05/28/2025 – Day 332 – Nehemiah – Chapters 1 – 4 / 5 of ? / Chapter Four -444 B.C. – ‘The pressure on”- reminiscent of 1948 and 1967 for the nation of Israel.
“The concerted effort reported in chapter 3 seemed to Sanballat and the other enemies of Judah all too likely to have a successful outcome. Consequently we now find a build-up of bitter and determined resentment. Sanballat himself is desperately angry (v. 1). What is more, the circle of enemies is expanding. The Ashdodites, occupying former Philistine territory on Judah’s western flank, have now joined the unholy alliance (v. 7). And it seems that the Ammonites (on the east) are no longer represented by Tobiah alone. With the Samaritans holding the north and the Arabs threatening from the south, the conspiracy looks powerful indeed, and Judah’s situation is precarious. It seems too that the enemies are ready to go beyond more ridicule (vv. 8, 11-12), risking the opprobrium of Persia itself, so opposed were they to the re-emergence of an old and hates foe. Their frustration will have been the deeper because it had so recently appeared that the threat from Judah was gone forever (Ezra 4:23).
Nor were the builders insensitive to a danger which they may well have felt was the greater for the measures they were taking. As the work progressed the unremitting demands which it made brought on a dispiriting weariness. The cry in verse 10, “there is much rubbish”, conjures up for us something of the arduousness of their heavy task. This rubbish was not the beer can variety, but heavy rubble. On the eastern slopes in particular – but no doubt more widely too – there had been a serious collapse of houses and walls as a result of Nebuchadnezzar’s activities. (This was where Nehemiah had been unable to pass during his night-time reconnaissance; 2:14.). The terrain itself, on all but the northern side, is often very steep. The business of stumbling over uncertain and precipitous ground, and fumbling through the rubble for the best building material – and this all day long (v. 21) – will soon have become exceedingly wearisome.
The cry of the builders in verse 10 is to be understood against this background. It is not, as it may appear, a single declaration of intent. Rather, being in poetic meter (which the English can hardly reproduce), it appears to be a king of chorus chanted during the work. Despite its rather negative tone it may actually have had the function of keeping the men going – not unlike the ‘spirituals’ which encouraged enslaved laborers of more recent times. Taken in this way it is more readily intelligible in the light of verse 6, where the people ‘had a mind to work’. Nevertheless, the mood of the builders by verse 12, when they are brought disheartening news by some who perhaps meant well but probably did more for the cause of the enemies (cf. the faithless spies of old, Numbers 13:22ff.) is evidently low. The temptation to unbelief must have been immense. Those especially who did not even live in Jerusalem, and may have worried about the security of their own towns, may have wondered whether their present task was just the fanaticism of a misguided idealist.
DRY POWDER
Nehemiah 4: 1-23 (cont’d)
Despite the bleak appearances, however, the aspirations of the enemies were doomed to frustration from the outset. This frustration is already implicit in the scornful words of Sanballat and Tobiah (vv. 2 -3). Outwardly, their words seem all too true, in Tobiah’s case even picturesque. The Jews were feeble; their success did look implausible; the walls they built – as we know from archaeological excavations – were not of the quality of those which their forefathers had built, and Tobiah’s fox might indeed have sent the odd stone tumbling into the Kidron valley. Yet Sanballat’s anger already shows his fear that the very things he derides as impossible may come to pass. And we the readers, knowing that God is with his people, can answer all his hollowly confident questions with a ‘Yes’, for God has ordained it.
Nehemiah now shows himself a leader in more than mere organizational terms or by virtue of the trappings of Persian authority. He shows that he is also a spiritual leader in Judah, by his perception, before any other, of how things really lie. His words in verse 4-5 constitute a curse, reminiscent of some Psalms (e.g. Psalm 68: 1-3; 139: 19-24). It is tempting to read words like these as the personal bitterness of the one who prays, and to condemn them for vindictiveness. Clearly, in seeking to derive edification from such sentiments, we must in now way diminish the force of Christ’s command to ‘love your enemies’ (Matthew 5:44); for if there can be a godly hatred, there is no doubt whatever that ungodly hatred is a powerful temptation in stressful situations.
