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Pray and Post a Guard

Pray and Post a Guard
October 1, 2017

Scripture: Nehemiah 4:1-14

John 16:33: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

I. You should respond to your enemy by trusting God.

A. The behavior of the enemies of Nehemiah and the Jews is described in vs. 1-3. Sanballat and Tobiah were bullies. And what do bullies do? They use their words to intimidate their enemies. They try to make their enemies afraid with their words. What did Nehemiah do in response to his enemies? He prayed (vs. 4). He trusted God. He trusted that God would deal with his enemies and that God would protect him and the rest of the Jews.

B. Nehemiah did not scare so easily. He trusted that his God was stronger than his enemies so he prayed to his God. And then after he prayed, Nehemiah moved on like nothing had happened (vs. 6). The enemies of the Jews upped their level of pressure and hostility (vs. 8). But again how did Nehemiah and the Jews respond? We see in vs. 9 that they responded to their enemies by trusting God: “And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.”

II. You should respond to your enemy by acting responsibly.

A. We have already seen in the book of Nehemiah that Nehemiah combined a trust in the complete sovereignty of God with responsible action on Nehemiah’s part. And in vs. 9 we see that Nehemiah prayed AND he set a guard against the enemies of the Jews. He showed his trust in God by praying. And he acted responsibly by guarding the Jews who were working on rebuilding the wall. It does not show a lack of faith to take responsible action. God calls us to both trust Him and take that responsible action.

B. In vs. 10-12 we see that there is faithless talk within Jerusalem, enemy talk without and faithless talk from round about. Nehemiah stuck resolved to trust God and to take responsible action. Nehemiah trusted that God would empower the people to complete the work and that God was stronger than their enemies. At the same time Nehemiah took responsible action. So in vs. 13 we see that in the lowest parts of the walls, Nehemiah stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears. If the enemies wanted to fight, the Jews would be ready for them.

III. You should respond to your enemy by being careful how you pray.

A. In vs. 4-5 Nehemiah prays an imprecatory prayer. This is a prayer of cursing your enemies. It is perfectly right for Christians today to pray for God to bring justice to their enemies like Nehemiah did. See the prayer of the martyred Christians in heaven in Revelation 6:10: “They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’” But it is not acceptable for Christians to pray for God not to forgive their enemies as Nehemiah does in Neh. 4:5. Christians pray as Jesus taught us to pray: forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. We have resources to forgive in the person of Holy Spirit that Nehemiah did not have.

Application:
Let us pray AND post a guard. And, if we are despised, let us forgive.

Resources:
Commentaries by Derek Thomas, James Hamilton Jr., and Tim Keller