What do you do when the opposition fights with words?
Here are some insights from Nehemiah 6:1-9.
Nehemiah has already faced mockery and the threat of violence over the work of building the wall in Jerusalem. None of it worked. The wall’s nearly finished, only the gates left to hang, and that’s exactly when Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem change their weapon. Letters start arriving. Rumours start moving. An invitation gets extended that sounds almost neighbourly.
This is a short passage, but it’s fascinating because most of us will never face an army at the gate. What we will face, regularly, is this — words shaped to pull us off the work God’s given us.
Sanballat and Geshem ask Nehemiah to come meet them in the plain of Ono. Reasonable enough on paper. But Nehemiah names what’s underneath it straight away: “they intended to do me harm” (v.2). What I picked up from that was the discernment in it. He’s not assuming the worst of everyone he meets. He’s just refusing to be naive about hostility that keeps showing up in friendlier clothing. Not every invitation is neutral. Sometimes the question worth asking, before saying yes, is whether this actually serves the work, or just quietly pulls you away from it.
His answer is disarmingly short. “I am doing a great work, so I cannot come down” (v.3). No lengthy justification. No apology. Four times the message comes, four times he gives the same answer (v.4). That’s not stubbornness. That’s clarity about calling, held steady under repeated pressure. Distraction rarely shows up honestly. It tends to arrive dressed as urgency, or opportunity, or a conversation that surely can’t hurt anyone. Nehemiah had done the deeper work of knowing his calling long before the letters showed up, and that’s probably the key reason he could answer in this manner.
When the invitation fails, Sanballat escalates. An open letter this time, deliberately unsealed so anyone could read it on the way, accusing Nehemiah of plotting a rebellion (vv.5-7). Slander dressed up as public concern. What gets me about his response is the restraint in it. “No such things as you say have been done, for you have invented them out of your own mind” (v.8). State it once. Go back to the wall. He doesn’t chase down every ear the rumour might have reached. That’s one of the harder disciplines for a Kingsman living in a world where reputation feels like something that has to be defended constantly. A clear answer, given once, and a life that keeps building — that testifies louder over time than managing what people think of you.
Then verse 9 uncovers what the whole thing was actually for. “They all wanted to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.'” It was never really about a meeting in Ono. It was never really about a letter. It was about producing enough fear that Nehemiah’s hands would drop on their own. And his answer to that is one line I keep coming back to. “But now, O God, strengthen my hands.” Not pretending the pressure isn’t real. Taking it straight to the Father and asking for strength to keep moving. That’s the real battlefield, most of the time — not whether opposition comes, but whether your hands keep working when it does.
The Kingsman focuses on the work given by the real king. The Kingsman assesses each moment if what he’s doing is in line with the work. He takes care to note how interactions serve that work. He takes care as the Spirit of God gives Him knowledge, understanding, insight, wisdom and discernment. That Spirit of God can detect an effort to distract by enticement and choose an alternative arrangement. That Spirit of God helps the Kingsman avoid the set-up to disaster. This is crucial to ensure the focus remains, and even if the character is at risk of being tarred with slander, the focus sees the words for what they are – fiery darts of the enemy designed to demoralise. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, in outlining the whole armour of God, notes the shield of faith that quenches those fiery darts. That faith in God, and knowledge of the work that He’s set, turns words designed to intimidate into opportunity for reaffirming faith over fear.
Nehemiah oversaw the wall reconstruction completed fifty-two days after it began. Not because the opposition stopped. Because one man kept discerning the traps, guarding the calling, refusing the lie, and asking God to hold up his hands.
This is the way of the word, the work, and the Kingsman.
For His Name’s Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
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