Stack Study: You Have Done Great Things Lesson 6
a Bible study via Substack...this week we see what it's like to be really opposed
I just took off my watch and rolled up my sleeves—my ready position for writing.
This seemingly insignificant habit caught my attention today because I’m sitting down to write about Nehemiah and the Israelites readying themselves to build and fight. The time and place from which we come to this story is quite different than its original context, yet both are dripping in battle language which has me feeling extra sensitive. Pause for a moment to think about the diversity of backgrounds, beliefs, and baggage that for centuries have come to this particular story—God’s story—and wrestled with its application to their own lives. I hope this will bolster us to kindness more than it bolsters us into our corners.
Yes, today’s theme will be about kingdoms building and fighting so before we begin, I very much want to pause, exhale, and pray that the Spirit would lead us to understanding not from our own experience, but from the deep well of wisdom God’s word has to offer.
For the Peace of the World, (The Book of Common Prayer, 2019)
Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed: Kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all people the true love of peace, and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth; that in tranquility your kingdom may go forward, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Read Nehemiah 4:1-12
What does it say?
Sanballat and Tobiah (previously named enemies of Israel) publicly ridicule the Israelites for attempting to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem.
The people work with all their heart in spite of the opposition.
Sanballat and Tobiah grow their group of haters. They are very angry and plot to stir up trouble, fight, and ultimately kill those whose who are rebuilding.
The Jews who are observing (rather than building) begin to speak doubt about the project’s success to those who are still laboring.
Why did it matter?
Recall from last week that Sanballat and Tobiah were political rivals of Nehemiah and the Israelites. The reconstruction of the wall surrounding Jerusalem represented a very real threat to nations like theirs who had certainly benefited from the years of Israelite captivity.
Note the slow-growing nature of their opposition. It starts as two men who are aligned in their insecurities emboldening one another to speak out in the public sphere. Soon all their talk recruits the neighbors and eventually we have a band of fighters plotting to kill those who seem to threaten their agenda. The final sting comes when the Israelites’ own people begin to doubt the project not once, but “ten times over” (verse 12). Pressure is mounting for the rebuilders on all sides.
Read Nehemiah 4:13-23
What does it say?
Nehemiah calls those rebuilding to remember the greatness of God and to fight back for their families
The people take on a defensive posture. Everyone has a weapon all of the time. They work during the day and guard the wall during the evening.
Nehemiah prepares a trumpeter to unify and communicate the workers. He rallies the people with a reminder: “Our God will fight for us!”
Why did it matter?
There is no way around it—this is a hostile environment. Men are standing back to back with one another so that the one building is guarded by their weapon-yielding brother. They bear swords and spears in their hands at all times working from first light until the sky is dark. They don’t go home at the end of the day, but stay to guard their progress without relaxing even so much as to change clothes. We cannot miss the intensity of the moment—one that (spoiler alert) will last more than 50 days.
A Quick Word on Chapter 5
This chapter is sandwiched in the middle of Nehemiah’s first person retelling of the opposition to the wall. While it might seem out of place, scholars believe the events of chapter 5 were likely co-occurring with the reconstruction of the wall. While I won’t stop us mid-opposition, I’d encourage you to read the chapter and work through the 3 questions on your own. I’ve included a summary graphic to help.
Read Nehemiah 6:1-14
What does it say?
The wall is done except for the gates/doors.
Nehemiah receives a request to meet from Sanballat and Tobiah, but he understands this as a trap and declines four times.
The fifth time Sanballat sends an unsealed letter accusing the Israelites of mounting a revolt and Nehemiah of posturing to be their new king.
Sanballat and Tobiah hire a sickly man named Shemaiah to lure Nehemiah into the temple for a meeting.
Nehemiah recognizes all their attempts to discredit him. He prays for strength and avoids harm. The wall is completed in 52 days.
Why did it matter?
This might be the most intriguing part of today’s lesson—one that proves if you move too quickly through a text, you miss valuable context. Essentially, this chapter describes how Sanballat, Tobiah, and their associates initiate a more targeted approach in their opposition to the wall and the target is one man: Nehemiah. Their repeated attempts to meet with him outside the city were not friendly, but rather conspiratorial. This was their chance to both distract Nehemiah from leading the people and to give the appearance that he was conspiring with them to commit treason against the king of Persia. We know this because of a small detail: the unsealed letter.
