Bible Text: Nehemiah 2:19-20 | Pastor: Eric Danielson | Series: Restoration – Nehemiah | Once you realize how real the spiritual battle is and that we have an enemy that wants to destroy us, you need to learn to see what the battle looks like and how to fight.

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Resisting the Enemy

Nehemiah 2:19-20; 4:1-3

We are coming back to the book of Nehemiah to continue our series on restoration. God is doing a good work in each of our lives, making us more and more like Jesus and we have been learning what that process looks like as well as seeing some major barriers we need to be aware of. Last week we started talking about an “outside threat” – a formidable spiritual enemy that can be a major barrier to the work of restoration God is doing in our lives. And this week we are going to continue to talk about Satan and his angels and what the spiritual battle looks like.

Last summer our minivan was due for an oil-change. It had been about 5,000 miles since the last one, so I jacked up the front end of the van, pulled the drain plug and let the oil drain into a pan. I was about to pour the used oil into a storage container when I noticed there wasn’t very much in the pan. There should have been 4½ quarts, which is about an ice cream bucket full, but it seemed a lot less. So I emptied the oil into an ice cream pail and was shocked by what I saw. The pail wasn’t even half full! I measured it and found there were only 2 quarts left!

I was quite alarmed that we had been driving with that little oil and very thankful we hadn’t ruined the engine. Then I did a Google search to see if anyone else had a similar problem. Within a few minutes I found out the problem was widespread with that kind of engine. It has a variable cylinder management system, which shuts off half the cylinders when you’re coasting or going downhill to save on fuel. But many of those engines start to leak after time and burn oil. And with the new synthetic oil where some people go 10,000 miles or more before changing it, people would end up burning all the oil out of their engines and ruining them without any warning. People would be going down the road, and all of a sudden their engine light would come on and their engine would die, and when they got it checked out they’d find there was no oil left and they had ruined their engine.

So this was a huge problem that we had to deal with or it would just keep getting worse. Now that I was aware of the problem, I had to make some major changes, and if I didn’t it would end up ruining our van and leaving us stranded. So I read a bunch of articles and posts about what to do. I had to buy and install a part that would shut down the variable cylinder management system and then keep an eye on the oil level to make sure it wasn’t getting low. Thankfully in our case, that fixed the problem and the engine burned much less oil and hasn’t gotten any worse.

The thing I want you to see in that story is that once I became aware of the problem, I had to make some definite changes. I had to learn how to deal with the problem so that things didn’t keep getting worse. And that’s the approach we need to take when it comes to the reality of the spiritual battle that we’re in. The problem isn’t going to just go away. We have an enemy – Satan wants to destroy us. And if we don’t make some changes and learn how to fight, things are going to get worse and the process of restoration will come to a standstill or start to unravel. So what are we supposed to do?

Today in the book of Nehemiah we are going to see what some of the attacks of the enemies of restoration looked like and how Nehemiah responded. In these things we will see some strong parallels to our spiritual lives that will help us learn more about the battle and what we can do to fight.

Last Sunday we were introduced to the governors in the regions surrounding Jerusalem that were enemies of restoration – they were enraged that Nehemiah had come seeking the welfare of the people. Today we are going to look at the first two attacks by these enemies to try to shut down the work of restoration. The first attack happened as the people were getting prepared to rebuild, the second was soon after rebuilding began. Both attacks are very similar in nature and we can see how Nehemiah responded to them.

Read Nehemiah 2:19-20. (The first attack)

19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it (the plan to rebuild), they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20 Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.”

You may remember Sanballat and Tobiah from two weeks ago. Here we are introduced to a third enemy of the restoration of Jerusalem: Geshem the Arab. My Study Bible says that he was probably the governor of the area south of Judah. So you have Sanballat to the north, Tobiah to the east, and Geshem to the south. Jerusalem is surrounded by enemies of restoration. Or, another way to look at it is that restoration was happening in the middle of enemy territory.

The same is true when it comes to our restoration. It isn’t happening in the peaceful plains of paradise, it’s happening in a supernatural, spiritual war zone. The world we live in is occupied territory – it’s occupied by Satan and his angels/demons.  1 John 5:19 says, “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” There are many good things about this world – God created it and demonstrates his glory in the things that have been created. But it’s also the place where Satan and his angels currently dwell. In Job 1:7, when Satan approached God, God asked him where he was coming from and Satan answered: “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” The apostle Paul, in Ephesians 6:12, describes the world as “this present darkness.” We need to be on guard against thinking that the world in which we live is just neutral territory. It’s enemy territory. It’s a warzone and we have to learn to begin to treat it that way. We are in the middle of a spiritual battle whether we want it or not.

