Weapons of Mass Distraction
Nehemiah 6:1-15
Read scripture.
If we look carefully at the scripture one of the things that quickly emerges is this fact: life is a struggle....it is a battle from beginning to end. In the book of Ephesians Paul tells us “ For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” These powers of darkness show themselves in many forms. Paul described them a darts or arrows and tells us again in verse 16. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
These darts are the weapons that Satan uses and as much as anything they are designed for the specific purpose of distracting us from serving Christ. And so I’m referring to them this morning as weapons of mass distraction.
Here in Nehemiah 6 as in many other places in scripture we learn that Satan has 2 main ways of working. The first tactic is fear. Satan is prowling around as Peter reminds us...Satan is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
But He has another battle plan as well. He not only uses fear, he also uses flattery. Paul says that Satan masquerades himself as an angel of light. He comes with deceptive promises and flattering words telling us that what he is proposing will not cost us anything. Whatever method he uses...know this..his aim is to distract and to destroy each of us. And the thing is Paul says that we are aware of his schemes. We know this is how he operates and so we must constantly be on guard. To distract us Satan will try to make you afraid or make you feel good about yourself.
I have taught before on the topic of building the wall. You will remember that the wall had been burned down and Nehemiah felt led to bring the people together and rebuild it. So each group worked on a specific section until it was rebuilt.
Now we come to a new chapter and the wall has been completed. All that remains is to set the gates and the work will be finished. And so Satan begins his plan of distraction.
Verses 1-4.
The enemies were now desperate. They could see the handwriting on the
wall....the wall was going up. But they still had some hope they could stop the project. So the deception begins. They say let’s meet together on the plain of Ono because even though we are opposed we all have to live together. Sounds reasonable, but Nehemiah saw right through this plan. So he says oh no to Ono.
He says I’m carrying out a great porject....why should I come down? He knew they were plotting to kill him.
Look at veses 5-9. Well if they can’t kill him physically they will assassinate his character. 4 letters have been sent, Nehemiah says no to each one..then a 5th one is sent...and it is an open letter..not selaed for all to read. And it is full of rumors. This is another way Satan works...he circulates rumors. And he often lots of help.
And the problem with rumors is that people believe them. I get emails all the time describing things that could happen or things that will not happen if I do not respond. If you use email you get them too. For 30 years letters and emails now have been making their way trough the Christian community saying that Madelyn Murray Ohair is petitioning congress to have all Christian programming removed from the air waves. I cannot count the number of times well meaning people have brought me copies of a petition for me to sign and then to circulate. But Christians bet involved and we get distracted.
Why is it that we are so willing to believe the worst? I think this is especially true about people who are in leadership positions like Nehemiah was. Leaders are sometimes blamed for things they didn’t do and then criticized for the things they are doing. Rumors get started and unfortunately people believe them. Pastors sometimes get anonymous letters...I still remember the first one I got in 1981...they stick with you. And they distract us from our calling...we try to figure out who they are from and more than that..why the wrote it. Best thing is to never open them.
Nehemiah responds to this letter and says ...verse 8-9.
So they develop a new distraction. A plan to discredit Nehemiah. Here is the plan. Again they use fear. Verse 10.
Now it is difficult to understand what they were trying to do here without understanding the OT law. But here is the deal. The area where they were going to take Nehemiah was off limits to everyone except the priest. We know this from the book of Numbers 18:7. They would tie a rope to the leg of the priest in case he died while he was inside so they could drag him out because they were not allowed to enter. So if they can get Nehemiah to go in and then tell everyone then his leadership would be in question and he would be put to death. Let me ask you a question...do you think that churches ever get distracted? And when we do what happens to the church? Let me give you 6 statements that are made frequently that distract the church.
1st statement. Don’t take any risk. The 7 last words of the church are “we’ve never done it that way before.” When a church becomes willing to make changes they are in trouble.
2. Please accept us. Churches make this statement to the world when we change in order to meet their standards. The church is not called to meet the standards of the world. The world is called to meet God’s standards. This wek I learnes of a church in our area that may lose their property. Th reason: they cannot go along with the teachings of their particular denomination on gay marriage. Their denomination is teaching that it is O.K., even for their pastors. The local church disagrees but if they leave the denomination, they may lose their church building and land. The church must be friendly toward sinners but must never approve of their sin.
3. Neglect the advice of others. All of us can learn from those who are more experienced. We cannot let pride get in the way...
4. Goals and goal setting is for everyone else, not the church. I believe in the statement that if you aim for nothing that is exactly what you will hit. The church must have vision, purpose, must be challenged and must never be satisfied with where we are.
5th statement. Everybody else is doing it. Have your kids ever said this to you? And the typical response is well if everyone else jumps off a bridge are you going to also? If we are not careful we can get so caught up in what other churches are doing ..Chuck Swindoll...Bill Hybels, Rick Warren...that we can forget that God wants us to do something unique.
6. Religion is offensive so don’t talk about it. And basically this is what the church has done. We have stopped sharing Christ. And when we give in to these 6 statements it spells DANGER for the church.
Now look with me at how Nehemiah responded to His distractions.
1. He kept working. When they asked him to meet with tem on the plains of Ono, his answer was Oh no I won’t do that. He kept moving in the direction God had called him to.
2. His priorities were in order. Nehemiah said, what we are doing here is a great work, because it is God’s work. Everywhere Nehemiah turns there were distractions but His priority was doing what God told him to do and so he set His mind to the work.
3. He used discernment. In verse 3 we see that he understood their real motive...their motive was to hurt him so that they could stop his leadership. Discernment may be a gift, certainly some people have it while others do not but I have noticed that those who have it share at least one thing in common...they don’t have to really examine something before they walk into it. It’s easier for them...they have had lots of practice at it and they know that when we wait we often miss opportunities so they learn to be very discerning.
4. He practiced courage. These threats were enough tp put fear in anyone but Nehemiah had established a pattern much earlier. You cannot wait until distactions come along to decide how you will handle them. In chapter 2 Nehemiah stood before the King, he was afraid no doubt but he was honest, he expressed what he felt...we all have fear at times..the issue is what we do in response to that fear.
5. He looked to God for strength to handle his distractions. Verse 9. Nehemiah knew he could not do it alone. He had to look outside himself.
6. He trusted God till the end of the project. He trusted God to clear him of all blame and criticism. Look at verse 14. This is his final prayer.....and he asks God to judge those who are opposed to the work. So what’s th result? Verse 15....so the wall was completed.
All of us face distractions so there are lessons here for all of us. The songwriter says though I’m tossed about with many a conflict and many a doubt, fightings within and fears without, O Lamb of God I come to you. So what’s the answer? Come to Jesus. Feel fear? Come to Jesus. Feel distracted? Come to Jesus. Don’t have peace? Come to Jesus.
In her book, a practical guide to prayer, Dorothy Haskins tells about a noted concert violinist. The violinist was asked what the secret was to her success. This is what she said. There are many things that used to demand my time. When I went to my room after breakfast, I made my bed, straightened the room, dusted and did whatever was necessary. When I finished my work, I then turned to my violin practice. That system prevented me from accomplishing what I should do on the violin. So I reversed things. I deliberately planned to neglect evrything else until my practice period was complete. And that program of planned neglect is the secret to my success.
