Or, Decisive Requests and Rallying for Good Work
Scripture: Nehemiah 2:11-20
Date: March 9, 2025
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Nehemiah has made two big asks, gotten a yes answer to both, and is only at the beginning. He still has to rally workers and he was already facing resistance. He had fasted and prayed for God’s blessing for four months. He took a strategic risk at a party in front of Artaxerxes. And not one stone has been set in the wall. He didn’t even know himself how bad conditions were, and hadn’t begun to persuade any of the Jews to join him. Plus, the first news he received after a three month trip to town is that some of the local leaders were already irritated, and they didn’t even know the reason he’d come.
Building is tough.
There are, no doubt, historical lessons in Nehemiah, namely the return of the Israelites and rebuilding after 70 years of captivity in Babylon. There are theological lessons, including God’s non-saving but still heart-stirring grace in the hearts of pagan Persian kings to permit and promote Jewish repatriation. There is also the covenantal lesson that, as good as it was to get back into the land, the glory of the Lord in the temple did not return, not yet, and so they are still looking/longing for the promised Messiah. And there are practical lessons. Even when you’ve prayed repeatedly and planned in detail, building is tough.
These guys are about to build and battle, the well-known working with one hand and a weapon in the other (Nehemiah 4:17), and they shared a mind to work (Nehemiah 4:8). While Nehemiah trusted God, he still had a lot to do, and the particular outcome was not secure. But when God wants something built, He will get all hands on deck.
In Nehemiah 2:1-10 Nehemiah put on his sad face and made the request to Artaxerxes: Let us build. In Nehemiah 2:11-20, Nehemiah does some recon and then seeks to rally the people: Let us build. It is a good work, a lot of work, and they were going to need strong hands.
Nehemiah doesn’t start without getting a lay of the land for himself, or, more accurately, seeing how much of the walls lay on the land. He also doesn’t tell anyone what he’s doing, waiting to see who he could trust. While gathering intelligence and maintaining the element of surprise are good principles of war, the main lesson here is that Jerusalem is in no safe space and no one has shown courage to change it.
Like Ezra, Nehemiah arrived and the rested three days. He probably got some current updates, but he wanted to see it for himself. I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I’ve heard this called MBWA: Management By Walking Around. But it was a need-to-know clearance. How had Sanballat and Tobiah heard (verses 9-10)? There were informants, insiders who were more loyal to outsiders. And we see that Nehemiah didn’t start by blurting out, And I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. Had no one asked? And what about the “my God” part? I don’t think I’ve met anyone who can pull off that kind of religious pronoun without pretension, but it does have some Scriptural support, so there’s that.
Verses 13-15 give an overview of his route: Valley Gate to Dragon Spring to Dung Gate, at the south of Jerusalem, for dumping into the valley. Then Fountain Gate to King’s Pool, back to the Valley Gate. We’ll see more of these in chapter 3. The walls were broken down and the gates had been destroyed by fire just as Hanani reported (Nehemiah 1:3). This was done by aggressive enemies under Artaxerxes’ degree a decade earlier (Ezra 4:23). It’s not obvious that Nehemiah made it as far around as he wanted because of the damage.
Verse 16 confirms the so-far, so-secret mission. Why does Nehemiah repeat and add specifics of whom he was not told? Perhaps to point out how passive they’d been up to this point. They had the same assessment, why hadn’t they taken action?
This is a recap, not a manuscript. Had Nehemiah’s speech been recorded in full, it might be too tempting as a rhetorical template based on how successful the speech turned out to be.
One framework for persuasion is to point out the pain: You see the trouble we are in…that we may no longer suffer derision. They lacked both protection and respect. They were vulnerable and laughable. Also: no one so far cared enough to do anything about the danger or disgrace. So he offers the solution: Let us build.
Then he gave some credentials, but not starting with the authorization of the king or his access to lumber. He leads with praise: the hand of my God that had been upon me, which included the words that the king had spoken to me. Obvious providences, including the providence of political favor, which gave his message gravity and good hope.
The people bought in. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Which itself was another sign of God’s good hand. If there was fear or doubt or reluctance in the group, Nehemiah didn’t care to notice it or record it.
So they strengthened their hands for the good work. It’s mostly a figure of speech. Maybe we could say that they cracked their knuckles, they got out their work gloves, they rolled up their sleeves. They did not put their hands in their pockets, or sit on their hands, or fold their hands, or keep their hands to themselves. The strength also seems to come from the resolve; the words rallied the hands to readiness.
Just as in verses 9-10, Sanballat and Tobiah, now along with a third, Geshem, the critics come out to play. They jeered and despised us and said, “What is the thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
We’d say it a little quicker: “What are you doing?” And it was the old Conspiracy to Overthrow the Government charge that provoked Artaxerxes to order a work stoppage earlier (see Ezra 4:12). This time the accusation was false, a manipulative misrepresentation, emotional sabotage. Nehemiah had letters from the king. But lies have power, if not to get Artaxerxes to question Nehemiah’s motive, it could trigger anxiety in the people.
Why are they so irritated? Their political power, and their pocketbooks, were sure to be cut off. The gates were about to close on their hands. Of course they’d try to intimidate, it’d been working great for them so far.
Nehemiah replied, ”The God of heaven will make us prosper.” Nehemiah, at least in what’s recorded, doesn’t give a self-defense, or a legal or political defense. His hope is a higher authority. He’d been looking to God, and didn’t stop when saboteurs started heckling. He stood firm by faith.
They had no portion—a past inheritance, or right—a present privilege, or claim—a future entitlement. It wasn’t their business no matter how much control over the area they previously had. Nehemiah’s reply was as much for the builders to hear as for the opposition. This is part of leadership, absorbing and rebutting the critics.
Those who did have a portion were on the same page with Nehemiah. Getting agreement is no small part of building. Agreement takes an act of God.
Nehemiah was prayed up, he showed up, then he spoke up, and they all got up. Maybe that doesn’t move you. But it should. And, of course, it is easier to be a critic, even from the inside.
But when God moves a group, watch out.
Do you believe that building for the Lord is good? Then let us not sit on our hands, but strengthen them that the God of heaven would make us prosper.
Rather than complaining about what others are doing, why don’t you try to build something. That’ll keep you busy. And if you are building for the Lord, don’t let the resistance and reviling of others make you stop. The Lord Jesus Himself will strengthen your hands for the work.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 ESV)