WWUTT 749 Test Every Spirit?

Nehemiah's antagonist tried to stop him from completing the work of God with force, and that didn't work.

So now they're going to try to stop him with lies, and that doesn't work either. Because Nehemiah knows the truth of God's Word when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. So we continue our study of the book of Nehemiah today,

Chapters 5 and 6. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there. As I mentioned to you last week, the story of Nehemiah is an adventure story.

Nehemiah has come from Persia back to Jerusalem to oversee the reconstruction of the walls around the city, so that the city would be protected from those outside who hate

God's people. When Nehemiah first arrived in Jerusalem, he waited until the middle of the night to go out and ride around the city and survey the damage so that he wouldn't draw the attention of those who would try to stop these rebuilding efforts.

Of course, they got word of it anyway, and adversity did come against them. In fact, they were even going to attack them by force, but Nehemiah got word of it and he established a guard to protect the workers so that this work of reconstruction would not be stopped or hindered.

As a matter of fact, this whole thing goes very quickly, and we're even going to see the completion of these walls in our reading today.

And with how successful they were in these rebuilding efforts, the conclusion was that this had to be the work of the

Lord that was with them. So here we are in Nehemiah Chapter 5. We have yet another obstacle that Nehemiah faces and has to overcome in this effort to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their

Jewish brothers. For there were those who said, With our sons and our daughters we are many, so let us get grain that we may eat and keep alive.

There were also those who said, We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.

And there were those who said, We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and on our vineyards.

Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved.

But it is not in our power to help it, for there are other men who have our fields and our vineyards.

So here's what's going on. This is a time of economic oppression, and the Persians are requiring taxes of the

Jews to be paid to them. Now even though when the king of Persia let Nehemiah and Ezra come back, and they came back with many great possessions, and the king had even said that the priests in the temple were not to be taxed.

Those who were working in the service of God were not to have to pay taxes. Even though these things had been issued by the king, the other

Jews still had to pay taxes. And they mention here the king's tax. We even had to mortgage our fields and our houses in order to pay the taxes that the

Persians are levying against us. So who is it that they had mortgaged their fields and their houses to?

Well they mortgaged them to the other Jewish rulers who were in that region at the time that the exiles had returned.

There were other Jewish governors that were there, nobles and officials. And so they now possessed all of the lands of their brothers and sisters that had been mortgaged to them so that they could pay the taxes of the

Persians. Well now they don't have anything left. And they're starving. There's a famine on the land. They can't even get grain.

So what about these guys who are our brothers, who are not helping us as we are trying to do the work of the

Lord here in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem? And here is how Nehemiah responds to this.

Notice verse 6, I was very angry when I heard their outcry in these words. I took counsel with myself and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials.

I said to them, you are exacting interest, each from his brother. And I held a great assembly against them and I said to them, we, as far as we are able, have bought back our

Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us.

They were silent and could not find a word to say. So I said, the thing that you are doing is not good.

Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations, our enemies?

Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest.

Return to them this very day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards and their houses and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.

Then they said, we will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.

And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised. I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, so may

God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise.

So may he be shaken out and emptied. And all the assembly said, Amen, and praised the

Lord. And the people did as they had promised. Nehemiah himself was a governor, and he could have taken from the people if he wanted to.

He had the right, even given to him by the king of Persia, to be able to force the

Jews to have to pay taxes to him. But he did not do that. He did not take what he rightfully could have enacted against his own brothers so that they would not be burdened beyond the burden they already had placed upon them by the

Persians. And they would be able to complete this job that was before them, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

Something else that's probably at work here is, is that the governors or rather the nobles and the officials who were taking from their brothers were not honoring the sabbatical year, the year of Jubilee.

In Deuteronomy chapter 15, it says at the end of every seven years, you shall grant a release.

And this is the manner of the release. Every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor.

He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed.

And so that's that's the law concerning the year of Jubilee in Deuteronomy 15. And these nobles and officials were not honoring that.

They had their own brothers who had mortgaged their fields to them so that they could pay the taxes to Persia.

But then a famine hit the land. It became even worse for them. And they didn't have their own fields to be able to glean from.

And yet their brothers were not honoring the year of Jubilee to give their property back to them. And so Nehemiah was making sure that the law was being followed and that each one was caring for one another in especially during this time in which they were still enslaved to another nation, though they were allowed to come back to their land and rebuild their temple and their walls and worship their

God. They were still under the rule of the Persians. And so in matters like these, they needed to be especially mindful of each other and caring for each other so that they would not become the mockery of those nations, their enemies on the outside of the walls that they were rebuilding.

