Thursday, July 17

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Thursday

But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.  And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.  In Judah it was said, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.”  And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.”  At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, “You must return to us.”  So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.  And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”         - Nehemiah 4:7-14

If we only read through chapter 3, we would get the impression that the work on the wall went without a snag. “So-and-so built this gate, and these people built the wall to this point, and next to them, these people built the wall further, etc.” It sounds as if there were no problems. But this was not at all the case. It never is! Chapters 4-6 show us some of the problems that had to be overcome in the process of rebuilding the wall. There is a cycle of advance and setback through chapters 3-6:

Chapter 3: Advance 
4:1-3: Setback
4:4-6: Advance
4:7-8: Setback
4:9: Advance
4:10-12: Setback
4:13-23: Advance
5:1-6: Setback
6:1-14: Attempted setback 
6:15-16: Final advance
6:17-19: Attempted setback

This cycle shows that the Christian life is a conflict, a struggle, a battle. There will always be opposition. The enemy will try to get you sidetracked or to give up completely. Even though it was God’s will for the wall to be rebuilt, He did not remove the opposition. God allowed the attack to go on, even though He could have instantly swept it away. Yet He allowed it to continue because He was delighted that His people drew closer to Him with a deeper trust than ever before. God did His perfect work both in building the walls and His people.  Even though it is God’s will for you to grow strong in your faith and to work to advance His kingdom, God does not remove the opposition. In fact, He often uses it to strengthen our faith. 

I am convinced that one of the best devices of our enemy is to get us to believe that the Christian life should be a conflict and a struggle free life.  If he can get us to believe this, then when opposition and difficulty comes we will either question our faith, or we will question our God.  

God does not promise His children an opposition free life.  He promises us that when we face opposition, He will be with us in the midst of it and He can use it to strengthen our relationship with Him.

Jeff Frazier