Press On

PLUS

Press On

135

Press On

Nehemiah 6-7

Main Idea: Those who persevere to the end will be saved (cf. Matt 10:22; 24:13).

  1. Perseverance through Overt Opposition (6:1-9)
  2. Perseverance through Covert Opposition (6:10-14)
  3. Perseverance through the Project with People (6:15-19)
  4. Perseverance after the Project with People (7:1-73)

Introduction

I wonder how Paul felt when he had completed the writing of Romans. He was probably in Corinth at the time (see Acts 20:2-3). We might think, What a great day! A day to celebrate and commemorate. What we read in Acts 20:3 is that about that time there was a plot against Paul, and he had to flee the city. What he went about doing was the next thing. Paul wrote Romans, possibly the most important letter in the history of the world, then did the next thing. He persevered. And shortly after that, he said he didn’t count his life of any value but sought only to finish his course, to proclaim the gospel (20:24). He wanted to do what God had called him to do.

We see something similar in the life of Jesus. Take for instance the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Can you imagine that day? A man was dead, and Jesus called him out of the tomb. They celebrated it, but they didn’t make it a holiday on the calendar. No, right after this people were trying to kill Jesus (John 11). And He set His face to what came next, which at that point was the cross (Luke 9:23, 51). You might think the resurrection would be the last hill to climb, right? No there’s something beyond that, the ascension. Seated at the Father’s right hand all is completed, right? No, there’s His return, then His thousand-year reign, followed by the creation of a new heaven and new earth.

Need

I say all this because we need to recognize that we will not arrive. We will not reach a day, this side of glory, when we have done all there is to do. 136We see in Nehemiah 6-7 that though they finished the wall, there was more work to do.

Context

So as we approach Nehemiah 6-7, let’s think about where we are in Nehemiah because the book’s structure is similar to what we saw in the book of Ezra. In Ezra, first the temple was rebuilt, then the people were. In Nehemiah, first the wall was rebuilt, then the people were.

  • Ezra 1-6—Rebuilt Temple
  • Ezra 7-10—Rebuilt Community: Mixed Marriage Controversy
  • Nehemiah 1-6—Rebuilt Wall
  • Nehemiah 7-13—Rebuilt Community: Covenant Renewal/Mixed Marriage Controversy

Perseverance Through Overt Opposition

Nehemiah 6:1-9

In Nehemiah 6:1 we read,

When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that no gap was left in it—though at that time I had not installed the doors in the gates—

Before we read on, let’s observe here the statement of good progress. The work is going forward: the breaches are closed, but the gates have not yet been put up. This is a great statement of progress and a realistic notation of the work that remains to be done.

Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem see a closing window of opportunity. Once the walls are rebuilt and the gates are put in place, the only way to regain control of the city might be through a siege or a direct attack. As long as the walls are broken down, they don’t have to engage in open combat against other people under Persian protection. Those are Jews in that city, but they have the blessing and protection of the king of Persia, so this is a final crucial opportunity before the gates are reestablished.

We all need what Nehemiah has: he has eyes to see both the good progress and the necessary work that remains to be done. It’s not yet time to rejoice that the breaches are closed. The gates still have to be installed.

137Sanballat and Geshem go into action in verse 2:

Sanballat and Geshem sent me a message: “Come, let’s meet together in the villages of the Ono Valley.” But they were planning to harm me.

Nehemiah knew who these people were, and he was not deceived about their intentions. Did you notice that back in verse 1 he straight out called them “enemies”? Nehemiah knew what was at stake, the intentions of these enemies, and that they were not pursuing the kingdom of God like he was. He did not give them the benefit of the doubt. He knew they intended to do him harm.

Are you realistic about your enemies and their intentions? Do you know that Satan is your enemy? Do you know that the enticements to sin that confront you are put there by those who intend to do you harm? How do you react when you’re invited by someone to some place where you know the Devil wants to get you in a vulnerable spot so he can destroy you?