So here we continue with the generosity that is going to be displayed in Judah here.

Verse 14. Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah.

So there you have it. The king of Persia had even allowed Nehemiah to be the governor. Yet he was not going to take what he rightfully could have claimed.

So going on from the 20th year to the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, the king, 12 years, neither

I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor. The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration, 40 shekels of silver.

Even their servants lorded it over the people, but I did not do so because of the fear of God. I also persevered in the work on this wall and we acquired no land and all my servants were gathered there for the work.

Moreover, there were at my table, 150 men, that's a big table, Jews and officials besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us.

Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds and every 10 days, all kinds of wine in abundance.

Yet for all of this, I did not demand the food allowance of the governor because the service was too heavy on this people.

Remember for my good, oh my God, all that I have done for this people.

And that prayer that's right there in verse 19, that's actually a very creedal sort of prayer.

That was a very common prayer that was prayed among Jews. Remember for my good, oh my

God, all that I have done for this people as I have been generous to them, Lord, would you please be generous to me so that I may continue to show generosity to other people.

All of this was to the praise of God. It was not to lavish goods and importance upon himself, but that Nehemiah might use the things that God had blessed him with so that he could bless others with those blessings.

Now we get to chapter six and we're in the home stretch of this construction effort. All that has to be completed now are the gates.

And there's going to be a series of events that happens here in chapter six to try to thwart those final touches on the walls of Jerusalem.

So Nehemiah chapter six. Now when Sanbalat and Tobiah, here's familiar names again, and Geshem the

Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it.

Although up to that time I had not yet set up the doors in the gates, Sanbalat and Geshem sent to me saying, come and let us meet together at Hecapherim in the plain of Ono.

But they intended to do me harm. And I sent messengers to them saying, I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.

Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? And they sent to me four times in this way and I answered them in the same manner.

In the same way, Sanbalat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand.

In it was written, it is reported among the nations and Geshem also says it that you and the

Jews intend to rebel. That is why you are rebuilding the wall. And according to these reports, you wish to become their king.

And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, there is a king in Judah.

And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together. Then I sent to him saying, no such things as you say have been done for you are inventing them out of your own mind.

For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking their hands will drop from the work and it will not be done.

But now, oh God, strengthen my hands. So they're kind of beckoning

Nehemiah out of the city. Now the walls are completed. There's no breach in them. Only the gates have to be reconstructed.

And even the Jews there in Jerusalem have a small army. We've already read about that in chapter four.

So even if somebody wanted to mount an attack against Jerusalem, they'd have to go through the gates in order to get to the people.

And the army that the Jews have would never be able to let them pass. They were strong enough to be able to fend off their enemies.

So such an attack was not going to be mounted. Instead, they were trying to woo Nehemiah out of the protection of the city.

And maybe there was some sort of scheme going on, like while Nehemiah is coming to us, we're going to have paid bandits to like run out and mob him and kill him.

And the fault won't be upon us. It'll be upon those bandits. And you know, it could have been some sort of plot like that.

And Nehemiah saw right through it. He knew that they were they meant harm against him.

And they were just trying to stop the completion of these walls from happening. Furthermore, they made accusations about him that weren't true and trying to trying to spread those rumors so that it would get back to the

Persians. And the Persians would go, hey, wait a minute. This isn't the deal that we had that you guys would be rebuilding up your your resources so that you could rebel against Persia.

And then the Persians may come against them. It was just to frighten the people so that they would go, well, we better stop what we're doing so the

Persians don't find out about this. And then we're under even more oppression than we're already facing. I've been the victim of such rumors before that was trying to turn the hearts of people, trying to discourage the people from the work of God being done in our own church.

I've been there before. Now, not at the risk of my own life, which was the case of Nehemiah and his friends at this particular part of the story.

But but nonetheless, this is how dangerous rumors can be, that it would hinder the work of God from being done.

Yet Nehemiah's prayer was that he would that God would strengthen his hands, that he would keep his hands on the work.

Now, where it mentions in verse nine, they wanted to frighten us, thinking their hands will drop from the work and it will not be done.

This is actually an idiom, an idiom that their hands will drop from the work. And it's literally translated that they would be demoralized, that they would be so discouraged by the rumors that are being said about them, that they would not be diligent to do the work that was in front of them.

Yet Nehemiah prayed, strengthen my hands, that I would not be intimidated by these people, that I would not become lazy in the work that needs to be accomplished.

