THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
"O God, Strengthen My Hands”
Rev. Carl Haak
(e-mail: Rev. Carl Haak) July 16, 2006; No. 3315
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Dear radio friends,
Today we return to our
series on the book of Nehemiah. I ask you to open your Bibles to
Nehemiah 6
and follow along.
In chapter 5, you
will remember, we saw that a great wrong among God’s people was corrected by
Nehemiah – the wrong of wealthy brethren oppressing the poor families of
Now, as we come to
chapter 6, we see that Nehemiah, no sooner than resolving a problem within the
walls of
We read in verse 1
of chapter 6 that the enemies saw that the wall was being builded
and there was no breach left therein.
They have come to understand that threats of physical force will no
longer be effective and that their slanders and trash-talk before the workers
was not working. If the work, therefore,
is to cease, they knew that they must act now against Nehemiah. They must get him out of the way, they must
undermine him. If the leader topples, if
the leader is discredited, the work will have no eyes and the work will have no
force.
What is so
instructive for us in the Scripture is that it tells us plainly that the
intention of the enemies was against Nehemiah and that they had this plot
against Nehemiah (v. 9), that “their hands shall be weakened from the work,
that it be not done.” The enemies aimed
at creating, in the workers, an inward weakening of resolve and heart to wear
them down with discouragement.
When we read that
the enemies’ intention was that their hands be weakened from the work, this is the same as the apostle’s warning in
Galatians 6:9,
when he tells us that in
the work of the church and kingdom we must not “be weary in well doing,” we
must not be gripped by hopelessness. We
must not say, “What’s the use? Why are
we doing all of this? It’s too
much. There’s too much opposition. No one appreciates it. I’m throwing in the towel!” I would define discouragement in the work of
the Lord in this way: the plot of the
devil and our flesh to use the difficulties of our calling, whether that
calling be in marriage, job, home, church, or personal life, to get us to look
out at the difficulties and then in at ourselves – but not up. It is the plot to get us to look out at the
insurmountable, humanly insurmountable things that are contrary to God’s
promises, indeed to have us make a list of these impossibilities and for us to
conclude that in the face of such opposition, it is simply impossible. Then to have us look inside of ourselves: “I have no more strength. I’m used up.
I can’t go on. I can’t put up
with this anymore in this marriage, in this church, in this work. I’m done.”
To have us sink into self-pity and go off and pout and stew and
commiserate.
In this chapter we
will learn that Nehemiah did indeed look out at the problems. He did indeed look inside of himself. But he looked up. He says, “O God, strengthen my hands.” In terms of the full gospel that Nehemiah at
that time did not have but we do, we must have faith in the ascended Lord Jesus
Christ, who has the victory and who works through us His work. We must pray, “O God, strengthen my hands.”
In this chapter we
read that there were four devious plots hatched by the enemies against
Nehemiah.
The first: to kidnap Nehemiah. You will find that in verses 1-4. To remove him permanently. Sanballat and Geshem tried to lure Nehemiah out of the city, as they see
that the work on the walls was nearing completion and that the workers were
about to hang the doors of the gates.
They say to Nehemiah, “Come, let us meet together in some one of the
villages in the plain of Ono.” Ono is
the valley of craftsmen. Perhaps they
tried to lure Nehemiah there by suggesting that in Ono he could receive some
valuable help for the hanging of the gates of the walls of
But Nehemiah says,
“They thought to do me mischief.” His
response is in verse 3. “And I sent messengers
unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it,
and come down to you?” I love that
answer of Nehemiah. We ought to use it
often when we are tempted to leave the path of duty and the service of
God. Nehemiah is here very discerning,
something that God gives through prayer.
He understands the intent of their offer.
Do you? Do you, through prayer, understand the intent
of the apparently innocent invitations:
“You’re attractive. How about dinner Friday
night?” “We’re having a party, a
little bit of beer. Hey, come on over
and we’ll watch some videos.” “Let’s
discuss sexual behavior. Let’s discuss
abortion. Let’s discuss
euthanasia.” Often, under the lurk of openness, the devil seeks to lure us away.
Nehemiah
responded: “I am doing a great
work.” That is what I love about
it. “I’m captivated by this work. And my emotions and my love are all channeled
into it, so that I don’t have the time of day for such an interruption. It’s a great work. It’s part of God’s work. It is the work for His name, truth, people,
and cause. I love that work and it
gobbles up anything else in its presence.”
And we read in
verse 4, “Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort,” four times
they sent this apparently innocent appeal.
