Nehemiah 4:10-11

10 Then the people of Judah began to complain, “The workers are getting tired, and there is so much rubble to be moved. We will never be able to build the wall by ourselves.” 11 Meanwhile, our enemies were saying, “Before they know what’s happening, we will swoop down on them and kill them and end their work.”

Last time we saw the external causes of doubt and discouragement and now we come to the:

• Internal causes

1. Fatigue

Verse 10 says, “The workers are getting tired.” There is a lesson for us here and that is that when you are physically drained, it is very easy to get down and become discouraged. The workers became fatigued and discouraged when the wall was built to half its height. Many times when we start a new project the first half goes quickly because we’re excited about accomplishing the goal. But it’s not just how we begin that matters but how we finish. Fatigue causes many to falter and give into feelings of failure. These same people who against all odds had worked with enthusiasm and built the wall to half its height were now ready to throw in the towel. Fatigue will always cause you to see the glass as half empty, were faithfulness will cause you to focus on the finish. In 1 Kings 18 we are told about the prophet Elijah who courageously confronted and challenged the prophets of Baal to a divine contest to see whose God is real and whose was just man made religion. Elijah’s God, Yahweh, wins the battle as fire falls from heaven to consume the sacrifice. Now one would think that chapter 19 would start with shouts of celebration but the opposite is true, instead of shouts of praise we find the prophet pouting and protesting. Elijah runs into the wilderness, and in the story that follows, we see that even the great prophets of God had their bad days. We find Elijah depressed and despondent. He has been trying to get the northern Kingdom of Israel to stop worshiping idols and return to the worship of Yahweh, but it has been an uphill battle, especially with Baal worship having the official sanction of the royal court. Even when he thought he had proved Yahweh’s superiority without question on Mt. Carmel and disposed of all the prophets of Baal, the culture did not immediately change. People still worshiped Baal, led by their wicked Queen. So, Elijah does what any good pastor would do under such circumstances. He runs off into the desert, sits under a solitary broom tree and says, “I want to die. Take my life, Lord!” he cries. And then he lies down and sleeps. Elijah is exhausted and like every depressed person, he hides from the world in sleep. The truth about God’s call is that it is not something that just goes away. Many of us are good with claiming God’s call when the circumstances are favorable but when things get tough we want out. But you can’t run from it, as Jonah discovered, and you can’t sleep it away, either. Elijah’s sleep is interrupted by an angel, who brings him food and drink to build up his strength for the journey ahead. Several times he is awoken with food before he begins his forty day journey to Horeb, the mountain of God. This passage refers to the mountain as Mt. Horeb but most know it better by its other name Mt. Sinai. Like Moses before him, Elijah also goes up on the mountain to meet with God. It takes him 40 days to get here and numbers in the Bible are often symbols that point to something significant. The number 40 is sometimes seen as a symbol for a time of struggle. Jesus fasts for 40 days before his temptation in the wilderness, Israel wanders 40 years in the wilderness, Noah is cooped up in a boat for 40 days and 40 nights. Elijah ends up in a cave on the same mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments and the Lord asks him “What are you doing here Elijah?” Now Elijah was not just discouraged he was depressed, his depression has not gone away in 40 days. He replies “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.” In other words, I’ve done my job, God, not only have I been faithful but I have been fanatical and done everything I can to wipe out the worship of Baal from your people, but it hasn’t worked. I’m the only one left who worships you, and now they’re trying to kill me.” Elijah is told to come out his dark cave and stand on the mountain, this is where God in his grace deals directly with his servant. In the next verses, we are meant to remember the days of Moses on the mountain. When Moses brought Israel to Sinai, the mountain quaked and burned and smoked and blew. It’s the same mountain, but God’s approach is very different this time because the situation is different. Elijah’s whole life has been represented in the quaking and the fire and the wind. But suddenly it is quiet, so still that it’s quietly deafening because even the noises that are supposed to be there are not there and you know something is up. Elijah is asked the same question again to which his answer is the same.

