Nehemiah 6:15 ( ESV )
There is no greater joy than when we know that our work is done. I cannot even begin to imagine how Nehemiah and the people of Israel felt when they finished the wall. What is even more incredible is that they finished this task within a period of only 52 days. Just by looking at the completion of the wall they knew that God had helped them to complete this task. As Nehemiah was known to say, “God’s good hand had been upon them.”
Nehemiah 6:16 ( ESV )
16And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.
No one in the land knew this better than the enemies of God as we see here in verse 16. The enemies’ reaction was not that of joy but of fear. Their confidence in their abilities to thwart the plans of God was shot. Now get a hold of this fact, even the enemies of God can see that God was at work. They had no other explanations that they could give. The sad part is that in even knowing this, some will still try to fight against the work of God.
Nehemiah 6:17-19 ( ESV )
17Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them.
18For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife.
19Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.
As sad as verse 16 is the sadder verses are found here in 17-19. Many of the nobles of Judah had sided with Tobiah who was an enemy of God. These are probably some of the same nobles as brought up in 3:5 who were unwilling to join in the work of the rebuilding the wall. Many of them had become tied in with Tobiah for various reasons. (What are our ties with the world? Why, do we try to follow after the world?)
Some of these nobles were related to Tobiah through marriage. These relatives were willing to let family be more important than doing what God had wanted them to do. Does that sound familiar? Are there times in our lives when we are persuaded by our families to do something that we know that God does not want us to be involved in? What a tragedy. We have been told that Jesus will at times cause division within our families when we choose to follow Him. This is part of carrying the cross.
The nobles would speak well of Tobiah in front of Nehemiah. They would try to sway him to believe that he was a good man. “Truly he is only looking out for the good of Israel.” Some of them may have even believed this to be true. They would even go as far as telling Tobiah what Nehemiah was planning on doing. The sad part is that Tobiah sent letters still to try to put fear into Nehemiah’s heart.
Some of us will have to ask ourselves some hard questions. Do I put blood as being more important that what is right? Am I willing to allow my God to have supreme authority over me? Whose voice will I listen to? The scriptures tell us, ”Whoever loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37
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