Neh No.11 Coping with deflections

Now it came to pass when Sanbalat and Tobia, and Gisham, the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein, though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates, and I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you? Then sent Sanbalat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand. Thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah, and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words.

Come now, therefore, and let us take counsel together. For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

And I said, Should such a man as I flee? And who is there that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in. Therefore was he hired that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me. So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.

Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them. Also they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.

Notice how when I ask you to share the reading, I always give you the difficult verses. Now I'd be grateful if you'd have your Bible open at the sixth chapter of the book of Nehemiah. If you haven't a Bible with you, and the person next to you has, then share their copy.

For I want to show you as we look through this chapter how you can do a Bible study from an Old Testament book which will be relevant to your own experience in 1978. And I want just to change my emphasis from the title that was given for our study this morning. For as I considered it, something came through very powerfully in the earlier hours of today.

And that is that in this chapter, we are shown how to cope with what I will call deflections in the Christian life. Coping with deflections. What I mean by that will become clear later on.

There's a verse of Scripture which fascinates me. There's no need for you to turn to it at this moment. In the 50th chapter of Isaiah's prophecy.

Speaking predictively of the Lord Jesus, it refers to him as one who set his face toward Jerusalem as a flint. And that little poetic imagery is used to show the determination that there was on the part of the Nazarene. Though he had been engaged in fulfilling his father's purposes for two and a half years.

And was toward the end of his life's work. He was nonetheless to face in the last few months intense and increasing opposition. Yet in spite of all this, the Bible tells us the Savior set his face towards Jerusalem as a flint.

You couldn't deflect him. You couldn't dislodge him from the business that he was about. He was like granite.

Tough. Stable. Resilient.

And he told us that he had come not to do his own works, but the works of him who sent him. He wanted to fulfill God's, his father's purposes for him on this earth. But the nearer he came to completing his God-given commission, the greater the pressure.

The more the temptation of deflections were placed upon him. So we find one of his closest associates becoming a spokesman for the devil himself and dissuading him from going to Jerusalem. You remember the words of Peter.

We discover that amongst his own colleagues was one who would betray him. And in the garden of Gethsemane there was no theatrical performance about the struggle that took place there. Those beads of blood indicated the intense problem and pressure that was thrust down upon our Lord Jesus as he viewed the cross.

And as he began to estimate afresh what it would cost him to fulfill his father's plan. So his cry, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But despite all this, all the attempts to deflect him, to dislodge him from fulfilling God's purposes in his life.

Jesus was the flint man. He was the strong man. Now come to Nehemiah.

For the Bible tells us, the Lord Jesus tells us that all the scriptures speak of him. And you can find the Lord Jesus in Nehemiah. You can find an illustration of that quality of discipleship in this Old Testament figure.

Which is developed and brought to perfection in the purpose of the Lord Jesus. Now we know full well that Nehemiah has been brought to Jerusalem and he has a God given assignment. He has to rebuild the walls.

He has to rehang the gates. Every sensitive Jew prayed for the peace and for the security of the Holy City. And so Nehemiah has been engaged upon his divinely commissioned program for quite some time.

Indeed towards the end of the fifth chapter we gather that virtually the whole task had been completed. But in the sixth, the finishing touches to the wall and to the gates are described. And there is an intensification of pressure.

And you will discover in this chapter three attempts that are made again to deflect Nehemiah from fulfilling God's purposes in his ministry. In the second verse, for instance, the invitation is given for Nehemiah to come down from the wall and to meet with his adversaries. Come let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono.

A deflection. And the temptation is this, to form a worldly association. You find the same invitation in the seventh verse and towards the end of it.

Nehemiah, come down from your wall. Come now therefore and let us take counsel together. And as you develop that particular invitation, you will find there another deflection for Nehemiah to clear a smeared reputation.

And then in the tenth verse, towards the end, there is another invitation put towards this man who was a cupbearer of Artaxerxes. An appointment was suggested in the temple. Let us shut the door of the temple, for they will come to slay thee.

