorious over Sanballat’s second attack. Sanballat’s plans were scrapped and the attacks were called off. It was time to rethink his tactics. Instead of discouraging the building of the walls, trials and physical attacks actually increased the workers’ resolve and faith! But it wasn’t over yet. There is an enemy that we must all be aware of. This enemy doesn’t come from without – he comes from within us. That’s the next enemy that Nehemiah must face in our next lesson.
