Opposition to the Rebuilding (Nehemiah): Almost immediately after starting his wall-building project, Nehemiah faced multifaceted, violent opposition. When facing similar threats, it’s normal to feel discouraged and overwhelmed by fear. However, when threatened, Nehemiah teaches us to remember the Lord, pray and act, and give God the glory. Recorded on Oct 4, 2026, on Nehemiah 4 by Pastor David Parks.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 28:37 — 44.4MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | RSS
This sermon is part of our series, Nehemiah: From Ruins to Revival. When Nehemiah heard about the desperate needs of the people living in Jerusalem during the Exile, he was deeply moved. Someone had to do something! Nehemiah’s story is what happens when wise and courageous leadership has a God-given burden to help. Nehemiah faced significant opposition and leadership challenges while mobilizing thousands of people to complete a major building project. But through it all, one thing was clear: It’s amazing what can happen when God’s people get to work!
Sermon Transcript
One of my all-time favorite series is Band of Brothers, which follows the paratroopers of Easy Company as they were dropped behind enemy lines on D-Day during WWII. From our vantage point, we know how the war turned out: the Allies won. But when Lieutenant Dick Winters and the others from Easy Company flew over France in the dark, they had no idea what they’d face when they jumped out of that plane, much less who’d win the war. You think they were scared? I’m sure they were. Unfortunately, the drop didn’t go as planned, and our troops were scattered all over. They faced fierce opposition from the start. But one of the best parts of the show is seeing Lieutenant Winters’ calm, capable leadership as he faced one threat after another. Today, we’re continuing a sermon series from the book of Nehemiah called From Ruins to Revival. And we’ve said that the book of Nehemiah tells the story of the Jewish remnant in Jerusalem at the end of the Exile, around 445 BC. It’s a story of God’s people getting to work, under the wise leadership of Nehemiah, as they rebuilt the wall around the city. Nehemiah had been the cupbearer to the most powerful king of his day, King Artaxerxes of the Persian Empire. When he heard of the dreadful condition of Jerusalem and the people who lived there, he got permission to lead a project to rebuild it. Last week was a little different, because chapter 3 is pretty much just a list of who did what on the project. But we found good reasons why passages like that are in the Bible. If you missed any of the sermons in this series so far, you can always go back and watch or listen online. But a few weeks ago, we met some dangerous men—opponents from the surrounding territories who weren’t happy about this project. With enemies on all sides, Nehemiah probably felt like Lieutenant Winters dropped behind enemy lines. Today, we’ll see if Nehemiah can demonstrate the same calm, capable leadership as he faced one threat after another. There are many valuable lessons here, so if you have your Bible/app, please open it to Neh 4:1. We’ll read through this together and unpack it as we go.
Nehemiah 4:1–6 (NIV), “1 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?” 3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!” 4 Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders. 6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.” Here, we find two of the three opponents we met at the end of chapter 2: Sanballat and Tobiah. Not sure where Geshem was at this point (maybe recruiting more allies against the people of Judah?), but the scene at the beginning of chapter 4 has Sanballat coming in hot at the news that Nehemiah’s project was commencing. So he and Tobiah have this kind of performative ridicule in front of the Samaritan army, presumably to embolden the soldiers if they attacked Jerusalem. They mock the Jewish efforts to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem and the size of the wall, although none of their claims were true. According to scholars, “archaeological excavations found Nehemiah’s wall to be about nine feet thick.” (Breneman, Mervin. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. p. 194.) That wasn’t a wall that a fox could knock down. But involving the military (and doing so in a way that Nehemiah found out about) meant this wasn’t just more insults; it was a much more immediate and ominous threat. Were they going to have to fend off an attack without a finished wall? Were they all going to be killed? That’s a threat. Now, if we hadn’t read v.4, based on what we’ve seen from Nehemiah so far, what would you have predicted he would do first in response to this threat? He prayed, of course. Prayer, for Nehemiah, was never the last resort. Again and again, it was his first action. Back in chapters 1-2, he prayed, and he planned. He prayed, and he acted. And here, it was no different. He prayed, and they kept working until they were halfway done. Why? He humbly gives the credit away. Nehemiah says it was because “the people worked with all their heart.” I love that. They weren’t working out of obligation. They weren’t working only for a paycheck or grumbling the whole time. They believed to their core that this was their God-given mission—and they acted like it! Now, before we continue, I need to address what Nehemiah prayed, because it doesn’t sound like a very loving prayer, does it? “Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight,” Whoa! But why did he pray like this? Because they said mean things about him. Well, not exactly. If that’s why Nehemiah prayed this way, that wouldn’t have been right. For one thing, it