#3 in the Nehemiah series: Nehemiah Chapters 6-7
"Weapons of Mass Distraction"
Castle Hills Christian Church: May 18, 2008
INTRODUCTION:
The book of Nehemiah is a book about building a wall. It’s interesting that archeologists have just recently found a portion of wall that dates back 2,500 years to the time of Nehemiah.
The section of wall that was discovered faces the Mount of Olives and is located just outside what is called the Dung Gate. It was dated to Nehemiah’s time by pieces of pottery that were discovered in the same stratum.
I had a little wall project myself this week. (A plumber knocked a hole in my bathroom wall to fix a leaky pipe behind a sink. I had to repair the wall and make it look like the rest of the wall. That turned out to be a bigger project than I expected.)
When you think about it, there have been a lot of famous walls built throughout history … and they were built for all kinds of reasons.
• The Great Wall of China is one of the most famous walls. It was built to keep the invaders OUT.
• On the other hand, the Berlin wall was built to keep the people of East Berlin IN.
• The Vietnam memorial wall was constructed in Washington DC to honor fallen soldiers.
• Every year, people journey from all over the world to pray at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
• There is an 81-foot long wall in Cambridge, Massachusetts that was built as an Art Display Wall.
• Rockwall, Texas got its name because of a strange rock wall in the area.
• The most costly wall in the world is said to be the Crystal Wall in Austria. It contains 12 tons of pure Crystal.
• I read an article, though, that makes me wonder if the wall our government is building on the Mexican border might have it beat. The article said this:
A 14-mile section of wall in the San Diego area has been in the works since 1996. (that would be over 10 years now) That project spent $39 million to date and the government plans another $35 million for it. By my calculation that is about $5,286,000 per mile.
One of the reasons that wall is such a problem is that it has met with lots of opposition. From what I’ve heard, sections get dismantled about as soon as they are put up. Nehemiah’s wall also faced a lot of opposition. But that’s where the similarity ends. In spite of all the opposition, the wall of Jerusalem was rebuilt in an incredible 52 days.
When we get to Nehemiah chapter 6, the Wall is 98% finished. The only thing left to do is to hang the gates. It seems like a time to celebrate … but right when the project was ALMOST done Nehemiah was hit by what we could call “weapons of mass distraction.”
Nehemiah had enemies from the very beginning of the project. But none of their efforts had paid of . So now they tried to distract Nehemiah from finishing the project. Their first tactic was to FLATTER him by inviting him to meet with them at a sort of Summit Meeting.
1. Flattery – Nehemiah trusted God for his reward
Nehemiah 6 starts this way: When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates- Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono." Nehemiah 6:1-2
You might remember those names from Chapter 1. Sanballat and his gang had been out to get Nehemiah from the beginning. Now they were pretending to be his good buddies. It kind of reminds me of LUCY in the Charlie Brown comic strips. You remember … Over and over and over again she talks poor Charlie into kicking the football while she holds it for him. Every time he falls for it --- and every time she pulls the football away at the last minute.
Well, Nehemiah wasn’t about to fall for that kind of trick. He knew these guys were up to no good when they invited him to meet them on the plain of Ono. So he just said “oh no” to Ono!
Four times they sent the invitation, and four times he gave them this answer: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" Nehemiah 6:3
Nehemiah had his PRIORITIES straight. He wasn’t about to let anything distract him from finishing the great work that God had set before him.
I read about a missionary in China who was offered a high-paying job by an American Company in China. He told them God had sent him to work in China as a missionary and thought that would be the end of it. But they kept coming back with better and better offers until they had finally doubled their original offer. He finally told them: “It’s not your salary that’s too small; it’s the job that’s too small!”
God has called every one of us to do some great work. Everyone has a part of the wall to build. It may be raising your own kids or working on your own marriage. It may be representing Christ to the people at your school or your job. It may be a ministry in the church – teaching a class, taking care of babies in the nursery, doing work projects with the deacons, or hosting a Bible study group.
Whatever job you have been called to complete this year, you can bet sure that plenty of DISTRACTIONS will come your way. Distractions don’t have to be bad things. Something as innocuous as TV or sports or too many meetings or maybe too much e-mail … can keep you from putting God first. I know that happens to me too often. I get to my office ready to work on something important, but first I open my e-mail … and before I know it the morning is over!
We’d do well to follow Nehemiah’s example. Not every job is of equal importance. Not every opportunity is worth taking. Not every invitation deserves to be accepted. Nehemiah knew his top priority was to finish the wall. So what is YOUR top priority? What is the great work God has set before you this year? Don’t let lesser things distract you from finishing that task.
Well, Sanballat and the gang weren’t about to give up. Nehemiah declined their invitation to meet with them four times. The fifth letter they sent was UNSEALED. It was an open letter that was full of false accusations against Nehemiah.
2. False Accusations – Nehemiah trusted God with his reputation
They claimed that some renowned person named Geshem was saying that Nehemiah planned to set himself up as King of Judah.
Isn’t that typical? Whenever someone spreads a rumor it always starts with “HE said that SHE said that HE said …” People don’t want to take credit for the slander themselves. They want to claim it came from someone else.