Take a lesson from Nehemiah’s response in verse 3:

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

Nehemiah understood that the work he was called to do was so significant that he had no time for petty distractions. Nehemiah asserted that he was “doing a great work." Compare what Nehemiah was doing in Jerusalem to the work that he had been doing back in Persia, where he was the cupbearer to the king. Being the king’s cupbearer probably meant he had some say in who worked in the palace. He probably oversaw everything that came in contact with the king. Nehemiah was a high level overseer in the capital city at the king’s residence. The king had to trust him. He probably had the king’s ear. Nehemiah left all that to go to this broken-down rubble of a place on the outskirts of the empire, where he was at work rebuilding this wall with maybe one to three thousand Jews living in the city at this point. The walls were broken down, the enemies threatened from outside, and he said, “I am doing a great work.”

The work Nehemiah was doing in Jerusalem was not great because the world thought it was significant. The world would have called what he was doing back in Persia “great work.” The world would have told him 138that he left the great work for something that didn’t matter at all. Who cared if the walls of Jerusalem got rebuilt? What difference did it make?

It made a difference, it was a great work, it was an important project because God’s name was at stake in Jerusalem. Those walls were going to protect God’s people. That’s what made what Nehemiah was doing in Jerusalem a great work.

What work are you doing? Would you describe it as great work? If you are doing what God has called you to do in the task of making disciples, you are not doing things that the world thinks is of great significance—you’re not even doing something that can be measured like building walls—but God’s name is at stake in your life now just as it was at stake in what Nehemiah was doing.

On a trip to Washington DC, my family and I saw a great deal of art and architecture. We saw the beautiful Library of Congress, a great shrine to books. As I looked at the fabulous buildings, considered the magnificent paintings, and read stirring quotations, it struck me that what is being celebrated in Washington DC is the freedom enjoyed by the citizens of this nation. What is celebrated at the Library of Congress is the significance of the printed page, the book. What is celebrated in the art and the architecture is human life. The point is not the glory of the monument, the protection of the books, and the priceless treasure of the paintings. The point of the monument is the joy of life available to humans, neither enslaved nor tyrannized; the point of the celebration of books is the power of learning that can be gained from those books; and the point of art and architecture is that they communicate the depth and grandeur of what it is to be human, made in the image of God.

All this to say: God has called you to live out His glory by trusting Him, walking with Him in purity, and thanking Him for what He gives you. That is the way that He has called all of us to live, whether we are also called to do vocational ministry or called to be a barber cutting hair or called to be an electrical engineer or called to be a stay-at-home mom changing diapers and teaching homeschool. The point is much less what we do and much more how we do it and who we do it for.

If you are trusting God, walking in purity, and thanking God for what He gives, you are doing a great work just as much as Nehemiah was, even if you’re not surrounding a city with stones. Putting rocks around a small town is not what makes Nehemiah’s work great. A dedication to God’s 139name, God’s promises, and God’s people is what makes Nehemiah’s work great.

That’s what makes our work great as well: God’s name, God’s Word, God’s people. Loving and serving one another and ensuring the proclamation of the gospel from the pulpit and the table will make this work great.

If you are doing a great work—trusting God in purity and gratitude—there will be enemies who will want to distract you from the work. They will try to draw us away. They will try to make us think that their delegations and meetings and conferences and messages are more important than the great work we’re doing.

Are there things that persistently distract you from what God has called you to do? If you’re a student, God has called you to honor Him in your studies. If you’re an employee, God has called you to honor Him in the way you serve your employer. If you’re a spouse, God has called you to honor Him in your marriage. If you’re single, God has called you to honor Him in your singleness. If you’re a child, God has called you to honor Him by obeying and honoring your parents. Let’s answer the things that would distract us from the great work God has given each of us to do with the same steadfastness we see from Nehemiah here.

If your e-mail chimes, if there’s something silly on TV that would rob you of time with your children, or if there’s someone who wants to gossip with you, respond like this: “I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?” (Neh 6:3).

Look at Nehemiah’s resolute steadfastness to persevere in the work (v. 4): “Four times they sent me the same proposal, and I gave them the same reply.” Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, and the enemies persisted, and so did Nehemiah. He was just as persistent as they were in his insistence that he was not going to leave the work to be distracted by them.

Again, significance comes less from what work is being done than from whom the work is for and how we do it. You think rebuilding the walls of a small city on the outposts of the empire is more significant than serving as the cupbearer to the king in the capital? Nehemiah thought so, not because the work on the wall was glamorous but because it was being done for God’s name and for God’s people.