And four times Nehemiah responds after the same manner: “I’m doing a great work. I do not have time to go to talk to you.”
The second plot was
the wicked attempt to slander Nehemiah, verses 5-9, to make him afraid of the
gossip and the common opinion of what others would think about him. We read that in an open letter Sanballat writes to Nehemiah of the common gossip reported
among the heathen, verified by this man called Gashmu,
who, Sanballat says, is a reliable source, “that it
is the common opinion that what you are doing comes down to sedition – that
many people think you are simply trying to rebel against the king of Persia –
that you want to set yourself up as a king and that you have sent out heralds
to sway the masses toward you. And what
will happen if these reports reach the ears of the king of
Nehemiah understood
that Sanballat said this “to make me afraid.” The tactics were obvious to the flesh. We have all seen this and we are all
susceptible to this. The desire to play
on what people think about us – the very tool of the devil: “Do you know what they say? I think you should know what they say. Maybe it will affect your course of
action. You and I need to do something
to make you more creditable, more believable.”
The fear of suspicion – to defend ourselves – the
attempt to defend ourselves in the forum of rumor and gossip.
Nehemiah’s response
we read in verse 8: “Then I sent unto
him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them
out of thine own heart.” Nehemiah refused to be deflected, to be
belittled, to be embittered. He does not
say, “All right. Let’s bring everything
out into the open. Let’s trace the
source of this scandal. Let’s demand
unjust accusations being removed.” But
he responds: “It’s not true. And you are fabricating it to make me
afraid. And it’s not going to work.”
And he prayed, “Now
therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.”
That is instructive. It is not
easy to handle unjust accusations.
Nehemiah is the object of a smear campaign, of slander. But here the Scripture is teaching us several
things. First, when you are under such
situations, go to God in prayer.
Nehemiah sought to maintain integrity there before God. God knows the truth. That is all that matters in the end. Second, he does not descend into the court of
rumor. He will not fight fire with fire. He does not seek desperately to clear himself
in the court of rumor. If his conscience
is clear, he will proceed with his God-given duties. And, thirdly, he knew the motive of all of
this: to get the work to stop. What tool is more effective in the arsenal of
the devil than this one: rumor. To cause stoppage of the Lord’s work. To cause stoppage through
the tongue of gossip and rumor.
The third plot was
to discredit him, to get him to disqualify himself by committing a grievous
indiscretion. You read of that in verses
10-14. Nehemiah had a friend, Shemaiah, a prophet, who was shut up (that is, confined to
his house in meditation). Nehemiah
wanted to go to his house. And we can
understand why – he was in need of spiritual strengthening. As any other man, Nehemiah sought
encouragement. But it soon became plain
that Shemaiah the prophet, his friend, had been
bought by the enemies Sanballat and Tobiah. They had
hired, bribed him. He had his price and
they found it, along with most of the rest of the prophets.
We read that Shemaiah the prophet said, “Nehemiah, it’s too dangerous to
meet at my house. They will come to slay
thee. It’s too private. It’s too exposed. It’s too risky. We need to meet in the temple. We will be safe there to talk. We can shut the doors and they won’t dare to
follow you into the temple.” Now that
sounded so plausible.
But Nehemiah
discerned the falseness. We read in
verse 12: “And, lo, I perceived that God
had not sent him.” Why? Because only priests were given
free access to the temple. For
Nehemiah to go into that temple unannounced, unsanctioned would be for him to
commit ritual trespass and therefore to discredit him, to make him guilty of
violating something important in the ceremonial law. In the Old Testament you will find that those
who were in terror, who were desperate, who were hopeless in fear, ran into the
temple thinking that they would find refuge there. It would be, for Nehemiah, to broadcast that
he was scared out of his wits and was willing to commit a ritual trespass.
Nehemiah’s answer
(v. 11): “Should such a man as I flee?
And who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his
life? I will not go in.” He was thinking of his position among the
people of God, his responsibility.
“Shall I do that? Should I go in
and do this? No, I will not.”
The fourth attempt
was to undermine him and sway his judgments.
We read that in those days (eight weeks of wall-building,
that is), the nobles of
So, through money,
and through marriage, the enemy sought to infiltrate God’s people.
Nehemiah,
nevertheless, in the face of all of these plots to ensnare, stood strong in his
faith. He did not sink into despair, but
he found grace to continue in the work of the Lord.
