Bible Men: Nehemiah: Building More than Walls

But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king? Neh 2:19 

The History of Hate

We are children of wrath.

That’s what God’s word says.

Hate is interwoven in the design of our fall. Cain was a son of Adam, and Cain became the first murderer after he killed his brother Abel.

Cain became wroth (incensed/ full of hate) because God rejected his sacrifice.

God tried to reason with Cain, but Cain chose disobedience. He chose the way of Satan.

It is thus hate became ingrained in the eternal warfare between God and Satan.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Gen 3:15  

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Eph 2:2-3 

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Joh 3:19  

Sin is the garment of humankind. Hate then is easy to understand, for a believer. It is not so for a non-believer, who sees hate in everything which does not measure to his liking. 

But God is the standard of all moral values, which is why we believe him. It is when we deny him, like Cain, that sin becomes our desire.

And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Gen 4:6-7  

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jer 17:9  

The Kind of Hate

Incidentally we can’t do without hate. It would be a tragedy. Hate is the other side of love. We go to bed full of love, only to wake in the morning full of hate.

There is a positive hate and a negative one.

The hate of Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem ran the gamut of moral history. Their hatred went deep, racking up historical grievances. They may have felt inferior when measured against the God of the Jew, or they may have been storing bitterness at the loss of their land to these outsiders. But now the Jew was in exile, and their roles were reversed.

But then there arose Nehemiah who wanted to improve the social affairs of the Jew (the exile). And it is that which galled the sensibility of Sanballat and his company. “When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel” (Neh 2:10).  

The easiest way to earn the wrath of the world is to try to seek the welfare of the people of God. “But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews” (Neh 4:1).  

Someone wants to improve the lot of lowly people. But someone gets vexed. He takes great indignation. He mocks. He threatens. And why? Because a man wants to do good for the people!

And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? Neh 4:2 

When it is Easy to Love the Poor

People can change in an instant. It is easy to love someone when he is poor. What is hard is to see their lives change for the better!

They had been friends before. They had loved before. But not now, and the reason was that someone wanted to improve the lot of these people!

I think that is the proof for me of our depraved nature.

On the surface we might be wearing a smile. But underneath a terrible rage might be brewing.

O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 

Their feet are swift to shed blood: 

Destruction and misery are in their ways: 

And the way of peace have they not known: 

There is no fear of God before their eyes. Rom 3:10-18   

Vain men mock. They revile. Yet that never stops the work of God from being done!

Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall. Neh 4:3  

So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.  But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth, And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it. Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them. Neh 4:6-9  

Nehemiah’s tools of war were both spiritual and physical. As it is in all OT battles, the people of God took up arms. They won when God was on their side.

And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. 

They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. Neh 4:16-17  

Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. Psa 76:10  

When The Saints Go Marching In

Nehemiah had left a palace life to redeem a desolate people and a city, and his selfless act has been fought by haters from all directions to this day.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Rom 8:35 

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Joh 15:18-19   

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. Amo 5:10  

And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. 1Jn 5:19  

So now we don’t build walls around our cities, but around our hearts. It’s there that the enemy attacks. We don’t guard it with swords, but by his blood.

Don’t fear him who can kill the body but not the soul…