After writing a lengthy post on Nehemiah’s rebuilding the wall, I might as well divide Nehemiah 4 into two parts. I’d like to focus on Nehemiah 4:1-14 for this post and the rest of the chapter in another post. The first part is about Nehemiah getting mocked by Sanballat together with Tobiah the Ammonite. This is one of the strategies of people who hate to see others succeed. I suspect that Sanballat was jealous of Nehemiah. Nehemiah got Artaxerxes I’s permission. I bet whatever Sanballat wanted to do, Artaxerxes I shot it down. If my assumption is true, then what a sore loser Sanballat is. Sanballat was furious when he saw the Jews rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Gaslighting someone is a very common method to get people to question what they do. I would’ve probably lost my cool and punched Sanballat, or even dropped a brick on his head and Tobiah’s head. But what amazing patience was displayed by Nehemiah himself!
I’d imagine Sanballat and his peers are immature in some way. Such behavior is very common among teenagers. However, I’d say that Sanballat and company are acting worse than high school bullies or abusive high school monitors. It’s because they’ve got a position and they’re abusing it. Teenagers tend to do what they do. Many times, I got reminded that my fight with a certain someone was nothing more than a childish fight. I was told maybe the person wanted to be friends with me already, seeing that we were just teenagers back then. However, Sanballat is pretty much like the high school bully who never moves forward. Sanballat displays a great degree of childishness in his question in Nehemiah 4:2. Ridicule is often one method the enemy will use. Immature as ridicule is, it’s heavily used by people who have a high view of themselves and a low view of others. I’d say Sanballat, like Haman, felt slighted when Nehemiah had permission from Artarxerxes I, to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Sanballat and Tobiah raised ridiculous and exaggerated claims. It’s noteworthy that Sanballat called the Jews “feeble” and questioned if they could do what they intended to do. Tobiah displays his own degree of immaturity by giving a joke common among teenage quarrels. Tobiah is considered by the late J. Vernon McGee as a wisecrack. Some of the builders were goldsmiths, druggists, and women. If so, Tobiah may have also been a chauvinistic person. The ridicule is very real. It would be easy for Nehemiah to punch the Sanballat and his company. The very idea that a fox could go up and break the wall, sounds more like an exaggeration.
Nehemiah 4:4-5 talks about the imprecatory prayer of the titular hero. Nehemiah knew he was dealing with a powerful enemy. Instead of taking the law into his hands, Nehemiah lets go and lets God handle the situation. Of course, this doesn’t mean Nehemiah ignores the need for defense which he prioritizes. Under the law, the Jews had a perfect right to ask for justice. To understand the imprecatory prayer, I’d like to quote Robert Jamieson from the Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible:
The imprecations invoked here may seem harsh, cruel, and vindictive; but it must be remembered that Nehemiah and his friends regarded those Samaritan leaders as enemies to the cause of God and His people, and therefore as deserving to be visited with heavy judgments. The prayer, therefore, is to be considered as emanating from heaqrts in which neither hatred, revenge, or any inferior passion but a pious, patriotic zeal for the glory of God and the success of His cause, held the ascendant sway.
If anything, we can see Deuteronomy 32:35, in action. The wicked men have done more than insult the Jews, they have insulted Gold Himself. Instead of letting the insults put them down, they followed what would be good advice. If we stopped along the way to throw stones at every dog that barks, you’ll never reach your destination. Just imagine if Nehemiah and his fellows directly responded to the childish taunts made by Sanballat and company. Nehemiah 4:6 tells us that the wall was joined together to half its height. It’s because the people had a mind to work.
Of course, Sanballat isn’t giving up easily. I believe Satan was indirectly manipulating Sanballat’s flesh. I don’t think Sanballat would’ve directly seen Satan or anything. Like the Bedouins that attacked Job’s property, they were the means to an end for Satan to cause trouble. What we must remember is that Sanballat’s actions are permitted by God to happen. Satan couldn’t allow sinful men like Sanballat to harass Nehemiah without God’s permission. Sanballat and Tobiah went to the Arabs (of which Geshem was part) and the Ashdodites. The Ashdodites are dwellers of Ashdod, one of the former Philistine cities to the west of Jerusalem. I could imagine the generational hatred that was still there. The Philistines were still enemies of Israel even up to that point! Samson destroyed the Philistines. However, David soon had to deal with the Philistines. I could imagine how the Ashdodites were still devoted to destroying Israel.
Nehemiah 4:9 tells us that Nehemiah and the people made a prayer unto their God for protection. This doesn’t mean reckless faith though. Whether we want to admit it or not, there’s the stumbling block of discouragement. Proverbs 13:12 says that hope deferred makes the heart sick but when the desires come, it’s the tree of life. There are bound to be delayed every now and then. Nehemiah had to learn to deal with delays and heartaches, especially with the status of the wall. There was much clearing work to be done. That was the report among the people in Judah in Nehemiah 4:10.
Now, we need to look a the lowest things Sanballat and company were willing to do. I don’t think they were bluffing in their attempt to attack the Jews. What we see is Nehemiah still doing his part in Nehemiah 4:13. Sure, Nehemiah entrusted to the LORD the enemies. However, Nehemiah also has stationed people by their clans with swords, spears, and bows, to keep watch. It was going to be a long fight with the mockers. The mockers were more than just doing verbal attacks. They were going to do anything to stop the building of the wall, by any means necessary, by hook or by crook.
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