Who Can Stand Against Us?

Who Can Stand Against Us? (Nehemiah 2:9–20)

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Visible and Invisible Chariots

I want to begin this morning by reading another passage of scripture that illustrates Nehemiah's perspective and the main point of this sermon and passage. It's from Second Kings chapter 6. You can just listen as I read it to you. Before this, Elisha has angered the king of Aram, and here's what happens: The report came back, "Elisha is at Dothan." So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city. When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. "Oh sir, what will we do now?" the young man cried to Elisha. "Don't be afraid," Elisha told him, "for there are more on our side than on theirs." Then Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes and let him see." The Lord opened the young man's eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.

That young man learned the valuable lesson of Romans 8: If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. That's the point of Nehemiah 2:9–20. Ruined walls will not stand against us. Angry, powerful enemies will not stand against us. Nehemiah has eyes to see that God is greater than both of them, and so he's not discouraged, and he does not despair. Even before the enemies are defeated, we can wait confidently that we will overcome any obstacle with God on our side. With man, our Lord said, it is impossible; with God, all things are possible.

The Pattern of the Story

It's crucial that we learn this lesson because of the repeating pattern that we've seen in Ezra-Nehemiah, and really in all of scripture. I started this sermon series outlining it, but let me remind you of it now. The pattern goes like this: First, God gives a decree—sometimes through a human king—for the building of his kingdom. Then, God's enemies attack, and they push back against God's people. But God gives victory, and God's people defeat their enemies. In that victory, God's people consecrate themselves; they submit themselves to God and pledge their lives to him anew. In their faithfulness, God pours out blessing upon them. And then, as Andy quoted last week from Cotton Mather, faithfulness begets prosperity, and the daughter devours the mother—the people fall back into sin.

I hope you can see Ezra-Nehemiah as two halves that tell this story twice. In Ezra, the decree comes from Cyrus, and then the adversaries oppose the building of the temple and try to get it stopped. But God's people are victorious, the temple is completed, and they consecrate themselves to God as they celebrate the Passover. God blesses them and sends them Ezra with more people and provisions, and then they fall back into sin and intermarry. The exact same thing will happen in Nehemiah. The decree comes as the king approves Nehemiah's request, and then the enemies will attack as they try to start building the wall. But the walls will be completed, they will dedicate the walls, Jerusalem will be populated, and then they'll fall back into sin and break the covenant they made with God.

This pattern, though, is not just Ezra-Nehemiah; it's the way God normally works in the world, which is why we are living in the same story. We're living in the same story on a large scale as Christians because Jesus gave us his decree when he rose again and ascended to heaven; he told us to make disciples. God's enemies wasted no time before they began the attack, but the gospel wins so decisively in the book of Acts that the chief enemy of God's people, Paul, is converted and becomes the greatest proponent of the gospel. The gospel goes forth, the people consecrate themselves to serve God, and God blesses them richly. But this time—this time it doesn't have to end in sin. When Acts ends, the gospel has not encountered a challenge it could not overcome. You make it to the end of the book of Acts and the last challenge is Rome, and sure enough, Rome fell, and out of its ruins rose Christendom.

So here at the end of the age, because of the sacrifice of Jesus and the power of the Spirit, the story does not have to end with God's people breaking his covenant, because he has written his new covenant on our hearts. This story is not only ours on a large scale; it's ours on a small scale as Christ the King Church. When our sending churches commissioned us, God gave us a decree to meet together as a church, which means we know what will come next: attack, pushback. Anytime God's people strengthen their hands for work, God's enemies will prepare themselves to attack. I'm not saying this because I have some special insight into some specific attack that's coming; I'm just telling you we know what's next because we can see the story. To make it through the attack that will come, you and I need to be entirely settled in our hearts that God is on our side, and so we have nothing to fear. Like the young man that was with Elisha, we may not see how God is planning to prosper us, and defeat may look inevitable, but we need to know deep in our bones that our God is strong enough to take on the world, and he's called us his sons and daughters. So we have no reason to fear and every reason to hope.

Nehemiah Arrives with Wisdom

The book of Nehemiah began with Nehemiah's example of how to start building and fighting. In chapter 1:1 through 2:8, we saw Nehemiah stay loyal to God, take responsibility for his sin, trust in God's word, ask for God's help, make a plan for how to go and help God's people, and then courageously act on that plan with God's help. That's how you start building and fighting. Now we'll pick up the story in chapter 2, verse 9. When Nehemiah arrives, the first thing he does is he gives the governors of the region his letters from the king, and we know that that wasn't particularly well-received because of the next sentence: "Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen." That wouldn't be a particularly relevant fact if the rulers were excited to see him. No, these enemies of God are displeased that someone is there to help the people of God. They thought that they were about to win, that they had almost defeated Jerusalem, and now here comes Nehemiah riding in with the officers of the army to help.

