Nehemiah 6:15-19: The Faithfulness of God

Nehemiah 6:15-19: The Faithfulness of God

Please turn with me in your Bible to Nehemiah 6. If you’re using one of the Story Bibles we provide, you’ll find that on page 323.We’ve been going through the book of Nehemiah passage by passage, and this morning the next passage we come to is Nehemiah 6:15-19. Nehemiah 6:15-19: 15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 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. 17 Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. 18 For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. 19 Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid. 

One of my favorite things about Brentwood, the borough where I live, is the Fourth of July, which of course took place this past week. I don’t know what it is about that particular holiday, but in Brentwood especially, people go all out in their Fourth of July celebrations. And as many of you are probably aware, the highlight of it all is a parade down Brownsville Road that consistently draws upwards of 40,000 spectators. Thankfully, our church was able to be a part of that parade this year. And you can always tell when the parade is about to take place because people start setting up their chairs on the sidewalks to reserve their spot sometimes two or three days before the parade. So without question, Brentwood knows how to celebrate the Fourth of July. There’s just an energy in the air whenever that holiday comes around. 

And I imagine there was a similar energy in the air here in Nehemiah 6 as the walls around Jerusalem were finally completed. At long last and against all odds, the job was done. The Israelites finished building Jerusalem’s walls and did so in just 52 days. And as we see noted in our text, they accomplished this impressive feat because God was helping them. God was the one who gave them the physical strength and the mental fortitude to do what they did. So really, the completion of the wall is a testimony to God’s faithfulness. God was showing himself faithful to do what he had promised and gather his people from the nations and establish them once again in Jerusalem. And that’s really the main idea I believe we see here. God’s always faithful to the promises he’s made. God’s always faithful to the promises he’s made. And that’s something we should really appreciate—because so often, people let us down. Even the people we love the most and who love us the most sometimes let us down. But God never lets us down. He’s always faithful to his promises. And I realize that some of you may honestly have a hard time believing that this morning. Some of you may be going through things that make you want to question the faithfulness of God. So if that’s you, my prayer is that you especially would be able to really hear the things Nehemiah 6 has to say and believe those things and embrace those things. Here in Nehemiah 6, we can observe three ways to bring glory to God for his faithfulness. Number one, rejoicing in God’s faithfulness. Number two, drawing attention to God’s faithfulness. And number three, trusting in God’s faithfulness.

Rejoicing in God’s Faithfulness

So first, rejoicing in God’s faithfulness. Verse 15 records how in spite of all of the trials and hardships the Israelites faced as they rebuilt the wall, God showed himself faithful in the end. We read, So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. I imagine writing those words must have been so satisfying for Nehemiah. If you’ve been with us as we’ve gone through the past six chapters, think about how hard Nehemiah and the Israelites had to work to see this project through. They worked themselves to the point of exhaustion. And think about the significant danger involved in the work as their enemies around them were constantly threatening to attack them in order to keep them from building. But now, finally, all of their hard work and personal sacrifice and commitment to work even in the face of such danger had finally paid off. So Nehemiah must have been elated as he wrote this verse. Rebuilding the wall was the main thing he had come to Jerusalem to do, and the project was now complete. 

And if we keep in mind the big picture here, the completion of the wall wasn’t just an example of what people can accomplish when they work hard and set their mind on doing something. It’s an example of God’s faithfulness. God had promised way back in the days of Moses that if his people were unfaithful to him and had to be disciplined by being forced into exile, he would eventually bring them back and establish them in their land once again. God promised that in Deuteronomy 4. And you may remember Nehemiah reminding God of this promise back in Nehemiah 1:8-9, where he says to God, 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.” So back in our main text, when the walls were finally completed, it was more than anything an example of the faithfulness of God. It was a part of God showing himself faithful to the promise he had made. 

What about you? Take a moment and think about how God has shown himself faithful to you. How has he helped you? How has he protected you? How has he provided for you? How has he blessed you? How has he kept his promises to you? Now ask yourself this: How often to you simply rejoice in those things? So often, I think we can focus so much on the things in our life that aren’t the way we want them to be that we fail to appreciate all the ways God’s blessed us and shown himself faithful to us. Kind of like when the sun’s in your eyes. When you’re trying to drive with the sun in your eyes, it’s hard because the sun’s so bright that it blinds you. Or at least it makes it really difficult to see where you’re going and what’s in front of you. And that’s very similar to the way trials often function in our lives. Just like the sun can blind us to the things around us, many times trials have a way of blinding us to other things as well. We become so fixated on what’s not going well that we forget all about what is going well and don’t recognize ways God’s being faithful to us even in the midst of the trial. 