Even being in the very presence of God has not lifted his dejected spirit. Now I don’t know what you would expect from God in such a situation, but I think I would have expected a bit more understanding than Elijah gets. There’s no “There, there, Elijah everything will be ok, I know you’ve had it rough so why don’t you head down to the Nile for a well-earned vacation.” No instead God doesn’t even acknowledge Elijah’s feelings but tells him to go back anoint a couple of new kings and get a successor for himself. God also confronts Elijah’s feelings with some startling facts, by the way, Elijah you are not the only one left who worships me, there are still 7,000 others. Meeting God on the mountain is not just a warm-fuzzy feeling, no our relationship with God is purpose-driven. When we surrender our lives to Him we are signing up for work. Look serving God is hard, unfortunately, we have glamorized God’s work so much that when things get tough many Christians are tempted to question their call. I have heard many Christians say if this is what it’s like then I’m out. Really what did you expect? We are storming the gates of hell, of course, it is going to be hard? Also, the role of the prophet is especially difficult. Prophets don’t just tell the future, they speak for God. They confront sin and point out the places where people are falling short. As Elijah found out, it’s the kind of calling that can get you killed. This little story about Elijah, a prophet so great that people in the New Testament thought Jesus must be Elijah returned to earth, gives us a perfect picture of life in God’s service. As you look at the life of God’s servants one thing becomes abundantly clear, life in God’s service is not necessarily safe. Both Moses and Elijah had to confront kings, and as a result, both Moses and Elijah had targets on their backs and prices on their heads. But when Elijah wears out with the work, God feeds him. God provides the nourishment that will be needed for the journey. Your spiritual successes may feel good but they will not sustain only God can. Many of us are trying to live off of our mountaintop calling fire down from heaven experiences, but they will not fuel and protect us from fatigue only the Father can. Notice that God doesn’t coddle Elijah and insists that Elijah sees the truth about his situation. He’s not the only faithful one out there, and there is someone else able to do his work. We can learn from this starting with the truth that God doesn’t buy our self-importance. We are not the only ones out there doing the Lord’s work, and God has somebody else ready to step in when we’re done. We need to team together because lone ranger ministry leads to rung out, miserable ministers. If you come before God like Elijah does, worn out because the workload is too heavy, you can expect the answer that Elijah gets. “There are plenty more faithful out there, go get yourself an assistant.” After telling Elijah that, God sends him right back into the fray. Go anoint a couple more kings. Well, you can be sure that the kings that already were in power were not going to be pleased with Elijah anointing new ones. This was not going to make Ahab and Jezebel any less likely to want to kill him. But that’s his job, and Elijah goes and does it. We don’t see any more depressed incidents after this. Time was not the answer to his depression truth was. Elijah has his focus back because what he needed was the reminder that it wasn’t about him, it’s about God and God’s work. We need to be on our guard against the foe of fatigue. Fatigue will cause us to listen to our feelings instead of the Father. We need rest so that we can serve from a position of health instead of hopelessness. The whole purpose of becoming rested and healthy is so that we can be back about God’s business. The angel does not say to Elijah, eat so you’ll feel better but so that you will have strength for the journey. When the angel has cared for Elijah, God shows up with another task…sending him right back into the danger he was running from. It was the same with Moses, it was the same with Jesus. After the angels nourished and strengthened him at the end of his temptations in the wilderness, he went out to begin three grueling years of ministry. After the angels sustained him in the Garden of Gethsemane, he went out to face the Cross. Faith is not for the faint of heart and we need to guard against fatigue in our lives. Are you running on empty trying to sustain yourself with your successes instead of God’s Spirit? As a good friend constantly reminded me, self-care is not selfish. Take time to sit with God and soak up His strength, for only He will sustain you.

Nehemiah 4:1-8

“Sanballat was very angry when he learned that we were rebuilding the wall. He flew into a rage and mocked the Jews, 2 saying in front of his friends and the Samarian army officers, “What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they’re doing? Do they think they can build the wall in a single day by just offering a few sacrifices? Do they actually think they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap—and charred ones at that?” 3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was standing beside him, remarked, “That stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked along the top of it!” 4 Then I prayed, “Hear us, our God, for we are being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads, and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land! 5 Do not ignore their guilt. Do not blot out their sins, for they have provoked you to anger here in front of the builders.” 6 At last the wall was completed to half its height around the entire city, for the people had worked with enthusiasm. 7 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the work was going ahead and that the gaps in the wall of Jerusalem were being repaired, they were furious. 8 They all made plans to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw us into confusion.