You might remember that in Ezra 8:22, Ezra refused to take an army escort. So it's interesting to see in Nehemiah that Nehemiah does take the army escort. Ezra didn't take it because he had already told the king that the hand of God was on them to protect them and to destroy their enemies, and so he says he was ashamed to ask for it because he had already said, "God is on our side, we will be okay." But the situation's changed quite a bit between Ezra's return and Nehemiah's return. When Ezra is getting ready to go back, it's not a particularly safe journey, but he's going back to an area that has been successfully settled; the temple has been completed. When Nehemiah is returning, it's because he's gotten word that the people of God are under siege. He knows there is a war happening in the land. He knows he's walking right into fighting, and since he's riding into enemy territory, he takes an army.

This is a good illustration of wisdom, brothers and sisters. Should I bring the king's army? The answer is: it depends. Life isn't a paint-by-numbers affair where there's just a right answer to plug in every time. It takes wisdom to figure out what will glorify God in our unique circumstances, and it turns out in this case Nehemiah was very wise to have brought the army officers along with him. It's probably what allowed the building to get underway in the first place; instead of these governors killing Nehemiah and hiding the body, bringing the army has another effect. Those who come with Nehemiah, their army officers, are probably much better trained and outfitted than the soldiers of just these regional guys in the land of Israel. Nehemiah is way more important than Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem in the kingdom of Persia, and walking in with the army officers makes him look like it. It's an opening parade that shows, "I have the support of the king; I am a powerful man coming to help the people of God," which is part of why they rebel and why they don't like it.

Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem

To appreciate how difficult Nehemiah's task is, we're going to need to appreciate the struggle for power that's taking place in this region. When a major empire like Persia took over at this time in history, one way that they took control was to relocate and mix all the people around in the land, because without a strong cultural identity they couldn't offer any significant resistance to the empire; they couldn't form coalitions that were large enough to do any real damage. That's what's been happening in this region since Nebuchadnezzar conquered it a while ago. We know just from this passage there's at least four different people groups: there's the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Arabs, and the Israelites. And although this was once Israel's land, now they're the newcomers after the empires kicked them out, and they haven't had much time to set up their cities or defenses. So they've been vulnerable to the attack of their neighbors, who have been there settling the land longer than they have. If Nehemiah is going to succeed in building the wall and rebuilding the city, he needs to outmaneuver and defeat these three regional leaders.

Now, this would have been no trouble for Nehemiah in Susa—he's cupbearer of the king, a high-ranking official. But all the way away from Susa in Israel, this is a different story. We imagine that the king of Susa had absolute control of his whole empire, but communication and transport during this period of history allows the king to basically just ask for tribute and bring the army if he's angry; he doesn't have all that much day-to-day control. The king might like Nehemiah, but he's not going to go to war for him if Sanballat and Tobiah offer enough resistance. So let's look at these three men that Nehemiah is lined up against. We don't know lots about them, but from their names we know some.

Sanballat the Horonite: his name is an homage to his god; it means "may Sin give him life." Yes, there really was an ancient god named Sin—there's a wonderful irony there. Horonite probably means that he's the ruler from a city called Horonaim, which was a city of the Moabites. So Sanballat is a Moabite ruler who's part of a coalition including the Arabs and the Ammonites, who are all together resisting Israel.

Tobiah the Ammonite servant: Tobiah is a Jewish name that means "Yahweh is good," and it's very likely that Tobiah was an Israelite who turned against his kinsmen. He decided Yahweh wasn't good enough, and the Ammonites would be better for him. He's not listed as one who returned with Ezra, or Zerubbabel, or Nehemiah—maybe because he didn't stay with the project, or maybe because he was never taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the first place. Maybe his family has been there for a while and long ago defected. Being called an "Ammonite servant" is an epithet; it's like being called the agent of the state. He's turned away from his people and decided to serve another people. He would have been viewed similarly to the tax collectors in the days of the New Testament, but even worse in this case because serving the Ammonites is especially low. The Ammonites were one of the tribes who wouldn't show kindness to Israel when they passed through the land after the Exodus; in fact, they hired Balaam to curse Israel, they offered human sacrifices in their land, and they were excluded from joining the nation of Israel to the tenth generation. They were considered especially despicable, and he's one of their servants.

