Nehemiah's Adversaries

I often visit the book of Nehemiah when considering matters of leadership. This Old Testament account of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem provides great insight into what leadership requires, the necessity of clear vision, the accomplishment of the vision and the investment and requirements on people employed in the work of God. As I have revisited the book in light of our church life I asked a question that took a bit of research and growing understanding of the context of Nehemiah. My question is this, why did Sanballat, Tobiah and the Arabs who came against Nehemiah when he began building the wall, not do so before reconstruction began? I think I found the answer.

Nehemiah was the cupbearer for Artaxerxes the King of Persia. The historical context is that Nehemiah was returning to Jerusalem when the land was under the rule of Persian Empire. This was after the rule of the Assyrians and Babylonians, which as you may recall were under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar. The Persian Empire was the largest of these empires historically, ruling as far north east as modern Turkey (even into portions of Greece), as far south as Northern Egypt, and as far west as Iran, encompassing Iraq as well.

Sanballat was a Samaritan, a mixed people group of northern Israelites and foreign nationalities. The people of Tobiah were known as Ammonites. These were the descendants of Lot’s incestuous relationship with his youngest daughter. So I believe the reason they weren’t attacking Jerusalem was because they were simply content with her state of destruction. As long as the walls of the city lay in disrepair, it was a victory to them. They were conquered people just as the Jews were, but their status was improved by the shear ruin of Jerusalem. We know that the Samaritans were a people group of mixed nationality, and their religious views were very similar to the Israelites (for a good understanding of this you can read John 4:1-45 to understand Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well). Historically the Ammonites sought to gain strength over the Israelites. Though their worship was vastly different (they worshiped Molech), they were intent on overpowering the Israelites to possess the best portions of land. It is no surprise that they would join forces with Sanballat and others to oppress the Jews.

Read the Scripture found in Nehemiah 4 and notice the attitude of these critics of the Israelites. “Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”” (Nehemiah 4:1–3 ESV)

Later in the same chapter of Nehemiah we discover how Nehemiah's plan to have every work employed with spear and trowels thwarted the enemies. “When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”

So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, “Let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day.” So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand.”
(Nehemiah 4:15–23 ESV)

Why is this significant for us today? I believe that if we are going to accomplish the purposes of God in the life of Coopertown Community Church, doing our part in God's Kingdom work, we too are going to face similar persecution. We are going to face enemies who are going to attempt to undermine the work of the Lord in His church. They will do whatever is in their power to deter the work of His Kingdom. I would venture to say that the enemies are not going to be formidable foes, like the mighty Persian Dynasty. Rather the enemies will appear to be similar to us in a lot of ways (possessing some of the same religious views and claiming some of the same heritage), yet they will critical of our work, elevating their own purposes. They may possibly promote some of the same values and goals as we have, but it will only be on the surface.

Here is my great concern, as long as we are in a state of complacency, contentment, or ease, we will find our efforts unopposed. However, when we move in line with God’s plan we must anticipate opposition and we must be prepared to labor with one hand at the task and ready with weapons of war in the other.

Therefore, it is appropriate for us to put on the full armor of God to stand firm in these situations. It is neccessary to put our hands to the work engaging in all that the Lord has in store for us in the year 2011. The things that we have celebrated, God's working in our past, and the matters we have proposed for tomorrow, cannot, and will not be sustained if we fail to commit to service together in prayer, in work, in rest, and in the efforts of Christ's Kingdom. My friends and family, may we follow the example of commitment found in the life of the Israelites as they grew in obedience to the Word of God with committed lives to the LORD. By doing this may it be said of us, "the work had been accomplished with the help of our God." (Nehemiah 6:16b)

Thoughts on Genesis 1

I am currently studying the book of Genesis and teaching through this book on Sunday mornings at Church. I must say, as excited as I am at this opportunity, so am I equally overwhelmed at the incredible responsibility, and intricacies of the book. The greatest solace in my conflict comes in the fact that we serve a sovereign God who knows my inadequacies and I simply trust that in His presence through the person of the Holy Spirit, those inadequacies will not be hindrances to people’s faith and maturity.

That is not a cop-out in any way, rather it is a motivation to pick up my blogging efforts once again, because I believe it necessary to improve my stewardship over the information that I believe necessary for you my church family, and any one else interested in the Word of God.

