“Now strengthen my hands” (Nehemiah 6:1-9)

“Now strengthen my hands”

 

 

 

[Nehemiah 6:1-9]

 

 

If we look at the book “Burnout in Church Leaders” (by Peter Kaldor & Rod Bullpit), we will find survey data of 20 denominations, 7,200 church pastors, and 430,000 believers.  Pastors who are more at risk of burnout say six things, two of which have gotten some attention:

 

(1)    It is said that the degree of stress and exhaustion was higher in younger group.

 

The fact that the younger you are, the greater your risk of burnout reflects several facts: The fact that youth ministry is not easy, that leaders have too high expectations of themselves or others have too high of them, that they are inexperienced in dealing with tensions.

 

(2)    It is said that the level of burnout was higher in leaders who are raising young children.

 

The reason that burnout levels are higher among people under 40 is because they are taking on the responsibility of raising children.  The dual responsibilities of parenthood and ministry can place a heavy burden on leaders as they go back and forth, pouring scarce time and energy to either side (Kaldor & Bullpit).

 

                What does “burnout” mean here?  ‘Burnout can be caused by fatigue and despair resulting from being cut off from the energy supply necessary to attain something strongly attached or to sustain a particular way of life’ (Freudenberger).  ‘Burnout is usually manifested as a low self-esteem and negative attitude toward work, life, and others, accompanied by feelings of helplessness and hopelessness’ (Maslach).  Satan's schemes exhaust us and leave us feeling helpless and hopeless, preventing us from achieving the God-given goal we had a strong attachment to.  If applied to our church, it is Satan's strategy to exhaust us from achieving this great goal of building the church, which is the body of the Lord.

 

                Look at Nehemiah 6:9 – “They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.’  But I prayed, ‘Now strengthen my hands.’”  If we look at this word, we can see the strategy of the enemies who want to exhaust the leader Nehemiah.  Focusing on today's text, Nehemiah 6:1-9, under the heading “Now strengthen my hands” I would like to meditate on the three elements that make us weak and prevent us from rebuilding the church, the body of the Lord.  In the midst of this, I hope and pray that we can receive and enjoy the grace God gives to us.

 

First, the element we want to prevent from rebuilding the church is encounter.

 

Look at Nehemiah 6:2 – “Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono." But they were scheming to harm me.”  As we walk the journey of life, we meet many different people.  We might be able to classify the encounters into two types: one beneficial and the other damaging.  In today's text, when Nehemiah and the enemies of the people of Judah heard that they had built the walls of Jerusalem and “not a gap was left in it” (v. 1), Sanballat and Geshem sent messengers to Nehemiah and suggested that they meet each other.  One thing we can apply to our lives and the church here is that another crisis may come to us when the work reaches its completion stage.  Even in the Bible, we often see that the greatest crisis that comes to God's people comes after victory, after blessing, after revival, or while things are going well.  For example, in the dramatic battle of 850 to 1 on Mount Carmel, Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal by winning the victory by the work of God.  What happened after that?  Elijah sought death under a broom tree (1 Kgs. 19:4).  Elijah's frustration came right after success.  That's why the Bible says, "Let him who thinks he is standing beware lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12).  Now, when Nehemiah and the people of Judah had almost finished building the walls of Jerusalem and only needed to mount a door on the gate, Sanballat and Geshem, their enemies, sent messengers and suggested, “Come let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono” (Neh. 6:2).  The plain of Ono was in the land of the tribe of Benjamin and was said to be 20 miles north of Jerusalem (Park).  But we may wonder why Sanballat and Geshem wanted to meet Nehemiah in this place.  The reason was a plan to weaken Israel's hand by luring Nehemiah to the village and harming Nehemiah, the leader.  In other words, it was an assassination plan to kill Nehemiah.  This is Satan's strategy.  By making the leader of the church separate from the holy group and preventing them from receiving the fellowship and help of the saints, in the end, they want to destroy the entire church community by harming one leader (Park).

