From Splendor to Shadow

Chapter 55—Union With the World Hinders God's Cause-

Sanballat and his confederates with increasing malice continued their secret efforts to discourage and injure the Jews. When the wall about Jerusalem should be finished and its gates set up, these enemies could not force an entrance into the city. They were eager, therefore, to stop the work. At last they devised a plan to draw Nehemiah from his station and to kill or imprison him. SS 339.1

Pretending to desire a compromise, they invited him to meet them in a village on the plain of Ono. But enlightened by the Holy Spirit as to their real purpose, he refused. “I sent messengers unto them,” he writes, “saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” Four times the tempters sent a message of similar import, and each time received the same answer. SS 339.2

Finding this unsuccessful, they resorted to a more daring stratagem. Sanballat sent an open letter which said: “It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king ... . And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.” SS 339.3

Nehemiah was convinced that the reports mentioned in the letter were wholly false. This conclusion was strengthened by the fact that the letter was sent open, evidently that the people might read the contents and become alarmed and intimidated. He promptly returned the answer: “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” RSV. Nehemiah knew that these attempts were made in order to weaken the hands of the builders and thus to frustrate their efforts. SS 339.4

Now Satan laid a still more subtle and dangerous snare for the servant of God. Sanballat hired men who professed to be friends of Nehemiah, to give him evil counsel as the word of the Lord. The chief one was Shemaiah, previously held in good repute by Nehemiah. This man shut himself in a chamber near the sanctuary as if fearing that his life was in danger. The temple was protected by walls and gates, but the gates of the city were not yet set up. Professing great concern for Nehemiah's safety, Shemaiah advised him, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for ... in the night they will come to slay thee.” SS 340.1

Had Nehemiah followed this treacherous counsel, he would have sacrificed his faith in God and would have appeared cowardly. In view of the confidence he professed to have in the power of God, it would have been inconsistent for him to hide. The alarm would have spread among the people, each would have sought his own safety, and the city would have been left to its enemies. That one unwise move on the part of Nehemiah would have been a virtual surrender of all that had been gained. SS 340.2