Having said that, it is possible to attribute to Nehemiah a motivation that is other than personal bitterness. His words are in effect a prayer that God will be just. In the covenant that existed between God and Israel it was axiomatic that the blessing of the people followed upon their obedience. Nehemiah invokes that blessing. And because Sanballat et al. perceive their interests as diametrically opposed to those of Judah, they must suffer by Judah’s blessing. Nehemiah is thus declaring the consequences for them of their antipathy to God (for that is the real issue), which will be a turning upon themselves of the things they wish upon Judah. (The exactness of the justice that will be done is contained in the words: ‘we are despised; turn back their taunt … and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives.’ It is neatly captured in the italicized words, which sound very similar in Hebrew.)
Nehemiah’s curse is thus a declaration of God’s opposition to those who willfully oppose Judah. The sentence is not irreversible. Sanballat and his allied could repent; others had done so and joined the exiles (Ezra 6:21). Nehemiah shows that he sees God’s way. It is his perception and confidence which fit him to lead the people out of despair and into possession of their promised reward.”
(iii)
The threat from the enemy evidently reached a head with the report from the Jews who lived in the hostile territories (v. 12). Nehemiah therefore puts the people on battle-alert (v. 13), thus temporarily suspending the work. How exactly he mustered them (v. 13) is difficult to visualize because we cannot picture the layout of the city in any detail. The ‘lowest parts’ he might have deemed the safest. The gathering of the families along with the men (rather than hiding the women and children in houses) may have been designed to heighten their appreciation of just what was at stake. (In the battle for Jerusalem in 1948 the Jewish leaders refused to evacuate women and children for just this sort of reason.) In any case, the measure was never intended as a heroic last stand, nor was the attitude a stoical ‘wait and see’. Rather, the muster will have had the effect of demonstrating to the people their own strength. In the ‘open spaces’ they may well have been able to get a clear impression of just how much progress was being made (v. 6)/. And Nehemiah uses the occasion to exhort the people to trust in God (v. 14), of whose readiness to help in battle Israel’s history afforded ample evidence (e.g. Judges 7: 19-23).
It is not clear just in what way the battle-alert influenced the enemy. It has been suggested that an army was actually at the walls, though there is no evidence for this. Clearly, however, they heard that their desired advantage of secrecy (4:11) was illusory, the prospect of an attack receded, and the people were able to resume work on the walls (v. 15). In all of this Nehemiah’s practical and powerful piety dominates. His ability to bring a word from the Lord influences the people in a remarkable way – just as when he first exhorted them to build (2:17ff.) – and they are able to go back to the onerous and dangerous task with renewed courage.”
(iv)
“Part of the people’s renewed vigor lay in an appreciation of the human resources God had given them. They had taken stocks and seen that they were on the way to being a relatively formidable garrison. And this combination of initiative and piety, so characteristic of Nehemiah himself, now dominated the remainder of the building activity. Even as the work progressed the instruments of battle were held in readiness (vv. 16,21). As far as possible work was done weapon in hand (vv. 17-18). There was watchfulness by night (v. 22), and Nehemiah led the way by remaining constantly – whether he slept or not – more or less in battle-dress (v. 23). The trumpeter (v. 18) stood by Nehemiah (could we say like the man who stands in constant attendance on the U.S. President and whose sole purpose is to convey the message that the ‘button’ is to be pushed) ready to summon the dispersed laborers to close ranks. None of this can have eased the sheer physical arduousness of the labour.
Yet there is now a purposefulness about their activity which has evidently shed the fears which threatened to be so destructive. The formula that has produced this is very close to that that expressed in Oliver Cromwell’s immortal dictum: ‘Trust in God and keep your powder dry.’. The whole enterprise is conceived as a work of God which he superintends and guarantees (v. 20b). Yet the faithful see clearly that the means which God will use is themselves, their faculties well trained, and fully exploiting all their resources. Translated into the arena of the making of modern disciples (though the point pertains to all areas of Christian endeavor), we might recall the 19th-century preacher Spurgoen’s advice to his students that they should ‘pray as if everything depended on God, then preach as if everything depended on you.’ “
Soli Deo Gloria!