Sanballat sent me this same message a fifth time by his aide, who had an open letter in his hand. (v. 5)

140This fifth challenge ups the ante. This is not a letter intended for Nehemiah alone. Sanballat intended this letter to be read in public. This letter issued a challenge by spreading false rumors, as recounted in verses 6-7:

It is reported among the nations—and Geshem agrees—that you and the Jews plan to rebel. This is the reason you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to become their king and have even set up the prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim on your behalf: “There is a king in Judah.” These rumors will be heard by the king. So come, let’s confer together.

By putting the rumors in this open letter he sent to Nehemiah, Sanballat tried to bully, intimidate, and manipulate the situation so that Nehemiah would do what the enemies wanted him to do: stop the work to meet with them. The rumors offered a believable, alternative explanation as to why Nehemiah and the returnees sought to rebuild the wall. The rumors had an appearance of truth. The Jews did not intend to rebel, but fortifying the city could be interpreted that way. Nehemiah did not intend to become king, but he did have a messianic hope. He was looking for a king from David’s line, and if one had arisen they would have celebrated his appearance. The rumors had a ring of truth, but they imputed false motives and misconstrued the work on the wall, using it to assert that the Jews were plotting rebellion, led by Nehemiah.

The rumors were a malevolent spin on what was really happening. Not only was reality spun in a negative direction, the information that the servant of Sanballat had “an open letter” and that “Geshem agrees” indicates that other people were seeing and hearing the spin represented in claims of the letter.

Have you ever had rumors circulated about you? Has someone ever presented you with the ways that your actions and motives are being misrepresented? Have people circulated these false interpretations of what you are doing? How have you responded to the misinformation? How should we respond when such things happen?

Should we stop what we are doing and try to track down all the people who may have heard the rumor? Should we allow the rumor-mongers to interrupt what we need to be doing and distract us from our responsibilities? Look at how Nehemiah responded in verse 8:

141Then I replied to him, “There is nothing to these rumors you are spreading; you are inventing them in your own mind.”

That’s exactly right! Nehemiah wasn’t plotting rebellion and wasn’t planning to set himself up as king. The enemies invented this balderdash. Notice how Nehemiah rejected the allegations out of hand. He didn’t dignify their poppycock by working within their warped view of the world, nor should we. Nehemiah rejected the false interpretation of the world and went right on doing what God had called him to do.

Nehemiah refused to entertain the rumors; he responded only to deny their truth and state the true origin of the rumors. He addressed them only to dismiss them, then he diagnosed the motive behind these rumors and committed his cause to prayer in verse 9 (ESV):

For 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.

This is why the enemies were circulating rumors. The enemies of God and His people could only intimidate. They could bully. They saw that if those gates were installed in that rebuilt wall, they would have lost the ability to oppress and manipulate the people for their own benefit.

Those on the side of truth should respond as Nehemiah did. Keep doing what you’re called to do. Nehemiah did not revise his agenda, stop his work on the walls, or stop talking about God’s promises because wrong-headed people with a perverted view of the world were using what he said and did against him. The fact that people could misinterpret and misrepresent what Nehemiah was doing did not stop him from doing what God had called him to do.

The people of God are sometimes tempted to tone down, soften, or back away. We can be tempted to speak softly, if at all. That’s not how Nehemiah responded to this crisis.

Persistence in the truth will shine the light on falsehoods and deceits. God’s enemies try to discourage God’s people. When this kind of thing happens, speedy reactions and hasty conclusions are on the side of the enemies. If God’s people will think carefully, analyze deliberately, and seek wise counsel before we react, we will see fallacious reasoning, preposterous theorizing, and unpersuasive argumentation.

So when an enemy of God and His people approaches us with some alternative explanation of reality, don’t react too quickly. Don’t 142be discouraged. Don’t scale back what you believe and what you are willing to say. Stare at the evidence and at the arguments based on the evidence. Analyze the alternative explanation of reality. We will see right through it and be in position to show that the fabrications are but figments of perverted imaginations. We will see that God’s enemies are merely trying to discourage us from the great work we are doing.