During this period, letters were rolled and sealed in order to guarantee the authenticity of their contents. The fact that this letter was not sealed indicates Sanballat and his associates “obviously intended that the contents should be made known also to the public at large.”1 Recall that the contents included an accusation that Nehemiah was making moves toward kingship—something the Persian king would have seen incredibly threatening. Simply put, they sent false accusations to the media hoping surrounding nations would take the bait. Nehemiah squashes their accusations with my favorite Biblical one-liner: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”2
Next they pivot their approach by throwing in some religious flavor. They hire a curious character named Shemaiah to lure Nehemiah into the temple under the supposed threat of assassination. This seems like a benign request—come hide out from these mean guys—however by law only priests could enter the temple and Nehemiah was not a priest. If he had chosen to enter the temple, he would have broken Israelite law and likely been subject to execution. Nehemiah once agains deters their efforts to oust him and asks God for strength to continue leading and rebuilding. Here’s a summary of the escalating opposition.
Why does it still matter?
Nehemiah’s leadership and resolve leave us wondering if we would hold up under the same pressure. The Israelite rebuilders also challenge us to evaluate how we might respond under increasingly hostile and life-threatening circumstances. Both of these statements could be considered, analyzed for their own rich application points, but I want to go further because I recently listened to a podcast episode that led to an article that led to more research…welcome to my brain…and I can’t stop thinking about the implications for us today.
Dr. Yuval Levin, the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, recently published an op-ed in which he called for renewal in America by means of something he coined “The Nehemiah Option.” You see why it caught my attention? He recounts chapter six of Nehemiah specifically, describing the scenes we just studied—laborers standing back to back, guarding and working, day and night, building and fighting. His argument is that renewal often requires that we build and fight at the same time and to ignore one for the other is short-sided, faulty, and dangerous:
To fight without building can deform our soul and make us forget why we fight. It can focus us too sharply on what we oppose, what we hate and hates us, while forgetting what we affirm and what we love in the world…To let others handle the fighting while pretending you’re too good for it yourself is to mistake cowardice for high-mindedness, and to ignore the moral and intellectual substance of the culture we are working to renew. (Levin, 2024)
For those of us who call Jesus Lord, Dr. Levin’s argument challenges us to consider not only our own action or perhaps inaction, but also our feelings toward both. Fighting language emboldens some and frightens the rest of us—particularly in this cultural moment, but Levin’s “Nehemiah Option” raises questions that we must face as we seek to live as rebuilders in a broken world. If we long to be a part of what God is doing, we must hold our lives up to the light of Jesus and wonder if things look similar enough to proceed.
This begs the question: what is Jesus building and how does he fight?
Beginning in his Sermon on the Mount from chapter five of Matthew, Jesus outlines the characteristics of his in-breaking kingdom and the defining features of those he invites to build with him—the poor, disenfranchised, hungry and thirsty, outsiders, merciful, lovers of peace and purity, and the persecuted ones. Matthew continues by offering us plenty of examples of Jesus doing battle with those who oppose him and it is just as counter-cultural as the scrappy band of brothers and sisters he just recruited. Jesus calls out hypocrisy, confronts legalism, cleanses the temple, silences traps from religious leaders, protects the vulnerable, resists temptation, casts out demons, and at times remains strategically silent. His way is peaceful, but strong. Assertive, yet kind. Missional and person-centered.
When we pursue kingdom renewal, we would be utterly naive to assume there won’t be opposition. We would also be wholly misguided to think fighting looks like anything other than what Jesus preached in the Sermon the Mount, a posture that is first and foremost rich in mercy, full of peace, and available to anyone who would humble themselves enough to take up their cross and follow Jesus. This is the only fighting that can co-exist with true kingdom building.
Perhaps the simpler “Nehemiah Option” for us today is to borrow Nehemiah’s actual prayer from the text: “But now, O God, strengthen my hands.”3 May we be people who are unafraid to face opposition and may we do so as ones who remember our own brokenness and redemption.
What opposition are you facing? If not external, are there internal things distracting you from the things of God? (busyness, comfort, self-doubt, etc.)
What feelings are stirred in you when you consider fighting and building?
Spend some time reading the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-6.
The Bible Project podcast series covering the Sermon on the Mount is truly a gift. If a whole podcast series feels too much to consume right now, start HERE.
Want to read the entire article by Dr. Yuval Levin? HERE you go. Also, I first heard about it on THIS episode of The Bulletin by Christianity Today.
Need to be reminded of where we are in the story or how far we’ve come, download this historical timeline of the Ezra Nehemiah time period. It helps to follow the order of the various kings.
Lesson 7 will be coming to you next Thursday as always. We’re nearing the end of our study, but I’d still love for you to share what is happening here. Please consider passing along the link to subscribe!
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Revised Edition, 1 Chronicles - Job, 2010
Nehemiah 6:8, NIV; also filing this away in my brain for future use.
Nehemiah 6:9, ESV