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Nehemiah Chapter 6:2-3
Our Defense: Recognising
the great work
By I
Gordon
6:2-3 Sanballat and Geshem sent a
message to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the
plain of Ono.” But they were planning to harm me. So I sent messengers to them,
saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work
stop while I leave it and come down to you?”
We have seen in the previous studies
that the Satan can use the world in two ways: Firstly, through luring us out
into a state of compromise. And secondly, through making us fearful of what
they think of us. We will now look a bit more closely at what I believe is the
answer to combating these problems. And it is found in Nehemiah's first
response when faced with Geshem's subtle attack. Every time Geshem sent a
message to Nehemiah he responded with 'I
am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I
leave it and come down to you.' (Ch 6:3) He recognised the great work! So,
question time; what makes something a great work? Is it how big something is?
Or how much money goes into it? Don't think so. I believe that the two main
ingredients for a great work are: 1) How long it will last. 2) Who it is done
for. What I mean is this -
Consider Eternity!
As Christians, our defence against the
call of the world is to recognise the great work that we are called to. The
work we do is great for it lasts for eternity![1] Through our testimony and life,
people can be 'snatched from the fire' (Jude 23) and saved for eternity. The
only time that worldliness can start to take a grip on our lives is when we
have lost sight of why we are here and the fact that we are 'only visiting this
planet'[2]. Nehemiah didn't do this. It is
interesting that a lot of the major verses warning against worldliness in the
NT, go on to say something about the second coming or the judgement to come[3]. If we can recognise that what we are
doing is considered a 'great work' then maybe we won't be so quick in going
back to Ono. Jesus said something really important that every Christian
businessman (or business woman, well actually all of us!) should remember. He
said that 'where your treasure is, there
your heart will be also.' It is
the attitude of the world to live only for the now, to build our little
empires, caring little for the life to come. But our heart and treasure should
not be in this world[4].
Consider the great work! It will last for eternity. What does it profit a man
to gain the whole world but lose his soul? King David knew of this heavenly
hope that guarded his heart and mind. Speaking of the different attitudes
between the righteous and the wicked, David wrote:
Psalm 17:13-15
Deliver my life from the wicked with Your sword, with Your hand from men, O Lord, from men of the world who have
their portion in this life, and whose belly You fill with Your hidden
treasure. They are satisfied with children, and leave the rest of their possession
for their babes. But as for me, I will see your face in righteousness; I shall
be satisfied when I awake in your likeness.
This passage shows the
futility of life for those that don’t know the Lord. The best they can do is
hope for an easy life, storing up possessions to give to their children when
they die. Nothing more. Their portion is in this life. But not so us! We like
David, fix our eyes on the eternal where we shall see His face in
righteousness! And our satisfaction comes when we awake in His likeness![5]
Consider the King!
The second ingredient for what makes a work great is, quite obviously, the person you’re doing the work for. If you’re working for your boss then there is a certain level of importance. If you're working for your country then you might put a bit more effort in (hope my boss doesn't read this). If you're working for God Almighty, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who has the power of life and death, um well, yeah, put some effort into it! That work sort of takes priority over the other doesn't it??? So how does this help us? Well, if gazing at eternity could help fend off the lure of the world, surely then gazing into the glory and majesty of God can surely cast off the fear of man. Geshem and the world only seem to attack in these two means. Either they work on getting you to compromise your faith and have one foot in the world, or they scare you into inactivity through the fear of man. We shouldn’t let it happen. Actually, I heard a good quote the other day from somewhere... It said, 'If you fear God, you need fear nothing else.' Like that one? Fortunately, Nehemiah had enough reverence and respect for God to carry on with the great work and the attempted compromise, slander and fear tactics didn’t put him off. His fear of God overcame the fear of man.[6] There is a lot that we could learn from Nehemiah.