Finally, Geshem the Arab, whom we really don't know much about except that he's a regional ruler of the Arabs. In the King James version, his name is translated "Gashmu," and it's this character that Douglas Wilson's book, Gashmu Saith It, is based on. If you haven't read that book, I'd highly recommend it. It's all about building Christian communities, and it's been highly influential to my thinking on how we would build this community.

With that stage set so that we can understand the conflict, we'll be able to understand what Nehemiah does. Here's the outline for the rest of this sermon: Nehemiah inspects the walls of Jerusalem, he inspires the people to work, and he ignores the accusations of God's enemies. Inspect the walls, inspire the people, ignore the accusations.

Inspect the Walls

Preparation, Secrecy, and the Doctrine of Vocation

First, let's look at how Nehemiah inspects the walls in verses 11–16. First, you'll notice in verse 11 that Nehemiah takes three days to prepare before he goes and inspects the walls. This is actually a pattern throughout the Bible; many scholars note three days is a period for preparation before a large event happens. The pattern is most obvious in stories like Jonah (three days in the belly of the whale), Jesus (three days in the tomb), and Saul (three days blind after he encounters Jesus). But we've actually seen this pattern three times in Ezra already: in Ezra 8 they camp for three days before setting out, then they wait three days before they weigh the gold into the temple, and in Ezra 10 they demand that all Israel gather in three days. I'm pointing out this period of preparation because it demonstrates that Nehemiah doesn't rush into anything willy-nilly. He's always doing everything he can to be fully prepared; he's not hasty, he's not rash, he is measured and careful, doing what he can to be prepared. Sometimes he's characterized as the opposite; people think he's this rash, brash leader who flies off the handle at the end of Nehemiah and starts pulling people's beards out. And although he does pull people's beards out by chapter 13, it's not because he's rash, it's not because he just flies off the handle; he's a measured, careful leader, and he continues this pattern of preparedness by inspecting the walls in the night before telling anyone why he's in Jerusalem.

So he arrives in style with this army escort, but no one knows what he's there to do, just that he's there to help Israel somehow. By keeping that purpose secret, he has a chance to inspect the damage and make a plan before the naysayers or the fear-mongers attack him and change the narrative of what's going on. Instead, he is in charge. When he's ready, he can go to the people and inspire them to get to work; he can tell them what God's put into his heart and help them begin building. Now, maybe as I said that, you thought, "Tell them what God put in his heart? Pastor Nathan, that sounds like a bit of evangelical psychobabble if I ever heard any—tell them what he put in his heart." It turns out it's not, though; that's just straight Bible. Verse 12 says, "I told no one what God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem." Now, didn't Andy not long ago preach telling us that we shouldn't justify our decisions by saying things like "God told me so"? Dustin just last week was telling us that the heart's deceitfully wicked and we shouldn't follow it. So what can "God put it in my heart" mean in a robust, biblical, good sense?

I think it's really simple: it's just the biblical doctrine of vocation. Vocation comes from the Latin word meaning "to call," and when Nehemiah says that God has put it in his heart to rebuild Jerusalem, he's saying he's discerned God's call to rebuild Jerusalem. He didn't hear God speak audibly—that's why it says "he put it in my heart to do"—but the hand of God has been on him, he's prepared the way for him, and Nehemiah has used biblical wisdom as he prepared and made a plan. He's looked at his own abilities and station in life, and all of this has lined up, and so he's received it as a calling from God to go and rebuild Jerusalem. He intends to sacrifice many years of his life and a comfortable position in Susa to do so. But notice, skip ahead with me for a minute to verses 17 and 18, that he doesn't use this calling to coerce anyone to join the project. He inspires them; he convinces them to build the walls. He tells them about how the hand of God has been on him and given him success with the king; he tells them the objective facts of what God has done. Our sense of calling is fallible, which is why it needs to be confirmed by others. The fact that you think God has put something in your heart doesn't mean you get to use it to coerce anybody else. "Sweetie, God put it in my heart to marry you, why don't you say yes?" Well, no—if God's put it in your heart, then you'll win her, not manipulate her. "God's put it in my heart to start this business, won't you invest?" That's not a sales pitch, that's lazy. God really does put things in people's hearts for them to do, but that fact doesn't give anyone the reins to control people. The way you find out if God put it in your heart, or if you just wish God put it in your heart, is you go try to do it and convince others to come and join you, and if you can't, that's a good indication that God either wants it to happen later or was never calling you to do it in the first place.

Notice also that Nehemiah inspects the walls before he inspires the people—another great example of his being prepared. He doesn't ride in with his entourage and say, "Guys, guys, I've got a great idea, I think we should rebuild these walls." Can you imagine what the response would have been? "Yeah, yeah, Nehemiah, here you come, some big shot from out of town, you haven't even looked at the walls, telling us that we should go and rebuild them. You don't know what you're talking about. Have you seen how the Fountain Gate is totally destroyed? Have you looked at the walls between the Dragon Spring and the King's Pool? They're just rubble." No, Nehemiah doesn't allow that to happen. He inspects first so that no one can say, "You don't know what you're talking about, Nehemiah." He does know what he's talking about; he went and looked at it firsthand, and he sees that things are in really bad shape. The walls are broken down, and the gates are burned, he says, which is devastating. It's really hard work to build a strong gate during this period, so for them to be burned and no longer useful, that's a big problem. In fact, he says that at one of the gates he can't even get his animal through; it's so broken and clogged with rubble. It's a way of signaling to us: it really can't get much worse. This is the kind of damage that a city probably never recovers from, especially if the people who did it are still not that far away, watching and making sure that the city doesn't recover. But the extent of this damage doesn't discourage Nehemiah; instead, it enrages him. He hates to see the dishonor of God's people written in rubble right there across Mount Zion. But he's not worried about whether or not God could rebuild the city; he knows God can do that. There's no amount of rubble that's too much for God to rebuild from, and so he has hope.

Inspecting the Rubble of Our Own Day

Let's take a moment to inspect the walls in our day. We're in the midst of a rebuilding project as well. We are living stones, part of God's new temple; the church is the New Jerusalem. Sin has left the world in ruins, and despite the great efforts of our forefathers and much progress made across the last 2,000 years, we do not have to look very far back in history to see how far we have fallen in our own day. We're sitting here in a country that was founded as a city on a hill, that our forefathers wanted to shine the light of Christ into the world, and now some of our Supreme Court justices can't even define what a woman is. As a nation, we've given women the right to offer their children at the altar of convenience and called it abortion. We're profligate, wantonly wasting billions. We dishonor marriage, commonly committing adultery, or divorcing, or ignoring the institution of marriage altogether, planning to build a family on fornication. In short, our nation has said, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." As an American society, we have fallen a long way and fast.

But it's not as though the church in America has really just held the line while the American culture apostatized; the church has been thoroughly infected as well. Evangelical feminism has eroded God's design for marriage so far that women serving as pastors has become normal across the country, and men acting like men in churches has become labeled toxic. In her book, Shepherds for Sale, Megan Basham cataloged that many leaders received funding from the enemies of God in return for their support through the COVID time period and the Floyd riots. And the people of God have spent decades retreating in fear or becoming radicalized and rude. As all of society has been feminized, men have lost their vision for how to be godly fathers and husbands. Mothers and wives have been taught to be constantly discontent instead of excited by the responsibility God has given them. Children have been discipled more by youth group leaders and Sunday school teachers than their own parents. Families, many of them, are caught on a never-ending treadmill of sports and kids' activities without time to just be a joyful, happy family together, or they retreat into their own homes, uncomfortable with the world around them. Certainly, we've lost a vision to forge multigenerational wealth and found long-lasting institutions; we're just trying to survive. There's not one sphere in our society—not the household, not businesses, school, church, government, not one—that's still largely committed to stand on God's word no matter what. The walls are in rough shape. The gates have been burned with fire.

In his book Gashmu Saith It, Doug Wilson lists a few ideologies that are ruining our society and rotting the church. Here's just four of them: secularism (the idea of a neutral culture), Darwinism (the idea that humans got here on our own without God), egalitarianism (the idea that hierarchy is bad), and relativism (the idea that everything's just a matter of perspective). Now, what do all four of those have in common? They all won't have Jesus as Lord. They won't let Christ be king. Secularism pretends to be above Jesus and allow him into society on the state's terms. Darwinism removes God as our creator, pretending we only answer to ourselves. Egalitarianism tries to destroy God's hierarchical order, trying to flatten or reverse the whole thing. And relativism rips goodness, truth, and beauty from the hands of God and pretends that we are the judge of all three. The cause of our ruin, the reason we're picking up pieces amidst rubble, is because as a society we've rejected Christ as king. What's essential is that we recognize what G.K. Chesterton told us almost a hundred years ago: the choice is between Christ and chaos. We can be servants of Christ or servants of sin, sons of God or sons of Satan—those are our only options. And we're living in chaos because our society has abandoned Christ; the church is impotent because it's abandoned the way of Christ.

