Adversity and Sufficiency Nehemiah 3:1-4:23

INTRODUCTION Sometimes the most difficult task is not getting started, but keeping going. One of the more arduous projects I have ever taken on was the finishing of the lower level in our home in South Dakota. I did some extensive tiling in the downstairs - about 600 square feet of flooring and a shower. Getting started wasn’t the hard part. I bought the supplies. I watched YouTube videos, and probably annoyed the flooring guy at Home Depot with all of my questions. But while getting started wasn’t that difficult, finishing it was. What I thought would take a few weeks turned out to be six months. I ran into all sorts of set backs I wasn’t expecting - uneven spots in the floor, warped tiles, tight corners, mortar drying too fast…let’s just say I was ready to quit more than once.

Of course, Christians face adverse situations that are far more serious than mixing mortar and laying tiles. If there is something you and I know, it’s this: adversity and setbacks are common to the Christian life. In fact, the along with other parts of the remind us that every time we are living for the glory of God in all things, we will face adversity and persecution to one degree or another. As we mentioned last week, the Apostle Paul once told Timothy that all who desire to live a godly live in Christ will be persecuted. When an individual Christian, as well as the corporate church, move along the path of faithfulness - there will be opposition and adversity to be certain. The question is what are we going to do about it? Let’s turn to chapter 3 and chapter 4 of Nehemiah. I won’t read chapter 3 right now. We’ll refer to it as we move along. But let’s read all of chapter 4 together.

READ :1-23…

A Word About the Wall At this point I believe it’s appropriate to say a bit about how we’re to understand and apply Nehemiah. Nehemiah is not the easiest book in the to apply. I say that because its quite common to apply it in a very moralistic manner. Here’s what I mean: We can come to chapter 3 and quickly say, “This account is telling us about the need to delegate.” Or we can look at chapter 4 and say, “See this is how you solve problems when you’re in leadership.” And that’s not entirely wrong. But how do you apply the building of the wall? Are we as Christians supposed to builds walls to keep out all of the unbelievers? Certainly not.

You see, we’re reading a book of actual events at a different time in redemptive history. Israel was a nation state. And as such, they needed walls for jurisprudence. They needed walls to maintain their economy. They needed walls in order for them to live as the covenant people of God. But you and I live in a different period of redemptive history. We don’t live in anticipation of the cross, we live in light of the cross. So what does it mean for us to be the covenant people of God? To begin with, our citizenship is not tied to an earthly city. We’re citizens of heaven. And for us, the walls are not physical structures to keep people away, but it’s our santification. It’s our growth and progress in the gospel. And the way in which we build the city of God is not by bricks or buildings, it’s through others coming to faith in Jesus Christ. The book of Nehemiah points us to the greater Nehemiah, who is the Son of God.

Nehemiah has a passion to see God advance his kingdom through his covenant people. And for him that meant building a wall. For us, instead of building walls we’re faithful to point people to Jesus; both by our pursuit of holiness and our invitation to all people to come to God through

Jesus. So know, as we walk through our text this morning the adversity we see - as it is applied to us - is opposition to the work of the gospel in our lives and in our church.

TRANS: But Before we examine how Nehemiah and the people of faced adversity, we need to see the manner in which the work got started. But let’s be honest - can anything be more uninteresting than a list of names that are hard to pronounce? What are we supposed to do with chapter 3? Well, some people do absolutely nothing. In 1983 Chuck Swindoll wrote a popular study on Nehemiah called, “Hand Me Another Brick.” This has been one of the more popular studies on Nehemiah. But interestingly, he skips chapter 3! To be honest, it’s tempting to do the same. But if we skipped chapter 3 we would miss out on something important about how every believer has a role in building God’s kingdom. And as we take a look through this list of names, you need to…

1. Realize Your Part in the Whole (3:1-32) In chapter 2 Nehemiah had called the people to action. Chapter 3 is their response. Now, go ahead and look at chapter 3 in your . I’m not going to read but rather point out what’s happening here. Basically, chapter 3 is organized geographically. It works its way around the edge of Jerusalem, showing how the wall was built from gate to gate. In fact there are seven gates in total, and between each of those gates the people build or repair the wall.

Notice that every one is at work to rebuild the wall. As you read through the list you see that there are representatives from every part of society. You have merchants, rulers, temple servants, guards, priests - everyone. In fact, if you read verse 23 correctly a couple of bachelors are pitching in. Everyone was in on the work. And in some ways this signals a major shift in the OT. Because what you see here is that the clergy are working side by side with everyone else. The work of building up the kingdom of God is not something that is relegated to a few - but the whole people are needed for the rebuilding. Everyone has to do it.