 

When the person at the top is removed, the entire organization collapses (White).  In a war context, it means “shoot the commander.”  So, it is an attempt to assassinate the president, and now in the United States, the leader of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, has been captured alive or ordered to assassinate.  Opposition to the reconstruction of the city wall reached its climax at this yard when the reconstruction of the city wall was being completed.  If we say that the previous opposition was against the Jews, today's chapter 6 focuses on their leader, Nehemiah.  The reason is because now the opponents tried to stop the whole work because they harmed the leader at the completion stage.  Here Pastor John White said: ‘The role of a leader entails severe mental stress and tension even in normal times’ (White).  In other words, when a leader becomes the target of personal attacks, the psychological pressure is indescribable.  But what we need to keep in mind here is that the call to follow the Lord is a call to life from pressure to pressure.  Fortunately, that call is also a call to a life that goes from ability to ability (White).

 

Then, what ability did Nehemiah show in these circumstances?  It was discernment.  Nehemiah knew that what Sanballat and Geshem were asking to meet was actually trying to harm him (v. 2).  Sometimes I said something like this: ‘We Christians need to live like fools in this world.’  But the more I live in this world, the more I think that I shouldn’t be as gentle as a dove.  As the Bible says, we need to be as wise as snakes.  There was no balance for me.  Nehemiah discerns the plot of the enemy.  The Bible also encourages this discernment: “… so that you may be able to discern what is best …” (Phil. 1:10), “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, …” (1 Jn. 4:1).  With such discernment, how did Nehemiah reject the offer of a meeting with his enemies?  Look at Nehemiah 6:3 – “so I sent messengers to them with this reply: ‘I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down.  Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?’”  Nehemiah said that the enemies could not be met because the great project, the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem for the glory of the great God, could not be stopped.  If Nehemiah took a detour and was distracted from rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, which was what God wanted, what should the people of Judah who followed him do?  A large-scale project without a leader is a project without a goal and will eventually fail.  Leaders must set a good example and be loyal to their work.  What did Sanballat and Geshem do at that time?  Look at verse 4: “Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.”  Not once or twice, but four times in a row, he sent messengers to Nehemiah and begged him to meet him.  But Nehemiah gave the same answer.  That is, he gave the answer that this great work of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem cannot be stopped.  How beautiful is this of a leader who lives a goal-driven life?  While rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem confidently with the confidence he received from God, Nehemiah proceeded with consistency despite any temptations, persecutions, or warnings.  Looking at one commentary, it says: “Decisions based only on opinions might be reconsidered, but decisions based on convictions must stand unless those convictions are changed.”  Rather than listen to people's thoughts and be loyal to this great task of rebuilding the church, which is the body of the Lord, we must all participate in rebuilding this church, which is our goal, with the confidence that comes from meeting God.

 

Second, the element that tries to prevent the rebuilding of the church is rumor.

 

Look at Nehemiah 6:6 – “in which was written: ‘It is reported among the nations--and Geshem says it is true--that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall.  Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king.’”  Although Sanballat and Geshem suggested ‘Let's meet each other’ four times through messengers, Nehemiah was not swayed by the goal and continued to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  When he did so, Sanballat began plotting another fifth plot: “Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter” (v. 5).  When Sanballat's plot to assassinate Nehemiah failed, Sanballat started making malicious rumor as a second plot.  The malicious rumor was this: ‘Nehemiah is trying to incite the people to make himself king.  Nehemiah is not interested in building the city, but through this he intends to secure his own power and eventually become king himself’ (vv. 6-7).  Sanballat's slander could be fatal.  If rumors reached Susa that the wrath of King Artaxerxes might come upon Jerusalem, this could be a great political crisis.  Of course, Nehemiah would have to go to the citadel in Susa and reveal the truth of the rumor to King Artaxerxes.  But that would put his and the people of Judah's goal of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem on hold for many months.  So how devastating is this rumor of Sanballat?  Thus, he began to circulate the great rumor. As for how we can know this fact, in verse 5, we can find out through the word “unsealed letter” in his hand.  This is because the letter was not intentionally sealed in the process of being delivered to Jerusalem, so it could be read multiple times (White).  As a result, this letter could become a source of more and more rumor and gossip.  So, it says that there was rumor even among the Gentiles (v. 6).

