Daily Thought

Although the task of rebuilding the walls and setting up the gates of Jerusalem was virtually completed, the implacable opposers of the project mounted yet another attempt at subversion.

This time, the method used was that of craft and deception - how often have God’s servants fallen prey to such furtive, insidious means whereby that old serpent which is the devil and Satan seeks to achieve his ends. He deceives individuals, with apparent ease, as he demonstrated with Eve, the first woman, Gen. 3. 13; 2 Cor. 11. 3; 1 Tim. 2. 14. He can deceive ‘nations’, indeed ‘the whole world’, for ‘from the beginning’ he ‘abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it’, Rev. 12. 11; 20. 8; John 8. 44.

The beleaguered Jews must have realized by now that there would be no let-up by the opposition in their attempts to stop the work. However, they must have been kept wondering in what guise the next attack would come, and so left in a state of unsettlement. How great a need, therefore, for firm resolute leadership at such a time; leadership that was truthful, honest and reliable; leadership that was perceptive to discern true from false; leadership that was incisive in judgement and quick to act so that evil be defeated and truth prosper.

Here, as before, Nehemiah manifested all these characteristics of true leadership, acting without hesitation to resist this latest attempt at encroachment. What he reveals, with typical honesty, is the extent of his own feelings in this emergency, wherein the threats came with the impressive voices of officialdom and religion to recommend them as authentic.

How naturally and easily we are impressed by what is directed towards us from political and religious quarters - the devil knows that, and so employs these tactics to dissipate our energies and create fear in our hearts. The people were made afraid at this time, and so was Nehemiah; see verse 9, ‘for they all made us afraid’. It is no surprise to discover that his immediate recourse is prayer - prayer that his hands and the hands of others shall not be weakened so that the work ceases - prayer that perpetrators of these devilish activities be dealt with by God. These were not long prayers, but who can doubt their effectiveness!