“Changing Murphy’s Law”
Nehemiah 4
Perhaps you have heard of Murphy’s Law. Murphy is credited with the famous words, “if anything can go wrong, it will.” Other laws have now been blamed on him as well...
• If everything seems to be going well you have obviously overlooked something
• if you have lost something you will never find it until you replace it; then it will show up
• one more... Left to themselves, things tend to go from good to bad.
As we come into chapter 4 of the book of Nehemiah, everything seemed to be going wrong all at once. The setting is this---the people of Jerusalem had lost all their security---the wall that had once surrounded their city providing them protection, was now lying in rubble-broken down; piled up and had been that way for over 100 years now.
Walls are important. They provide boundaries-they keep out the enemy and they protect those who live there. Presidential candidates are using this as a platform—to build a wall on our border to protect our country. Jerusalem had a wall---they felt protected and now it was gone. Let me ask you---if the front door of your home were damaged and had to be replaced and the person replacing it said “I can take care of it but I need four days to do it and just one problem; during that four days you won’t have a front door-at all. Just an opening there. That will be okay, right?” Could you sleep at night? Florida has a lot of animals. People wouldn’t have to break in... They would just walk in. I know I wouldn’t feel safe.
And neither did the people in Jerusalem. And now Murphy’s Law kicks in and things just start to get even more complicated. I read a situation that took place some years ago in Maryland. A woman named Edith, a mother of eight came home one Saturday afternoon only to find her five youngest children focusing on something on the living room floor. So she slipped up behind them to see what they were doing. When she saw she couldn’t believe her eyes. Smack dab in the middle of her kids was a group of baby skunks. So she screamed at the top of her voice, children, run! So each child picked up a skunk and ran to their bedroom.
If anything can go wrong, it usually will. I believe there is a plague that is sweeping our nation today---I’m not talking about the flu, not cancer---it’s an epidemic called discouragement.
There are three things that I see that make this such a huge problem.
{1} It’s universal. It’s everywhere. And it affects every body.
{2} It’s recurring. Once you have it, you can get it again. There’s nothing you can do to become immune to the disease.
{3} It’s contagious. When a person gets it, it always seems to spread to their closest friends.
The men and women who were working on the wall were excited. Finally they were going to have a protected city again. They’re going to feel safe again. Verse 6 says they worked with all of their hearts. Things were going well, the people were excited and the wall was going up. But when God is at work, the enemies were at work too. And the enemy seems to use at least two strategies.
Strategy 1. Ridicule. Look at verses 1-2. Verse 1 says ….. This would be the 3rd time that we come across SanBallat and every time we read about him he is opposing God’s work. Ridicule is the language of the devil. It’s not his native language by the way. His native language is lying. But ridicule is closely related. John 8:44. He uses lying and ridicule to his advantage. You can be confident, standing tall, at peace with the world but just let someone mock you, laugh at you... And suddenly you will collapse. Goliath ridiculed David when he came out with nothing but a slingshot---the soldiers mocked Jesus and taunted him while he was on the cross. Even before the work started on the wall they ridiculed him. Chapter 2:19... They mocked and ridiculed us. Now it only intensifies.
Notice that in verse two he calls the workers feeble. Don’t you love that word? People is defined as “withered and miserable.” He ridicules them, then he ridicules the job they were doing... He asks them 5 questions and you can just hear the sarcasm in his voice.
• Will they restore the wall?
• How can a few feeble Jews build a small strong enough?
• Will they offer sacrifices to help them?
• Will he finish in one day?
• Can they bring these stones back to life?
Then in v. 3 Tobias, his buddy, steps in and tries to make a joke. He says what are they building that even if a Fox climbed up on it, he would break down the wall?? They become the punchline of every joke possible.
By the way, archaeologists have unearthed this wall, revealing that the wall was 9 feet thick. But when you’re being ridiculed; bullied; it never seems that you can do enough! They start hitting you from all sides. Which is what happened here.
And that is his 2nd strategy. It’s called opposition. He wants to convince you to think that everyone is opposed to you. Everybody feels this way!! Do you know how many people are against you? Look at verse seven. They were surrounded. Here is what it looked like.
Surrounded. Could be ambushed at any time. The opposition appeared to be incredible.