would’ve been totally disproportionate. (“Look at their silly wall!” “Never forgive their sins!” Again, whoa!) But the truth is, the Old Testament has other prayers like this—especially in the Psalms. They’re known as imprecatory psalms. Imprecatory means a spoken curse, but how can these prayers ask God to curse someone and still be justified? Well, it’s a little complex, but one thing’s sure: it’s never about personal vengeance; they’re legitimate requests for God to bring justice against his enemies and defend or vindicate his people. In the Old and New Testaments, God has forbidden his people from taking revenge because he is the ultimate Judge. Deuteronomy 32:35 (NIV), “35 It is mine to avenge; [says the Lord] I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; [referring to his enemies] their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.” Now, this intense promise of justice is not at odds with God’s love. God is both perfectly just and infinitely loving—always and in every situation. But in case the intensity of judgment seems unloving, we must remember that to let the wicked get away with evil forever is certainly not loving. Now, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make or enforce just laws that put boundaries around evil, or that we shouldn’t give people who have broken the law just consequences or punishments for their actions. It isn’t loving to have social anarchy or to make it easy for people to sin against others or to call what is evil good and good evil. But if you sin against me, hurt me, or take something from me, I am not the ultimate judge, jury, and executioner—as much as I’d like to be at times. I need to obey the law, submit to the authorities, and trust the Lord as the perfect Judge. Like Nehemiah, when the enemies of God plot their wicked deeds or threaten violence, I can pray that God would vindicate me and bring justice to bear on them. This is very hard for me personally. When I am threatened and get in a fight-or-flight kind of situation, I’d naturally pick to fight every time. But refusing vengeance is a beautiful act of faith. It demonstrates real trust in a loving God who sees, cares, and will one day set every wrong to right. It also breaks the downward spiral of violence that often happens with revenge. But the result of trusting God is that they continued to make great progress on the wall (they’re halfway done!). How would their enemies respond?
Nehemiah 4:7-15 (NIV), “7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. 9 But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. 10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.” 11 Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.” 12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.” 13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” 15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work.” Ok, things got much worse. You might’ve noticed another enemy joined the party. If we look at a map, we can see that the people of Ashdod were west of Jerusalem, in the old territory of the Philistines. Again, Sanballat was to the north in Samaria, Tobiah to the east in Ammon, and Geshem from the Arabian Desert to the south, meaning they were surrounded by enemies who decided to come and fight the Jewish people as they desperately tried to finish the wall. On top of that, they had some internal threats. Some people in Judah were getting tired and discouraged from the sheer amount of work. They couldn’t just build; they first had to clear the rubble and then build. Can you imagine how much work it would’ve been to move the rubble from a nine-foot wall only to rebuild a nine-foot wall? Besides discouragement, there were repeated rumors of an impending attack. Ten times over they heard about an impending attack. Just think how much fear there would’ve been in Judah. But v.9 is one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. Nehemiah says, “But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.” They prayed, and they acted. Now, Nehemiah didn’t have four months to plan a response. He had to pray and act quickly. But he didn’t skip prayer or become paralyzed with fear and anxiety. And this is exactly how we should live. If you face opposition in your marriage, family, or a friendship, or discover something threatening to your health, kids, or career, pray and act. It’s normal to have times when you feel discouraged or overwhelmed by fear. Nehemiah teaches us not to over-spiritualize the threat. God wants us to pray to him, but he gave us hands and feet and a big brain to act. Don’t just sit around, waiting for God to do something and call that faith. But also, don’t under-spiritualize the threat. We have the Lord God Almighty as our Father. And he has all the resources of heaven at his disposal. You’d be a fool not to pray! It reminds me of when people ask me what we believe about the work of the Holy Spirit. Like, how charismatic are you as a church? I usually say something like, “Well, we pray for healing, and we go to the doctor. And we give God the glory no matter what the outcome is.” In other words, we pray and act. But did you notice that Nehemiah gave God the glory, too? Nehemiah’s leadership is on display again. First, he gave credit to the people. But after mobilizing a defense and motivating everyone to remember the Lord and fight for their families, Nehemiah said in v.15 that even after all his actions, it was God who frustrated the plot of their enemies. God got the glory. This wise, faithful, courageous action deterred their enemies from attacking then, but they weren’t out of the woods yet. They’d made a lot of progress, but the wall wasn’t done yet. Let’s see how Nehemiah adapts to the remaining threat.
