Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall, that there was no breach left in it, although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates. Sanballat and Geshem sent to me saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them saying, “I’m doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why would the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” And they sent to me four times in this way and I answered them in the same manner.
– Nehemiah 6:1–4
So here’s the picture. People who want to do Nehemiah harm and want to stop this work that God has called him to do. And at first, they say, “We want you to come talk to us.” And he says, “No, I am doing a great work. I can’t come down. I’m not going to stop this work to come down to you.”
Nehemiah 6:1–4 reminds us our adversary will try to distract, discourage, or destroy us.
And then later in Nehemiah 6:8–9, Nehemiah says, “I sent to him saying no such things as you say have been done for you are inventing them out of your own mind. For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking their hands will drop from the work and it will not be done. But now, oh God, strengthen my hands.” So here’s a second time when people are trying to stop the work and Nehemiah says, “No, I’m going to keep working on what God has called me to do.”
And then you get to Nehemiah 6:13, it says, “For this purpose, he was hired that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me.” So this is the third time that people are trying to stop Nehemiah and this work from happening on the walls around Jerusalem, and it actually continues. Similarly, I could keep going with more just in Nehemiah 6, but I want to tie these three together.
The first time these people try to distract Nehemiah, to bring him down from the walls, to get them to talk to him when they wanted to harm him. So they try to distract him. Later, the second time, they try to discourage him. They try to strike fear in him. They wanted to frighten us, thinking, if we do this, they’ll stop. So distraction, discouragement, and then third, just destruction. They want to destroy Nehemiah. They want to give him a bad name in order to taunt him.
Nehemiah 6:1–4 reminds us to keep our focus on God as we strive to glorify Him.
I want you to think about that distraction, discouragement, and destruction. There is an adversary who wants all of these things in your life and in my life today. He wants to distract us from following Jesus and obeying Jesus, from being disciples who are growing in Jesus and making disciples of the nations. There is an adversary who does not want that to happen in your life or my life today. He will use distraction and discouragement in all kinds of different ways to try to discourage you and your relationship with Christ and in what God has called you to do in the world: build up his church and spread the gospel.
And he wants to destroy you. He wants to destroy your name. He wants to destroy everything about you so that you’re not growing as a disciple of Jesus and making disciples of the nations. And I just want to encourage you today to do what Nehemiah did in Nehemiah 6:1–4. Keep your focus on God and on the work he has called you to do. Let Him, God alone, be your focus instead of the enemy’s distractions, your encouragement instead of the enemy’s discouragement, and your joy and hope and peace and life instead of the enemy’s attempts to destroy you in whatever way he can.
This verse encourages us to selflessly give our lives to following Jesus.
Oh God, I pray this over all of our lives as we walk with you today. Help us to keep our eyes fixed and focused on you, on walking with you, faithfully with you, spending time with you and doing all that you in your Word call us to do. God help us not to be distracted or discouraged or destroyed as we give our lives today to following you Jesus and loving others selflessly, leading others to grow in you, leading others to relationship with you, glorifying you with the grace you’ve given us in our work or in school or in whatever else you’ve called us to.
God help us to not be distracted… Help us to not be discouraged… Help us to trust that through faith in you and obedience to you, we will not be destroyed. No matter what this world brings us… No matter what the adversary tries to do to us, that we are safe in you. I know God we pray this over each other. Help us to be an encouragement to each other… To keep pressing on today in our relationships with you… And obedience to your call and our lives in this world… And our obedience to be disciple-makers of the nations.
Prayer for the Bedouin People
God, we pray for all our brothers and sisters who are working for the spread of the gospel among the nations… A trust that’s in our churches right around us and those we’ve sent out who are far from us. God help them to stay focused and encouraged in this work, this commission you’ve given us to do.
We pray specifically for the spread of the gospel. The Sidi Bedouin people of Algeria, this small Muslim people group of 20,000. God, we pray for work, faithful work to happen among your people for the spread of the gospel. To the Sidi Bedouin people that they might know your love for them, that they might know your grace. God, knowing that there’s an adversary who does not want the Sidi Bedouin people to be reached with the gospel. God, we pray for overcomers to be sent out from your church… For the spread of the gospel among the Sidi Bedouin. And God help us all. We pray to overcome every effort of the adversary to pull us away from you and what you’re calling us to today. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
