Nehemiah 4 Study Continues…
IF THE ENEMY CAN’T GET YOU, HE’LL GO AFTER THOSE CLOSEST TO YOU
The enemy always uses fear tactics. If he cant get to the leader, he will hit the people around the leader to get the leader to stop and force him to engage and address the people. Even this tactic of the enemy always futile because the leader will then pastor the people, bring them into unity and end up with greater strength than before as is the case with most challenges life brings us.
Putting the children in front of those working and on watch kept both their LEGACY and their FUTURE in front of them. It was as if to say-- "Look at your family. And if you don't have a wife and kids, look at your neighbors wives and kids and do this for them. AND, keep this in front of you so that you are constantly reminded of why you are doing this." I bet the reason the walls and gates were repaired so fast is because Nehemiah's wisdom of keeping the "seed" in front of them. In other words- this is not about you— this is about the seed of Abraham.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
Strategic division happened next. (verse 10) the people were spread out, they formed teams according to roles to switch off, and day and night. The division of roles, half working the labor of the walls and half standing guard / watch as was an updated formation set into place. In order to be divided up and spread out, there needed to be a place of coming together and gathering that would keep them all together in communication and fellowship however.
““Wherever you hear the sound of the shofar, join us there. Our God will fight for us!””
In ancient times, the shofar was blown every Friday in Jerusalem, shortly before sundown, to herald the arrival of the Sabbath. This was the norm, the default when it wasn’t a time of high holy days. So it seems that Nehemiah’s response to the tightening up his strategy for building the wall was to split people up into roles, to have a rotation and to regularly call everyone together- breaking from their work and honoring the Sabbath.
When I read this verse what I saw was how time and time again the Lord stood watch and guarded His people. The Lord won’t contradict a commandment He has set. We see this when the children of Israel wandered in the desert when the Lord gave two days worth of manna on Friday so there was no going out to collect manna on Saturday (Sabbath). For this reason, my family imposed a practice of cooking a large meal on Friday so we have leftovers Saturday and a rest from cooking (with some exceptions of course).
“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
To recap, when you read Nehemiah chapter 4 what you are looking at is the culmination of his months of prayer and planning, his character and leadership being exercised and strategy being developed and tweaked along the way.
One of the most impressive qualities we see from the text is his ability to stay on course and get others to stay on course with him. Think about this, Moses, arguably the greatest leader of the Old Testament, led the children of Israel out of Egypt (thats 2 Million+ people) and in 3 weeks time- wait did you hear that- 3 WEEKS TIME, they forgot all the miracles God did and wanted to go back to Egypt. How do you just forget the parting of the red sea? The angel of death? The cloud by day? The fire by night? Not to mention the plagues. Moses couldn’t keep folks on track for 21 days... yet Nehemiah got everyone in unity and staying aligned for 52 days.
I truly hope this encourages some of you who are leaders out there. People are difficult to lead. After all, the Lord does liken us to sheep. Getting a group of people to agree for just 21 days is quite challenging.
The enemy loves to divide, break us up, sneak in where we least expect and cause us trouble so we will become weary. We need to hear from God like Nehemiah, in order to have resolve in our spirit to press on when things get tough. What do you need to have resolve? What do you need to hear from God to et confidence that you are where you are suppose to be right now? Seek the Lord and get it down inside deep so you’re anchored when the opposition comes.