Opposition. It’s what anything worth while and of eternal value faces. Just scan through the Bible to see this. Abraham had received God’s promise that in his seed all the nations of the world would be blessed. Yet he faced the daunting reality of his wife’s barrenness, famine that seemed to force him from the Promised Land to Egypt, the conflict with the federation of kings in order to rescue Lot, and the internal crisis between Sarah and Hagar. He lived with opposition.
Or can we think of opposition and not consider Joseph? His own brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery. Potipher’s wife falsely accused him and had him imprisoned. He helped the King’s cupbearer who conveniently forgot Joseph for two years.
From the time Samuel anointed him as King, David endured years of opposition. He encountered battles, squared off with Goliath, twice escaped Saul spearing him to the wall, fled for months at a time in the wilderness to escape Saul’s pursuit. Did anything come easy to him after God set him apart? Opposition dogged his life.
Travel with Paul on his missionary journeys and see the opposition: beatings, imprisonments, riots, shipwrecks, mobs pursuing him, insults, rumors about his theology and methodology, slanders and lies, attempts on his life, rejection within churches he established.
No wonder Paul wrote, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts14:22). And, “Indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12).
Consider as well the words of Jesus. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My Word, they will keep yours also” (John 15:20).
Paul tells believers to maintain the posture of soldiers who stand ready for warfare: “Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim. 2:3). He warns Timothy to be on guard against Alexander the coppersmith who had done Paul much harm (2 Tim. 4: 14-15). He warned the Corinthians about the subtle deceit of Satan that would lead them away from “the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). He warned the Ephesian elders of savage wolves that would arise from their own midst to devour the flock, speaking perverse things and trying to draw disciples away to follow after their perverseness (Acts 20:29-30).
Peter warns of the devil prowling about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8), and further that these brethren would suffer as were their brethren in other places (1 Peter 5:9).
John warned of false spirits that would try to deceive the church (1 John 4:1-6). He spoke of the deceiver and the antichrist that attempted to deceive them (2 John 7-8). He spoke publicly of Diotrephes who had maligned and slandered the old apostle (3 John 9-10).
Here’s the reality: being a follower of Jesus Christ in a world that is still in rebellion against Him means that you will face opposition in seeking to obey His will. As Derek Thomas so aptly put it, “Satan hates a good thing” (sermon 8/31/2008, Nehemiah 4:1-14).
Nehemiah and the exiles who lived in Israel understood opposition. They lived in it. Yet God had given them the enormous responsibility to rebuild the broken wall of Jerusalem and restore its burned gates. Though the Lord had directed them that did not mean the path would be easy or smooth.
We sometime allow opposition to stifle progress. That’s a mistake that Christians must avoid. We must learn to work through opposition to do the will of God and fulfill our call to service for God’s kingdom. But how do we go about this?
Nehemiah gives us a good analysis of how opposition is shaped and how we are to respond to it.
Opposition does not come in one sized packages. It takes on a variety of shapes, intensities, pressures, threats, and powers to thwart our progress in kingdom work. Three shapes of opposition are present in this passage. More can be added but these three constitute the major ways believers face oppositions.
D. Kidner (90), “To open the attack with a barrage of words was worth trying. It is the enemy’s oldest weapon [just look at the Garden] and in the form of ridicule it needs no factual ammunition; not even an argument.”
(1) Supposed importance of the opponents
(2) The taunts
Would it be open assault? Would it be the terrorist’s knife in the night? Would there be a coalition army that surrounded and choked them off?
Reports kept streaming in of the threats.
These are not just lame threats in so many places:
Normally, though, it is threats of violence or attacks or persecution that stop us in our tracks. That’s the enemy’s ploy.
It may keep us from witnessing, or missions or speaking openly as a Christian e.g., think of how Paul faced this regularly in his missionary work yet he persisted.
Physical threats are a reminder that this world is not our home, that we live in a kingdom that has no death or sorrow.
Here was a new song that hit the local pop charts!
Failing strength!
Too much rubbish!
We can’t do it!
Fear had settled in – note v. 14a
Fear saps the wind from our sails, robs us of peace and joy, turns our minds away from the Lord; drains our energy, stymies our desire to move forward.
No pat formulas are offered but some good disciplines are exemplified.
Imprecatory prayer. We tend to react with different sensibilities. But this was simply a call for God to do what He had already promised: judge rebels.
Packer points to Revelation 6:10, 19:1-3. “What we are being shown here is that when Christians get to heaven, with their sanctification complete and their minds as fully conformed to the mind of Christ as the angels’ minds are, they will forever rejoice not only in the mercies by which God has glorified himself in their own lives, but also in the judgments by which he vindicates himself against those who defy him…there can be no doubt that learning to praise God properly for his judgments, no less than for his mercies, is something that all the saints have to look forward to, as part of God’s schooling of them in the life of holiness.” (102).
Is prayer all we are to do in opposition? NO. We are to stay at our work.
As Cromwell put it in the17th C. Irish wars, “Trust in God and keep your powder dry!” (Derek Thomas, “Pray and Keep Your Powder Dry,” Neh. 4:15-24)
What work have you been discouraged from taking up again? Pray and then put your hands back to the plow.
No lack of faith here but the clear pattern for us to follow. Prayer should never breed presumption or lethargy.
Think of the NT exhortations to alertness:
Military posture is commanded for us. cf. Ephesians 6:10-20
The whole danger of opposition is that it subtlety refocuses our attention on the threat or discouragement and off the Lord. It takes little to distract us but much to re-tool our thinking on the Lord.
“Sword and trowel”
There’s no contradiction in trusting the Lord while readying for conflict. This theme permeates the chapter. Too often Christians are monolithic in strategy: “We can only pray!” “We just need a new plan!” “We’ve got to do something!”
Rather, pray, plan, and do something. Nehemiah teaches us, “Don’t just pray—do something; don’t just do something pray.”
Was this the best approach to construction work on the wall? Not if all things were rosy. But that’s not reality—anytime. Let nothing dissuade us from the tasks the Lord has laid before us. Let no task keep us from vigilance as Christians.
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