Several years ago, I was in a small group discussion and one of the people in the group said, “well, you know, this kind of thing may work in the church, but not in the real world; in the real world you’ll get eaten alive if you try to live that way.” The idea, and I’ve heard it before, is that the Christian life is fine for people who aren’t in touch with reality. Church is great for making us feel better on Sunday morning, but on Monday we have to get back to the real world, which means living like those around us who know nothing of Jesus Christ and have no interest in following Him. If other people were nicer, or more just, or more cooperative, this whole thing might work, but in a world like this it’s unrealistic to expect people to order their lives to follow the example set by Jesus.
One assumption behind this kind of thinking is that the gospel really isn’t true. We don’t come right out and say that, of course. But when we buy into this way of thinking we’re acting as if the gospel were untrue. On Sunday morning we talk about the way we wish things were, but then on Monday we get back to the way things really are. It’s a functional unbelief. We try to hold onto the truth of the gospel with part of our minds – the religious part – but it doesn’t affect our lives in the world, because we’ve been intimidated into thinking that there’s no connection between the things we hear in God’s Word and the world we encounter when we go to work on Monday morning.
The truth, really, is just the opposite. Those who tell us so confidently about what life is like in the “real world” are the ones who are not in touch with reality. They’re living in a diminished universe, one that’s confined to their own impoverished experience. They’re blind to the whole spiritual dimension of reality. They’re blind to the presence of God in the world, the God who created and sustains all things. Things happen all around them that point to this reality, but they’re blind to what’s happening. Their perception of the “real world” is distorted. And when we, as God’s people listen and become intimidated by this sort of thing, our perception of the world also becomes distorted. We begin living in functional unbelief. We still believe, with part of our minds, in the teachings of the Church, but we live like unbelievers. Our faith has no connection with the way we order our lives.
Nehemiah is under attack, in this chapter, from the unbelieving world. We saw him, in chapter 5, dealing with an internal problem that had arisen during the building of the wall, but now we see him being attacked by the enemies of God’s people. We need to know, as God’s people, that we have a spiritual enemy who is out to destroy us. Every attempt we make to follow Jesus Christ will be met by resistance of some sort. We’re living in a fallen world, and the battle won’t be over until we’re all united together in God’s kingdom.
I’ve often quoted A.W. Tozer. He was a man who walked with God, who sought Him diligently over the course of his life and ministry, and he was very perceptive about the spiritual condition of the church. Many of the things he said about the church in the mid-twentieth century are even more true today than they were when he was writing. One prominent theme in his writing is the idea that the Fall has created a state of emergency: “In times of extraordinary crisis ordinary measures will not suffice. The world lives in such a time of crisis. Christians alone are in a position to rescue the perishing. We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were ‘normal.’ Nothing is normal while sin and lust and death roam the world, pouncing upon one and another till the whole population has been destroyed. To me it has always been difficult to understand those evangelical Christians who insist on living in the crisis as if no crisis existed. They say they serve the Lord, but they divide their days so as to leave plenty of time to play and loaf and enjoy the pleasures of the world as well. They are at ease while the world burns” (“We Live in a State of Emergency,” in Born After Midnight, pp. 30-31). It’s because we live in such a state of emergency that we are under constant attack from the enemy of our souls.
So Nehemiah is under attack. He’s stepped out at God’s leading, and he’s had clear evidence of God’s blessing. But, at the same time, he’s encountered one problem after another. Now the enemies of God’s people are beginning to panic. Their earlier attempts have failed, and the wall is nearly completed. The only part of the job left is putting the gates in place. So they renew their attack, but this time they focus on Nehemiah himself. If they can get at him, the whole work will suffer.
The first point is that their goal is to destroy him. They’re not just out to slow things down or stir up a bit of trouble. They want to destroy Nehemiah. First they try to lure him into a trap. They send him a message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.” They’re saying, “let’s get together and talk; let’s put our differences behind us.” But they’re really not interested in having a discussion with Nehemiah. They want to get him out of Jerusalem so that they can attack and kill him. They make the same request four times, and when Nehemiah refuses to come, they finally send and open letter accusing him of rebellion against the king. An open letter would be read by others and would feed the rumors that Nehemiah is grasping after power for himself. They’re saying, “This report is going to get back to the king; you’d better come meet with us, to talk about how we’re going to deal with the situation.” They’re pretending to be his ally.
