Book of Nehemiah Series #6
Nehemiah Chapter 4:1-6
Sanballat’s First Attack is against the mind.
By Pastor Jim May
The last several lessons have been concerning how we build a wall, and restore the gates, in our pursuit of Jesus. We became a Christian as we entered through the blood of the sacrificial Lamb at the Sheep Gate and we completed the construction of the wall as we came to the Sheep Gate once again, recognizing that Jesus Christ is the beginning and end of all things. He is the Alpha and Omega, who is from everlasting to everlasting. In our service to the Lord and for the Lord, we must constantly be working on maintaining our “wall of separation” from the ways of the world. We must constantly be repairing the breaches to keep the enemy from coming in to reoccupy the heart that has been set apart for Jesus.
Now the wall is complete, signifying that we have separated ourselves unto the Lord and we have committed ourselves to Him. The first 3 chapters have brought us to the place where we are truly sold out to Jesus and separated from sin. We are New creations, born again from the ashes of sin and defeat, with a heart after God.
Now we begin the 4th chapter of Nehemiah and we see the very first obstacle that every Christian must face as they begin a new life in Christ.
Nehemiah 4:1, "But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews."
Sanballat typifies once of the greatest enemies that all of us will face. His very name points to who he is and what kind of character that he has. His name means "a secret hatred". Who else can Sanballat represent other than the greatest enemy of our souls, Satan. Sanballat couldn’t hide his hate for Nehemiah and the Jews. He was visibly angry and began to show his hatred by mocking those who had built the walls.
Like Sanballat, the devil’s hatred is against all mankind. But for those who are lost, his hatred it is so well hidden that most do not even believe that he exists. They are blinded to the fact that they are his captives, bound by the power of sin. They refuse to become Christians because they don’t want to lose what they think is freedom! This all changes once the wall starts going up! If there is one thing that gets Sanballat’s nose out of joint, its people who begin to build the walls of salvation, restoring glory to its rightful owner who is God!
This first attack of Sanballat represents Satan’s first attack against a Christian and that attack is an attack in the mind!
The Apostle Paul, knowing Satan’s ways, wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…"
Paul also said in Ephesians 6:17 that our Christian armor must also have a, " helmet of salvation” so that we can keep our thinking right when the devil does attack.
Both of these passages are concerned with spiritual warfare and both show us the constant need to protect and renew the mind.
Nehemiah 4:2-6, "And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall. Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity: And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders. So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work."
What methods of attack did Sanballat use against Nehemiah and the Jews? If we can recognize them, then perhaps we can have a heads up on what methods Satan will use against us.
One of those methods was called fear. Sanballat accused the Jews of being too weak to finish the job. You are never going to make it. You will backslide. You won’t stay faithful. You’re just too weak. You’re afraid that you will fail God in some way, and you will.
Fear is a very powerful force. Our world is full of fear. On one website that I visited, there was huge and growing list of recognized “Phobias” in America ranging from fear of taking a bath, to fear of the number 8 and fear of the color; or even the word yellow. I didn’t take the time to count them but there must have been over 500 recognized phobias on this one site alone.
Satan can use fear to paralyse your service to the Lord. How many people do you know that won’t make a move because they are afraid that they might fail? Fear can make you go back into the world, because you become afraid of being left out or losing all your friends.
A second method of attacking your mind is through depression. Depression is a major problem in our world, even in the church. If Sanballat could get the workers to be depressed, he could stop the work on the city. If Satan can get you depressed, he can stop you from working for the Lord. In effect, he will have stolen your victory that Jesus paid for with His own blood.
People are diagnosed with depression every day. Depression can be brought on by physical problems, or emotional problems, but many times it is a symptom of spiritual problems as well. Here are some of the symptoms. Maybe you know someone who lives in a state of depression all the time because the devil has attacked the mind.
Feeling sad all the time
Losing interest in things you used to enjoy
Irritability.
Having trouble falling asleep, waking up very early, or sleeping too much.
Sudden changes in your appetite and weight, either up or down.
Noticeable changes in your energy level, usually down but sometimes feeling agitated.
Feeling worthless and guilty.
Having trouble concentrating or remembering things.
Feeling hopeless or just not caring about anything.
Having unexplained pain or getting constant headaches.
Thinking often about death or suicide.
Another method that Sanballat used was mockery. He stood back, pointed a finger and laughed at these Jews who thought that they could rebuild their city and their temple. How could this bunch of weak misfits think that they could do such a thing? They were destined to fail.
Satan used that same tool on Jesus at times.
In Matthew 4:1-7 we can see a prime example of how Satan attacked Jesus in his mind, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
Sanballat’s mockery was of the strength and determination of the Jews. Satan’s mocks us when he tells us that we aren’t what we claim to be. He mocks us when we fail, saying, “I told you so! I told you so!” He mocks us when he whispers in our ears that we are fools for serving the Lord. He mocks us when he says that we cannot win this battle.
We must follow the example of Jesus and speak the Word of the Lord in our own defence. Satan’s mockery will dissolve when it is compared to the truth of God’s Word.
Sadly though, it isn’t always the devil, or even the world that mocks God. We in the church are guilty also. We mock God and we mock one another.
