ASSASSIN
05-16-2008, 06:15 PM
Sunday School Lesson For May 18, 2008
FINISHING THE TASK -
Nehemiah 4:1-3, 6-9, 13-15; 6:15
BACKGROUND:
Nehemiah had a real challenge: he had to lead a people that was largely unmotivated and faithless. As we saw in last week’s lesson, Nehemiah saw for himself the disrepair of the walls around the city of Jerusalem that he had been told about earlier (Nehemiah 1). Of course, it was in those days vitally important that a city have strong, high walls – mainly for defensive purposes. Men would deliberately construct cities on hills and erect strong walls so that a few good men could stave off a large enemy (remember they had primitive weapons in those days – swords, arrows, etc.) simply by staying behind the secure wall...
The people around Jerusalem , including Sanballat, governor of Samaria , felt a lot more secure knowing that those walls were in the same state of disrepair that they were when the Babylonians took them down in 586 BC. Jerusalem in that state was no military threat to any neighbor, for it could not defend itself...
There wasn’t even much concern when news got out that Nehemiah sought to repair the walls; after all, these people had been back home the better part of 100 years and they had yet to repair the city’s walls! But the opposition had little idea how much of an impact one man of God can have on an otherwise apathetic people…
OPPOSITION (Nehemiah 4:1-3)
One might think that news of a rebuilding effort might send up “red flags” to the enemy. But Sanballat and his friends chose instead to make light of the entire affair. They joked. Would these “pathetic Jews” (New Jerusalem Bible) actually attempt to rebuild this wall? Would they seek to get the job done in a single day? Can they take stones burned by the Babylonians and secure all the breaches in this wall? Tobiah the Ammonite intoned that even if they did build the wall, it would be so weak that a fox could break it down...
It must have been a festive atmosphere with these enemies of Jerusalem . But little did they know that while they were “sizing up” Nehemiah and his helpers, they forgot something: they forgot, or didn’t know, that God was the real Head of this group of workers. And in truth, that’s what the world will do for us today – it will make little of our attempts to obey God’s Word, now knowing that we have in Him all the help we need...
DETERMINATION (Nehemiah 4:6-9)
Nehemiah shows himself to be a praying man. Last week, we saw that he prayed before asking King Artaxerxes for permission to travel to Jerusalem for this major project. Now (verses 4 and 5), he prays in the face of his enemies. Look at the list of enemies: Samaria (to the north), Arabia (to the east), Ammon (to the south) and Ashdod , which is in Philistia and which borders Judah on the west. In other words, the little nation is completely surrounded by the enemy. If one would assess military strength, it would appear there would be no way for Jerusalem to hope to win any kind of confrontation. But these workers knew that God was on their side, and they were not distracted by the threats and taunts of the enemy. They had a job to do, and they went about their work...
So what did they do when facing the reality of the much larger (and stronger) enemy? They prayed. As we should today, they prayed that God would protect them, and they went about their respective jobs. We should learn that lesson from the Jews today. Don’t let Satan distract us with taunts and threats. His only objective is to get us off our respective “walls” and waste time dealing with him. Just pray, and depend on God to do the defending. In the meantime, continue with the assignment that God gave you...
VICTORY (Nehemiah 4:13-15; 6:15)
The threats were not working. The taunts were not working. Now they announce their intention (vv 10-12) to engage the Jews with warfare. Nehemiah therefore makes a wise move: he uses the Jewish families as part of his defense. Families were placed together at strategic places along the unfinished wall and supplied with weapons. But it is strongly implied here that everyone knew that they would be greatly outnumbered no matter the military scheme. So in addition to the plan and the weapons, Nehemiah reminded his people of something that all mankind should remember today: if you are fighting God’s battle, He is with you in difficult times...
Of course, one of the things the enemy was counting on was the element of surprise. They had had their secret meetings and had devised a scheme that could well have worked if the Jews had been ignorant of it, but God made sure that His people would not be ambushed. Once exposed, the enemy dropped the plan...
Let us remember today that nothing that Satan does should come as a surprise to us. ALL of his schemes and tactics have been recorded in God’s Word. He is a creature of habit. His traps are always the same, even though they may be disguised. What are they? Read God’s Word. There you will find the tactics, and the proper response...
As for the wall, Sanballaat had joked about it being finished in a single day, but it WAS finished in under two months. And it was much stronger than anything a fox could break down....