And don’t miss what else Nehemiah did. Did you see it at the end of verse 9? Nehemiah shows us how to stand firm and pray. Nehemiah stood firm by rejecting the imaginative and wicked spin the enemies put on reality and persisted in what God had called him to do. Then he prayed that, rather than his hands dropping from the work, God would strengthen them in the work. Prayer is a consistent emphasis in Nehemiah (see 1:4; 2:4; 4:4, 9; 5:19). Nehemiah was constantly praying, but he didn’t only pray. He prayed, and he took action. We want to cultivate a disposition of being aware of God and turning to Him when in need, and we want to take action where we can.

So in 6:1-9 we have seen the overt opposition, and in verses 10-14 we see the covert opposition.

Perseverance Through Covert Opposition

Nehemiah 6:10-14

Nehemiah describes his next difficulty in verse 10:

I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was restricted to his house. He said: “Let us meet at the house of God inside the temple. Let us shut the temple doors because they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you tonight!”

From what we see as the passage develops, we know that this Shemaiah is some kind of prophet. He is regarded in the community as being able to declare the will of God. Now he tells Nehemiah that there is a threat on his life and he should take refuge in the temple. How will Nehemiah respond to this man who has a reputation as a prophet? Look what he says in verse 11:

But I said, “Should a man like me run away? How can I enter the temple and live? I will not go.” I realized that God had not sent him.

How did Nehemiah know that this prophet was not sent by God? How was it “realized”? Nehemiah knew Scripture. Nehemiah knew that 143the Pentateuch says only priests can go into the temple, and only at appointed times. Nehemiah said, “How can I enter the temple and live?” Non-priests enter the temple on pain of death (Num 18:7; cf. Lev 10:1-2; Num 1:53; 3:38; 4:15, 19-20, etc.; see also Heb 9:6-7). Nehemiah recognized that he was not a priest and knew that if he tried to enter the temple the Lord might break out against him. That, too, is how Nehemiah knew that this prophet was not sent from God. This prophet counseled Nehemiah to do something that was expressly forbidden by the Word of God.

If someone tells you to do exactly what the Bible says not to do, you know that person does not speak for God. So Nehemiah heard this counsel that he should enter the temple, and he responded to it on the basis of what the Bible teaches.

You want to know the will of God? Know the Bible. He has revealed His will. You want to know how to tell when someone is or isn’t in line with the will of God when they claim to reveal the will of God? Evaluate their claims by the Scriptures. Are they saying what the Bible says?

Nehemiah’s knowledge of the Scriptures enables him to discern what is really going on with Shemaiah, as he goes on to say in verse 12 (ESV), “but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.” This so-called prophet took money to oppose God and God’s agenda. He valued money more than God by trying to lead Nehemiah astray. Make no mistake about it: people can be led astray by money. Guard your heart. Don’t be someone who will sell what is most valuable because someone will give you money or a benefit from their money. It’s not worth it. Look at the condemning statement Nehemiah makes about Shemaiah in verse 13:

He was hired, so that I would be intimidated, do as he suggested, sin, and get a bad reputation, in order that they could discredit me.

Nehemiah is not just building these walls because walls are good. He is building these walls because this is God’s city. And that matters because when the walls are built, God’s law can be enforced for the good of God’s people. All of that is undercut if the people don’t act like they believe that God is going to dwell in that temple. They are building the walls so that they can create a clean and holy place where God will take up residence in that temple in their midst. For that to happen they must conduct themselves according to God’s instructions. If they 144act like they don’t believe all that as they try to build the walls, the whole operation is undermined.

Once again, Nehemiah committed his cause to the Lord in prayer, as we see him pray in verse 14,

My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat for what they have done, and also Noadiah the prophetess and the other prophets who wanted to intimidate me.

Just as Nehemiah asked the Lord to remember the good he had done for Israel (5:19), so now he asks the Lord to remember the evil the enemies have done against Israel. Why would Nehemiah pray such a thing? Why would he want these things remembered? He wants these things remembered because he believes that God will settle the accounts. Nehemiah believes there will be a judgment. He believes God will do justice, and he wants God’s justice to be seen. God will reward people according to what they have done.

