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.

As we continue in our series “Building in the Battle” in the book of Nehemiah, we come to chapter 4, where we are confronted with overwhelming opposition. This opposition 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. 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. Chapter 4 reveals not just a problem but a plague, the disease of doubt and discouragement. It’s an epidemic that is destroying the church today and there are several things that make it such a potent problem.

1. It’s universal. None of us are immune to doubt and discouragement.
2. It’s recurring. Being discouraged or dealing with doubt once doesn’t give you an 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.
3. It’s highly contagious. Discouragement and doubt spread through 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 you are 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 portray, 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 the title of this series is “Building in the battle” not “blessed in the bubble” Now while the passage starts with the problem, it reveals both the cause and cure for doubt and discouragement. Today we are going to start with the first of 2 causes, the:

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 Us vs 1-2

This is the third time in the book that we come across Sanballat, who was Nehemiah’s stiffest opposition. Every time we read about him, he is standing against the work of God, rejecting and ridiculing everything that Nehemiah is trying to accomplish. It’s the same tactic that Goliath the giant 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 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 the workers. Remember back in chapter 2 they begun to ridicule the workers even before the work had started. Now he belittles them before the Samaria army, calling them feeble, it’s easy to bully when you have an army behind you. 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 – Bitten off more than they can chew?

“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.

2. Repression vs 7-8

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 us. Now I want you to notice that the references in verse 7 are to the 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 be crushing. Are there any external pressures coming at you that are causing you to doubt and become discouraged? Turn your focus to your Father and remember that He is greater than what you are currently facing.

Nehemiah 3:5-27

⁵ Next were the people from Tekoa, though their leaders refused to work with the construction supervisors.⁶ The Old City Gate was repaired by Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah. They laid the beams, set up its doors, and installed its bolts and bars.⁷ Next to them were Melatiah from Gibeon, Jadon from Meronoth, people from Gibeon, and people from Mizpah, the headquarters of the governor of the province west of the Euphrates River. ⁸ Next was Uzziel son of Harhaiah, a goldsmith by trade, who also worked on the wall. Beyond him was Hananiah, a manufacturer of perfumes. They left out a section of Jerusalem as they built the Broad Wall. ⁹ Rephaiah son of Hur, the leader of half the district of Jerusalem, was next to them on the wall. ¹⁰ Next Jedaiah son of Harumaph repaired the wall across from his own house, and next to him was Hattush son of Hashabneiah. ¹¹ Then came Malkijah son of Harim and Hasshub son of Pahath-moab, who repaired another section of the wall and the Tower of the Ovens. ¹² Shallum son of Hallohesh and his daughters repaired the next section. He was the leader of the other half of the district of Jerusalem.¹³ The Valley Gate was repaired by the people from Zanoah, led by Hanun. They set up its doors and installed its bolts and bars. They also repaired the 1,500 feet of wall to the Dung Gate.¹⁴ The Dung Gate was repaired by Malkijah son of Recab, the leader of the Beth-hakkerem district. He rebuilt it, set up its doors, and installed its bolts and bars.¹⁵ The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallum son of Col-hozeh, the leader of the Mizpah district. He rebuilt it, roofed it, set up its doors, and installed its bolts and bars. Then he repaired the wall of the pool of Siloam near the king’s garden, and he rebuilt the wall as far as the stairs that descend from the City of David.¹⁶ Next to him was Nehemiah son of Azbuk, the leader of half the district of Beth-zur. He rebuilt the wall from a place across from the tombs of David’s family as far as the water reservoir and the House of the Warriors.¹⁷ Next to him, repairs were made by a group of Levites working under the supervision of Rehum son of Bani. Then came Hashabiah, the leader of half the district of Keilah, who supervised the building of the wall on behalf of his own district. ¹⁸ Next down the line were his countrymen led by Binnui son of Henadad, the leader of the other half of the district of Keilah.¹⁹ Next to them, Ezer son of Jeshua, the leader of Mizpah, repaired another section of wall across from the ascent to the armory near the angle in the wall.²⁰ Next to him was Baruch son of Zabbai, who zealously repaired an additional section from the angle to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest.²¹ Meremoth son of Uriah and grandson of Hakkoz rebuilt another section of the wall extending from the door of Eliashib’s house to the end of the house.²² The next repairs were made by the priests from the surrounding region. ²³ After them, Benjamin and Hasshub repaired the section across from their house, and Azariah son of Maaseiah and grandson of Ananiah repaired the section across from his house. ²⁴ Next was Binnui son of Henadad, who rebuilt another section of the wall from Azariah’s house to the angle and the corner. ²⁵ Palal son of Uzai carried on the work from a point opposite the angle and the tower that projects up from the king’s upper house beside the court of the guard. Next to him were Pedaiah son of Parosh, ²⁶ with the Temple servants living on the hill of Ophel, who repaired the wall as far as a point across from the Water Gate to the east and the projecting tower. ²⁷ Then came the people of Tekoa, who repaired another section across from the great projecting tower and over to the wall of Ophel.

