6:1 Sanballat and Tobiah were unsuccessful in discouraging Israel so they plotted another tactic, this time against Nehemiah directly. They devised a plan in order to deceive Nehemiah into discrediting himself as a leader among his people.
It was evident that Israel's progress was dependent on and pushed by Nehemiah's leadership; he was their pillar and they sought to swipe it down, causing all of Israel to crash and crumble. But Nehemiah knew of their true, corrupt intentions; God had ensured that Nehemiah was informed and therefore prepared against their tactics.
6:3 Yet all deceitful and corrupt plots fail to interrupt the progress of children of God. Their hearts, minds and souls are devoted so completely to their God-given work that distractions in the periphery are a nonissue. Nehemiah was focused on his God-given purpose and mission; he did not have time, or inclination to entertain his enemies with their schemes. Ultimately that meant Nehemiah did not entertain fear or doubt or self-focused motives.
6:4 They were persistent; evil often is persistent and therefore our faith, and commitment to righteousness, must also be. They sent the letter another four times but each time, Nehemiah responded the same: I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you? We should ask ourselves that same question whenever we feel tempted off of our path (either by our own selves or by others). Why would we leave the important work we are doing with God?
No, most of us are not building walls. Most of the work we do with God is work we do within ourselves on our faith and character. A lot of the work we do with God is done in the relationships we cultivate with others. Sometimes the work is work we do on a project, career, semester of school, in order to get to a place God has been preparing us for.
Why leave that important work to entertain temptations and corruptions? Fear, doubt, greed, anger... each are distractions we must learn to shut down as Nehemiah so succinctly did. For example: If God has been working with you to create patience within yourself, why leave that important work and return to impatience? If God is teaching you to trust, and you have been working on it, why leave that work for fear? It would be unproductive and even regressive. Stay focused, you are doing important work.
John 5:17
“My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”
6:5-7 Sanballat and his servant tried another tactic; they tried to lure Nehemiah away from his work on the false premise that he was trying to usurp the king and become king himself. King David was a victim of such outright lies; much of the Book of Psalms is David lamenting the lies that had been told about him. Sanballat tried to use such lies as bait, to draw Nehemiah out of his work to defend himself. But as David knew, Nehemiah knew: God was his defender and therefore he could remain focused.
Take note of how persistent opposition will be! It will look for opened spaces, even crevices in which to infiltrate your resolve. Make sure there are none; recognize its tactics and disassemble them.
6:8-9 Nehemiah knew they were trying to frighten him; God gave him clear perception of what was truly happening. Always listen to what God is quietly, but emphatically speaking; Nehemiah was able to discern true threats from frivolous distractions.
They were trying to make Nehemiah weak, therefore Nehemiah did the most logical thing he could think of: he prayed for strength. He prayed for reinforcement from God in the specific area that his enemies were trying to attack. God is quick, able and eager to supplement us when we make the supplication for Him to do so.
6:10 Enemies were riddled throughout; a secret supporter of Sanballant (and enemy of Nehemiah) tried to cause panic in him to flee to a forbidden place. This man, Shemaiah, hoped that Nehemiah would be caught in the forbidden place and would consequently ruin his reputation among the people.
Shemaiah used evil's most effective and prominent method: fear. Fear turns us into puppets on devil-held strings. If our faith in God is not strong, if we do not have righteous resolve, fear causes us to derail quickly. Sanballat and Shemaiah thought that they could ruin Nehemiah by causing him to make a bad decision in order to save his life.
6:11 But Nehemiah knew something that was not yet written: those who are willing to lose their lives for God's sake, will actually gain their lives, Matthew 16:25. Nehemiah chose not to react with fear and cowardice. He was a spiritual example to his people, he could not flee without unraveling all of the work he had done for their faith.
He was a man of God and therefore had to live as a man trusting and reliant on God. God teaches His children not to fear and therefore, when we are in a position of spiritual leadership, we cannot fear; it would be detrimental to the people we lead.
6:12-13 It was somewhat of a test for Nehemiah: God had not yet told him this was a fake threat. Only once Nehemiah had relied on his faith and made the right(eous) decision did God uncover to him the deceit of Shemaiah. He never actually had to flee at all! There was no threat to his life. But had there been, Nehemiah was fully prepared to lose his life if it meant maintaining his adherence to God's will. Nehemiah did not do the right thing because it was easy, he did it even though it was not easy because it was right.
6:14 Like Nehemiah, we can trust that God will remember every person and plot that was against us. If not for his relationship with God, those threats would have made him afraid. If someone as spiritually strong and focused as Nehemiah admitted that without God, he would have been afraid, we know that evil has the power to overwhelm us too - but not if we have a relationship with God!
6:15 The wall around Jerusalem was finished in just fifty-two days. Focused, committed, spiritual work has miraculous, nearly-immediate results. The wall around Jerusalem had been in ruins for years and would have remained so without spiritual leadership. The people of Israel would not have recovered if not for God's intervention. Recognize how rapidly and miraculously God's work (and godly work) can transform your life.
6:16 God prevailed again to the detriment and discouragement of those against Him. We can consistently expect that our fears, doubts and enemies will always be so disheartened by God's triumph over them in our lives. As God's children, we are well fortified by the wall that is Him.
6:17-19 Although Tobiah had followers inside Israel, Nehemiah knew of the man's true intent; for Nehemiah exalted the word of the Lord over the word of men.