This week I will be teaching on Genesis 1. As I was studying I turned to Wayne Grudem’s book, Systematic Theology to see what he has written about creation. Interestingly he quoted Francis Schaeffer, a theologian and philosopher of the early 20^th Century. This caught my attention and I believe it will benefit believers to consider his statements (unfortunately I do not yet possess Schaeffer’s work and am trusting the quote from Grudem’s work).

Grudem quotes from Schaeffer’s book, No Final Conflict and says:

Regarding questions about the creation of the universe, Schaeffer lists several areas where, in his judgment, there is room for disagreement among Christians who believe in the total truthfulness of Scripture:

1. There is a possibility that God created a “grown-up” universe.

2. There is a possibility of a break between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 or between 1:2 and 1:3.

3. There is a possibility of a long day in Genesis 1

4. There is a possibility that the flood affected the geological data.

5. The use of the word “kinds” in Genesis 1 may be quite broad.

6. There is a possibility of the death of animals before the fall.

7. Where the Hebrew word bara is not used there is the possibility of sequence form previously existing things.

Now why do I draw attention to this? I believe that Schaeffer has succinctly and effectively identified areas of conflict that confront Christians today when we engage in discussions, study, and comparison to modern science. Unfortunately, I believe that the conflicts are even more tedious to navigate in our day than in Schaeffer’s. Of the possibilities that are identified by Schaeffer there is none that he claims to be his own. And though you may possess reason for your position developing deep convictions, it is important to acknowledge that there is not one of us as humans who will definitively possess the certainty when Scripture is unclear, though we also must come to an interpretation. Grudem concludes, “But we can approach both scientific and biblical study with the confidence that when all the facts are correctly understood, and when we have understood Scripture rightly, our findings will never be in conflict with each other: there will be “no final conflict.”

As Christians we must not fear to investigate creation scientifically, nor fearful that scientific evidence will somehow contradict Scriptural revelation. Let us therefore continue to be people of faith, for “by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” For, as people of faith, we serve a sovereign, omniscient, ominipotent God who is able to do as he pleases. The wonderful news is that Genesis 1 conveys that he did that very thing and he “saw that it was good . . . And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good. (Genesis 1:10,13, 18, 25, 31).

Prayer: Following Message on Sunday, August 24th

The goal of this blog is to expand the thoughts about praying by the Holy Spirit. Sunday I referred to the "How" of praying being built on the relationship to the divine. That we pray to the Father, through Jesus, the Son, by the Holy Spirit.

The question arose in my mind, "What does it mean to pray by the Holy Spirit?" I am going to answer this but will use some terms interchangeably: "by the Holy Spirit" and "in the Holy Spirit." Here is a brief summary statement of the meaning of this term, "to pray in a manner that the Holy Spirit is the moving and guiding power. In other words, when you pray in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God is "moving" you to pray. That is, He is the one who motivates and enables and energizes your prayer. And when you pray in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God is "guiding" how you pray and what you pray for. We pray by His power and according to His direction."1

In Ephesians 6:18 Paul concludes the teaching on the armor of God by saying that all prayers should occur by this method, "praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication." (ESV). Therefore, praying by the Holy Spirit is not one method among many, it is the essential form or means for every prayer.

Sunday I referred to the necessity of prayer being done in faith. Romans 8:26 further emphasizes this dependency on our part in the area of prayer. "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." It is because of this verse that we must admit that without the help of the Holy Spirit we could not pray as we ought to. This emphasizes the earlier point about the necessity of the Holy Spirit guiding us in our prayers as well.

In Galatians 3:1-5 Paul addresses the conflict of the flesh versus faith. "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?" It is easy for us to identify from this passage the need for us to respond in faith in what God is doing through the person of the Holy Spirit, rather than build our prayers with an an attitude of independence, trusting our own abilities. The flesh will leave us wanting.

There is one final encouragement that I want to share about praying by the Holy Spirit. It is essential to pray in conformity with the Word of God, which the Holy Spirit inspired. So the goal is to meditate on the Word of God, day and night, memorizing portions so that you can carry it with you all day. This affords the Holy Spirit the opportunity to shape your thoughts by that Word, moving you and guiding you. Then when we find this economy at work in our lives we take what we know of God's will from the Word and saturate our prayers with it.

So my appeal to you is this. In your prayers, wherever you are, pray by the Holy Spirit, counting on His help as you live out the teachings of the Bible. It means you will need to stay in study of the Bible and time in prayer.

Thanks for checking out my blog! Know that I love you all and look forward to the next time we are together.
1. John Piper, January 7, 2001: Learning to Pray in Spirit and the Word - Part 2