The fifth principle we see is that we need to:

5. Be faithful Even when others Fail – Vs 5, 27

Don’t let the slacking of others cause you to stop serving. In every church there will always be those who do more than their fair share. While there will always be spectators in the church there will also be servants. The question is which are you, are you a slacker or a servant? Remember the men from Tekoa? Not only did they finished their section of the wall, even though their rulers refused to help, but verse 27 tells us: “Next to them, the men of Tekoa repaired another section…”Not only did they refuse to follow the lazy example of their leaders, but they chose to go the extra mile. There are several others in the passage that not only completed the work assigned to them but then lent a helping hand to others. There’s a tendency within most of us to finish the work we volunteered for and then stop, and stretch out our arms and say, “It was great to do the Lord’s work, but I’m finished now” instead of looking around and seeing who else needs help. There are those who are selfish and never start, those who serve and work on their wall and then there are those who sacrifice, they don’t just work on their wall they are willing to lend a helping hand to others. Often, we let the failures of those who refuse to follow through not just affect but infect our serving. This leads to frustration and either serving with a bitter heart or bailing ourselves. Don’t focus on the failure of others focus on the faithfulness of the Father.

6. Some service stinks – Vs 14

Some worked on the Dung gate, this was where the refuse left the city. This is what we could call the poop deck of the ship. This is the gate we all need but no one wants to work on. Everyone wants to repair the Tower of the Ovens (v. 11) where the bread of Jerusalem was baked. It’s easy to find workers for the Fountain Gate or when work on the wall next to the King’s garden needs done. But who’s going to fix the Dung Gate. Look Ministry can be messy, but someone has to repair the Dung Gate! There are still dung gates in ministry today, who is going to serve in the nursery and dealing with dirty diapers. Who picks up the drunk and brings them home? Who goes to share Jesus in the jail? Look sometimes ministry is messy, I don’t like having to deal with the dung gate but if no one does we end up with a city full of filth. But there is also a second reason to work on the dung gate, not only to remove the refuge but also to provide protection. If we don’t build and bar the gate, we leave ourselves wide open to attack. Some of you need to work on your dung gate because if you don’t your life is going to start to stink.

7. Pursue God’s Purpose with Passion – Vs 20

In this entire chapter, there is only one guy mentioned who worked zealously. Look at verse 20: “Next to him, Baruch son of Zabbai zealously repaired another section…”The Hebrew word means “to burn or glow.” He didn’t just serve; he was on fire for the Father. This is amazing because in 4:6 we read that “the people worked with all their heart.” Everyone was working hard, but in a crowd of committed construction workers, Baruch stood out from the rest. We need people who will say, “I don’t care what others are doing, I’m going to do my very best.” He didn’t just make the Glory of God his purpose he made it his passion. It’s not just about hard work it’s about heart work. Some of you are hardworking servants but you are serving out of servility not servanthood.

Servility servers out of Obligation, it’s a I have to serve, where servanthood serves out of obedience, I want to serve.

Servility is motivated by what others see and say if I serve, servanthood is motivated by what God sees and says

Servility serves with an attitude of me first, servanthood serves with an attitude of God first

Servility serves out of a spirit of pride, Servanthood serves out of a spirit of Humility

The results of servility are self-seeking, where servanthood is God glorifying.

Each person was given personal responsibility for their part of the wall. That forced them to do a good job because if they just did a half job on their part of the wall and had a weak wall then that would be where the attack would come and it would cost them their families as well as the lives of others. When we don’t work on our wall, we don’t just end up with a weak wall we put the whole family in jeopardy.