It’s here in Nehemiah chapter 4 that the people are confronted with overwhelming opposition that comes both from outside as well as within and is designed to create doubt and discouragement. Discouragement can be deadly because it causes us to spend our energy on worrying instead of working. Instead of focusing on the purpose and building the people started focusing on the problems and got bogged down. Worry not only takes our focus away from building the wall but also from the One we worship. The devil wants to distract and discourage, but it’s here in how Nehemiah deals with the difficulty that we discover how to defeat doubt and discouragement in our lives. So that instead of getting bogged down in the problems we learn how to build in the battle. Chapter 4 reveals more than just a problem but a plague, the disease of doubt and discouragement. This is an epidemic that is destroying the church and there are several things that make it such a potent problem. First it’s universal, none of us are immune to doubt and discouragement. Second, it’s recurring. Being discouraged or dealing with doubt once doesn’t give you immunity to the disease. You can be discouraged and you can doubt over and over again. In fact, you can even be discouraged by the fact that you are discouraged a lot. Third, it’s highly contagious. Discouragement and doubt spread through something as simple as casual contact. People can become disheartened because you are discouraged. You can be having a great day and someone comes along who is discouraged and it’s not long before too are also down. Now what I love about the Word of God is that it doesn’t pretend that everything is perfect or try to paint a picture of a problem fee life. That’s what prosperity preachers are trying to paint, come to Jesus and you will have a problem free, pain-free life. That’s pagan theology, not proper theology because it’s not based on the bible, it’s based on our wants, not the word. We all want a problem free, pain-free life, but remember Nehemiah was “Building in the battle” not being “blessed in a bubble.” Now while the passage starts with the problem, it reveals both the cause and cure for doubt and discouragement. When it comes to the cause we discover that there are both external and internal causes:

• External Causes

The wall workers were initially excited. They began the work with great anticipation and joy. It says of them in verse 6 that the “people worked with all their heart.” the people had worked with enthusiasm. Things were going well, the people were excited, and the wall was going up. Then something happened. Getting the work started on the wall was a major achievement, but keeping the workers working proved to be a much tougher assignment why? Where God is at work, the enemy is also at work. There is external opposition; we have an enemy who wants to:

1. Ridicule vs 1-2

In verses 1 and 2 we see the enemy trying to use the tactic of ridicule to reduce God’s people. This is the third time in the book of Nehemiah that Sanballat has crossed paths with Nehemiah, in fact, he was his stiffest opposition. Every time we read about him he is standing in opposition against the work of God, rejecting and ridiculing everything that Nehemiah is trying to accomplish. It’s the same tactic that the giant Goliath used to cause the Israelite army to react with fear. He also ridiculed David but instead of retreating, David ran toward him with only a sling and a stone (1 Samuel 17:41-47). Jesus was also mocked and ridiculed by the soldiers during his trial. This is not the first time Sanballat and his cronies had tried to belittle and bully God’s people. Back in chapter 2, they began to ridicule the workers even before the work had started. Now he belittles them before the Samaria army, calling them feeble. One thing you need to understand about bullies, they will always belittle people when they feel backed up by others. They are not real men but cowards who try to make everyone else afraid when really it’s just a cover for their own insecurities. Look it’s easy to be the big man when you have an army behind you, but real men don’t bully others they build them up. Bullies are not big men they are babies who hide behind hate so that they can feel good about themselves. The goal of belittling is to undermine their efforts and he ridicules their work by asking four taunting questions:

“Will they restore their wall?” undermine their ambitions and destroy their hope and dreams.

“Will they offer sacrifices?” undermine their belief – do they think that they can pray that wall up?

“Will they finish in a day?” undermine their enthusiasm

“Can they bring these stones back to life?” Undermined their Confidence

Ridicule lined the road to the cross and it will always revolve around the work of God. Don’t let ridicule run you over, expect it, face it and don’t stop working. When ridicule didn’t seem to work second they turned to:

2. Repression vs 7-8

When God’s people refuse to back down to the bullies, the bullies move from threats of harassment to threats of harm. It says that they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem. It amazes me how Christians struggle to come together and work together but how the world doesn’t have any difficulty working together to come against the church. Now I want you to notice that the reference to each of the enemies in verse 7 is more than just information about their names. These actually reference points that point to all four points of the compass. Sanballat and the Samaritans on the north, Ashdod on the west, Tobiah and the Ammonites on the east, and Geshem and the Arabs to the south. The workers were surrounded and lived in constant fear of being ambushed. It’s easy to deal with discouragement when it’s at a distance, but when it completely surrounds us it can feel crushing. But it’s here that we see God’s people putting their energy into working instead of into worry. Maybe right now you are surrounded on all sides by trouble, don’t give in to fear continue to walk by faith and follow God. He didn’t save you so that you could waste your life on worry but so that you could live your life as a warrior. Instead of being caught up in the problems start let God consumed you in His power and provision. What fears are you facing right now, give them to God and choose worship over the worry?