Know that Matt is with me and with confidence, I'll do the work of the task that's before me. Compare this with what we've been studying right now in the book of Titus and how often it is said to those people in the church to be self -controlled.

And this is said against those Cretans on the island of Crete that are described in chapter one as being liars and evil beasts and lazy gluttons.

But the Christians, those who are part of Christ's church, need to be self -controlled.

They need to be ambitious, proactive, desiring to do the work of God.

And we will even see as we get to Titus chapter three, be submissive to rulers and authorities, be obedient and be ready for every good work.

Speak evil of no one, avoid quarreling, be gentle and show perfect courtesy to all people.

Boy, we see the Jews learning those lessons right here, right now, don't we? Showing perfect courtesy to one another and also being strengthened in their hands to do the work that is before them.

So now we go on into verse 10. Now, when I went into the house of Shemiah, the son of Deliah, son of Metabal, who was confined to his home, he said, let us meet together in the house of God within the temple.

Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.

Now this is yet another plot. It's another plot to try to discourage Nehemiah from continuing the work of reconstruction on these walls.

Verse 11, Nehemiah said, should such a man as I run away and what man such as I could go into the temple and live,

I will not go in. So God had given Nehemiah wisdom to realize that what this man was trying to convince

Nehemiah to do was to go in the temple of God, thinking that that would be a safe place from these people who are going to come against him and harm him.

But Nehemiah knew because he knew the law of God. He knew the scriptures that if he were to go into the temple, that would be far worse for him than if he were to face the rumors of these enemies that are coming against him to kill him.

Why? Because Nehemiah was not allowed to set foot in the temple. Only the Levites could do that.

And if he thought the temple was going to be a safe space, nope, the hand of God would strike him down for entering a place that was holy that he was not allowed to set foot in.

Only, only the priests could go in there. This was a false prophecy. And once again, coming back to the law,

Deuteronomy 18 20, the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.

And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the

Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken.

The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him now because Nehemiah knew that if he were to go into the temple, he would die.

He was not going to put the Lord to the test. Rather, he was not going to listen to this man and he was going to wait and see if indeed there were any enemies that were going to come against him.

And it's then that he would know that that it was not God who was speaking through this particular man.

Furthermore, Nehemiah knew the law and he knew God was not going to contradict himself. So there's no way that God would be saying through this man, this prophet, that you need to go into the temple in order to be safe.

First John, chapter four, verse one, we read, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

For many false prophets have gone out into the world. So here is what

Nehemiah understood, verse 12. And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him for this purpose.

He was hired that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin. And so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me.

Remember, Tobiah and Sanballat. Oh, my God. According to these things that they did and also the prophetess,

Noah, Daya and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid. Now we get to the completion of the wall, verse 15.

So the wall was finished on the 25th day of the month of Elul in 52 days.

I mentioned that last week only took 52 days to complete the walls and even the gates.

And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our

God. Indeed, how could so many different obstacles and adversities be overcome to complete the walls in 52 days, even when resources were otherwise so limited to them, except that so many resources had been given to the

Jews by the king of Persia? Well, it was because God's hand was in this from the very start.

And we had even read that last week. The Jews knew that God was blessing them to complete this work.

Verse 17. Moreover, in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah and Tobiah's letters came to them.

For many in Judah were bound by oath to him because he was the son -in -law of Shekiniah, the son of Ereh.

And his son Jehohanin had taken the daughter of Meshulam, the son of Berekiah, as his wife.

Also, they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him.

And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid. Basically, this is saying that Tobiah had connections within Jerusalem to be able to get these letters to Nehemiah to try to intimidate him.

And none of it was successful. It did not work. The walls were completed by the blessing of the mighty hand of God.

Let us pray. Our Lord God, I pray that we would be diligent to test the spirits. We would not just accept anything that anyone says as being from God, but we will know what you have said because it's written right down for us here in the word of God.

We can go to the Bible. We can go to the pages of scripture. We can see what you have said. So when somebody else comes along and says, well,

God told me to tell you this or or God really means this. We can go to the Bible and we can test it and we can know what is true and what are the lies of the enemy.

So keep us steadfast, keep us straight and true as though we live in a in a fortress that has been established by our

God with a foundation built upon the word of God, that we may be strong and courageous even in such a time as this, holding out the word of life in the midst of a depraved and crooked generation.

So that as we have clung to the gospel, the power of salvation for all who believe, there are others who would come to believe it as well as we proclaim this gospel to those who are around us.

And it's in the name of Christ that we pray. Amen. This has been When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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