Context No. 4140 of 4322 · Nehemiah

Nehemiah 4:1-5: in context

1But when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, and was very indignant, and mocked the Jews. 2He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?” 3Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, “What they are building, if a fox climbed up it, he would break down their stone wall.” 4“Hear, our God, for we are despised. Turn back their reproach on their own head. Give them up for a plunder in a land of captivity. 5Don’t cover their iniquity. Don’t let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have insulted the builders.”

When Sanballat and Tobiah hear that the Jews are rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, they respond with contempt and ridicule. What are these feeble Jews doing? Sanballat sneers; will they finish in a day? will they bring these burned stones back to life? And Tobiah scoffs, if even a fox climbed on their wall, he would break it down.

Their strategy is mockery, to discourage the builders and make them give up by ridiculing their efforts as feeble and hopeless. And how does Nehemiah respond? He prays. Rather than trading insults or being crushed by the ridicule, he turns to God, and then keeps building. Ridicule is a common weapon against God's work, an attempt to discourage the faithful by making their efforts seem foolish and doomed to fail. It can be surprisingly effective in sapping our resolve. But Nehemiah shows a better response than being paralyzed by it: he takes the mockery to God in prayer, and then simply carries on with the work.

When my efforts for God are met with mockery and ridicule, do I let it discourage me into quitting, or do I, like Nehemiah, bring it to God in prayer and simply keep building, trusting that his work is not stopped by the scorn of those who oppose it?

Sources

Nehemiah 4:2: "What are these feeble Jews doing?... Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?"
Nehemiah 4:3: "What they are building, if a fox climbed up it, he would break down their stone wall."
Nehemiah 4:4: "Hear, our God, for we are despised."