September 27: Nehemiah 6-7

September 27, Nehemiah 6-7

Nehemiah continued…

Nehemiah 6 Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem were some of Nehemiah and Israel’s enemies. When they heard that the wall was rebuilt, they requested a meeting with Nehemiah. He refused because they intended to do him harm. They requested a meeting 4 times and 4 times he refused. The 5th time, Sanballat sent a servant with a letter that was full of lies and deceit against Nehemiah & Israel - basically saying that the Jews intended to rebel and other lies. Nehemiah saw right through it and told them he would not stop working to come to them and he prayed for strength from God to keep going. 

Nehemiah then goes and meets with a guy named Shemaiah. This guy wanted to meet at the temple so that Nehemiah could lock himself in there and hide because his enemies wanted to kill him. Nehemiah saw right through this as well. Only the prophets were allowed to go in the temple and he recognized that his enemies were behind this false prophecy. He asked God not to forget what Shemaiah had done (against him…)
The wall was finished in 52 days - this was obvious to all around that God was with them because that is near impossible to complete that fast, unless of course God is on your side! This caused all the enemies to fear them. Some nobles tried to convince Nehemiah that Tobiah was a good guy, even though at the same time Tobiah is sending letters to make Nehemiah afraid. Yeah, a good guy!

Nehemiah 7 After the wall was finished, Nehemiah put his brother Hanani and another guy named Hannaniah as governor over Jerusalem. His brother was a righteous man and more faithful than many. Nehemiah realized that the city was large and the people in it were few.

God put it on Nehemiah’s heart to look at the genealogy of all those accounted for in Jerusalem. It is basically an identical list to that of Ezra 2. It is speculated that part of the reason for doing the count again was the concern on repopulating God’s people. 

To sum it all up: 

• When you are being obedient to God and you are passionate about what God is passionate about, you will be attacked by the Enemy. He will use every tactic to get you discouraged and off track.
• Don’t fall for it. See it for what it is and pray against it and keep going. 
• We have a great example in Nehemiah to keep going. Stay faithful. Be obedient. Serve God and ask Him for continued strength.