Nehemiah – Chapter 4

And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.” Nehemiah 4:11 – Wonderfully as we saw in the last chapter the people of Israel had chosen to begin the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem. They even got all the way to half its height and many of the places that were wide open were closing in. Yet as with any good work of the Lord, when it is being faithfully accomplished the enemy steps in to stop the work. We find in our chapter there were individuals that were violently angry seeing that the wall was being rebuilt. They came and taunted the people, mocking them and telling them how impossible of a task it was to rebuild. They threatened to come over with their army and confuse their work. Yet the taunts, mocking, and threats didn’t stop the work, so the enemy made his final plan to come and kill them all. While a terrifying threat, I love how one commentator saw this, that this could be taken as a praise on their part. They were remaining so faithful to the Lord that the only way the enemy could stop them was to kill them. In our story, I pray we can be found that faithful. For the enemy will seek to discourage you and confuse you to keep you from completing the work God has you doing. Sadly we can let these minor attacks be victorious in our life, stopping us from the holy work we’ve been called to. Or we can pray and push through the mocking, threats, and discouragement to where the enemy’s only way to stop us is to try to kill us. Let’s find ourselves in the same category as so many faithful individuals in the Bible where we are living so faithfully for the Lord, despite the enemy’s attacks, that the enemy’s only means to stop us is to try and end us. Show the Lord, and the enemy, that we will not stop being faithful to our Savior. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3401

And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.” Nehemiah 4:19-20 – This passage resonated with me this morning because tomorrow will be our first time our church is regathering together in awhile. Like the workers on the wall, we’ve been separated, but hopefully still working on the mission in this quarantine season. Yet tomorrow we get to rally together, strengthen each other, fight with each other, and see how mighty our God is. Then we’ll separate again till the next rally, but we’ll have been strengthened by our time together. My encouragement to you is take advantage of the time together with your church family. Of course, be safe and wise as to when it’s smart for you to rejoin the body meeting physically together, but we see here power when God’s people regather together from where they had been separated. I can’t wait to see how God will show us His might tomorrow. I also can’t wait to be a part of your strengthening and you be a part of mine. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1286

So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand. Nehemiah 4:23 – As the Jews were rebuilding the temple, neighboring peoples were coming against them with harsh words and threats to cease their efforts. They’d threaten to disrupt their efforts and come when they least expect to kill the workers. As you’d expect fear was growing rapidly within the workers, so Nehemiah decided to station half of the workers as armed guards while the other half continue the labor of rebuilding the wall. Our passage notes the extremeness of the situation. Nehemiah slept in his clothes, with his weapon next to him, ready to fight at a moment’s notice. Dwell for a moment on the strain such a season must of have had on them. Constant uncertainty if you’d be in peace or war, never being able to fully rest because the opposition could arise at any time. We’re also not talking about soldiers on a battlefield, but followers of God trying to do the work of the Lord. Let’s then acknowledge the truth that following God isn’t always easy and we can often find ourselves exhausted doing God’s work. While the enemy will be threatening and coming at us hard, our thoughts must remember what Nehemiah said in verse 20, “Our God will fight for us.” Seasons may be filled with fear and exhaustion, but our God is more present in our story than either of those two things. Let your eyes remain fixed on the God who is present rather than the enemy. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2507