Remember your elementary school days? Perhaps you can recall a time when the teacher gave you a job to do and, while the teacher wasn’t looking, one of the bad kids tried to get you to play with them? If you are like me, it was easy to brush them off because you didn’t really like them anyway. But when you and your buddy were given a job and your buddy was the one trying to get you to goof off, the temptation was greater. Your guard was down because you felt comfortable and trusted your buddy. Only when you felt the looming shadow of your teacher, her eyes burning into the back of your head, did you fully realize that you had made a mistake.
The funny thing is, this kind of temptation doesn’t go away as we grow up. Even as adults, we find ourselves faced with temptations, distractions from the job at hand. And those distractions don’t always come from the “bad kids.” Sometimes, they come from the very people we thought were on our side. Life is hard enough with haters of God constantly trying to trip us up and tempt us to do wrong. What’s really hard is when that temptation comes from the good guys. As Julius Caesar said to Brutus, “Et tu, Brute?” How can we be ready rather than caught off guard or lulled into temptation when it comes from the good guys?
This is the kind of distraction that Nehemiah faced in Nehemiah 6. At first, the bad guy, Sanballat, tried to distract Nehemiah from the work. The work was almost complete. There was no breach left in the wall. As Nehemiah probably expected, Sanballat heard about this and had another trick up his sleeve to stop it. Sanballat sent a messenger to Nehemiah, inviting him to meet with him. Nehemiah was on his guard, responding, “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?” (Nehemiah 6:3) But Sanballat was relentless, continuing to send messengers with invitations to Nehemiah. Every time, Nehemiah stood firm because he discerned that Sanballat’s intentions were not good. After all, Sanballat had been trying to stop their work from the very beginning! Finally, Sanballat’s tone turned from cordial invitations to belligerent threats! Sanballat threatened to tell the king that the wall builders were planning a rebellion. Of course, this was not true! Nehemiah was quick to set the record straight, saying, “There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.” (v. 8) Next, Nehemiah prayed for strength to do what God had given him to do (v. 9).
Yet Nehemiah’s confrontation with temptation and distraction was not finished. In verse 10, Nehemiah received an invitation from one of the good guys, a prophet named Shemaiah. Yet Nehemiah perceived that what Shemaiah was asking him to do was not right, and he resisted him as well. How was Nehemiah so ready to push back against temptations, no matter where they came from? Nehemiah was ready when temptation came from the good guys because he was informed with God’s Word and in touch with God’s wisdom.
First, we see that Nehemiah was able to resist temptation, even from the good guys, because he was informed with God’s Word. Hardly before Sanballat’s harassment had ended, Nehemiah was faced with another distraction. It wasn’t a Horonite, like Sanballat, who was tempting him. It wasn’t an Ammonite like Tobiah that was distracting him. It was a fellow Hebrew! Apparently, Nehemiah knew this man because he went to his house to visit him. This man is also called the son of a priest and was thought to possess the gift of prophecy. Shemaiah was someone that Nehemiah would have considered to be one of the good guys, a friend even! The story continues in verse 10, “Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee.” Now, Shemaiah’s invitation may seem friendly enough. It appeared to come from concern for Nehemiah’s safety. He was saying, “Why don’t you just retire from the work? Your enemies might come and kill you in the night! The sanctuary of the temple will be a safe haven for you.” Yet his invitation to go into the temple sanctuary was against the law of God. II Chronicles 23:6 says, “But let none come into the house of the LORD, save the priests, and they that minister of the Levites; they shall go in, for they are holy: but all the people shall keep the watch of the LORD.” Only priests were allowed in the innermost parts of the temple and Nehemiah was not a priest. Nehemiah responds to Shemaiah’s invitation, saying, “Should such a man as I flee? And who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.” (Nehemiah 6:11) It might have been easy for Nehemiah to be caught off guard by a seemingly well-meaning invitation from one of the good guys. Without even thinking about it, he could have followed Shemaiah into the temple, the holy place of God, to protect his own life.
Yet Nehemiah remembered who he was—God’s servant, God’s workman. He knew what God had said about the temple. He didn’t fall prey to the illogical thinking of special pleading: “I know what the rule is, but I really need to hide from Sanballat!” Nehemiah stood strong against temptation even from a supposed friend because he knew what God had said. This made his choice very simple. His knowledge of God’s Word gave him discernment that he might not have had otherwise.
Like Nehemiah, we can be ready to resist temptations even from the “good guys” if we will be informed by God’s Word. When we know God’s Word on any matter, we will be able to discern what is right and wrong in a given situation. II Timothy 2:15 says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” If we will study God’s Word, we will not be ashamed (or caught off guard) when temptation comes for us. We will have the gift of discernment, like Nehemiah had.
In addition to being informed with God’s Word, Nehemiah was also in touch with God’s wisdom. He didn’t just rely on his own perceptions of the situation. His reasoning could have led him astray. Rather, he leaned on the wisdom that God gave him in that moment. In verse 12, Nehemiah says of Shemaiah’s invitation, “And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.” As it turns out, Shemaiah was not a friend after all. He was a turncoat hired by Tobiah and Sanballat to stop Nehemiah from completing the work that God had entrusted to him. How could Nehemiah have known this if he had relied solely on his own senses and perceptions about the situation? The Bible warns us against leaning on our own senses and sensibilities in Proverbs 3:5-7, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” Because he feared the Lord, Nehemiah did not fear treacherous men. His reverence for God’s opinion above his own gave him access to God’s wisdom on each situation as it came. Although Nehemiah was surrounded by enemies, even those who should’ve been friends, Nehemiah never gave up on the work God had entrusted to him. He was protected from all of their attempts to stop him because he was in constant contact with the Lord. From the very beginning, Nehemiah had consecrated this work to the Lord. It was God’s vision, God’s servants, God’s work, God’s strength to complete the work. And it was God’s wisdom that saved Nehemiah here in this chapter.
We, too, can have Nehemiah’s confidence in the face of temptation, even when it comes from the good guys. James 1:5 promises, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” The context of James 1 is perseverance through trials. Certainly, we might classify temptations and treachery from the good guys as a trial! God promises that we can have His wisdom on this matter. Like Nehemiah did, if we make fearing the Lord, leaning on His understanding, and talking to Him constantly our lifestyle, then we can go through life with confidence. We will know what to do when the time comes because it will not be our senses, but God’s wisdom that guides us.
Sadly, Shemaiah was not the only supposed “good guy” who had taken sides with the bad guys. He wasn’t the only supposed friend that was trying to stop Nehemiah from pursuing God’s vision. Nehemiah prays in verse 14, “My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.” If anyone should have encouraged Nehemiah in the Lord, it should have been the prophets! And yet Nehemiah didn’t let their temptations dissuade him because he was informed with God’s Word and in touch with God’s wisdom.
As a result of Nehemiah’s resolve, the Bible says, “So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month, Elul in fifty and two days.” (Nehemiah 6:15) The Devil had used discouragement from the enemy and even temptations from the good guys to stop the wall-building. If Nehemiah had been confused and succumbed to Shemaiah’s invitation to hide in the temple, God may not have used him to finish the wall. Yet God’s plan will always be accomplished, with or without His human vessels. The question is, will we be distracted with temptation or will we ground ourselves in God’s Word and God’s wisdom? The temptations didn’t stop, but neither did Nehemiah. Like Nehemiah, we can be unstoppable in pursuing our vision from God, if we will be informed with God’s Word and in touch with God’s wisdom.