When this fails, they try something else. Nehemiah goes to visit a prophet named Shemaiah, who is “shut in at his home.” He may have been confined to his home because of an illness. Because he can’t leave his house, he sends for Nehemiah to give him a message. And the message is this: “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you – by night they are coming to kill you.” It’s not obvious in English, but the message is given in poetic form, like a prophetic oracle. He’s claiming to have a message for Nehemiah from God.
It was possible for someone in immediate danger to seek asylum at the altar, but that wouldn’t involve going inside the temple. Shemaiah wants Nehemiah to go inside the temple to hide from his enemies, something he, not being a priest, has no right to do. What’s going on here? He’s trying to frighten Nehemiah into committing a sin, which would then discredit him as a leader of God’s people: “He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.”
And then, in addition to these things, we’re told that Tobiah has formed strong connections with many in Jerusalem and through these connections is seeking to undermine Nehemiah’s leadership. Tobiah is sending letters to intimidate him, and some of the prophets, Noadiah and others, are using their prophetic office to intimidate him. Nehemiah is being attacked from every direction. It’s probably difficult, at this point, to be sure who his friends and enemies are, because his enemies are seeking to deceive him by pretending to offer him help. It’s difficult to tell the true prophets from the false ones, because all of them are claiming to speak in the name of the Lord. And the intent of all this effort is to destroy Nehemiah. They want to get rid of him. They want him out of the picture.
The second point is that these attacks are all calculated to catch him at a point of weakness. They’re all aimed at hitting him where he’s most vulnerable. The request for a meeting seems reasonable enough. Why wouldn’t Nehemiah be willing to sit down and talk? It seems unreasonable to say no to this kind of invitation. Maybe he’s missing an opportunity to win them over. Maybe if Nehemiah would just take this one step in their direction they’d get over their hostility. Maybe if he explains himself more clearly they’ll understand where he’s coming from.
We saw in the last sermon that Nehemiah has come to Jerusalem to serve. He’s not seeking to become king. Their charge is untrue, but it’s likely to hit a nerve. It’s a false charge, but Nehemiah’s strong leadership may make some wonder. It’s a dangerous rumor. And then, what about this prophet who is giving him a message in the name of the Lord? Nehemiah is intensely concerned about his relationship with God, and it’s people who care about following the Lord who are often led astray by this kind of tactic. Then there are the repeated attempts to intimidate him and undermine his leadership. Given the sheer number and variety of attacks, it’s amazing that Nehemiah keeps his perspective. In this kind of situation, we tend to get disoriented and are more easily deceived.
The third point is that despite the number and intensity of these attacks, God protects him. How does he survive? Nehemiah manages to resist each attack because: 1) he’s attentive to what is going on, and 2) his life is immersed in prayer. How does he know that Sanballat and the others are planning to harm him, that they’re not interested in meeting with him? He doesn’t tell us; he simply reports, “But they were scheming to harm me.” He’s paying attention; something about the situation doesn’t seem right. Rather than rushing off at the first request, he pauses and asks himself what is wrong with the picture.
When he goes to meet with Shemaiah, he doesn’t seem to know right away that Shemaiah is a false prophet. Some years ago, a man asked to meet with me in my office. When he arrived, he greeted me warmly and was very friendly. He assured me that he was a fellow believer and that he was speaking to me as one Christian to another. But the more he talked, the more obvious it was that there was something seriously wrong with him spiritually. I have serious doubts about whether he was a genuine believer at all. He was very friendly in the beginning, but when I refused to do what he wanted, he got mad and left and never spoke to me again. When we encounter people like this, we need to pay attention to our gut feelings. Our gut feelings may be wrong in the end, but don’t be too quick to assume that. Take some time to stop and reflect about why you feel the way you do. One commentator points out that Nehemiah’s realization that Shemaiah was a false prophet didn’t come to him immediately: “verse 12 is phrased in such a way as to suggest that he did not see this immediately but rather that the truth dawned in the midst of his dealings with him. Literally it reads: ‘Then I recognized, and behold, it was not God who had sent him’ (J.G. McConville, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, pp. 106-107).