A
FINISHING THE TASK -
Nehemiah 4:1-3, 6-9, 13-15; 6:15
BACKGROUND:
Nehemiah had a real challenge: he had to lead a people that was largely unmotivated and faithless. As we saw in last week’s lesson, Nehemiah saw for himself the disrepair of the walls around the city of Jerusalem that he had been told about earlier (Nehemiah 1). Of course, it was in those days vitally important that a city have strong, high walls – mainly for defensive purposes. Men would deliberately construct cities on hills and erect strong walls so that a few good men could stave off a large enemy (remember they had primitive weapons in those days – swords, arrows, etc.) simply by staying behind the secure wall...
The people around Jerusalem , including Sanballat, governor of Samaria , felt a lot more secure knowing that those walls were in the same state of disrepair that they were when the Babylonians took them down in 586 BC. Jerusalem in that state was no military threat to any neighbor, for it could not defend itself...
There wasn’t even much concern when news got out that Nehemiah sought to repair the walls; after all, these people had been back home the better part of 100 years and they had yet to repair the city’s walls! But the opposition had little idea how much of an impact one man of God can have on an otherwise apathetic people…
OPPOSITION (Nehemiah 4:1-3)
One might think that news of a rebuilding effort might send up “red flags” to the enemy. But Sanballat and his friends chose instead to make light of the entire affair. They joked. Would these “pathetic Jews” (New Jerusalem Bible) actually attempt to rebuild this wall? Would they seek to get the job done in a single day? Can they take stones burned by the Babylonians and secure all the breaches in this wall? Tobiah the Ammonite intoned that even if they did build the wall, it would be so weak that a fox could break it down...
It must have been a festive atmosphere with these enemies of Jerusalem . But little did they know that while they were “sizing up” Nehemiah and his helpers, they forgot something: they forgot, or didn’t know, that God was the real Head of this group of workers. And in truth, that’s what the world will do for us today – it will make little of our attempts to obey God’s Word, now knowing that we have in Him all the help we need...
DETERMINATION (Nehemiah 4:6-9)
Nehemiah shows himself to be a praying man. Last week, we saw that he prayed before asking King Artaxerxes for permission to travel to Jerusalem for this major project. Now (verses 4 and 5), he prays in the face of his enemies. Look at the list of enemies: Samaria (to the north), Arabia (to the east), Ammon (to the south) and Ashdod , which is in Philistia and which borders Judah on the west. In other words, the little nation is completely surrounded by the enemy. If one would assess military strength, it would appear there would be no way for Jerusalem to hope to win any kind of confrontation. But these workers knew that God was on their side, and they were not distracted by the threats and taunts of the enemy. They had a job to do, and they went about their work...
So what did they do when facing the reality of the much larger (and stronger) enemy? They prayed. As we should today, they prayed that God would protect them, and they went about their respective jobs. We should learn that lesson from the Jews today. Don’t let Satan distract us with taunts and threats. His only objective is to get us off our respective “walls” and waste time dealing with him. Just pray, and depend on God to do the defending. In the meantime, continue with the assignment that God gave you...
VICTORY (Nehemiah 4:13-15; 6:15)
The threats were not working. The taunts were not working. Now they announce their intention (vv 10-12) to engage the Jews with warfare. Nehemiah therefore makes a wise move: he uses the Jewish families as part of his defense. Families were placed together at strategic places along the unfinished wall and supplied with weapons. But it is strongly implied here that everyone knew that they would be greatly outnumbered no matter the military scheme. So in addition to the plan and the weapons, Nehemiah reminded his people of something that all mankind should remember today: if you are fighting God’s battle, He is with you in difficult times...
Of course, one of the things the enemy was counting on was the element of surprise. They had had their secret meetings and had devised a scheme that could well have worked if the Jews had been ignorant of it, but God made sure that His people would not be ambushed. Once exposed, the enemy dropped the plan...
Let us remember today that nothing that Satan does should come as a surprise to us. ALL of his schemes and tactics have been recorded in God’s Word. He is a creature of habit. His traps are always the same, even though they may be disguised. What are they? Read God’s Word. There you will find the tactics, and the proper response...
As for the wall, Sanballaat had joked about it being finished in a single day, but it WAS finished in under two months. And it was much stronger than anything a fox could break down....
A