SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 08/10/2011 7:04 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Ridicule
Bible Reading
& Meditation
Reference: Nehemiah 4:1-6
Message of the verses: “1 Now
it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he
became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews. 2 He spoke in the presence
of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, "What are these
feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer
sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty
rubble even the burned ones?" 3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him and
he said, "Even what they are building-if a fox should jump on it, he would
break their stone wall down!" 4 Hear, O our God, how we are despised!
Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land
of captivity. 5 Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted
out before You, for they have demoralized the builders. 6 So we built the wall
and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to
work.”
I
have been reading the commentaries of Warren Wiersbe for at least the last fifteen
years, and have enjoyed all of them very much.
In all of these years and commentaries I cannot remember an introduction
to a chapter as long as this one. The
Lord has used the words that Dr. Wiersbe has written many times in my life and
in today’s SD I have found words that he has written to “hit the nail right on
the head” of what is going on in my life and I will write more on this latter.
In
chapters four through six the enemy of our souls is at work in the lives of
Nehemiah and the faithful Jews who were working on the repairs of the wall
around Jerusalem. When things are going
well the enemy will many times bring opposition into our lives to stop the work
of the Lord and that is what is seen this section of the book of Nehemiah. Dr. Wiersbe writes that there at least nine
different types of attacks that Satan bring upon Nehemiah and the Jews who were
working on the wall. In chapter four of
both Nehemiah and Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary we will see four of those attacks.
In today’s SD we will discuss the first one, ridicule.
As
I look over the pages of the commentary from “Be Determined” there is a sea of
yellow highlighted sections from this forth chapter of Nehemiah’s
commentary. That means that there was a
lot of material that seemed to be speaking to my heart or just worthy of being
highlighted in my opinion. The book of
Nehemiah seems to me like a book that could almost be put into the New
Testament, for even though it is a book that is put in the historical portion
of the Bible it has things in it that are of the richness of books of the New
Testament. Whenever I think of the word
rich I think of when I was a young man working on a farm helping to bale hay
and we would go into the kitchen and have our lunch and in the refrigerator was
unpasteurized milk that had all of the cream in it. We had to stir the milk as the cream had
risen to the top. It was the best milk
that I have ever tasted and that was because of the richness of it. There is that kind of richness in Nehemiah’s
book and Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on this book.
When
one looks at the Bible they can find different occasions where ridicule is
found. When David went to fight the
giant Goliath he was taunted and ridiculed by him. The soldiers did the same to Jesus before He
was crucified, and even while hanging on the cross Christ was ridiculed by the
onlookers. Dr. Wiersbe writes “When the enemy laughs at what God’s people
are doing, it is usually a sign that God is going to bless His people in a
wonderful way.” The blessings that
have been given to God’s people because of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ
certainly prove that this statement is true.
It
is not known exactly what Sanballat had to do with the army of Samaria but it
seems that he was using it to help ridicule the Jews and he did it in three
different ways and Tobiah added one more.
First
Sanballat ridiculed the
workers by calling them feeble Jews.
This word means miserable or withered.
He was saying that they were a bunch of old cut flowers that were
withered and useless and therefore could never build a wall.
Next Sanballat would ridicule the work itself
by asking a series of questions found in verse two. “Will they fortify themselves? Will they
sacrifice? Will they finish in a
day?” God was the One who would give the
strength to Nehemiah and the Jews to finish this job for He had ordained it to
be done. The question will they
sacrifice means that it would take more than sacrifice and prayer to get this
job done, yet that is exactly what it did take to get it done, prayer and
sacrifice of the people doing the job.
The question will they finish in a day means that the Jews did not
realize how hard and long this work would take.
In Sanballat
final question he ridicules the material that the Jews were going to use to
build the wall. He speaks of the stones,
which were made of limestone that becomes weak when subject to fire, however
the walls were torn down therefore making the stones strong. The gates were burned down and this would be
replaced by using new lumber that would be supplied by the king as seen earlier
in Nehemiah.
Tobiah would
ridicule the finished work by stating that when it was done that a fox walking
on it would make it fall down. Dr.
Wiersbe writes: “from a human point of
view this would be true; for the Jewish remnant was weak and poor, and the work
was too great for them. But they had a
great faith in a great God, and that’s what made the difference.”
I want to
comment on the prayer that Nehemiah prays, and we have already seen his prayers
before. This prayer is like the
“imprecatory psalms.” Psalm 69; 79; and
139:19-22 are examples of imprecatory psalms.
Dr. Wiersbe writes concerning this prayer: “We must remember that Nehemiah was praying
as a servant of God concerned
for the glory of God. He was not
requesting personal vengeance but official vindication for God’s people.” When you think about it the opposition from
Sanballat and Tobiah was opposition against God.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I wish to go back to something that Dr.
Wiersbe wrote in the introduction of this chapter for this portion of my
SD. He writes “When the picture of our
life or ministry is not all we think it ought to be, perhaps the Master Artist
is rescuing us from something far worse and preparing us for something far
better.” To understand this statement
you have to understand the story he sites before making that statement. There was a painter who was painting a cupola
high in the air and as he stepped back to see how his work was progressing he
was just about to fall to the ground to his death when his assistant took the
paint brush from his hand and painted over his work and so the painter stepped
forward to get the brush from his assistant thus keeping him from falling to
his death.
My wife and I
have spent almost eight months of our life in Hawaii, and for most of the time
here I have been searching to find out why the Lord brought me here and what
was my job for Him while here. Perhaps
the quote from Dr. Wiersbe answers those questions, that the Master Artist is
preparing me for something that I have no idea of.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Continue to learn contentment.
2.
Trust the Lord to teach me and instruct me in the
way that I should go.
8/10/2011 8:37:15 AM
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