 

Hogyu Kim, a Ph.D. student in Advertising at Texas State University, wrote a study on the consumption propensity of young people in their teens, a consumer group that spends more than $200 billion a year under the title ‘Teenage Marketing, Reap What You Sow’ wrote.  According to this article, a study by Blue Fusion found that 27% of young people said advertising had no influence on their purchasing decisions.  And then he says: ‘Experts are advising that the time has come for advertisers to realize the power of the word of mouth.  The survey above shows that 90% of young people hear about new products from their friends.  The power of rumor is astonishing.’  Isn’t there a Korean proverb that goes, ‘A word without feet goes a thousand miles’?  Rumor spreads surprisingly far and quickly (meaning be careful with our words).  And another proverb, ‘Words make words,’ means that while words are being moved, their content is exaggerated and changed without realizing it (Internet).  It's crazy how quickly malicious rumors spread all over the Internet these days.  So, there is a tendency to post on the church's free bulletin board to slander pastors and spread malicious rumors.  How should we react?  Pastor John White said: ‘In situations like these, most of us quickly get into self-defense.  We are sensitive about our own honor, and we are sensitive about how others see us.  We are also afraid of what will happen if people readily believe the slander against us.  The closed doors, the faces turned away, the mean letters, the cold attitudes, they are afraid of it all.  And there is an even greater danger: loss of work, that is loss of the work of God’ (White).  But for Nehemiah, there can be no ‘loss of the work of God,’ so he sent a message to Sanballat like this: “…  Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head” (v. 8).  Nehemiah pointed out that Sanballat's slander was not true and revealed that Sanballat had invented it.  However, his excessive self-defense did not.  In other words, Nehemiah did not make long excuses.  The reason was that he was well aware that excuses and clarifications could not solve the problem (Lee).  A Puritan is said to have set three principles for his conduct as to what attitude he should take when he hears rumors about a person, so that he may not commit the crime of slander: (1) 'Is this a rumor based on fact?' (2) 'Have I confirmed this to myself?'  (3) ‘Even if it’s true, is it an honor to God and beneficial to my brothers if I tell others what I have heard?’ (Lee)

 

Third and last, the factor that wants to prevent us from rebuilding the church is fear.

 

Look at Nehemiah 6:9 – “They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.’  But I prayed, ‘Now strengthen my hands.’”  Nehemiah knew that the adversaries wanted to meet him to harm him (v. 2), and also spread malicious rumors (v. 8), which eventually frightened and discouraged Nehemiah and the people of Judah so that they would stop the great work that God wanted to accomplish through them, namely the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.  This was Satan's strategy.  His final goal was to prevent the will of the Lord from being fulfilled on earth.  If it was God's will to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, Satan's servants, the enemies of Nehemiah, tried to stop the rebuilding of the wall by any means.  Here we see Nehemiah's prayer: “Now strengthen my hands” (v. 9).  In other words, Nehemiah prayed that God would enable him to ignore all malicious rumors and continue to work as an inspiration, organizer, and supervisor of the people of Judah until the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls was completed (Packer).  Nehemiah knew.  If malicious rumors that get out of hand reach the ears of King Artaxerxes, he has no idea what will happen to him, the people of Judah, and the city of Jerusalem.  Also, even if it wasn't a malicious rumor, when the walls of Jerusalem were completed, King Artaxerxes' heart changed and no one knew what to do with them and the wall.  It would have been something to worry about in fear.  However, Nehemiah knew that all of this was not in his own hands but in God's hands, so he prayed to God (Packer).  ‘God, make my hands strong.  So let me do all I have to do.  Let us do all the work you have entrusted to give praise and glory to the Lord’ (Lee).

 

Pastor John White said this: ‘Success usually creates opposition.  The greater the success, the worse it is.  If that success is of the kingdom of God, opposition to it (whether it manifests as human hostility or inexplicable feelings of disappointment and fear) belongs to Satan.  And half a degree of ferocity indicates the importance and imminence of realization of a specific goal’ (White).  What should a leader do in this case?  Two things must not be forgotten.  That is, the source of opposition (Satan) and the intent of opposition (stopping things).  Therefore, we must never take our eyes off the work of rebuilding the church, which is the goal given to us by God.  In order to prevent this great work from being accomplished, misguided encounters, false rumors, and enemies who want to frighten us to lose our strength, rather believe that the goal given to us is proof that the goal is being fulfilled, and do not be shaken by the goal.  It will not be possible to stop this great work of rebuilding.