Nehemiah 4:16–23 (NIV), “16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me. 19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!” 21 So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. 22 At that time I also said to the people, “Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and as workers by day.” 23 Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.” This is God’s word. Now, Nehemiah was no fool. He knew that their enemies could easily return. So they had to go a little slower on the wall-building to allow for proper defense. But Nehemiah came up with a good plan. Half of his men worked, while the other half served as guards. The officers were posted where they would need to be in case of an attack. All the workers had to carry weapons. And instead of relaxing in the governor’s mansion, Nehemiah stayed with the people, dressed and ready for battle. They worked out an alarm system in case of attack. And they worked their tails off, from early morning until night. They couldn’t travel home outside of Jerusalem. They needed to stay alert and ready to fight if need be. This went from a building project to a military operation overnight. But again, Nehemiah was a leader that people would have loved to follow. Everyone on that project knew Nehemiah was with them and cared enough to fight with them and for them. Next week, we’ll see another threat to the rebuilding, not of the wall, but of the people themselves. You can’t rebuild a place for God’s Name when the people aren’t living like God’s people. Nehemiah still has work to do. But for today, what does chapter 4 mean for us? Well, I have to say that I’m very thankful we don’t live in a place where we’re surrounded by enemies trying to kill us. That’s a real blessing. Despite our relative safety, many things can still threaten to harm us or disrupt our lives. In a broken world, many real sources of discouragement and fear exist. But what can we do? Well, Nehemiah showed us the way: When threatened, remember the Lord, pray and act, and give God the glory. When you’re threatened, when you face opposition, when you can’t sleep, when your stomach is churning, and you don’t know how it’ll all turn out—when it feels like you’ve been dropped behind enemy lines—remember the Lord. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome; he has never failed you, and he never will. The whole Bible is the record of God’s faithfulness to his people. And if that is who God is, then pray and act. I think we covered this enough already, but we must put it into practice. When threats come, even one after another, pray and act, pray and act, pray and act. But no matter the outcome, if God is who he is and you’ve done your best to act in good faith and according to God’s direction, then give God the glory! He’s the Judge, but he’s also the Redeemer; he’s the one who has promised victory for his people, and he will do it. But as Christians, we know something that Nehemiah didn’t. We know about the cross of Christ. And we know about the empty tomb. We know how God would win the ultimate victory, not just from the enemies surrounding Judah, but from the far greater enemies of sin and death. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Ro 6:23). Though we were enemies of God, deserving of the same judgment/curse as any of our enemies, Jesus Christ took our place. When we are justified by faith in Christ, we’re saved from the ultimate threat. Unlike Lieutenant Winters or Nehemiah, because of the gospel, we know the war will be won in the middle of our battles. So when threatened, remember the Lord, pray and act, and give God the glory. But if we do this, is there anything we couldn’t face? Is there anything our church couldn’t get through? I don’t think so. With all that said, I think it’s only fitting for us to pray. Let us pray.