And I have no doubt it was the same for the Israelites. If you look at the next chapter, Nehemiah 7 and verse 4, you can see that even after the walls were completed, Jerusalem still wasn’t exactly a comfortable place to live. It says, The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt. So the walls had been rebuilt, but a lot of the rest of the city was still in shambles. However, that doesn’t mean God wasn’t showing himself faithful to the Israelites. He was. And eventually, the rest of the city would be rebuilt as well. So in the midst of your trials and your brokenness, don’t miss what God’s doing. Don’t miss God’s faithfulness. Let me tell you something. We live in a fallen world. Ever since the first humans rebelled against God way back in Genesis 3, this world has been a fallen and broken place. So that means that there will always be things in your life that you wish were different. And even if those things get resolved, you can rest assured that other things will take their place. But don’t let those things cause you to lose sight of how God’s been faithful to you. Don’t let those one or two difficulties blind you to the innumerable examples of God showing his faithfulness and keeping his promises to you. Reflect on his faithfulness, and then, rejoice in it. 

Drawing Attention to God’s Faithfulness

Then another way we can glorify God for his faithfulness is by drawing attention to it. So first we had rejoicing in God’s faithfulness, and now we have drawing attention to God’s faithfulness. Verse 16: 16 And when all our enemies heard of it [the completion of the wall], 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. So news of the wall being completed sent shockwaves throughout the region. The surrounding nations that had scorned and opposed the Israelites were now afraid. And the reason they were afraid, according to this text, is that “they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.” So even these pagan nations perceived that the reason the Israelites were able to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall in the face of such heavy opposition and in such a short period of time was because God was on their side. God’s faithfulness was evident to everyone. 

And in the same way, we should want God’s faithfulness in our lives to be evident to the entire world, including non-Christians. We should want it to be a powerful testimony to them about the God we serve. For example, think about the last time you or someone you love had a health concern. Maybe it was a relatively minor concern or maybe it was a major concern—like cancer or something. In your prayers for healing, which I’m assuming you regularly prayed, did you ever frame your requests so that God’s name and God’s fame were at the center? Of course, it’s not wrong to seek your own personal comfort. But did you ever seek more than that in your prayers? Did you ever say something like, “God, please heal me so that everyone can see how good and powerful and faithful you are. Let my healing help everyone to see You.” That should be our desire—for even our healing to be about so much more than just us. We should want it to draw the attention of people around us so that they also will admire God. 

And really, that should be our ambition for every aspect of our lives. If you’re a Christian and Jesus has changed your life, every way Jesus has changed you is an example of Gods faithfulness. The love you show, the joy you possess, the good you do—all of those things are from God. They’re all examples of God’s faithfulness to you. So your desire should be for people to admire God as they observe those qualities. Think about a trophy. What’s the purpose of a trophy? And I’m not talking about those participation trophies that they hand out these days. Don’t get me started on those. I’m talking about real trophies that are awarded in response to real accomplishments. What are those trophies designed to do? They’re designed to draw attention to a specific accomplishment. The idea of a trophy isn’t to draw attention to itself but rather to point people’s attention to the person who possesses the trophy and whatever it is that he or she accomplished. And that’s similar to what we should desire for our lives as Christians. We should want the way we live to point people to God and God’s grace and God’s power and God’s faithfulness. It’s not about us being admired but about God being admired. So is that what’s in your heart? Or even better: is that what comes through in your conversations? When you’re talking with other people, do you subtly insert things into those conversations that are designed to make people think highly of you, or is everything you say designed to make people think highly of God? 

Trusting in God’s Faithfulness

Then finally, not only can be bring glory to God by rejoicing in his faithfulness and by drawing attention to his faithfulness, but we can also bring him glory by trusting in his faithfulness. That’s point number three: trusting in God’s faithfulness. Look with me at verses 17-19: 17 Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. 18 For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. 19 Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid. So even though Nehemiah had just seen God’s faithfulness toward him demonstrated in a phenomenal way in the completion of the wall, there was still a need for him to trust God’s faithfulness moving forward. He still had difficulties. One of the other regional leaders named Tobiah who had opposed the rebuilding of the wall from day one was now continuing his efforts to undermine Nehemiah’s leadership and the overall welfare of Jerusalem. The walls may have been rebuilt, but Tobiah wasn’t giving up. According to these verses, he still had a lot of connections to influential people in Judah and was using those connections to spy on Nehemiah and to undermine people’s loyalty to Nehemiah and to make Nehemiah afraid. So even though the walls had now been built, Nehemiah’s worries were far from over. It was still necessary for him to lean on God and trust God’s faithfulness every day. 

