As Nehemiah continued toward finishing the project to build the walls around Jerusalem, he faced quite a bit of opposition. Opposition from within and external opposition as well.
From within, the Jews were doing their best to rebuild the walls, but they had several pressures that they were facing as well. They had needed to pay taxes, so they had sold their land or even sold their children into slavery. The local nobles, the governmental officials and Jews themselves, were lending and charging interest back to their own countrymen. And they had to take out mortgages on the little bit of land or property that they did own so that they could have money to eat. They weren’t working to earn money for their families because of the project of building the wall, and to make matters worse, there was a famine that was even in progress at the same time, so it was difficult for the people to be able to eat at that time.
Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”
Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”
Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”
Nehemiah 5:2-5
At the same time, the Gentile leaders living in the Trans-Euphrates area, what we would roughly call today the areas of western Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, the countries to the west of the Euphrates river, very much preferred that the walls of Jerusalem remain down, leaving Jerusalem exposed to attack. They began to call Nehemiah for a meeting, even accusing him of building the walls so that Jerusalem could lead a revolt against the Persian empire.
“It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together.”
I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”
Nehemiah 6:6-8
As we do the work that God has called us to do, we should expect opposition. Opposition will come from within and it will come from external sources as well. Opposition will come from every side.
God may even call us to do the work in less-than-optimal conditions. In Nehemiah’s case, there was a famine at the time making it difficult for the people to continue to do the work when, in reality, it was difficult for the people to even eat.
There is rarely, if ever, an optimal time in which God’s work is meant to be done. Today, God calls his people to make disciples of all nations, to proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom of God to all of the peoples of the earth.
Is now an optimal time to do that work? Probably not. Even today, there are many wars. There is terrorism. The political climate is very challenging. There are militant people everywhere who want to stop the work, to stop God’s work and his mission from moving forward. However, in the same way that we see Nehemiah move ahead, finding solutions to the problems that he faced both internally and externally, we must do the same.
We should expect opposition. We should expect that the conditions will be challenging. Yet God calls us just the same. He calls us to carry out the work, praying and persevering all the same, working wisely yet moving forward, despite the opposition.