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NEHEMIAH’S SECURITY SYSTEM!

If you are an active political leader in today’s world, it is a safe bet that someone for some reason is plotting to assassinate you. This past month, for example, Pakistan thwarted an al-Qa’ida linked plot to kill high-profile government and military officials. The plans evidently included an attack on President Musharraf’s place of residence and on the US embassy in Islamabad.
Closer to home, the US bombing of Iraq in June of 1993, according to then President Clinton, was in retaliation for an alleged Iraqi plot to assassinate former president George Bush. And, as all of us vividly remember, John F. Kennedy was assassinated on 11/22/63 in Dallas. Approximately five years later, his brother Robert Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan.
If we think our nation would never stoop to using this tool to modify the political landscape then we aren’t living in the real world or we’re quite naive. In the early 1960s there were several attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro in Cuba. Most people believe that those attempts were sanctioned by the CIA and perhaps even attempted by CIA operatives.
So what is the point? The point is that political leaders have always seen assassination as one way to alter the political landscape. It was certainly part of the landscape during the twentieth century and, it was part of the landscape during the first century. For you will recall that Jewish leaders attempted to seize and stone Jesus long before they, we, managed to nail him to the cross.
So it won’t surprise us to discover that having failed to stop the rebuilding of the wall Nehemiah’s enemies plotted to assassinate him. In Nehemiah 6:1 - 4 we see the first attempt. It reads:
When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it – though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates – Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.”
I can’t help but pause here and tell you that every time I read this I can’t help but think that this is one of those attempted crimes that has dumb written all over it. Dumb as in the following cases.
DUMB!
A man carrying a woman's purse was picked up on the street as he matched the description of a purse snatcher reported just a few seconds earlier. The policeman told the thief that he would be taking him to the woman for positive identification. When they returned to the scene of the crime, the criminal said, "Yes, that is the lady I robbed all right."
DUMBER!
During their lunch hour, several employees of a large aerospace company in Long Beach decided to rob a bank. The group figured the police would never look for them at the plant. Of course, being dumb criminals, they forgot to remove their ID badges during the robbery.

DUMB AND DUMBER!
A company called "Guns For Hire," right here in Arizona, stages gunfights for Western movies and other events. One day, a middle-aged woman called to inquire if they could kill her husband. She was sentenced to four and a half years.