And not only is everyone getting in on the rebuilding, there is a certain unity in what they are doing. Everyone knows their job and does it. Everyone knows where they fit within the whole. Notice what’s absent from chapter 3? Grumbling. Boasting. Laziness. Procrastination. Passing the buck to others. Recognition seeking. You see, if the unity hadn’t been there then it would have been impossible for the walls to be rebuilt. It required people to not only build the walls, but remove the rubble. Not only was it necessary for people to carry out the skilled labor, but you had to have people do the “grunt work” also. But you can see from the text that there was a certain harmonious rhythm to their work: It lists the name of a specific person and then, “Next to him…next to them…next to him.” That’s the pattern of an efficient and unified group.

You also get the sense that these people were working sacrificially as well. People came from eight different places up to a fifteen- or twenty-mile radius. Not everyone working on the wall lived in Jerusalem. According to chapter 3, volunteers came from Jericho (2), Tekoa (5), Gibeon (7), Mizpah (7, 15, 19), Zanoah (13), Beth Hakkerem (14), Beth Zur (16) and Keilah (17, 18). And these are people who had jobs in the towns they lived in. They had fields to cultivate, and farms and workshops must be maintained. However, they left their homes and families in order to help see the walls of the covenant people built up. And the immediate benefit went to those who lived in the city - but they still gave of their time. They still made the sacrifice.

In a couple of instances, you see that people are building multiple sections of the wall. They’re doing double duty. They cover their part, and then they go over and help with someone else’s. For example, Meremoth completed one part in verse 4 and then repaired another section in verse 21. Meshullam did the same, while the men of Tekoa also completed two main sections.

And Nehemiah is good at not taking credit for the work. It’s safe to assume he was sweating up on the wall with everyone else. But instead of writing about how he had the wall built, he lists the names of so many faithful people - drawing attention to their sacrifice and their service. In fact, he didn’t even list his own name. And when you get to chapter 6, and it’s all done, he says, “This work has been done with the help of our God.”

Of course there is always a few who do nothing. I think that’s universally true that you can count on someone whose not doing their part. Look at verse 5: And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. They did not stoop to serve their Lord. Why? There will always be some who refuse to get their hands dirty. There will always be some who have failed to understand the faithfulness of God. The whole book of Nehemiah reveals that God is faithful to his promises in spite of the fact that his people have failed to uphold their end of the bargain. He is a covenant keeping God. He raises up Nehemiah and uses him to communicate the vision of the kingdom of God. And all the people are moved to action - except a handful of nobles. Their passion for the glory of God is just as small as their understanding of what God has done for them.

What about you? Will you stoop to serve the Lord? Will you consider the Lord Jesus Christ you who stooped down to wash the feet disciple’s feet? The one who left his privileged position with the Father in Heaven to come and walk among us? The one who willingly went to the cross on behalf of his people? Will you let the love displayed in his atoning work be the motivation you need to serve Him?

You and I need to realize our part in the whole. The reality is that we’re all one in Christ. Regardless of race, class, background, and abilities - there is no distinction. We’re all one in Christ. And every Christian has a ministry. The apostle Paul teaches us in places such as 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 that all believers have gifts - and those gifts should be used accordingly. But if that isn’t enough encouragement, think about this. In Matthew 11:11, we have Jesus making a rather bold statement. He writes, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Do you see what Jesus is saying? John the Baptist who had the great privilege of preparing the way for the Messiah was the greatest man to ever live. But those who are in the kingdom have a greater privilege because they are partakers of the new covenant, sealed and indwelt with the Holy Spirit! The simplest Christian has the Holy Spirit, and therefore has capabilities that John the Baptist didn’t have.

TRANS: What is your part in the whole? Your part is to live a life of progressive sanctification. To live a life of faithfulness. And to use the gifts the Lord has given you to see the kingdom of God advance. And if you respond to the call - like the Jews did in rebuilding the wall - you’ll eventually encounter opposition. They’ll always be opposition whenever you do something good for God. And so you then need to…

2. Understand the Nature of the Battle (4:1-5) The opposition to the work intensifies in chapters 4 through 6. But we need to understand it as more than some men, with hard to pronounce names, as pestering Nehemiah. The threat is very real. And I don’t think it’s a stretch to call it spiritual warfare. Sandballat and come back on to the scene in chapter 4 to mock Nehemiah and the people. But the Nehemiah’s real opponent is a more permanent enemy. Someone who is the enemy of God’s people. Someone who hates God’s work. Someone who hates God’s praise. Now, Satan is never mentioned by Nehemiah. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t there.