With pressure comes at us from all sides it starts to affect us from within. Ridicule and opposition on the outside can lead to depression on the inside. We hear the words of the enemy and we take them and internalize them. We allow them to sink in. Look at verse 10. “We cannot do it.” We call this fatigue. Like battle fatigue. It’s when we have faced so much stress, for so very long-too long on the battlefield and we’re tired... We become indecisive. We need rest. Their strength was giving out. When you’re worn out, it’s not hard to be discouraged. I think it’s interesting to notice when they became discouraged. Verse six says they had built the wall to half its height. We start a new project, we’re excited and many times the first half of the project goes really well. But then the newness wears off, it becomes routine; even boring and that’s when it’s easy for fatigue to set in. Fatigue and excitement don’t go together. And so the only conclusion is... Verse 10. “We can’t rebuild the wall.” These are the same people we described earlier who worked with all their heart. If you feel fatigued today, get some rest—not right this minute. But today. Because fatigue leads to discouragement. You can’t just keep burning the candle at both ends.
{1} Fatigue {2} Opposition. Verse 10 says there is so much rubble that they cannot rebuild the wall. They were discouraged because they were so frustrated. All they could find to work with were very old broken rocks, dried out plaster/mortar, debris. Everywhere. Garbage. You and I lose sight of our goals when garbage gets in the way.
I don’t know how you might define the garbage in your life... It might be…
• Stuff you watch on TV
• might be the stuff you put in your body
• might be a relationship you should be
But I know the answer. The Bible says Hebrews 12:1. Throw it off so you don’t get tripped up!!!
{1} Fatigue. {2} Opposition.
{3} Fear. Verses 11-12. Notice here who gets scared the fastest? Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us 10 times over, wherever you turn they will attack us. This is a truth.
Those most affected by fear are those who live near negative people.
If you want to limit the amount of negativism in your life it is best to not hang around with negative people. You want to soar like an eagle, you can’t run around turkeys. Fear puts us in a frame of mind where we not only become discouraged; we can also be deceived. I hate to give away the ending to the story here in Nehemiah but none of their enemies ever attack! None.
You might be interested in this study...
• 60% of our fears are totally unfounded
• 20% are already behind us. In other words there over.
• 10% or so small they don’t matter.
• 5% are real but there is nothing we can do about them.
• 5% are real and we can do something
So what do we do with this ugly thing called discouragement? Three thoughts here.
{1} Get to God ASAP. Get some help. In chapter 1 Nehemiah asked for help. Chapter 2. He prays. Two times in chapter 4 he prays. Before he leaves and as he is on his way. He says in verses 4-5 hero so God... Turn their insults back on their heads... Give them over to us. He is praying for God’s judgment fall. Here’s another truth...
When people talk against you, don’t talk back.
Talk to God.
Verse 9 says they were praying and they posted a guard. The people continued with their work.
{2} Check your priorities. Verse 13. You remember Nehemiah had already organized the workers at work until they hit the halfway mark. But it was time to re-access. Sometimes a plan has to be revised. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good plan-hey it got you halfway there... But he needs to be updated. Now you know some things you didn’t know them. Don’t get stuck. Be willing to try something new.
{3} Don’t forget who God is. Remember. Verse 14. Verse 10 was true. They couldn’t do it alone. We forget too easily all the times God has helped us. I want you to see something. In verse 10. They complained about all the rubble. The rubble was there when they started!! It was there at the beginning. The difference is that when they started, their focus was on God in his character. Now their focus was on the rubble. The garbage. Where is your focus?
At the time it was completed in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world. During the first phase of the project, 23 workers fell to their death. Remember Murphy’s Law? If anything can go wrong, it will. They were halfway through. So they reorganized and decided to build the largest safety net ever made and they attached it under the area where the men were working. So was it worth it? Ask the 10 men who fell and survived. Not only did it save those 10 lives, the work was finished faster... Why? No one was afraid anymore.
Jesus knows that you and I have a built-in capacity to forget...
• His power
• His character
• His willingness to help and his forgiveness. And as a result, He knows how discouraged we can get.
So he has stretched out his arms.
• You feel discouraged? I will be your courage when you have none.
• You fall, I will catch you.
• You need help. I’m waiting.