In the same dumb vein, Sanballat and Geshem didn’t see anything wrong with inviting Nehemiah to the plain of Ono. I mean the very name of the plain suggest that this is not where you want to find yourself bickering with your enemies!
More seriously, I believe this is a very clever attempt to assassinate Nehemiah. If the invitation had come earlier Nehemiah would have had reason to be suspicious. But it came as the wall was completed so the invitation may have very well sounded like this:
“ Nehemiah, it is no use pretending that we have not been opposed to your project. We have been. It has not been in our best interest. But you have succeeded in spite of us, so there is no reason for us to continue our opposition. For better or worse, we are going to have to live together. So let’s be friends. What we need is a summit conference. Why don’t we meet in the plain of Ono? It is a neutral site equidistant from each of our provinces. You pick the village in Ono and we will meet you there.”
Sanballat’s invitation to talk may in fact have sounded very reasonable. I mean, isn’t it always better to talk than fight? Doesn’t it make sense to keep the lines of communication open? After the election is over, isn’t it time to let bygones be bygones and bury the hatchet?
But Nehemiah knew Sanballat and Geshem weren’t wanting to sit down and have a friendly chat. He saw their invitation for what it was - at attempt to isolate and kill him. In vv. 3 and 4 we read:
But they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers (note that he sent more then one) to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. (Oh No!)
Wisely, Nehemiah refused their offer to “talk” things over. The message may have sounded plausible but he saw it for what it was - an attempt to harm him. But in his reply he didn’t expose their duplicity. He merely told them that the work was too important to put on hold. After all, the plain of Ono was twenty miles north of Jerusalem so even if it had been an honest attempt to talk things out the work would have been interrupted for three full days.
After the fourth invitation, and the fourth refusal, Sanballat changed his tactics. In vv. 5 - 9 we read:
Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written:
“ It is reported among the nations – and Geshem says it is true – that you and the Jews are plotting 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 confer together.”
I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up in your head.”
They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”
But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”
Today, we would call this “hardball.” As an experienced campaigner, Sanballat knew every dirty trick in the book. Here, he pulled out one of the dirtiest tricks of all. He sent an open letter filled with one lie after another. As an open letter, it would have been read by scores of people during the process of delivery. Those same people would have whispered its contents to others. Clearly, by the time Nehemiah read it the rumor mill was running at full speed; the dirty work had already been done.
Charles Swindoll in his book on Nehemiah gives three characteristics of any good rumor. First, the authoritative voice behind the rumor is never ever spelled out. The unknown source is simply hinted at and usually someone else, in this case Geshem, is eager to testify as to its truthfulness.
Second, rumors are noted for their exaggerations and inaccuracies. In this case, there was only one true statement in the entire letter. Nehemiah was building the wall around Jerusalem – that was certainly true and everyone knew it. But the rest of the letter was totally fabricated.
Third, rumors are always designed to hurt someone else. In this case, they were designed not simply to damage Nehemiah’s reputation but to see that he was killed. After all, if these lies made their way back to King Artaxerxes, and he bought into them, Nehemiah would not just be recalled; he would be beheaded.
So now Nehemiah finds himself between a rock and a hard place. If he goes to the plain of Ono he will be assassinated. If he doesn’t go, if he doesn’t defend his good name, the local populace will believe that the rumors are true. Eventually, the rumors will be communicated to the king and Nehemiah will be dead – first politically dead in the water and then really dead!
In the end, Nehemiah did two things. First, in an open letter, he immediately denied the rumors. He didn’t get into an argument about the particulars, he simply denied the rumors. He put the blame squarely on those who started the rumor mill. In straightforward language he told them that they were lying.
Second, he prayed. He did what he could, he emphatically denied that the rumors were true. But whether people would believe him or Sanballat was up in the air. The undecided voters would have to decide whom they believed. And, as you know, Sanballat and Nehemiah couldn’t decide for them. So Nehemiah prayed that despite the varied opinions living outside the wall that God would strengthen his hands to do the work.
When the rumor mill fizzled out, Nehemiah’s enemies hired a hit-man! In vv. 10 - 14 we read:
One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you – by night they are coming to kill you.”
But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.
Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me.
Apparently, Shemaiah sent for Nehemiah. Now whether Shemaiah was “shut in” for health reasons or because he was fearful of venturing out is not known. Whatever the reason, Nehemiah went to see him. After he arrived, Shemaiah made what we see as merely a suggestion. In reality, it was probably presented to Nehemiah as a revelation from God.
It may have been presented like this: “Last night, I had a vision from God where I was shown that ruthless men were coming to kill you; coming to kill you tonight. But in that same vision I saw the two of us safe and sound within the Holy Place. So come with me and let’s go to the temple and find refuge in our God.”
Here Nehemiah was tempted to do two things wrong. First, he was tempted to put his own safety above the work God had given him to do. Second, he was tempted to break God’s law in order to save his own life.
For when Shemaiah urged Nehemiah to flee to the temple, the term he used means “the Holy Place.” This was actually a pagan practice, for outside Judaism a person could flee to some heathen temple and find sanctuary. But, that was not the case within Israel. At one point in time Israel did have its cities of refuge for those who were guilty of unintentional homicide. But finding refuge in the temple was never an option. Nor could just anyone go in and burn incense as King Uzziah found out the hard way. He went into “worship” by burning incense and came out a leper!
Furthermore, even though Nehemiah was governor of Judah he was still a “layman.” And laymen were not allowed into the inner portions of the temple. If Nehemiah had followed Shemaiah’s advice it would have compromised his ability to lead any sort of reformation and it may very well have cost him his life.
How was Nehemiah able to handle all these attempts to either kill him or sideline him? How was he able to stay together emotionally? Well, in part, he must have had a pretty good handle on the Old Testament. He knew what God had already said and he had prayed through it. Then too, he was sensitive to God’s Spirit at work within him. He had this sixth sense that told him when something wasn’t right and he followed it. So you see, his security system was not within himself as much as it was in God.
Cyril Barber cites Maurice E. Wagner as having put it this way. Mr. Wagner, in his book, wrote:
Personal security . . .comes from our relationship to the three Persons of the Godhead. Our relationship to God the Father gives us a sense of belonging. We are members of his family and are secure in our Father-child relationship. Our union with Christ the Son gives us a sense of worth. God loved us so much that he sent his son to die for our sins. With our redemption accomplished, God has made us joint heirs with Christ. This shows our value. Finally, the Holy Spirit’s indwelling empowers us. We are equal to every task (i. e. we are competent).

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