Nehemiah wants mercy for those who repent of sin and trust God (1:5), and he wants justice for those who oppose God and His purposes (4:4-5; 5:13; 6:14). Nehemiah does not want unrepentant sin to go unrequited. He wants it remembered so that it can be repaid. Notice, too, how Nehemiah left this matter in God’s hands. He did not plan a counter-attack on his enemies. He did pray for God to do justice against His enemies and the enemies of His people.

So we have seen overt (6:1-9) and covert (vv. 10-15) opposition, and now we come to the perseverance through the project with these people (vv. 15-19).

Perseverance Through The Project With People

Nehemiah 6:15-19

Behold the triumph in verse 15:

The wall was completed in 52 days, on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul.

They started the work in August, and they finished it in October. Fifty-two days passed, and in that time they rebuilt the wall. Can I encourage you not to underestimate what you can accomplish if God has called you, if you are serving Him, and if you persevere? Often things don’t 145happen simply because people don’t start doing them and don’t persevere in them. See verse 16:

When all our enemies heard this, all the surrounding nations were intimidated and lost their confidence, for they realized that this task had been accomplished by our God.

This is Nehemiah’s perspective: that God has been aiding the work all along. (The HCSB’s rendering “by our God” means “with the help of our God,” ESV, NASB, NET.) God was at work on behalf of the people, so Nehemiah explained back in 2:8 that the good hand of his God was upon him. Then, in 2:12 he said that God had put it in his heart to do this for Jerusalem, and he told the people in 2:20 that the God of heaven would make them prosper. Then in 4:15 he said that God had frustrated the plans of the enemy. In 4:20 he told the people that God would fight for them. Now it has come to pass. The wall has been built. The work has been done with the help of God.

We want to be people who do things that can only be done because God is helping us. We don’t want to be people who do things that can be explained away by ordinary human effort. We don’t want the world to look at what we have done and say, “Anybody with financial means, market savvy, and cultural sensitivity could pull that off.” We don’t want that. We want people looking at our church, at our gospel efforts, and saying, “Only God could bring those people together. I knew some of those people before they got converted; only God could make them as loving as they are now.” We want people looking at us and being shocked that so many people of such disparate backgrounds and interests love one another the way we do. Only God can do this. Only God can produce true conversion. Only God can convince people that the Bible is true in the face of the lies and myths of the culture. Only God can make sinners love one another.

Nehemiah 6:15-16 contains triumphant statements, but there is more work to be done. Just as Paul finished Romans and faced a plot on his life with more to do, just as Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and continued toward that looming cross, now Nehemiah gets the wall built and has to deal with traitors within the city. See verse 17:

During those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them.

146Nehemiah 2:10 tells us that Tobiah is an Ammonite servant. He isn’t a Jew; he’s an enemy of the Jews. Tobiah was working against the well-being and safety of the people of Jerusalem, and now nobles in Judah are corresponding with him. This exchange of letters is a trading of intelligence. Nehemiah has to deal with treachery.

Verse 18 only makes it worse:

For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, since he was a son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah.

Once again the problem of intermarriage rears its ugly head. Tobiah is connected by marriage to significant people in Jerusalem. As a result, we see in verse 19,

These nobles kept mentioning Tobiah’s good deeds to me, and they reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.

So Jews came to Nehemiah and spoke well of this enemy of the cause. This guy Tobiah was doing everything in his power to keep God’s law from being enforced in Jerusalem by thwarting the rebuilding of the walls. Not only did they speak well of him, they gave him reports of what Nehemiah said. And the letters intended to make Nehemiah afraid show that Tobiah had not abandoned his opposition to what Nehemiah was about in Jerusalem. Tobiah was not repenting of his sin and joining God’s program; he was persisting in his opposition to it. He only changed strategies from the attempt to keep the wall from being built to the attempt to intimidate Nehemiah.

Now that Nehemiah has successfully rebuilt the wall, he has to turn his attention to the hearts of people, which is a much more difficult building project. Now he has to confront sin within the congregation. As we come to chapter 7, Nehemiah is persevering through the project with the people. This list of names in chapter 7 serves to identify who the Jews really are.

What’s at stake in this situation is that God’s people have returned to the land, and they are seeking the blessing of Abraham and through that the good of all nations (Gen 12:3). In order for God’s people to experience the blessing of Abraham and to be the blessing of all the families of the earth, they have to be holy. They have to be set apart to God. In order for them to be holy they have to know who they are as a people. That’s why these genealogical lists of names matter, and that’s 147why the problem of intermarriage threatens everything the returnees are trying to accomplish.

