Nehemiah 6 – three attempts of opposition against Nehemiah

1. Distraction
   • Nehemiah 6:1-4
   • Nehemiah was mostly concerned about being distracted from the work. Often distractions start small but they can build and become much bigger problems.
   • Nehemiah defeats distraction with discernment and according to the bible, discernment is something we can all have, Hebrews 5:14, Romans 12:2
   • Discernment is distinguishing right from wrong, it’s not something we can have immediately, but it’s something you have to put into practice and as you do then you’ll grow in it.
   • It’s something we have to use our mind for, Nehemiah has to say no four times to these people, he has to keep being aware and conscious of the potential distraction.
2. Fear
   • Nehemiah 6:5-9
   • We often worry that people will have a false image of us if they know we’re Christians and it makes us scared to share about our faith.
   • Nehemiah defeats this fear with truth, he identifies that what they said is not true and that their motive is to weaken him and he recognises that if he’s to defeat this he needs to go to God.
   • We overestimated the problem and underestimated God. We also often forget that we’ve been given the Holy Spirit who is the spirit of truth and can help show us the truth.
   • 2 Timothy 1:7
3. Sin
   • Nehemiah 6:9-14
   • When things are going well we can easily slip into sin, like distractions, sin often starts off small but can end up throwing us completely off track.
   • Nehemiah defeats sin with God’s word. To do this he first had to know the law and also believe and trust in it so much that he’s willing to risk his own life.
   • In the bible we see that God takes sin really seriously, Matthew 5:30. But the good thing is that not only is sin serious, but there’s an answer to sin. Nothing people do can solve the issue of sin, Jesus had to come and die for us.
   • The seriousness of sin in the bible always points back to Jesus, so when we do make mistakes, we can always come back to Jesus for forgiveness.

Nehemiah 6:15-19

The wall is complete and the enemies are afraid and disheartened and it seems like the end of the story. But it’s not, there is still opposition. It’s a helpful reminder that in life even when there’s breakthrough and wonderful things happening, there will still be challenges ahead and decisions we have to make.