Chapter 55—Union With the World Hinders God’s Cause-
Sanballat and his confederates with increasing malice continued their secret efforts to discourage and injure the Jews. When the wall about Jerusalem should be finished and its gates set up, these enemies could not force an entrance into the city. They were eager, therefore, to stop the work. At last they devised a plan to draw Nehemiah from his station and to kill or imprison him.
(SS 339.1)
Pretending to desire a compromise, they invited him to meet them in a village on the plain of Ono. But enlightened by the Holy Spirit as to their real purpose, he refused. “I sent messengers unto them,” he writes, “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?” Four times the tempters sent a message of similar import, and each time received the same answer.
(SS 339.2)
Finding this unsuccessful, they resorted to a more daring stratagem. Sanballat sent an open letter which said: “It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king ... . And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.”
(SS 339.3)
Nehemiah was convinced that the reports mentioned in the letter were wholly false. This conclusion was strengthened by the fact that the letter was sent open, evidently that the people might read the contents and become alarmed and intimidated. He promptly returned the answer: “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” RSV. Nehemiah knew that these attempts were made in order to weaken the hands of the builders and thus to frustrate their efforts.
(SS 339.4)
Now Satan laid a still more subtle and dangerous snare for the servant of God. Sanballat hired men who professed to be friends of Nehemiah, to give him evil counsel as the word of the Lord. The chief one was Shemaiah, previously held in good repute by Nehemiah. This man shut himself in a chamber near the sanctuary as if fearing that his life was in danger. The temple was protected by walls and gates, but the gates of the city were not yet set up. Professing great concern for Nehemiah’s safety, Shemaiah advised him, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for ... in the night they will come to slay thee.”
(SS 340.1)
Had Nehemiah followed this treacherous counsel, he would have sacrificed his faith in God and would have appeared cowardly. In view of the confidence he professed to have in the power of God, it would have been inconsistent for him to hide. The alarm would have spread among the people, each would have sought his own safety, and the city would have been left to its enemies. That one unwise move on the part of Nehemiah would have been a virtual surrender of all that had been gained.
(SS 340.2)
Nehemiah penetrated the true object of his counselor. “I perceived that God had not sent him,” he says, “but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him ... that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report.”
(SS 340.3)
Shemaiah’s counsel was seconded by more than one of Nehemiah’s “friends” who were secretly in league with his enemies. But Nehemiah’s fearless answer was: “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.”
(SS 340.4)
Notwithstanding enemies, in less than two months from Nehemiah’s arrival in Jerusalem the builders could walk on the walls and look down on their defeated and astonished foes. “When all our enemies heard thereof,” Nehemiah writes, “they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God.”
(SS 341.1)
Yet even this evidence of the Lord’s controlling hand was not sufficient to restrain rebellion and treachery among the Israelites. “The nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them. For there were many in Judah sworn unto him, because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah.” A family of Judah had intermarried with the enemies of God, and the relation had proved a snare. Others had done the same. These were a source of constant trouble.
(SS 341.2)
The nobles of Judah who had become entangled in idolatrous marriages and who had held traitorous correspondence with Tobiah now represented him as a man of ability and foresight, an alliance with whom would be to the advantage of the Jews. At the same time they betrayed Nehemiah’s plans to him. Thus opportunity was given to misconstrue Nehemiah’s words and acts and to hinder his work.
(SS 341.3)
Satan’s assaults have ever been directed against those who advance the work of God. Though often baffled, he renews his attacks with fresh vigor, using means hitherto untried. But it is his secret working through the “friends” of God’s work that is most to be feared. Open opposition may be fierce and cruel, but it is fraught with far less peril to God’s cause than is the secret enmity of those who, while professing to serve God, are at heart the servants of Satan.
(SS 341.4)
Every device that the prince of darkness can suggest will be employed to induce God’s servants to form a confederacy with the agents of Satan. But, like Nehemiah, they should reply, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.” God’s workers must refuse to be diverted from their work by threats or mockery or falsehood. Enemies are continually on their track. Ever they must “set a watch against them day and night.” Nehemiah 4:9.
(SS 342.1)
As the time of the end draws near, Satan will employ human agents to mock and revile those who “build the wall.” The builders should endeavor to defeat the purposes of their adversaries, but they should not allow anything—neither friendship nor sympathy—to call them from their work. He who by any unguarded act weakens the hands of fellow workers brings on his own character a stain not easily removed and places a serious obstacle in the way of his future usefulness.
(SS 342.2)
“They that forsake the law praise the wicked.” Proverbs 28:4. When those who are uniting with the world plead for union with those who have ever been the opposers of the cause of truth, we should shun them as decidedly as did Nehemiah. Such counsel should be resisted resolutely. Whatever influence would tend to unsettle the faith of God’s people in His guiding power should be steadfastly withstood.
(SS 342.3)
In Nehemiah’s firm reliance on God lay the reason of the failure of his enemies to draw him into their power. In the life that has a noble aim, an absorbing purpose, evil finds little foothold. God’s true servants work with a determination that will not fail, because the throne of grace is their constant dependence. God gives the Holy Spirit to help in every strait. If His people are watching the indications of providence and are ready to cooperate, they will see mighty results.
(SS 342.4)