And we’re no different. I mentioned before that we live in a broken world and that living in a broken world means there will always be difficulties present in our life—real hardships and uncertainties. So there will always be a need for us to trust in God’s faithfulness and lean on his promises in the Bible. Because when adversity comes, God’s promises in the Bible are what sustain us and comfort us and get us through. As the psalmist says in Psalm 119:50: “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.” I love that section of the classic book Pilgrim’s Progress where Christian and Hopeful are in Doubting Castle. In case you don’t know, the characters and places and events of Pilgrim’s Progress are designed to be allegorical for us as Christians and the things we face in life. So two characters named Christian and Hopeful find themselves through a series of events as prisoners in a place called Doubting Castle. And Doubting Castle is ruled by a giant named Giant Despair. And after suffering numerous days in the dungeon of Doubting Castle and enduring the giant’s beatings and being deprived of food and water, Christian finally remembers something. He says to his companion Hopeful, “What a fool I am, thus to be in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.” So he pulls out the key of Promise and tries it on the dungeon door. And lo and behold, as he turns the key, the door easily comes open so that Christian and Hopeful are able to come out. Then they go to the outward door that leads to the castle yard, and the key opens that door also. Then finally, they come to the iron gate, which after some effort also comes open with the key. And then from there, Christian and Hopeful successfully complete their escape out of Giant Despair’s territory and back into the land where they need to be. 

So thinking about that story, how were they able to escape Doubting Castle and Giant Despair? With the key of promise that they had actually possessed the whole time. Maybe right now you’re going through a season of discouragement or doubt or even despair. Did you know that, like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, you already possess the key to your freedom? It’s the key of Promise, and you can use it by familiarizing yourself with the promises of the Bible and standing on those promises and clinging to those promises. That’s the way God’s given you to get free. Again, as the psalmist says to God, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.”

So let me briefly give you just a few of the promises God makes in the Bible. This is just a sampling of some of the promises I’ve found to be the most helpful for me. Number one is John 4:13-14: 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” If you’ll come to Jesus and keep seeking more of him every day, you’ll never thirst again. He’ll satisfy you in a way nothing else can and give you a kind of satisfaction that never diminishes but only grows deeper as time goes on. Then we find another promise in Matthew 6:31-33: 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. In other words, put God first, and he’ll provide everything you need. Promise number three comes from 1 John 1:9, which says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Whenever you’re tempted to despair over your sin or think that there’s no way you can ever be right with God again, you can cling to this promise that if you’ll repent, God will forgive you through Jesus. The next promise comes from Jesus in John 14:13-14: 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Promise five comes from Philippians 1:6: 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. God won’t leave his work half-completed in your life. It may be two steps forward and one step back, but God’s purposes in you will be accomplished. Then we have Acts 1:8: 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” So you’re not on your own to accomplish our God-given mission of spreading the gospel. God promises you the power of the Holy Spirit for that mission. Then the rest of these all relate to suffering. Romans 8:28: 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:38-39: 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. No matter how extreme the trial or how much it tests your faith, nothing can separate you from God’s saving love. Promise nine is from Psalm 9:9-10: 9 The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. 10 And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. God can be your stronghold and won’t forsake you whenever you seek him. Then lastly, we have Isaiah 40:29-31: 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.  

So these are just a sampling of the promises God gives us to stand on and to cling to when times get tough. Just think for a moment: the God of the universe has committed himself to us in these specific ways. He’s gone on record, so to speak, with these specific commitments. You might say his reputation is on the line. And he invites us to lean on these promises and rest in these promises any time our foot begins to slip. And if you’ll do that, you’ll find God faithful every time. 

Conclusion

So if our main text back in Nehemiah 6 shows us anything, it shows us that God’s always faithful to the promises he’s made. But there was one promise in particular that God had made to Nehemiah and to the people of Israel that hadn’t yet been fulfilled at that point. In fact, it was a string of promises given throughout the Old Testament. And all of these promises focused on a central figure commonly known as the Messiah. And this Messiah would bring a much greater form of deliverance for God’s people than Jerusalem’s walls could ever bring. You see, the Bible teaches that Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem and actually everyone else in this world, including today, have a much bigger problem than anything we see in Nehemiah 6. We have sin problem. Our sinful rebellion has cut us off from God and brought on our heads God’s sentence of condemnation. And that’s what we deserve. But Jesus the Messiah came to this earth so that he could rescue us. And he did that by dying on the cross in our place and taking on himself the condemnation we deserve. He himself was the sacrifice that was killed to satisfy God’s justice and appease his righteous wrath against sin. And because Jesus died and was subsequently raised from the dead as a display of his victory, you and I can be forgiven of our sin and brought into an all-satisfying relationship with God. In fact, that can be true for you even this morning if you’ll simply turn away from your sinful way of living and put your trust in Jesus alone to save you. Let me close with a final promise—a very famous one—from John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That’s another promise you can take to the bank. Let’s pray.