Faith Over Fear: Devotions for Strength and Courage

SUNDAY, 30 MARCH 2025

TEXT: NEHEMIAH 6:1-14

1: When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates

2: Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.”

3: so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”

4: Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.

5: Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter

6: KJV: Wherein was written, 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, according to these words.

7: KJV: 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.

8: I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”

9: They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”

10: One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.”

11: But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!”

12: I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

13: He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.

14: Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me.

TOPIC: NOTHING GOOD COMES EASY

Trials are often based on the nature of one's responsibility.

In Nehemiah's case, the opposition came from Sanballat (a Babylonian living east of the sea of Galilee) and Tobiah (an Ammonite governor of Trans-Jordan).

The reasons for the opposition were mainly political. But their evil scheming did not work and they resolved to using Shemaiah -a friend to Tobiah the priest.

There was also Noadiah (the prophetess) who was used to intimidate and frustrate Nehemiah's efforts

QUESTION: Why do you need to persevere like Nehemiah?

PRAYER: Father, help those Christian brothers and sisters in key positions to know that they are called to persevere in their official responsibilities. Amen.