It has been some time since I have got down to write some more about our restoration. Today we get into the personal struggles of Nehemiah. The Lord challenged me to investigate the personality of the enemies of Nehemiah and how they began to afflict and try to sabotage the work of restoration.
I have begun to understand how today we have people teaching the Word, preaching, they may seem ok, but something in our spirit senses something is not right. Nehemiah 2:10 tells us how these enemies were incensed by the work.
The first thing Nehemiah notices is that both Sanballat and Tobiah were not of Israeli blood. They had little or no lineage with Abraham. Sanballat was of the stock of Samaria, at best a mixed race, scholars suggest that not all of the 10 tribes were taken to Assyria, those who were left wed with the incoming Gentile people. Tobiah was a Ammonite, an enemy of Israel. So they had no knowledge of God’s covenant, nor knowledge of God’s ways. They simply came alongside wishing to “help out” the work. They were dismissed.
According to my Logos Software, Tobiah had an apartment within the Temple complex, whilst this is surprising, shows how persistent these enemies are in infiltrating even the most inner parts of God’s work. It is said that Nehemiah in returning from Persia expelled him from this place. The emnity must have grown from then on.
When we are working toward our restoration, we find that all sorts of people “want to help” and Nehemiah discerns them out, and so should we. If they did not discern out the enemy would have confused the work, and transformed a spiritual work to be a fleshy mixture. How many revivals of faith are sabotaged because what was a great preparation, some unknown people came in to confuse and sow weariness amongst the people.
What Nehemiah was to discern was not make partnership with those who are enemies by blood, mixtures by nature. To do God’s work we need to be born of the Spirit, washed by Jesus’ blood, partakers of covenant. Sanballat comes appealing to the flesh, the soul instead of the Spirit. It reminds me of a crusade we did many many years ago, we invited a worship group that simply appealed to our flesh, and our soul, when we confronted this we find a group that had lost relationship with God, weary, and broken. It was good that a crusade that hosted a church based drama group to enact the theatre piece by Carman, the “champion”. The evangelistic work was nearly thwarted by the fleshy group.
Then there is Tobiah, who seeks to invade the inner places of God, by his presence. Interesting how the enemy sows people who want to occupy worship, or intercession, or leadership. This Temple was the second temple, for which Haggai prophesied that the glory of this “latter house” would be greater than the former. The one thing was to have an enemy living in the Temple grounds. Nehemiah had to learn that those that seek ministries that touch the workings of the Presence of God are usually those who have been sent to confound.
It is these same people who undermined the work, by writing to the King with lies and insinuation. They managed to stall the work 20 years. Very often our delay is not in our walk with God, but who we have allowed into our midst. They have set up house in our holy places, in our holy meetings. I do not advocate division, but discernment.
When both Sanballat and Tobiah could not dissuade the work, they sought governmental support in thwarting the effort. Is that not familiar today, where governments are lobbied to come against the Church. The letter was effective for 20 years, but when Nehemiah came with their response, spurred on by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. The response letter asked the King to look for the Edict of Cyrus and as God had in aforetimes stirred the Palace of Persia in favour of Israel, so the effort to lie, insinuate was thwarted. The restoration work restored its legal status. I see this for God’s people in these days, in times past where the Church was influential to steer legislation in God’s favour, it will happen again.
The enemy will use judicial authorities to steer us away from our purpose. That is why the Church must embrace the Judicial position of Jesus, the Son and King upon the Holy Hill. There are many evil organisations embracing ideologies to stop the voice of God’s people being heard. They have an unreal utopia that does not embrace the two Davidic pillars of Kingdom, Justice and Righteousness. We must build these two pillars in the Church, because these will flow to bring us into the fullness of God’s call and life in our lifetime and generation.
Eternity and the Celestial realms are not open to those who hate justice and righteousness. If we allow mixture of world, culture to enter our assembly, we are inviting “Tobiah” to have an apartment in our holy place.
How do we get the kind of discernment that Nehemiah had? We needed to have heard God’s heart and made ourselves available for His work, taking every place an opportunity, not measuring risk, but taking on boldness.
When the Early Church prayed Psalm 2 and asked for Boldness and signs, God shook their foundations and gave them what they asked. Today a new commitment to His Word and His Spirit will unlock this discernment.
If we desire spiritual restoration we must be like Nehemiah, with boldness to build the walls that protect God’s people, be like Ezra, who restore God’s Sanctuary in the midst of His people. We must recognise that mixtures, or enemies have no place, take the necessary steps to keep them out of God’s work.
Maranatha!!!
Samaritans are almost universaly accepted as descendants of Abraham who had inter married. One can read lots of theological ideas about their origins which need not be gone into here, but the idea of Samaritans NOT being of Israeli blood (and hence Sanballat) raises eyebrows!
Hi thank you for taking the time to comment. The Bible tells us the area which became Samaria was the divided kingdom of Israel for which got invaded by the Assyrians who took them captive and replaced them with a mixed race. So I am not sure how you can say the Samaritans have been accepted as children of Abraham. Jesus did not allow the disciples to go into Samaria. Nor outside Israel or Jewish areas. You need to tell me how you base the fact that they are children of Abraham. Nor the Ammonites are of Israeli blood. Please substantiate that claim if you will
However they consider themselves descendents, but the central idea is the mixture, that scholars admit between tribes and Assyrian places people. So im part your observation comes from modern scholarly thought. However you hear nothing more in the Bible conversation concerning the people who replaced the 10 tribes. So I understand your reasoning.