I like this definition of gossip. "Gossip is something you have to hurry to tell somebody else before you find out it isn’t true!"
I’ve been dealing with something for the last few weeks that shows an example of how harmful slander can be. I’m the head of trustees for Colegio Biblico – which is a small preacher-training college in Eagle Pass with a second campus across the Border. Someone stole their support-list and sent an anonymous card that made vague and unfounded accusations of financial mismanagement.
It was an anonymous card but it listed 4 people who supposedly could corroborate the accusations. None of them gave permission or claimed to know anything about the card. Whoever sent it was obviously trying to ruin the college, but that person is taking a lot of trouble to hide their identity.
What’s interesting is the response that card brought. Thankfully, many people have the sense to ignore anonymous reports. Many supporters have called to check the facts. But unfortunately a few dropped support immediately upon receipt of that slanderous little card. Rumors couldn’t do that kind of harm if folks weren’t so ready to believe the worst … especially of leaders.
This is the kind of harm Nehemiah’s enemies were TRYING to do to him. But he didn’t let false accusations distraction him from his task. Next time you get hit with false accusations, remember Nehemiah’s example:
In verses 6 – 9 you can see that Nehemiah met the slander with 3 actions:
• First, he denied the rumor. He said simply, "Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head." Nehemiah 6:8 He didn’t waste his time trying to argue with them or defend himself. He just stated unequivocally, “That’s not true.”
• Then Nehemiah prayed for strength. Again, Nehemiah didn’t waste time. He simply prayed, “Lord, now strengthen my hands." Nehemiah 6:9
• And then Nehemiah went right back to work. He didn’t let slander stop him … or even slow him down. He knew how to keep on keeping on.
But the enemies of Israel had one more weapon to launch. In verses 10 – 14, you read about a direct threat to Nehemiah’s life.
3. Fear – Nehemiah trusted God with his life
You know, fear can be a great distracter. Fear of death; or fear of failure; or fear of financial loss have stopped plenty of Christians from finishing the great work they were meant to do.
In Nehemiah’s case, this attempt to make him afraid actually came from a trusted friend. But Nehemiah discovered later that good old Sanballat and the gang had hired this supposed “friend” to try to scare Nehemiah into running away. The friend basically told Nehemiah, “God has revealed to me that someone will try to kill you tonight. So why don’t you hide inside the temple where they can’t find you.”
You have to understand that only the Priests were allowed into the closed part of the Temple. If Nehemiah hid in the Temple, he would have been committing a sin --- and his ability to lead would have been ruined. Of course that was the whole point of the threat.
Here’s what Nehemiah said, "Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!" Nehemiah 6:11 As always, Nehemiah simply keep on working. He wouldn’t let anything distract him --- not FLATTERY or SLANDER or THREATS.
And here was the result: So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. Nehemiah 6:15-16
You might think that wraps things up with a nice little “happy ending.”. But NO. We’re just in the middle of the book --- and Nehemiah has a lot more to do. Isn’t that the way life is?
I used to look at those milestones of life and think one of these days I’d have it made. I thought, once I graduate, I’ll be set … or once I get married … or when I get hired somewhere … From what people tell me, even once I retire … doesn’t mean the end of work.
None of us are going to reach our final “happy ending” until the day we reach Heaven. Until then we have to keep working … and we have to stay on guard.
That brings up what Nehemiah did in chapter 7. As soon as they had hung the 7 gates of the city, Nehemiah established a watch. You may notice that chapter 7 is full of people’s names. That’s because every family in the city had a job to do.
Nehemiah appointed 4 assistants to help him oversee the administration of the walls and gates: Hanani (that was his brother that we met in chapter 1), Hananiah, Rephaiah, and Shallum. Nehemiah also appointed watchmen to guard the gates and walls. He set up a sort of “Neighborhood watch” made up of people who would keep an eye on the part of the walls they had repaired near their homes.
I have heard that the Great Wall of China was breached by enemy troops four times. All four times, it was because someone BRIBED the watchmen on the wall. Walls are only as strong as the people who guard them. So Nehemiah appointed faithful and trustworthy people to keep the walls and gates truly safe and sound.
CONCLUSION:
These 2 chapters of Nehemiah speak loudly to all of us. I believe that our Church Congregation here at CHCC has a great work to do. And if we’re going to do what God has in mind, then every one of us has a part to play.
We can do so much more together than we could ever do on our own. That’s why God planned for Christian people to gather together in Church Families. It was God’s wisdom to gather his people together so that we can work together in unity … and accomplish great things. If God has called you into this congregation, then you can bet he has a part of the wall for you to guide.
From time to time, we may undertake building projects, but the real work is not done when a building project is finished. A building is only a tool that can assist us in carrying out the ministry God has custom designed for our congregation to do. What matters most is not the WALL we build, but the WORK we do as faithful Christians who meet together within the walls.
(Title from sermon by David Henderson; ideas from “Dealing With Distractions” by Brian Bill. Some information from Warren Wiersbe, Bible Exposition Commentary)