That’s a really hard concept for me to grasp… probably because I’ve lived a pretty sheltered life. I had Christian parents and a good upbringing. I went to a Christian college, married a Christian woman and have worked all my adult life in a church. If you’re like me and life has been pretty easy and happy it can be easy to dismiss the fact that this world is actually part of the dominion of Satan. Some of you are completely different. You have seen all kinds of evil and darkness and It’s not hard for you to see that this world is a battleground. The Bible is clear in many places that it is, and none of us is immune to his influences, tactics, and schemes.

That’s one parallel I want us to see in these verses. Another has to do with what some of the spiritual attacks look like. Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem weren’t shooting arrows or coming against the people of Jerusalem with swords and spears; they were attacking them with their words; attacking their minds; trying to affect their way of thinking. They jeered at them and despised them and made condemning accusations. I looked up those words in the original language and came away with the idea of a bully on a playground. If you’re familiar with the story of David and Goliath, Goliath was doing a lot of jeering and despising: “Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beast of the field” (1 Sam. 17:43-44).

The enemies of Israel’s restoration were mocking them, taunting them, and making fun of them. They were trying to make them feel defeated, belittled, and humiliated – small, insignificant, and stupid. They were trying to discourage them so that they’d just give up right away. They accused the Jews of rebelling against the king of Persia, which was a lie and false accusation, but even lies can have a disheartening effect. They can put you on the defensive so that you spend all your energy defending yourself rather than working on restoration.

You can see the same tactics in their second attack in Nehemiah 4. These are the things they said to their armies after the work on the walls had begun and some of the people of Jerusalem overheard…

Read Nehemiah 4:1-3.

Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” 3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”

Again you see jeering and despising, and my assumption is that Satan was involved in these attacks, stirring up the sinful hearts of Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, having an influence on what they said.

So when I see these things in Nehemiah, I see parallels to some of the attacks Satan uses against us today. Sometimes he influences other people to viciously attack us, taunt us, belittle us, mock us… There are all kinds of verbally, mentally, and emotionally abusive behavior in people’s homes and workplaces or on social media and I believe in many cases spiritual forces of evil are involved. And that kind of behavior can easily happen in Christian homes and in the church family. Many of you have been the recipients and victims of such behavior and it has a devastating effect. It has shut you down and left you hurt, fearful, and discouraged. The process of restoration has reached a standstill and maybe you didn’t even know it until now. I believe this can be a common attack of Satan.

I also believe we can be the abusers – maybe even without knowing it. We can dominate, manipulate, and ridicule the people in our lives to get them to do what we want them to do. We can unknowingly be used by Satan to defeat and discourage fellow Christians in our family and church and hinder the work of restoration God is doing in their lives. Each of us needs to examine ourselves and the way we treat people as ask the Holy Spirit to point out where we might be doing this.

But it’s not always other people that Satan uses to attack in this way, oftentimes it happens in our own negative and abusive self-talk. We can become our own worst enemy. We talk to ourselves all the time and Satan tries to influence those thoughts so that there is a lot of jeering, despising, and false accusations going on.

You’ll never amount to anything.
I’m such a screw up.
God will never love me.
You’ll never break free from that sin.
I’m never going to get out of this situation.

So many accusations; so much self-loathing. We can be very abusive to ourselves, discouraging and defeating. We convince ourselves of how bad we are and give up without trying. We don’t realize that the way we’re thinking about ourselves is a lie. Satan is feeding us lies that go against the good news of the gospel and we buy into it. It’s a very common tactic and we need to be aware of it. Revelation 12:10 says that Satan is “the accuser of our brothers.” John 8:44 says he “does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Zechariah 3:1 says that Satan was standing at the right hand of the high priest to accuse him. Lies, accusations, condemnation, and discouragement – these are all things that Satan uses to attack. If he can keep us wallowing in shame and defeat, he can disrupt the process of restoration.

So these kinds of attacks can come from ourselves or from other people and we need to be aware of them. We need to begin seeing them and understanding the spiritual battle. We need to pray that the Holy Spirit makes us aware of when it is happening and when he does we need to learn how to fight back.

And that’s the last parallel I want us to see in these verses today… I love the way Nehemiah responded to the attacks of Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. He didn’t shrink back in discouragement and defeat. He stood strong and confronted them with the truth. He says in Nehemiah 2:20: “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.” Nehemiah knew that God was for them. He made a covenant with them and would always be faithful. And as a part of that covenant, he promised to bring restoration. God wanted it even more than they did. He would give them the strength to rebuild. He would empower them to succeed. And because God was for them and in covenant with them, their enemies had no claim over them. They had no authority in that situation or ability to destroy the good work.

Brothers and sisters, the same thing is true in our lives! We are not helpless against the attacks of Satan. We have the Spirit of God in us and the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in our lives. That power can demolish the strongholds of Satan. We need to remember the truth that God is for us. I love what Paul says in Romans 8:31-39: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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.”

Through faith in Christ we are united with him and have entered a covenant with him. We know that “He who began a good work in us will carry it to completion” (Php. 1:6). We are one with Christ and all authority has been given to him. