Nehemiah 4: Pray and Act in the Face of Adversaries

Introduction

Mélanie Ehrismann, pastor of the Église protestante de Paris-Alésia, continues her series on the book of Nehemiah. In chapter 1, Nehemiah learns that the walls of Jerusalem lie in ruins, a disgrace for the people and therefore for God. In chapter 2, led by God, he dares to share his plan with the king, inspects the walls by night, then issues the call: "Come, let’s build up the wall of Jerusalem." From that moment on, we learn that not everyone likes the project.

Chapters 3 and 4 bring these two themes back. God's people go to work, and the opposition grows. The further the rebuilding advances, the more the adversaries show themselves: first through mockery, then through conspiracy, and finally through the threat of an armed attack.

Each time, Nehemiah and the people respond in the same way: they pray, then they act. The preacher sees a pattern here for everyone who serves the Lord today: "Pray, act and persevere."

Outline of the Message

1. A Building Project Carried by the Heart of a Whole People

In chapter 3, the whole people rise up. Mélanie Ehrismann is amused by Nehemiah's gift: one man shares a vision and an entire people gets moving, enough to make any politician jealous.
The text gives the key to this momentum: the people "had a mind to work" (Nehemiah 4:6 in the World English Bible, 3:38 in some other versions). Everyone threw themselves into it wholeheartedly.
If the people rise up, it is not because of Nehemiah's good looks or fine speeches, but because of what God had put on this man's heart: the vision of a restored Jerusalem and of a God glorified on earth.

2. A Human Chain Where Everyone Has a Place

Nehemiah 3 is one of the most precise descriptions of the walls of Jerusalem in the Bible. The author gives a guided tour, from the Sheep Gate all the way back to the starting point, and names about forty people.
This list is reminiscent of the genealogies, but the names are not linked by descent ("son of, son of"). They are linked by collaboration: "next to him," "after him." A human chain takes shape and foreshadows the wall itself.
The chain is surprisingly diverse: priests, district rulers, craftsmen, goldsmiths, perfumers, merchants, residents of Jerusalem and of other towns, young and old, and even women.
The New Testament echoes this with the image of the body (1 Corinthians 12). "The Church is not a show where some take part and others watch. The Church is a work to which everyone contributes."
The list begins with Eliashib, the high priest. The text does not say that he prayed in the temple for the work to go well: he is on the building site, like everyone else. "A true leader is someone who leads by example." When a leader serves, he motivates the whole team.
The preacher admits that this chapter, which we might be tempted to skim through by ticking boxes, deeply moved her by its solidarity and its collective movement.

3. The Christmas of the Heart, a Building Project for Today

To show that this does not work only with Nehemiah, she tells what happened ten years ago in another church. She makes clear that she is not saying they succeed and we do not.
A few people carried a burden: seeing people alone at Christmas, while they were surrounded by their families, gifts and good meals. Yet Christmas celebrates Emmanuel, God with us, so that no one will be alone. They saw breaches there, and those breaches became the burden of the whole church.
The church decided not to celebrate Christmas each in their own family, but to offer a Christmas to the people of the city: the "Christmas of the Heart," a free evening with a meal, a concert and a party for the children, for all the people and families who are alone on Christmas night.
After a few years, the event welcomed 1,000 guests and more than 200 volunteers: pastors, musicians, sound engineers, nurses, bus drivers, cooks, people who love to chat and others who love to play with the children. Together, they showed Emmanuel, God with us.
Not every church is called to organize a Christmas of the Heart, "that would be ridiculous." But each one is called to ask itself what rebuilding the Lord is entrusting to it, and each of us first personally: what is my place in God's restoration project, in light of the breaches I see?

4. When the Light Shines, the Darkness Stirs

When you work for God, the real question is not whether you will meet resistance. Jesus was quite clear: being a witness to the Gospel and a light to the nations ends up attracting resistance, even persecution. Looking for a project that would avoid all resistance would already be going the wrong way.
The reverse is not true, however: opposition is not proof that you are doing God's will. Mélanie Ehrismann mentions awkward conversations with people who wanted to prove they were doing God's will by listing all their oppositions.
The better question is this: what will we do when opposition appears? How will we stand firm?
Sanballat is angry and very indignant. It is not Nehemiah he dislikes, it is seeing Jerusalem shine again and God glorified. "When the light begins to shine, logically, the darkness is disturbed."
Through the end of chapter 4, the adversaries try three times to destabilize the human chain, and each time the attack goes up a notch: mockery, conspiracy, the threat of an armed attack.

