Some people have the mistaken notion that a Christian should be nothing but sweet, mild, and nice.  Christians do not have to finish last. They do not have to be doormats.

In Nehemiah 4, Sanballat and Tobiah, the Ammonite official of chapter 2, verse 19, returned with more trouble. This time, Sanballat laughed at the Jews, ridiculed their rebuilding project before it reached the halfway stage, and returned later with more trouble when the wall was near completion.

Israel's enemies labeled them feeble, called their city a dump, and described their work as inferior.  How did Nehemiah respond?  Nehemiah was still nice but never to a fault.  He never allowed people to walk all over him and he did not back down when he and others with him were at risk, in danger, or being threatened.  Note also that Nehemiah did not pick a fight or start a shouting match.  He immediately brought the matter before God, quickly organized the Israelites to take action, and aggressively overcame the threat of their enemies.

We could take some great advice from Nehemiah’s example.

DIGNIFY YOURSELF AND DEFER TO GOD
Neh 4:1-5 "When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed.  He ridiculed the Jews, and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, 'What are those feeble Jews doing?  Will they restore their wall?  Will they offer sacrifices?  Will they finish in a day?  Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble-burned as they are?'  Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, 'What they are building - if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!'  'Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity.  Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.'"

When he was despised and insulted, Nehemiah's prayer was not nice; it could be considered controversial but it was honest.  Before you agree or disagree with Nehemiah's prayer, consider the facts.  He was not on the offensive but on the defensive; he did not invite insults on his enemies, but returned insults to their owners; he did not ask for himself, but for people whose lives were endangered; and he didn’t say it to his enemies but made it known to God.

The enemies used a rare word - "feeble" - to describe the Jews in verse 2.  It means weak; almost sick. Nehemiah dignified himself by bringing his prayer before God.  When he was provoked, despised and insulted, he requested God be his defender, aggressor, and vindicator.  Nehemiah did not mince, sanitize or regret his words.  He told it as it was.  The Jews were being despised (v 4), another irregular word.  Nehemiah complained that the Jews were held in utter contempt, blatant disregard, and verbal scorn.  He asked God to return the favor on his enemies' heads, to reverse the roles of the hunter with the hunted, and to make the enemies a victim of their own violence.

Serving the Lord is never easy.  Critics, troublemakers, and faultfinders make it their business to put people in their place, to force their opinions on others, and to impose their expectations on others.  When persecuted we need to pour our hearts out to God, telling Him when we are insulted, despised, and sinned against, we don't need to accept bad treatment from others, or deny it's there.  Bottling up our own feelings is never any good.  Excusing our enemies is not honest.

DEFEND YOURSELF AND DISCOURAGE YOUR ENEMIES.
Neh. 4:6-15 "So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.  But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.  They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.  But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.  Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, 'The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.'  Also our enemies said, 'Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.'  Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, 'Wherever you turn, they will attack us.'  Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows.  After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, 'Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.'  When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work."

An old Indian legend tells about a vicious snake that terrorized everyone in the neighborhood until the day he met a wandering holy man.  The snake couldn't hurt the holy man, so the holy man gave the snake a stiff lecture on being nice to people, and they went on their own way after the snake promised not to bite anybody.

The snake kept his promise but his patience was often tested. His neighbors thought he had grown too old to fight, so they threw rocks at him, and shouted insults at the increasingly bitter snake.

By the time the holy man visited him again, the snake was in bad shape. "You and your ideas!" he yelled. "Look at me, I did what you told me, and I almost got killed." "My friend," said the holy man, "I told you not to bite anybody, but I didn’t forbid you to stick out your tongue, show off your fang, swirl your tail, and hiss your head off." (Adapted from Paul Lee Tan, 7,700 Illustrations # 7375)

The next time Sanballat and Tobiah returned, they recruited the Arabs, the Ammonites, and men from Ashdod to fight the Jews when the wall was almost done. The Jews were scared out of their wits. Nehemiah prayed again but he also took action: he posted a guard day and night to meet the threat (v 9). When the threat sounded deadly, the Jews came to Nehemiah more than ten times (4:12), repeated the same words, and brought panic, disorder, and nervousness all around.  Nehemiah could not ignore the threat against their lives. He fortified the exposed areas, armed families with swords, spears and bows, posted them to guard the wall, and rallied them with a Winston Churchill-type fight on the beaches, the landing grounds, in the fields and streets, in the hills; and a 'we shall never surrender' speech:  "Fight for your brothers, sons, daughters, wives, and homes" (v 14).

Fighting is always the last resort and never the first instinct.  It is not an offensive but a defensive move.  It is about being vigilant and not being militant.  It seems extreme to fight, but extreme times call for extreme measures.  Sometimes you have to send your enemies a "Don’t Mess with Us" message to discourage them from getting wrong ideas, and let them do the worrying.

The reason Nehemiah ordered the Jews to be prepared to fight was not to claim a prize, a scalp, or a turf, but to claim a psychological advantage over the enemies and to secure a physical distance from them.  God-fearing people fight to combat evil, overturn wrongs, and to seek justice.  The enemies retreated when they discovered that the Jews were not unprepared, or untrained, or unwilling fighters.  One last warning about fighting: Even though Nehemiah challenged his people to fight for their brothers, sons, daughters, wives, and homes (4:14), he did not tell them to fight for God (4:20).  This is to prevent a descent into the madness of religious wars.

DISCIPLINE YOURSELF AND DEPEND ON ONE ANOTHER
Neh 4:16-23 "From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor.  The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall.  Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked.  But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.  Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, 'The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall.  Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!'  So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out.  At that time I also said to the people, 'Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and workmen by day.'  Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water."

Discipline is not the addition of a skill or attitude when circumstances change and things threaten; it is present, available and developed before something happens.  Our inventiveness, intelligence and improvisation can only get us so far without initiative, industriousness, and intensity.

Howard Hendricks said, "Disciplined people are the people who can do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.  Discipline is not denying oneself of necessities for the sheer act of deprivation; it is freeing oneself of encumbrances for the necessary advantage of preservation."

Amazingly, from verse 16, the Jews disciplined themselves even when the threat was gone, when the enemies were quiet, and when the victory was won. The way they disciplined themselves was fascinating: half the men worked, the other half guarded (v 16); the working half labored with one hand, and armed with the other (v 17); and everyone was on the alert from sunrise till sunset (v 21) and overnight (v 22).

They depended on one another to respond if there was an attack.  Their discipline was eye-opening.  They worked day, night, and after dark (v 22); they never took their clothes, pants, or boots off (v 23); and they carried five instruments which are listed; - spears, shields, bows, armor (v 16) and sword (v 18).  Their discipline of time, lifestyle, and skill were sorely tested.  Of course they could not live like that forever.  They just had to discipline themselves until the task was completed.

The Christian Community should be able to depend on one another.  The Bible states that two is better than one, and in unity there is strength.  The sad news is that the Christian Community is not unified and so it is fractured and weak.  This gives our earthly enemies the upper hand, because they ARE unified and committed to achieving their goal.  Let us who are called of God, commit to be part of God's army that stands united against our common enemy, Satan.  He is focused and committed to defeat God's people and we must be equally committed to stand together against him.  May our God help us be faithful. 

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