Shemaiah is asking Nehemiah to do something he has no right to do, but his approach is subtle. The altar had been a place of asylum, and maybe Nehemiah isn’t clear on the Law at this point, or maybe he’ll think the words of a prophet carry enough authority to make an exception. After all, Nehemiah is following the Lord, and his life is in danger. Those who are trying to deceive us usually tell us part of the truth, but there’s a subtle twist; something is off, but it’s not usually obvious right away. Nehemiah sees the problem, but I suspect he also perceives something about Shemaiah. When we’re in the presence of false prophets, there’s often something intangible, something we can’t quite put our finger on, that doesn’t seem right. When we have that feeling about someone, we need to pay attention and begin asking questions. Nehemiah avoided falling into the trap because he took the time to think before he acted.
Nehemiah is able to tell that something is off spiritually, because he has cultivated a strong relationship with God through prayer. This book is filled with prayers that Nehemiah lifts to God. We saw, at the beginning of the book, that Nehemiah gave himself to prayer over an extended period before he approached the king about the problems in Jerusalem. Prayer is a significant emphasis in his daily life. When he sees that his enemies are trying to frighten him, saying “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed,” he prays “Now strengthen my hands.” He responds to difficult situations with prayer. He’s not trusting in his own resources. He realizes his own poverty; he knows his own weakness, so he cries out to God again and again for help. And one by-product of this is that he is more attentive to what is going on spiritually. He recognizes that something is not right about this man, Shemaiah. So, rather than taking the oracle at face value, Nehemiah tests it. He examines it in the light of what he knows from Scripture, and he discovers that Shemaiah is a false prophet.
We’re living in a fallen world, a world where our enemy “Like a roaring lion... prowls around, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). One of his tactics is to transform himself into an angel of light in order to deceive us. And we need to know that his goal is to destroy us. If we’re not interested in walking with God, he probably won’t give us much trouble. But if we’re seeking to follow Jesus Christ, we’ll find ourselves under attack again and again, like Nehemiah in this chapter. The attacks will often come in unexpected ways and from surprising directions. And, most of all, they’ll be calculated to catch us at a weak point; they’ll be directed to hit us where we’re most vulnerable.
We just read 1 Peter 5:8. Here’s what immediately precedes that verse: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you” (5:6-7). Cultivate a relationship with God; be aware of your own spiritual poverty and cry out to Him for help, knowing that He cares about you. And then this: “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” Nehemiah was able to resist deception, because he cultivated a relationship with God through prayer and because he was alert and attentive. Peter is calling us to the same thing. A.W. Tozer was right. We’re living in an emergency situation brought about by the Fall. We can’t afford to wander through life half-asleep. The enemy of our souls is seeking to destroy us. The way to survive over the long term is to realize our own weakness and know that we are going to be vulnerable to his attacks. Knowing this, we cultivate a relationship with God, who loves us and wants the best for us (whose aims are just the opposite of the devil’s).
And as we invite Him into every area of our lives, we seek to be alert to what is going on around us spiritually. There are two opposite dangers to avoid. I’ve known some people who were paranoid about the devil, who hardly seemed to talk about anything else. They blamed demons for everything that went wrong in their lives. We need to be alert, but that doesn’t mean being paranoid. At the other extreme are those who hardly seem aware that there is any danger at all. They walk through life oblivious to the reality that we’re in a spiritual war. Both extremes lead us into deception. We can be confident, knowing that God possesses all power in heaven and on earth. He has promised to protect us. We need to be watchful and alert, but not paranoid or afraid. Here it is in James: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:6b-8). Humble yourselves before God (knowing that you are helpless in yourselves), resist the devil (which involves being aware and alert to his deception) and he will flee from you; and draw near to God. Cultivate God’s presence, trust in Him, and be alert. As you do this, He’ll protect you from deception.
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