But we shouldn't give up hope any more than Nehemiah did. Nehemiah didn't give up hope because he had faith—faith like Abraham, who knew he was physically unable to have another child but believed God's promise. So there's no need to despair. If Nehemiah didn't despair, certainly we shouldn't—not us who look back on the victory, right? Jesus has already accomplished our salvation. The decisive battle of the war has already been won. There's no reason for us to give up because we're already more than conquerors. Those who don't like the direction that the world is going in, they want to see it change, but they aren't Christians; their only hope is themselves and their fellow man, which is not a sure hope. It's Christians who have a sure hope because Jesus has already won. He's seated on the throne of the world. He's promised that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. So we have no reason to give up hope. We can look right at the ruins and smile, because if God's for us, there's no mess too big. In fact, we should look at the ruins following Nehemiah's example, because they will inspire us.

Inspire the People

Look with me at chapter 2, verses 17 and 18, and how Nehemiah inspires the people. He inspires the people by reminding them how bad the conditions of the wall are, which to some of you might seem counterintuitive. What's inspiring about reminding us how bad things are? Well, Nehemiah is not the kind of leader who says, "It's really not that bad, guys. I mean, at least all the material is here, all we've got to do is mix the mortar, we'll get at it for a few years and presto, those walls will be back—don't worry about it." He's not that kind of leader. He says, "You see the trouble we're in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates are burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision."

Now, I would have expected Nehemiah to say, "Come, let us build the wall so that we may no longer be in such danger," but he doesn't motivate them with self-preservation, does he? He motivates them by reminding them of the disgrace they are in as a city without walls and a society without a secured capital. That is embarrassing; it does deserve derision. I mean, really think about the dissonance of being a people that claim that their God is the strongest of all gods and the king of all kings, and then living in a city without walls, beholden to a few regional rulers—it doesn't compute, does it? It doesn't make God look great, or strong, or powerful. So Nehemiah in essence says, "It's time to remedy this. Nobody fears the name of Yahweh, nobody fears to attack our cities; it's time to fix this, and the first step is walls, so let's build them." You can tell just by hearing that it's way more inspiring to say that than it is to say, "Folks, let's just chip away at it, we'll get it done, it's not as bad as you think."

But I want you to think about why for a minute, because it helps us understand Nehemiah. Why is acknowledging how bad things are and being embarrassed by them more inspiring than motivating them with safety? It's because if the people wanted to be safe, they should just pack up and go back to Susa, and no doubt some of them were thinking about doing exactly that. There's no safe option—building and fighting is going to be a war every time. So if you're going to motivate people with safety, they're just going to opt out. Instead, dishonor is a powerful motivator because it taps into the value of the project in the first place. They're here because God called them back to build a civilization that would honor his name, to set up a temple to worship at and honor his name. His hand has guided their way, his eye has watched over them as they traveled, he's identified himself with his people, and he doesn't look strong to save while the walls are in rubble. So they can be sure that this won't be the end of the story. Nehemiah points out how the hand of God has been on him for good, and now it's not hard to read this story, is it? It's already happened twice: God gave the decree to Cyrus and they returned with Zerubbabel, and he gave the decree to Ezra and he returned, and now Nehemiah comes and says, "It happened again, God sent me." And so it's not hard for the people to rally behind him and say, "Then let us build." And so they strengthen their hands for building.

Brothers and sisters, look at how far we've fallen. Christians are despised and derided in the world, and we should shake our heads at the many ways that we deserve it. Look at the ruins—it's embarrassing, isn't it? Then we have two choices: we can choose comfort and opt out of the fight, or we can strengthen our hands to build. Jesus did not say, "In this world you will be comfy." In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world. God has so closely identified himself with us that he calls us his people; he calls us his sons and daughters, his bride. He staked his glory on us, so we don't have to fear that our story will end with shame and derision. Regardless of your eschatology, we all agree on where the world is going to go: Jesus will win in the end. Jesus wins, and the earth will be as full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the ocean is of water. So surely he can overcome whatever obstacles—whatever small obstacles—stand in our way. So let's strengthen our hands to build.