We mock God by pretending to be what we aren’t. We make a mockery of God when we treat the sacred things of His house without respect. We mock one another when we say one thing to a brother or sister in the Lord to their face, but another behind their back.
How does the world mock God? We mock him by not listening to His warnings of the judgments to come. We mock him by not obeying His call to repentance out of a heart of love.
It’s a mockery of God to fail to see His warnings in all of the disasters and tragedies that have stricken our nation. Have we not learned anything from 9-11, or from Katrina, or from the tsunami waves of the Pacific? Will we continue to shake our fist in the face of Almighty God?
That’s what Sanballat was doing – mocking the Jews, but more importantly, he was mocking the God of the Jews who had promised that they would return to build the city through the words of His prophets.
Galatians 6:7 says, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
Sanballat continued to mock the Jews and mock God’s power but his time will come and he will reap what he has sown.
Another method that Sanballat, and the devil uses against God’s people is to cause them to doubt what they can do for God.
“…will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?”
Have you ever had someone say, “What makes you so special? What makes you think that you can accomplish anything great for the Lord? What makes you think that you can do anything? You’re just an ordinary person, so quit dreaming big dreams and making big plans, and get back down to earth with the rest of us.”
I heard a story once of a farmer who had a pigpen near his barn. He had one stubborn pig that was always trying to get out of the pen, but every time he tried the other pigs would pull him back in. The other pigs didn’t want this one pig to make them all look bad so they held him back.
I know a lot of people who act just like those pigs. They can’t stand to see someone else accomplish anything. Somehow they think it’s a reflection on their own inabilities, or their own lack of commitment.
There are “dream stealers” everywhere out there. Don’t let any of them steal your dream. If God gives you a work to do, and calls you to go into his field of labour, don’t you think that He can give you what it takes to be a winner?
Doubt is a very destructive force. It destroys faith and stops the move of the Spirit in the church.
In Matthew 21:21, "Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done."
But in Matthew 13:58 the Bible says, "And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief."
If the devil can just you to doubt God’s Word, he has the battle won. Have faith in God.
The last method that Sanballat used is called demoralization or discouragement. He knew that enough discouragement would cause the Jews to just give up trying and that’s just what he wanted to do.
There is one thing that we must be careful of and that is for all of us not to be discouraged at one time. When one is discouraged and the other is not, we can often help one another through the rough times. But when both are discouraged, it’s much harder and nearly impossible.
Marriages fail when both spouses give up. Churches fail when the pastor and the congregation give up. We need to lift one another up, and when we can’t, we need to learn to lean on Jesus and let Him life us up.
Nehemiah and the Jews had to overcome every doubt, every fear, every discouragement, every mocking, and the hatred from their enemy to rebuild the walls, but they kept on working in spite of it all. They had to turn a deaf ear to the mockery and listen only to Word of God spoken by the prophets. God was their strong and mighty tower and as long as they leaned on Him, they could not fail.
Along with Sanballat there came another enemy of the Jews by the name of Tobiah. He was a follower and a copy cat of Sanballat. He didn’t have much to say until he heard Sanballat discrediting the Jews.
There are a lot of people, both in the world and in the church, who are copy cats. They are afraid, or too timid to speak up first, but they are quick to jump on the bandwagon and join in the fight when someone else starts it.
Also Tobiah is representative of our own sinful nature that tends to join in after Satan attacks.
Galatians 5:17 says, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
Let’s read it this way, “the flesh (Tobiah) fights against the Spirit (Nehemiah and the Jews), and the Spirit (Nehemiah), wars against the flesh (Tobiah). They are at odds with one another, at opposite ends of the fight, and this fight causes the work to slow or stop if we allow the flesh to win.
The fear, doubt, and discouragement that Satan brings against us is often reinforced by our own faults and failures and the tendency that we have to always do the wrong thing and then condemn ourselves for it.
How could Nehemiah and the Jews overcome the attacks of Sanballat and Tobiah against their minds? They overcame the attacks in the same manner that you and I must overcome the attacks of the devil. They went to seek God’s face and prayed for strength and guidance from the Lord. They rebuked their enemy and just kept on working.
Nehemiah 4:4-6, "Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity: And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders. So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work."
The key to overcoming every attack of the devil against your mind is held in one verse of scripture.
Romans 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
How do you renew your mind? You must get alone with God and get back into His Word, for there is where you will find the encouragement and the strengthening of your faith. You can build up you faith, resist the devil and he will have to flee. Then you can get on with the work at hand.
Sanballat and Tobiah ceased on their attack of the mind and the Jews had a few moments of peace, but the battle wasn’t over yet. In fact, it was only the beginning. When mockery, fear and discouragement tactics fail, the devil steps up his attacks to the next level.
Next time it won’t be an attack in the mind but a much more confrontational approach. The battle is about to get much more heated. Will Nehemiah stay strong? Will they finish the wall?
More importantly, when Satan steps up the attacks against your soul, will you stand the test and be an overcomer? We are in a spiritual warfare and each battle only leads to another one that is stronger than the last. We must learn to run to Jesus, just as Nehemiah would continue to look to God for help.
God is our only source of help to defeat the devil, but thank God that He is greater than Satan and we will if we just keep on building and working.
Matthew 16:18, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
God will not allow his work to fail. He will not allow his people to be defeated.
