The area occupied by the Jews who returned following the decree of Cyrus was not much more than Jerusalem and its suburbs. The opposition, which came in varying forms, was led by Sanballat, the governor of Samaria and several others including Tobiah, an Ammonite, and Gershom, most likely from an Arab tribe. First they tried verbal taunts, mockery and derision.
Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish— stones that are burned?
Undeterred, Nehemiah and the Jewish people simply cried out to the Lord and continued working on the wall. When their first attempt to stop the Jews failed, Sanballat and his companions stepped up their attack, taking it to the next level—physical threats. Again, Nehemiah turned to the Lord in prayer and also armed the workmen as a precautionary measure. Having failed at their attempts to intimidate those working on the wall, Sanballat now tried a new tactic—he went directly after their leader.
The fifth attempt came in the form of an open letter, falsely accusing Nehemiah of rebellion against Persia. In their final attempt, they tried to trick Nehemiah by hiring the prophet Shemaiah to lure him into the Temple. Despite the nearly constant disruptions and threats against Nehemiah, the leader, and those who were rebuilding the wall, it was completed and the city of Jerusalem was once again securely protected from her enemies.
Walls serve the purpose of protection, but they also set boundaries and provide a means of separation from whatever is outside. After the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian exile, many of the Jewish people who remained in Judah had intermarried with non-Jews. In addition to leading the effort to rebuild the wall, Nehemiah instituted religious reforms.
After a public reading of the Mosaic Law led the Israelites to recognition of their sin, to fasting and repentance, a written covenant also known as the Code of Nehemiah was drafted and signed by members of the community. As you may recall, I began this search of Scripture in order to learn how a wall might help me attain the spiritual fruit of self-control.
That we live in a world which is opposed to God should be clearly evident. Just like the ancient city that needed protection from its enemies, individuals today need protection from the daily onslaught of temptations that are a part of life in a fallen world. There are many reasons for reading Scripture, but since we are looking at the concept of walls and protection, our focus narrows a bit. For many of us, the following verse is a comfort even though it promises to discipline us should we need correction.
The Hebraic roots of our faith also demonstrate how Scripture is able to keep and protect us. Its wisdom and ordinances are the way of holiness for all men, even the most ordinary among them. Through obedience we resist the temptations that come to us on each and every day—so Rashi, Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac — , the classic commentator on the Bible and Talmud explained. The second component is prayer or our communication with God during which we acknowledge that He is almighty and we are but frail humans.
The fellowship of believers , and within that fellowship our personal accountability to one or two mature believers, is the third component. Just as prayer cultivates our relationship with God, we must also be in healthy relationships with other believers—to encourage and strengthen them and allow them to do the same for us. Through praise we acknowledge who God is and our dependence on Him. The book of Psalms is rich with examples of the songs of praise written by King David and others. It is a wonderful place to begin, and from there move into praising God for His acts of mercy and grace toward us today.
Jehovah hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He hath made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.
Her gates have sunk into the earth; He hath destroyed and broken her bare Lam. The sons of Arvad and thine army were upon thy walls round about; and the Gammadim were in thy towers; they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about, they have perfected thy beauty Ezek. That a new church is signified thereby is plain from all the details; and by the wall thereof, the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord.
It is written of this in John The holy Jerusalem coming down from heaven, having a wall great and high; having twelve gates. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. He that spake with me measured the city and its gates, and the wall thereof. Likewise, as Believers our interaction with the world around us is to be controlled by our relationship with God.
Sometimes we will need to shut out the world so that we spend intimate time with our Saviour. Scripture further makes it clear that if we fail to grow spiritually, if we fail to build up our spiritual wall, we are vulnerable to attack.
These questions are paraphrased as follows with the actual quoted words in brackets :. Believers today are faced with the same challenges from our adversary, the devil, as he tries to discourage and defeat our spiritual growth.
So let us explore the application of these questions and answers in the life of a Believer. In asking this question, Sanballat was pointing out what was already painfully obvious to the Jews: they were few in number and very weak Nehemiah From a purely physical standpoint rebuilding the wall was a colossal undertaking.
And, like Sanballat, our adversary the devil constantly reminds us of our weakness. Indeed, we are told in Ephesians that we are not in a battle with humans like our selves: we are in a battle with supernaturally powerful forces of evil. Alone in our own strength we are hopelessly overmatched, doomed to defeat. However, we are NOT alone. Each believer is inhabited by the omnipotent Holy Spirit 2 Timothy Indeed, as much as we yield ourselves to Him, Christ Jesus lives in us:.
Therefore, because of Jesus, no believer is weak! We can overcome the devil; we can grow spiritually; we can build the wall! In asking this question of the Jews, Sanballat sought to get to heart of the matter: their will. We know what needs to be done.
And we know God has empowered us to accomplish the task. As presented above, Scripture tells us that Believers are in the middle of a high stakes spiritual battle Ephesians , and that our adversary, the devil, is trying to destroy us:. God had supplied the Jews all the resources they needed to build the wall. So the only question was whether they would use them. Will we use them? Will we take up the sword of the Word and learn how to use it?
Or will we just let it sit there; never learning how to use it to wound our adversary? Will we use the shield of faith to defend ourselves when we are under attack? Or will we rely on the things we can see naturally to repel the devils supernatural onslaught? Spiritual growth is a deliberate act, it requires us to intentionally embark on the course of action outlined in Scripture.
For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. In other words, a Believer does not become able to resist the devil by accident or by some involuntary process.
Until we make the conscious decision to exercise the tools of spiritual growth, we will remain weak and vulnerable to every attack of the devil. Sanballat knew the Jews would have to pay a personal price for rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. It would cost them sweat and back breaking effort: life was already hard, now they would have to toil on the wall and still have to catch up with their regular duties.
As before, the challenge to believers is the same. Spiritual growth comes at a price. Developing a relationship with God means setting aside time to spend with Him in prayer and meditation. Being a disciple is hard work: it means using our time to work in the Kingdom of God: witnessing, teaching, discipling, helping, encouraging, and even working with people as difficult as we are. How important is our spiritual growth to us? Our struggle today is for costly grace. This is not true. If we intend to grow in Christ it will cost us.
And if we intend to grow greatly in Christ, it will cost us greatly. Indeed, Paul wrote:. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers… in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness… in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness… …I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Genuine spiritual growth does not happen by a wish, there is a price to pay. But, in the end, not growing in Christ is far more costly. The Jews had taken a long time to rebuild their temple, and an even longer time to start building the wall around Jerusalem.
Then to make matters worse, they suffered frequent raids from Ammonite and Arab tribes which weakened them even more.
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