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NEHEMIAH 2:19-20
One of the great lessons we get from the book of Nehemiah is that opposition is not a one time event.
It would be nice if we could just deal with opposition once and be done with it, wouldn’t it?
But we can’t.
Because as long as we are doing the work that God calls us to do, we will have to face opposition.
Our passage tonight is the second time that Nehemiah has to face opposition.
But notice that it’s only the first time that the people are facing it with Nehemiah as their leader.
I would say that nothing will discourage people quicker than when their leader deals with opposition the wrong way.
If a leader becomes frustrated and worried by opposition, the people will lose heart.
If a leader blows up and rants and raves about the opposition, the people lose respect.
If a leader backs down and gives in to opposition, the people lose their leader.
Now, I want you to remember what kind of leader Nehemiah is.
Because we get confused about leadership these days, it’s important to remember where we’ve been.
Where did Nehemiah’s burden for leadership come from?
It came from God.
He was living a comfortable life with a cushy job, hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem.
But the fact that the wall was down bothered him.
He didn’t get an angelic message from God.
He didn’t see a burning bush.
He didn’t hear a voice from heaven.
He just was bothered by the fact that Jerusalem was in bad shape.
He was so bothered that he sent his brother with a team of people in to investigate.
When they brought back the report, it was worse than Nehemiah thought.
Our impression of leadership would be for Nehemiah to immediately ride into Jerusalem to take charge and fix it.
Get rid of all the riff raff in town, lay down the law, take charge and get something done.
But not Nehemiah.
Remember that he prayed and fasted about the burden to make sure that it was what God would have him to do.
And after four months of focused, concentrated prayer, God opened up a door for him to walk through.
That was confirmation, right?
It was—but it was only partial confirmation.
He knew that he was supposed to walk through the door of opportunity and head to Jerusalem.
He knew that he was supposed to fully develop the plans for how to fix the problem.
He knew that he was supposed to communicate the plan to the people.
At that point, he was not supposed to jump right in and start barking orders to the people.
He wasn’t riding into town like Patton or Sherman or MacArthur would have.
He still had to make sure the people were on board.
If they weren’t on board, he couldn’t have done anything except go back to praying.
That’s why he had to effectively communicate the plan to them.
And, like we talked about last week, he did.
And when he effectively communicated the plan to them, he had complete confidence that he was completely in God’s will because the people responded to him.
They agreed with him that they needed to rebuild the wall.
They said, “Let us rise up and build.”
And they did.
“They strengthened their hands for this good work.”
So what is Nehemiah’s mindset at this point?
He felt the burden.
He prayed about the burden.
The circumstances he experienced were favorable to get started fixing the burden.
He made a detailed plan about how to fix the burden.
And finally, the people agreed with him and initially rallied around his leadership.
Do you think that was confirmation that his plan was of God? Do you think that he had peace that his plan was in God’s will?
Of course he did.
He had complete confidence that he and the people were in line with what God wanted them to do.
Don’t underestimate that.
Because that is what determines how we react to opposition when it comes.
If Nehemiah hadn’t gone through each of those steps, he might not have known for sure that he was doing the right thing.
And if he didn’t know that he was doing what God wanted him to do, how do you think he would have reacted to opposition when it came?
“Well, since we’re facing difficulties, it must mean that God’s not really in it.”
“Since we’re facing difficulties, I might not be the man for this job.”
“Since we’re facing difficulties, maybe we’d just better quit till things cool down a bit.”
But if Nehemiah would have reacted any of those ways, he would have been out of God’s will.
God’s will was for His name to be glorified.
And it was His will to be glorified by his children, the Jews.
And the only way His name would be glorified through them is if they were no longer a reproach to Him.
And the only way they would no longer be a reproach to Him would be if they would get Jerusalem fixed.
Nehemiah understood that more than anyone.
He understood that because he had laid the proper ground work.
Or should I say that he laid the proper knee work.
It had taken him nearly a year of preparation and prayer to get to this point.
Because of that he knew that he was doing the right thing.
And because of that confidence, he was able to face the opposition head on.
We’ve met two of these guys in verse 19 before.
We’ve met Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite before.
Sanballat was the governor of Samaria and Tobiah was the governor of Ammon.
They didn’t like the fact that there was a new governor in town.
They liked Jerusalem exactly the way it was.
No wall meant no threat to them.
No threat to their power or their standing before the king.
They didn’t want to have to share their toys with anybody.
But now we see one more person—Geshem the Arabian.
In all of the Medo-Persian empire, Sanballat and Tobiah were a couple of small players.
But Geshem was a different story.
Geshem was the governor of the very large and powerful territory we know of as northern Saudi Arabia.
His territory technically belonged to the king, but he was so large and powerful that he pretty much acted as an ally instead of a vassal state.
He freely governed over most of the Arab tribes including Edom and even the southern part of Judah.
He was the big boy at the table.
As a matter of fact, one commentator says that his name means bulky or stout.
If a group of governors met with the king, Geshem would be sitting at the king’s right hand.
That’s how powerful he was.
When Nehemiah refused to back down from Sanballat and Tobiah the first time he met them… it seems that they went for some reinforcements.
Now, these three men probably didn’t just show up by themselves in Jerusalem.
Governors didn’t travel that way—especially very important governors like Geshem.
They probably had very large delegations with them.
They were probably decked out in their full regalia.
All of these huge delegations in their full diplomatic dress lined up on the outskirts of burnt out, broken down Jerusalem.
What a sight it must have been.
Here was the ragtag remnant staring out from behind the rubble.
Nehemiah had just convinced them of the importance of the job they had before them.
Do you think that as they looked out over the rubble and saw those powerful envoys in front of them… do you think they might have started to see their job as impossible?
When they heard all of those fine and fancy and powerful people laughing at them, do you think they began to look down at their feet?
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