READ: Nehemiah 5 - 6.
Verses chosen for meditation: Nehemiah 6:3.
3 And I sent
messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.
Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”
REFLECT
In Chapter 6, we read that Nehemiah’s erstwhile enemies suddenly became his
friends and invited him to a meeting at Hakkephirim. But Nehemiah sensed danger
that they were scheming to harm him (Nehemiah 6:2b). Some commentators suggest
that they were trying to lure Nehemiah to an unsafe place outside the city, set
him up and perhaps to kill him. Nehemiah evidently sensed this and so he firmly
declined, saying, I am carrying on a
great project, and I cannot go down.
Note the reasons Nehemiah gave although his
answers (v.3) were blunt. On the surface it seems a surly response to their
invitation to meet. This is because Nehemiah saw through their scheme and
refused to go along, even though they pressured him four different times.
In his fifth attempt, Sanballat conspired to accuse Nehemiah and his builders
in an open letter that they were intending to rebel, v.6. To refuse this serious
accusation, Nehemiah prayed to God to be his defence against the enemy’s
slander. He prayed: “Now strengthen my hands” (v.9). That was Nehemiah’s godly discernment - his conviction to pray for
perseverance and deliverance from the oppositions.
RELATE
Given persistent oppositions since chapter 5, many would have bowed down to the
pressures. Unlike many, Nehemiah persisted in his refusal. Here was his reason: I am doing a great work,
he said. I have a great calling. God has
committed a tremendous project to me, and if I leave, it will be threatened.
One of
the most helpful ways that we can do to resist temptation is to remember that
God has called us to a great task. As His believers, we are called to a
tremendous task today, regardless of our age and gender. That
task is to model a different lifestyle so that those who are being ruined by
wrongful practices will see something that offers them hope and deliverance. When
they see peace in us amid confusion and an invisible support that keeps us
steady under pressure, they will learn that there is another way to live than
the destructive way they have chosen. Such is the great work that God has
called us to - like pointing Jesus to others to find hope.
Some years ago, there was a young missionary man
in China, who did a great job as a linguist and diplomat in his work for the
Lord. His abilities were so outstanding that one American company in China
tried to hire him. They offered him an attractive job with a salary to match,
but he turned them down. He told them that God had sent him to China as a
missionary and that was what he was going to do. The company came back with a
better offer. He turned that down too, but again they came back, doubling the
salary that had originally been proposed. Finally, he said: It is not your salary that is too little. It is
the job that's too small!
This was exactly what Nehemiah was saying
here. He had a great work, and he was not forsaking it for anything less. Often Satan uses various schemes to short-circuit our commitment and zeal or discourage us from doing God's purposes. Nehemiah here was
confronted with an offer that seems to promise peace and support and yet was
filled with danger. Nevertheless, he firmly resisted the scheme by refusing to leave his calling to
build the wall for his people. What a commitment and allegiance Nehemiah had demonstrated with the task entrusted! Isn’t our Lord Jesus equally committed to
His cause? Yes, He endured and walked faithfully to the end, to the Cross for you and me.
Friends, do we place supreme value on God's work and calling (includes our vocation, not just ministry work) in us and through us? How do we react under repeated opposition or the pressure of uncertainty?
REST
Dear God, as I aim to do good and great things for Christ, may I seek Your wisdom, humility and commitment to serve and finish well just as Jesus did. Amen.
Vincent
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