Now, let me remind you that in absolutely no way is Satan - whose very name means adversary - equal to God. Not even close. Whereas God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere - Satan is not. He’s limited in what he can do, what he can know, and where he can be. In fact, he can only be in one place at a time. And not only that, he is a defeated person. The cross of Christ was a decisive victory. And so while we certainly should detest Satan, we should never dread him. Nor should we fear him.

The Apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:11-12: [11] Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. [12] For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

So we understand that the opposition, or adversity, to the furtherance of the gospel is opposition by the enemy. It’s spiritual warfare. And when we understand the nature of adversity, we can then understand how to deal with it. Now notice what happens first in verse 1-3: [1] Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. [2] 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?” [3] 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!”

Sanballat sees that rapid progress is being made. And so in the presence of his associates, and the army, he starts to make fun of the jews. And some commentators liken this to psychological warfare. Make no mistake, it’s spiritual warfare. But it’s aimed at their morale. After all, ridicule has a way of striking us in our hidden insecurities. It’s pulls at our weaknesses.

The verbal abuse thrown at the Jews by Sanballat comes in the form of rhetorical questions. In a sense he says they’re incompetent. He says the task is too great for them. He calls it an absurd idea. It’s too big for them. And then to top it off, Tobiah the Ammonite jumps in and says, “even a fox could topple this thing.” (That’s Tobiah’s way of making a joke). And before we see Nehemiah’s response, let me ask this: how would you have responded? Would you have fought back with insults? Would you try to justify yourself? Would you blame shift?

Well, Nehemiah responds in a way that seems to be common for him. He prays. Look at verses 4 and 5: [4] Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. [5] Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. Now, this isn’t just any prayer. It’s an imprecatory prayer. An imprecatory prayer is a prayer of judgment. And you might think, “Wow. Prayer of judgement, huh. He must have really had his feelings hurt by that joke about the fox toppling the wall.” Well, I think it’s clear from verse 5 that Nehemiah is less concerned about his feelings, and more concerned with the fact that they are mocking God’s faithfulness.

And so Nehemiah prays for three things: #1 For their taunting to turn back on them. #2 For them to experience what they’ve experienced. #3 For God not to forgive them. We get the first two, but the last one is hard for us to understand, right? That God wouldn’t forgive them?! Now again, the motive on Nehemiah’s end is not revenge, rather it’s the honor of God. So he’s calling on God to bring justice. And what is unstated here, but I believe implied, that God’s justice

against their abusers would ultimately lead to their repentance. Listen to how scholar Jim Hamilton puts it:

“There is nothing wrong with praying for God to uphold justice against those who oppose His people. Nor is this in conflict with Jesus’ instruction, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Matt 5:44). It is not loving to want someone to continue in their evil and avoid God’s justice. It is loving to desire that God would deliver someone from his or her evil by means of the revelation of His justice against them.” So, please do not leave here this morning thinking that you should pray for the damnation of anyone who rubs you the wrong way, opposes you, or generally makes you angry. Instead, understand that the nature of the battle we fight is one of spiritual warfare. We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, correct? It’s a spiritual battle we fight, it comes in direct opposition to the kingdom of God being built up. So you will surely experience spiritual warfare if you’re pursuing godliness. You will surely experience spiritual warfare if you are making radical choices to live a life of purity. You will surely experience spiritual warfare if you’re making the effort to share the gospel with your neighbors. That’s the nature of the battle. And the way to respond is by praying.

TRANS: Prayer, however is not the only thing we are to do. Not only are we to understand the nature of the battle - and respond in prayer. We also need to…

3. Persevere with Diligence and Trust (4:6-23) Look at verse 6: [6] So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. Don’t you love the way he responds? Here are these opponents who are taunting them and Nehemiah doesn’t say anything to them. He only says something to God. And they get back to work. Which, that work makes them angrier. In fact, verse 7 tells us that Sanballat, Tobiah, and the whole rest of them were furious. [8] And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. [9] And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

So they’ve turned from taunting to plotting. They want to obstruct the progress on the wall in two ways: #1 by physical force and by #2 inciting a division. Now, my guess is that you and I more likely to encounter taunting then we are some sort of physical threat. And yet, we know that there are believers around the world where they experience the very kind of threats being made here. But it should still make us do an honest assessment of our hearts. Would you be willing to die for your faith?