Perseverance After The Project With People

Nehemiah 7:1-73

This list of names in Nehemiah 7 sets up what will be an effort to repopulate Jerusalem. Nehemiah 7:4 tells us,

The city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and no houses had been built yet.

So the walls are rebuilt. Who is going to live there? Are the returnees going to let people from the land—non-Jews—live in Jerusalem? No, they have to be a holy people. They must be a holy nation. So Nehemiah brings out this list, and note what verse 6 says:

These are the people of the province who went up among the captive exiles deported by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Each of them returned to Jerusalem and Judah, to his own town.

This is the first set of returnees, the same group of people that we read about back in Ezra 2. So what Nehemiah is doing is going back to the starting point, that first set of returnees, and this list in Nehemiah 7 ends the same way that Ezra 2 did. We read in Nehemiah 7:73, “all Israel settled in their towns” (my trans.; cf. Ezra 2:70).

Nehemiah had to establish who the Jews were so that he could establish who could live in Jerusalem. The people had returned from exile, they were living in their towns, and eventually they will cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem to repopulate the city (11:1-3).

This means that the genealogy in Nehemiah 7, the list of authenticated Jews, was the first step taken to validate the identity of the true people of God so that Jerusalem could be purified. This is a work that also has its correspondence in what we are doing here as a church, as we are doing what we can to preserve a believer’s church. Jeremiah 31 says that everyone in the new covenant will know God (Jer 31:31-34), and in this church we participate in the new covenant. We want all members of the church to know God. If people show by their unrepentant sin that they do not know God, we want to obey what Jesus said to do in order to remove them from church membership so that they are under no illusion about their standing before God (Matt 18:15-18).

Conclusion

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What we are doing here as a church is calling people to join the true people of God by repenting of their sin and trusting in Jesus Christ as their Savior. If you wanted to join the people of God in Nehemiah’s day, you would have to separate yourself from the nations and become a Jew. There were ways for people to do that, and both Ezra and Nehemiah indicate the some from the nations did (Ezra 6:21; Neh 10:28).

If you want to be part of the people of God today, what you need to do is recognize that God is your Creator, He is holy, and you have transgressed against Him. For that you deserve to pay the penalty for sin, which is separation from God forever. The good news for you is that because of what Jesus did—because of His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead—if you will turn from your sin, confess your sin to God, and trust in Christ, you can be saved. You can be part of the people of God.

We want to be as vigilant as Nehemiah was about determining who is in and who is out, and we have good news: if you are out you can come in by trusting Christ and repenting of your sin. Turn from your sin. Turn from the alternative explanations of the world and of your problems. Believe the Bible, and join us in this great cause, this great work that is better and bigger than building a wall around a city that lies in ruins. This is a great work: building up the body of Christ, until everyone attains to the full stature of the image of the Lord Jesus Himself (Eph 4:12-16). That’s what we’re after here, being conformed to the image of Christ. So if you’re reading this and you’re not a Christian, join us in this great work. And if you are reading this and you are a Christian, persevere in the great work. Don’t let the enemies distract you from it. Don’t let their alternative explanations of the world cause you to back down from what God has called you to do. Let’s persevere to the end that we might be saved.

Reflect and Discuss

  1. What is the value in celebrating achievements? When have you experienced finishing one big task only to be confronted with the next one?
  2. Are there people like Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem trying to hinder your work for God’s kingdom? Are people spreading false rumors or purposely misrepresenting your motives? How should we respond to such people?
  3. 149How do such people betray the fact that they hate God and are opposed to His purposes?
  4. Why is it impossible to finesse the issues with such people?
  5. Why is it pointless to try to compromise with them? What is their ultimate point of dissent?
  6. How does your knowledge of the Bible help you to discern whether a person’s suggestions are valid?
  7. What are some examples of external opposition to the ministry of your church?
  8. What are some examples of internal resistance to the ministry of your church?
  9. When a person in your fellowship speaks well of the enemies of God and His kingdom, in what ways does his or her behavior fit the definition of “treacherous”?
  10. What could be done to improve the practice of church discipline at your church?