SALT AND LIGHT: Sanballat's evil bag of tricks. Neh. 6:1-14

Nehemiah 6:1-4 ( ESV )

¹Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates),

²Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm.

³And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”

⁴And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner.

The big push. The Hail Mary pass. What we are about to see in these next few verses of scripture is Sanballat dumping out his bag of evil tricks. He knows that Nehemiah is now coming to a close with the work God had given him to do. All that was left of the rebuilding process was setting up the doors in the gates.

Listen, brothers and sisters, Satan and our enemies will continue to fight us until our last dying breath. I believe there are some who love to see us fail in the end. Vance Havner used to say, “I want to get home before dark.” What Vance was simply saying was that he wanted to end his Christian walk living in the light of Jesus. I want to at the end of my journey to say like Paul, “ I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race.” Nehemiah knew that the task was almost done and he wanted to finish well.

Sanballat’s first tactic was to get Nehemiah away from the work. The plain of Ono was to the extreme west of Judah along the sea coast. Nehemiah would have been far from the work God had called him to do. Sanballat may have wanted to kill him in this area. It would have been easy for him to blame someone else for the cup bearer’s demise. We do know this for sure, he wanted to get Nehemiah’s mind off of the work.

I pray that I will be like Nehemiah and keep my focus on following Christ. Any work that we are doing for the Lord’s glory is a great work. We need to take on his heart, by saying, “I don’t have time to walk away from the work that God intended me to finish."

Sanballat does not give up easily as we see in verse 4. He would continue to use this same type of reasoning over and over again. He would tempt Nehemiah to leave the work that was before him. We hear these same voices today. We must purpose within our heart, we have a work for the Lord that must be finished well.

Nehemiah 6:5-9 ( ESV )

⁵In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand.

⁶In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem^£ also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king.

⁷And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.”

⁸Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.”

⁹For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God, ^£ strengthen my hands.

Remember, during Nehemiah’s time letters much like ours were sealed. We do not want their contents to be seen by anyone not even the postmaster. What makes this unusual was that this letter was an open letter to Nehemiah. This means as it was being passed along many would see the contents of the letter. Sanballat wanted to publicly defame Nehemiah.

Sanballat wanted to charge Nehemiah with rebellion. You could just hear the rumor mill starting at that moment. The same is true today. Lies will be told about us. Sometimes you may even be accused of trying to cause division among the ranks. Your integrity may even be questioned by those that you love. Brothers, and sisters, this was even done to our Lord Jesus, as they tried to accuse him of treason against the Roman government.

The last part of verse 8 is one of the scariest in the entire book of Nehemiah. Sanballat now says, “In light of all of these accusations. Nehemiah, you can trust me,come on down and let me help you.” Do not forget that there will be those who will pretend to be looking out for your good. In reality brothers, sometimes people will give you a Judas kiss. Do not get all x-files on me or paranoid. Realize though, that God wants us to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Nehemiah first of all spoke truth to his enemy. We have not sought to rebel against our king. You, on the other hand are lying. As a matter of fact we know that what Nehemiah was saying was true. Remember from chapter one, it was the king who allowed them to build the wall. Nehemiah did not want to be rebellious against his king. He was proud to be the king’s cup bearer and be a servant to the Lord.

Nehemiah also saw the intent behind Sanballat’s statements. He knew that Sanballat wanted the people to not finish the work that God had called them to do. He knew that by this open letter he wanted the people to become fearful of their association with Nehemiah.

How else did Nehemiah respond? He not only spoke the truth but once again he goes to his Lord in prayer. Not a lot of flowery words but simply, “O God, strengthen my hands.”

Nehemiah 6:10-14 ( ESV )

¹⁰Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Me-hetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.”

¹¹But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live?^£ I will not go in.”

¹²And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

¹³For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me.

¹⁴Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

The last dirty trick out of the bag of Sanballat was trying to use religion to get the people against Nehemiah. As we see from verse 14 Tobiah and Sanballat had hired Shemaiah to try to get Nehemiah to act in an evil way. The plan was simple, get Nehemiah to fear for his life, by saying people were out to kill him. I can protect you. All you have to do is come with me into the house of God within the temple and will close the doors so that nobody will come in to kill you. There can be no safer place in the world for you to hide.

It all sounded so good, except that Nehemiah was not a priest. He had no right to enter into the Holy place. Nehemiah knew that he would be acting disobediently to his heavenly Father. What good is my life if I must disobey my God to keep it? I will not go in.

Something else was at work as well in this choice made by Nehemiah. In chapter 5, Nehemiah had encouraged his people to not only build but to be willing to give their lives for the Lord’s cause of rebuilding the walls. They took that challenge and were willing to stand for the Lord. What would Nehemiah have looked like if by just a mere threat he would run away from the work? No, Nehemiah would take his own stand for the Lord. He would not back down from the work. He would rather fear God than to fear man.

He trusted His God with his very life. He knew that God would make all things right. So, Nehemiah prays that God would deal with his enemies. Am I willing to trust Him when all goes against me? Am I willing to stand when everyone says, “Leave?” “Father, help me not to fear what men may do to me. Help me to be wise and discerning between what is truth and what is a lie. Father, I simply ask that you will lead me. Amen.”