And you will discover in that verse, as we consider it together, a deflection in the form of parleying with a false religion. Well, let's look at the chapter then like this and let's apply its teaching to our own experience. I say that in the verse 2, you find a deflection in the form of a worldly association that is hoisted in front of Nehemiah.

Come, let us meet together in some of the villages in the plain of Ono. Three men sent this invitation to Nehemiah. Their names, we have come across them time and time again in this volume.

Tobiah and Gesha and their colleagues. And Nehemiah is asked to come down from the task that he is completing on the wall and to engage in conversation. With these men.

And it must have seemed at first quite an attractive thing. After all, Sambalat and Gesham, they were important people. They had been enemies of Nehemiah up to this time.

But here is the possibility of a change of heart. Here these two are asking Nehemiah to go and be friendly with them. And they suggest a neutral spot where they can meet together.

In one of the villages in the plain of Ono. That happened to be about 19 miles away from Jerusalem. So, here comes this temptation to deflect Nehemiah in the interest of forming a worldly association.

Of becoming an accomplice of these two men who have a great deal of influence in the area of Palestine. Now, how does Nehemiah cope? Well, he is not immediately, nor is he on the long term, held spellbound by this request. He thinks there is something amiss with it.

And what's more, he feels that if he were to agree and to leave the wall and meet Sambalat and Gesham, he would do so at the expense of leaving the work of God incomplete. Now the temptation will come in your life, and in mine, and already has, I reckon, with many, many people here. At some point or other, come down from the wall, associate with us.

Meet us on neutral grounds. Let's talk together. Let's compare notes with what we believe and what you believe.

And maybe there can be some common denominator. Come down from the wall. You evangelicals building this wall of biblical inerrancy around your alleged beliefs.

Come down from that wall. And come to us within the ecumenical movement. And let's see if we can't find some common denominator, apart from theological presuppositions, apart from doctrine, which will bind together the body of Christ.

Come down from the wall. You Christian people there in the West, why not meet with us Hindu? Why not meet with the Buddhists? Why not come together in an interfaith conference? Come down from the wall and let's discuss things at some neutral meeting point. And see what we can do in terms of finding an international religion acceptable to all men.

Whenever the wall is about to be completed, I say the temptations to deflect you from finishing it will intensify. Come down from the wall. And instead of coming together with Christian people who are working with you on the wall, leave them.

Spend time indulging in your own hobby. Feed yourself on the television set and what that is sending out. Engage in some legitimate practice, but don't stay on the wall.

Don't be an exclusive person. Don't be a religious fanatic. Don't be a bigot.

Come down from the wall and get yourself involved in other things apart from your Christian faith. Have other deep friendships and associations apart from amongst the believers. The temptation.

It's always screamed at the Nehemiahs right to the 20th century. But this particular Nehemiah will have nothing to do with this, what amounted to a seduction. And instead he sends back a rather remarkable reply.

It seems almost big-headed at first. I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you? Now full marks for Nehemiah in appraising his work as being a great one.

Do you Christian people really appreciate that when you are working for Jesus Christ, you are doing the best thing that you can possibly engage in in your life? Nehemiah is not here boasting about himself. He is boasting about the work. There is nothing more important for Nehemiah than completing those walls and hanging those gates.

I am doing a great work away with you. This isn't even a temptation for me, says this noble Jewish person. And if I were to come down and meet with you, what would happen? I am the leader and the rest of the people who get inspiration from me, they would be somewhat afraid.

They would lose their enthusiasm. The work would grind to a halt. That's another reason why I won't come down.

And what's more, Nehemiah recognizes that the invitation has evil embraced within it. The last part of verse 2, They thought to do me mischief. Sambalat and Gishem, they were not concerned for the spiritual well-being of Nehemiah.

They were not concerned that Nehemiah should fulfill the work of God. Rather, they were opponents of the work of God. And Nehemiah is not so naive as to think that their invitation is offered from a pure heart.

It's there to deflect him from accomplishing God's purpose. So the first deflection, which comes to you and to me in different forms, even today, is to form a worldly association. But Nehemiah rejects it, even on the four occasions that the same invitation is put his way, as you notice in the fourth verse.