5. Facing Mockery: Pray, Then Get Back to Work

Sanballat and Tobiah ridicule the project. Tobiah quips that if a fox climbed on it, it would break down their stone wall (Nehemiah 4:3). Mockery is formidable because it does not merely criticize, it ridicules.
The preacher tells how she was mocked for her faith. In engineering school, a "purity test" was all the rage: she came across as the resident prude, and she was ashamed of being pure. During an internship, colleagues looked down on her: "But how can a scientist believe in myths?" Being a Christian discredited her from the start, "like a Care Bear."
Mockery humiliates and can paralyze. It makes you want to stop everything, to hide, to downplay: "I'm a Christian, but…" Further on, the people of Judah end up saying: we are exhausted, we will never make it (Nehemiah 4:10). "By dint of hearing that you are incapable, you end up believing it."
Nehemiah does not answer his adversaries. He turns to God (Nehemiah 4:4-5). His prayer is aggressive, honest, full of anger and a thirst for judgment. It recalls the imprecatory psalms, which make us uncomfortable because Jesus asks us to love our enemies and to bless those who persecute us.
Nehemiah is a man of his time, before the full revelation of God's love at the cross and in the resurrection. We know a better way: overcoming evil with good. His prayer remains consistent with his level of revelation.
Yet it teaches one thing that the preacher, a "good 21st-century Christian," says she still finds hard to do: to hand her suffering over to God rather than lash out at those who make us suffer. To stop playing the good Christian before the Lord and to be free to tell him the truth about what we feel, even the most awful part.
After the prayer comes action: the wall is built up to half its height all along its length (Nehemiah 4:6). Sometimes it is enough to ignore the mockery, to refocus on God and to carry on with the work he has entrusted to us. How small the mockers look next to the faith, the unity and the energy of the people they mocked!

6. Facing Conspiracies and Fear: Watch, Organize, Remember the Lord

When mockery fails, the adversaries redouble their efforts and increase in number: Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabians, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites (Nehemiah 4:7). These are the peoples surrounding Jerusalem, as if to encircle the human chain.
The preacher quotes Paul: "We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed" (2 Corinthians 4:8). God sometimes allows us to be surrounded, but never without limit.
The people are no longer merely ridiculed, they are threatened. Nehemiah prays with all the people, then he acts: he sets up a guard day and night (Nehemiah 4:9). He does not bury his head in the sand. "Trusting God is not an excuse for recklessness, and being prudent is not necessarily a lack of faith."
A difficult moment comes: fatigue and outside pressure set discouragement in. The people doubt their abilities, the threats of attack become clearer, and Jews living near the enemies come up to ten times to advise them to stop (Nehemiah 4:10-12). Just as the wall is at half height, the early enthusiasm fades and the human chain loses strength.
Nehemiah adapts the organization without ever stopping the work. He moves from watching to defending: he posts men by families with swords, spears and bows, makes sure that every worker has his sword at his side while working, and organizes shifts of guards so that the people feel safe (Nehemiah 4:13-23).
Then he speaks to the people and restores the balance between heaven and earth: "Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome"; "fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses" (Nehemiah 4:14); and later: "Our God will fight for us" (Nehemiah 4:20).
Mélanie Ehrismann calls this a sandwich: vertical trust, horizontal action, then vertical trust again. Where the people had their eyes fixed on their adversaries, which produced fear, Nehemiah redirects their gaze toward God, then their efforts toward their own people. This is how he turns fear into active trust.

7. Looking to Jesus, Who Knew Hostility

"Let us not allow mockery, threats or intimidation to unsettle us, discourage us or wear us out in the mission the Lord has entrusted to us." Let us rather cultivate this inner balance: pray, act and persevere.
Following Nehemiah's example, the preacher invites us to turn our eyes to Jesus. If anyone has known oppression, hostility and adversity, it is he: rejected, questioned, watched, betrayed, abandoned, unjustly accused.
Yet he faithfully pursued his mission: he taught, healed, trained his disciples, and made himself a servant all the way to the cross.
She invites us to come close to Christ as we are, with our strengths and our weaknesses, our desire to serve him and our enthusiasm, but also our limits, our fears and our doubts, to receive forgiveness and restoration from him.

Key Takeaways

God's building project moves forward when everyone puts their heart into it and takes their place alongside others. The Church is not a show, it is a work to which everyone contributes.
A true leader leads by example, like Eliashib, the high priest present on the building site.
Serving God attracts resistance, but opposition is not proof that you are doing his will. The question is how to stand firm.
Facing mockery, conspiracies and fear, Nehemiah always responds with prayer and action, without ever stopping the work.
Remembering the Lord, fighting for your own people, counting on God who fights for us: this is how fear becomes active trust.

Personal Application

What breaches do you see around you, and what is your place in God's restoration project?
Have you ever downplayed your faith for fear of being mocked ("I'm a Christian, but…")? What would help you refocus on the mission God has given you?
When someone makes you suffer, do you first hand your pain over to God, in complete honesty, or do you lash out at the person?
In difficulty, are your eyes fixed on your adversaries or on the Lord, great and awesome?
Who next to you do you need to support and protect this week so that the chain holds?

Verses Quoted

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Nehemiah respond to the mockery of Sanballat and Tobiah?

Nehemiah does not answer his adversaries at all. He turns to God in prayer, then goes back to work with the people. For Mélanie Ehrismann, it is sometimes enough to ignore the mockery, to refocus on God and to carry on with the work he has entrusted to us.

What should we make of Nehemiah's very harsh prayer against his enemies?

It recalls the imprecatory psalms. Nehemiah lives before the full revelation of God's love at the cross, whereas Jesus asks us to love our enemies. But his prayer teaches something: to hand our suffering over to God, in complete honesty, rather than lash out at those who make us suffer.

Does opposition prove that you are doing God's will?

No. The preacher reminds us that serving God sooner or later attracts resistance, but that the reverse is not true: opposition is not proof. The real question lies elsewhere: how to stand firm and respond when hostility appears.