“The Christian life is not lived on a playground but a battleground,” a wise preacher once said on Sunday, and Monday morning proved him right. Actually, by the time we reached the benediction, the enemy was at us full blast, hurling frustrations and launching distractions—anything to lower and limit our effectiveness in building God’s kingdom. To not be deterred or dismayed, we need to be aware of the enemy’s tactics and be prepared for His attacks.
When Nehemiah was working on Jerusalem’s wall, the assault
began with ridicule. “What are those feeble Jews doing? Can they
bring stones back to life from those heaps of rubble?” an angry Sanballat
snorted to his associates and Samaria’s army(Neh. 4:2). Then his evil sidekick, Tobiah, joined in the
jibes. “What they are building—if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break
down their wall of stones!”(Neh. 4:3)
Nehemiah’s response to this derision was not to defend
himself to his accusers, but to pray for God’s action against them. “Hear
us, O God, for we are despised. Turn
their insults back on their own heads”(Neh. 4:4). And he kept on building. “So we
rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with
all their heart”(Neh. 4:6).
When the opposition got wind that “the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps
were being closed, they were very angry”(Neh. 4:7). Their verbal threats escalated toward physical
violence as they plotted to fight, so Nehemiah and his men “prayed to our God and posted a guard”(Neh. 4:9). Nehemiah
“stationed people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places”
and then delivered a stirring speech to his countrymen. “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!”(Neh. 4:14).
When the enemy found out that Nehemiah had found them out,
they stepped back for a bit, and the Jews “returned
to the wall, each to his own work”(Neh. 4:15). However, from that time on, the people “did their work with one hand and held a
weapon in the other”(Neh. 4:17). Sounds like a good strategy. The assaults and attacks of the enemy will be
constant and clever. We must “put on the full armor of God so that you
can take your stand against the devil’s schemes”(Eph. 6:11). We should live each day with the tools of our
trade in one hand and the “sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God” in the other(Eph. 6:17). Brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, wives,
and homes are depending on us, and our God is great and awesome!
Life on earth is not recess.
It’s war. The gates of hell will
not prevail, but we cannot get lax and lose ground. Pray to God, post a guard, and pick up your
sword.
“Our God will fight for us!” (Neh. 4:20).
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