But then there was another attempt to deflect him from fulfilling God's purposes, and this you come across in the fifth verse. And here, I say, is a deflection in terms of clearing a smeared reputation. Then sent Sambalat, his servant, unto me in like manner, the fifth time with an open letter in his hand.

Now this is subtle, this is really crafty. You see, the first communication was more or less private, but the second one is open. In other words, written on a piece of papyrus or maybe on a piece of leather, were certain indictments, certain charges which were made against Nehemiah.

Do you know why Nehemiah is in Jerusalem? Well, he is there to lead a rebellion. You remember that Nehemiah is still under the jurisdiction of Artaxerxes, the Persian king, and the Persians are sensitive to any sniff of rebellion that there may be in one of their colonies. Moreover, the second charge following the first, Nehemiah is there, did you not know, to make himself the king.

So these allegations in this open letter are made known to the citizens of Jerusalem. And there are those who will substantiate the allegations. The slander has witnesses who will come to affirm that this is right.

All the heathen are saying this. There is a man by the name of Gashmul, look at verse 6, an influential man amongst the Persians who is also saying exactly the same. Now Nehemiah, you come to the valley of Ono, to one of the villages there.

Let's talk about these allegations. Clear your name. Come off the wall just for a moment so that your reputation can be preserved in Palestine.

That's a subtle one, isn't it? Whenever it's a question of your reputation, you get a little bit sensitive because no one's more concerned than you are for your own reputation. That's a natural instinct. But Nehemiah anticipates one who made himself of no reputation.

One who thought that the building of the wall was far more important and its finishing than defending himself before his accusers. And Nehemiah, I say, anticipates Jesus. In the 8th verse he dismisses the charge.

There are no such things done as thou sayest. Thou feignest them out of thine own heart, for they're just there to make us afraid. Nehemiah with discernment realizes what they're about.

They want to paralyze his laborers. They want to weaken his army of volunteers. But instead of that, Nehemiah takes this particular deflection and he turns it into a powerful prayer or an occasion for prayer.

And he says, now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands. The deflection was to clear his reputation. But he tossed it on one side.

The third attempt is discovered in the 8th verse. Or rather, in the 10th and 11th verses. Here is a deflection which amounts to this.

The parleying, the speaking with someone who represents a false religion. If you look into the 10th verse, you find that Nehemiah is in the house of a man by the name of Shemaiah. Shemaiah is a prophet.

Shemaiah, in the name of God, gives advice to Nehemiah. Now that's subtle, if you please. It's even more cunning than the last one.

A.W. Tozer somewhere talks about cultivating a holy unbelief. And you know, followers of God have sometimes been very naive people. If someone has come along and they've claimed 100% inspiration, occasionally they've won the day.

And people have not applied specific tests to what they had to say. Here is Shemaiah, for instance. And he comes to Nehemiah and he says, look, there's going to be an attack on your life.

And to offset that, I want you to meet me in the temple at night. Let's shut the door, let's lock the gate, and let's have our own security intact. And all that, I say, was prophesied in the name of God.

Look at the 12th verse. But what does Nehemiah do? Well, there are a number of areas that you can bring to bear when someone claims to be speaking in the name of God to test whether or not it's a genuine prophecy. If, for instance, someone tells you something that is over against the express word of God, then you're rejected immediately.

For though I still believe that prophecy within the sovereignty of God is for the body of Christ today, it is always to be tested from the word of God. There is no additional revelation. There is no manipulation of scripture which is allowed.

Now in this case, Nehemiah is told to go to the temple and take refuge of the very thing which was prohibited by Moses when he gave the law to the Jews centuries ago. Nehemiah knows the scriptures. How can this prophet, if he is a valid prophet, be telling him to do something which is against the teaching of the Pentateuch? And what's more, it cuts against the grain of all that he has been doing during these last 51 days.

It doesn't seem to make sense. God brought him from Artaxerxes' palace safely through the desert and to Jerusalem. There he gathered together an army of workers.

He inspired them to be about the task at this last moment. Does it seem credible? Does it seem logical that God would call him down from the wall? Would stop him from completing the task? And what's more, what about that inner witness within your own heart? I believe that Christians are given that today, you know. I believe that you can have recourse to the word of God.