As amazing as it
sounds, the work continued. We read in
verse 15, “So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month
Elul, in fifty and two days.” Nehemiah
found strength not only not to stop the opposition but to press on and to
continue the work. Where did he receive
this strength? He received it in prayer. As we come to know Nehemiah, we expect this
of him. He was a man who was much in
prayer. “O God,” he prays, “strengthen
my hands.” Persistent, fervent, daily
prayer is the way that Nehemiah remained strong and clear minded and
able-hearted to continue in the work of the Lord.
Are you weary? Are you fearful? Are you ready to hang it all up in the work
of the Lord, in your marriage, in the church, or wherever your calling is: as a pastor or whatever? Prayer makes hands strong for the labor of
the kingdom.
Prayer that God
strengthen our hands by laying hold of the righteousness that is in Jesus
Christ, of the victory that is ours in Christ, that in Christ I am clear in the
court of heaven and that God pronounces me justified – what then of the rumors
of men? The victory is ours in Christ. We labor in His name. If through the perfect work of my Lord I am
bound eternally to God whose mercies cannot fail, then I can endure the
treachery even of supposed friends. If I
know that through Christ my soul is secure eternally, do I need to fear men’s
plots against me?
Not only was it
prayer, but it was also the conviction that God was working in him. I find that in verse 16. There we read, “And it came to pass, that
when all our enemies heard thereof (namely, that the walls were completed), and
that all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast
down in their own eyes: for they
perceived that this work was wrought of our God.” That is very important. The heathen picked up on something that
Nehemiah knew. They saw clearly that the
strength behind this work was God’s.
They did not like it. It grieved
them. It made them cast down. It made them depressed – because deeply they
knew that opposition to this God was futile.
They had to recognize that the cause of God’s people was propelled by a
power from a different world – from God.
That is why the heathen, the world of unbelief, is, at bottom,
fatalistic. Oh, yes, they are. The world of unbelief and all the causes of
sin and all the causes of this world apart from God, in all their boastful,
optimistic desires to advance their kingdom, is at
bottom fatalistic. Satan’s kingdom is a
fatalistic kingdom. They know that
opposition to our God is futile.
But this is the
knowledge that invigorates us. This is
the knowledge that picks us up. The work
is the work of God in us. Great builders
in the
Then let us learn
that the enemy against the work of God is subtle. The plots laid down
by Sanballat and Tobiah
were clever, persistent, and cunning.
Behind them stands a far more evil foe, an enemy to whom men like Sanballat and Tobiah are mere
pawns in his hands. The devil wages
unceasing campaigns to frustrate God’s work, to weaken our hands, to get us to
stop the Christian life. This is the way
he works – the same way that he worked on Nehemiah – one plot under way and
another plot under way and another plot under way – all to bring us down to
discouragement, all to have us believe that the glorious gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the cause of the Christian church, the cause of the Christian
life is in vain. He seeks to get you
down to his ground.
He first might say,
“Oh, come, let us counsel together. Come
out of the church. Come out of your
family. Come out of a life of obedience. I’m not so dangerous.” If you withstand him, by the grace of God,
you will find him to be persistent.
He will say, “There
are some rumors that are going on around you Christians, do you know that? I’m just telling you this in your best
interest,” the devil will say. “It’s
been reported to the child-protection agency that you are abusive to your
children. It’s been reported that this
theology, this Calvinism is a radical, exclusivistic,
hate-centered, bigoted religion. Now,
let’s get together,” says the devil.
“And let’s talk about this, how we can, perhaps, repackage this doctrine
of Calvinism, this glory of God, to make it more palatable in our present
situation.”
And if you
withstand that, then he will say, “You know, you have been under a lot of
stress. It will be OK for you to set
aside the law of your God for a little bit.
Everybody will understand that Christians too can, under pressure,
commit indiscretion.” The devil is a
master of manipulation. Let us stand
fast. Let us look to the grace of God,
which is all sufficient. Let us believe
that our God will be our strength, that the forces against the work of Christ
are defeated.
No, we do not
underestimate those forces. But they are
defeated, for the grace of our God is sufficient. Because the cause that we
represent in the church, in the home, in marriage, and in the Christian life is
not ours. It is not our cause. It is God’s.
And it is about His honor.
Therefore He promises that all that comes against you will not destroy
you. And you will experience sufficient
grace, strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow. And you will see the wall of the
Let us pray.
Father,
thanks for the Word. Sanctify it
to our hearts today. In
Jesus’ name, Amen.
Last modified:
24-jul-2006