Ignore the Accusations

Finally, Nehemiah ignores the accusations of his enemies. Look with me at chapter 2, verses 19 and 20. God's people have been provided for, they start rebuilding, they strengthen their hands because they no longer want to suffer the derision of their enemies, and right on cue, the derision begins again. God's enemies are jeering, and they begin their smear campaign: "Are you rebelling against the king?" It's such a dumb question. Of course Nehemiah's not rebelling against the king. The first thing he did when he arrived was hand them letters from the king saying that he was authorized to be there. Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem know that they are actually the ones rebelling against the king, not Nehemiah. Nehemiah is there to carry out the king's orders, and they would like to stand in his way. They're not saying this truthfully; it's a tactic to try to get them leverage over Nehemiah. They think that if they can make Nehemiah nervous that they're going to send word back to the king that Nehemiah is setting up another kingdom, Nehemiah will back off this city-rebuilding project. It's a smear campaign that's an attempt to steer Nehemiah.

Pay attention to that, because it's still the way the enemies of God work today. They start calling Christians names because they know that we want to be well thought of. We don't want to be known as troublemakers, or bigots, or haters, or any other bad-sounding name, and so they start accusing us of being mean, or uncouth, or rude—anything else that sounds like it's rebelling against the established order of things. The irony hurts: the ones who are rebelling against God take up this stance like they are the defenders of decency and we're the ones out of order. Don't fall for it. The appropriate response is exactly what Nehemiah does: he ignores it. He doesn't take the accusation seriously at all. If you look at his words, it's only a reply in that it comes after what they said; it doesn't reply to what they said at all. He tells them what they really need to hear, and it comes down to three things.

Number one: God is on our side, we are not scared of you. They try to appeal to the high authority of the king; Nehemiah says the God of heaven is on our side, and he will make us prosper. Secondly: we will build—we will build, you are not stopping us, we will build these walls. And finally, he says: you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem. This tells them two things: First, it cuts off any possibility of what they tried early in Ezra by joining the project to infiltrate it and sabotage it from the inside. He says, "There'll be none of that. You have no portion, right, or claim; you're not touching this project. This city has nothing to do with you." But it actually goes even further. One commentator notes that it shows Nehemiah is saying they have no past, present, or future here. He's basically just telling them to get lost. They have no right in the present to take any of the land of the city, no portion or future allotment will be given them, and they have no claim or memorial provided by their ancestors that Nehemiah will honor and give to them. "The city has nothing to do with you." He makes a hard separation between the people of God and their enemies.

Notice the connection here between what Nehemiah does as a leader and what he's trying to accomplish for the city. Walls and gates are supposed to separate people. Nehemiah's being a gatekeeper; he's drawing a clear line so that his people know and the enemies of God know what side of the wall they are living on in Jerusalem. They need to build walls to physically keep people out of the city, but that's all going to depend, as we'll see, on having leaders who insist on keeping it clear in everyone's head who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Healthy Christian cultures have strong walls. They have clear standards. They have strong men guarding the gates. They make a clear separation. They keep a strong antagonism for the enemy and a clear definition and love for their brothers and sisters. Cultures that have unclear standards, that don't have much in common, that take the lowest common denominator approach to building a community won't be able to last. By founding their community without very much common ground, all they're doing is admitting that they want to have a weak community that doesn't have all that much in common. It's much better to express and enforce clear standards so that you have high walls and strong gates. So often people who found communities, they do so without demanding much common ground because what they're doing is trying to influence those whom they think will come in. But that's not how influence works. A city with strong influence has high walls, strong gates, and a powerful army guarding them—that's how it's able to influence the cities around it. So Nehemiah establishes those boundaries as a good leader for the people of God.

Brothers and sisters, as we go forward, I want you to expect pushback. It's what should come next. As we strengthen our hands for work, the enemies of God will get ready to deride, and threaten, and try to steer us. In fact, if that doesn't happen in God's good timing, we're doing something wrong. And when it does come, we should wear it like a badge of honor—rejoice when we are reviled. So inspect the walls, see that they look pretty bad, but don't let that make you lose hope. In fact, let it inspire you to strengthen your hands and resolve yourself to work all the harder, knowing that as we do, pushback will come, and we should prepare our hearts to ignore it. The main thing for you and I is to trust God. So lock this in your head: God is on our side, Jesus is king of this world, so we are more than conquerors. Amen.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we ask for your help as we look to strengthen our hands and continue to build. We need your wisdom, we need your power. We know that unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. And so Father, would you please help us? We don't want to live in this kind of derision; it does not make you look glorious, and you are the God who is deserving of all glory, honor, power, and confidence forever. So please help us to live that and proclaim it to the community that we live in. Amen.