May 7, 2025 - Nehemiah 4-6

Opposition:  “Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews” (4:1).

Opposition frustrated:  “When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work” (4:15)

Opposition afraid and project completed:  “So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God” (6:15-16).

Sorta reminds one of Psalm 2, doesn’t it?

1 Why do the nations rage

      and the peoples plot in vain?

2  The kings of the earth set themselves,

      and the rulers take counsel together,

      against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

3  “Let us burst their bonds apart

      and cast away their cords from us.”

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;

      the Lord holds them in derision. (Psalm 2:1-4)

Forth in your name, O Lord, I go,

my daily labor to pursue,

determined only you to know

in all I think or speak or do.

The task your wisdom has assigned,

O let me cheerfully fulfill;

in all my works your presence find,

and prove your good and perfect will.   -- Charles Wesley (1749)