You can have recourse to spiritual friends in testing anyone who claims that they've got a prophecy from God for you. There's that own peculiar witness of the spirit which can't really be described. You either have experienced it or you haven't experienced it which tells you when a man is speaking from God.

And on these three scores, Nehemiah exposes the so-called prophet. This is a deflection to parley with someone who represents an alien religion. So what does Nehemiah do? Well, he puts this man to flight.

He who wanted Nehemiah to escape for his life and to alienate the priesthood by so doing and bring despair amongst the people because their leader is hiding in the temple. He says to his adversary, this wolf in sheep's clothing should such a man as I flee. And who is there that being as I am would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.

One of the most glorious verses in the Old Testament. And when the devil comes along and he tries to deflect you from achieving God's purposes. When he tells you to come down from the wall.

When he tells you to hobnob with the world. To take up other associations. To deflect you from achieving God's plan.

What do you say? Should such a man as I flee? Here then, in this chapter, are three examples of those pressures which are placed upon God's servants when they're within striking distance of finishing the course. Of completing the work that God has given them to do. There is that deflection, I say to, in the form of associating with the world.

There is the deflection in terms of clearing your own reputation. There is the deflection which is seen in the form of parleying with those of false religious groups. Now, these three deflections are seen in the life of our Lord Jesus.

They were placed in front of him. Here is the devil. The beginning of Jesus' ministry.

Our Savior has been in the wilderness for some while. It's got to the end of a long period of fasting and praying. And so, the devil, knowing that he's physically weak, slides alongside him.

And he gives him a vision. Or literally takes him up to one of the hills of Palestine. And there he has a panorama of the international situation.

All those countries I will give you, if you worship me. Associate with me. Live your life on my terms.

And the deflection was to come again. Or the attempted one. After Jesus had fed the large crowd.

They came and they wanted to make him their king. And to acknowledge that he was a human monarch. A political power in this world.

Probably to lead the Jews against the Romans. The same subtle deflection comes in. But Jesus will have nothing of it.

He's a flint man. And you don't hook him with worldly associations. And as for his reputation.

Well, in the bazaars they were saying of Jesus, you know, he's like one of us. He's a drunkard. He's a wine bibber.

He's a pub man. He can imbibe the alcohol. All of which were untrue.

And foreign to the person and the personality of Jesus. They went further. You know, he's illegitimate.

He was the offspring of Mary and Joseph who anticipated their marriage. You know, he's a little deranged. Even his mother and his brothers on one occasion came to argue with him.

Came to calm him down. And so it went on. Slander, slander, slander.

Heaped against the spotless Son of God. But he wouldn't come down from the wall. He could have rebutted every charge that was brought against him.

But he didn't waste time in so doing. Because he knew that when these men and their accusations had died, the war would remain. And he would be judged not by what people said about him.

But rather by what he did. By his works. He will be known.

And as for parleying with false religion. Look at the flushed faces of the priests. Here they are before the cross.

And they look up to the Saviour. And they say, if thou be the Son of God. Come down from the cross.

And then we'll believe. Exercise your power for your own advantage. Display it to us.

And come and be our leader. And on our terms. And we'll follow you.

We'll associate with you. But not Jesus. Why? Well, you see, he was just putting the last touch to the wall of salvation.

That he had been constructing throughout the whole of his life. And he's there on the cross. And in moments he will be able to say, it is finished.

The work that you gave me to do, I have completed in its entirety. But right to the last hour. The deflection.

The temptation. The temptation is thrown at him. But he spurns it.

Nehemiah was a flint man. So was Nazarene. And when temptations came their way.

They were able to overcome them. May you, may I. In the providence of God. Follow their example.

For Jesus sake. Amen. Father, boasting only in the fact that you graciously called us into your kingdom.

And gave us a work to do. We thank you that we can say that we are engaged in a great labor. May nothing deflect us from achieving your plan in our lives as individuals.

Or in this local fellowship as a corporate unit. Father God, we should not flee. We believe in the hour of pressure.

The hour of temptation. So help us to be strong in the Lord. And in the power of his might.

For Jesus sake. Amen.