And if I were one of the Jews, this is the point where I would want to throw in the towel. This is where I would want to say, “Hey, is this really important?” Because whenever you and I are faced with the prospect of having to sacrifice something for God, we often think of any possible reason as to why it’s simply not that important. We might think, “Someone else will do it.” Or, “I’ll do it later.” But seeing God glorified in every part of our lives - seeing the gospel be received by others - living a life of holiness - all of those things are of eternal significance.

Their response? They prayed again, and they set a guard. They kept going. They didn’t quit. And from there it intensifies. Look at verses 10 through 12: [10] In it was said, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.” [11] And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.” [12] At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, “You must return to us.”

And here we see two great enemies at work, both opposed to the building up of God’s kingdom; discouragement and distraction. First, it comes from within. In verse 10 they begin to lose sight of God’s hand in all of this. It was beginning to look impossible. In a sense they were thinking that God had left them to do this on their own. Second, you have the discouragement from physical threats in verse 11. And then thirdly, verse 12, you have other Jews living in the surrounding areas saying, “Look this is crazy. Just come back to us before you get killed.”

And how does Nehemiah respond? He doesn’t quit. He takes the diligence, the effort, and all the strenuous work and adds to it a deep trust in the Lord. Look at verse 14. Here is perhaps one of the most important verses in Nehemiah: [14] And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”

In this verse you see both the diligence and the trust. The source of their strength is the knowledge of who God is. The God who keeps promises. The God who is awesome - meaning the God whom we should be in reverent fear of. And so fight. Keep going. And listen to how J.I. Packer comments on this verse:

“To be a fellow-laborer with this God and share in his works of love, blessing, and redemption in this world is a marvelous privilege, the greatest that life affords. The work may be tougher than we bargained for, but we should still feel the awe and the glory of being God’s colleague. And never forget that, as someone once said, one with God is a majority, or that, as someone else has said, while the wages for serving God here may be scrappy, the pension is out of this world.”

And so this is how the rest of chapter 4 plays out: God frustrates the plans of his enemies. Everyone goes back to work. And the diligent effort continues. Nehemiah organizes everyone so that half the people are working on the wall, and the other half are standing guard. You have workers who are armed. And you have people who are sleeping inside the walls. And you have men who stay dressed for battle. But there’s one more, small statement in here I don’t want you to miss. Verse 20: [20] In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”

Our God will fight for us. Now that’s a bold declaration. Stop and think about that for a moment. Nehemiah organizes guards, and weapons, and schedules so that they are always ready for an invasion. The sound of the trumpet was a call to arms. But then he says, “Our God will fight for us.” And that’s because no matter how much effort we put into something, it cannot replace the trust we also need. Nehemiah is pointing to nothing less than the sufficiency of God! And that’s a normal pattern for God and his people. In Exodus 14, the Israelites are crossing the Red Sea. Moses is telling them that they don’t need to be afraid. And he says this: [14] The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” Or in Deuteronomy 1 when the Israelites were refusing to enter the land and God said to them: [30] The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, [31] and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’

Listen, if you only hear one statement this morning I hope it's this: Let your adversity be a testimony to God’s sufficiency. Let whatever opposition you experience toward growing in godliness, toward using your gifts, toward serving the Lord with your whole heart - let that be an opportunity for the sufficiency of God to take front and center stage. Why? Because despite

opposition, God has always shown himself faithful to his people. He brought them out of exile. He calls them back to covenant faithfulness. He fights for them. He protects them. He is sufficient in every adverse circumstance, in every act of persecution, and even when your discouraged and distracted. Let your adversity be a testimony to God’s sufficiency.

CONCLUSION The walls that the Jews built were able to protect them from their opposing neighbors, but you know what it couldn’t protect them from? The rebellion of their own hearts. I’m not trying to spoil the story here, but you and I know that Israel would still neglect to keep their end of the covenant. God would always remain faithful, but they would constantly need to be called back to faithfulness. But in the same way God fought for them in building the wall, God fought for them in keeping the covenant. Because eventually he would send a leader greater than Nehemiah. He sent his Son Jesus Christ - who was always faithful. He sent him to live the life no Jew, or any person for that matter, could every live. And in the sending of his Son, God not only kept his end of the covenant, He kept ours as well. He fought for us at the cost of His Son.

Listen, if you’ve never come to know God through the person of Jesus, don’t respond by trying to make yourself more acceptable to Him. No, look to the person of Jesus who has been faithful on your behalf. Because when you trust Christ, then and only then, will you be acceptable to him.

And if you know Christ, I want to ask you to reflect on the faithfulness - the sufficiency of God. If you know that to be true, then let’s get to work building His Kingdom.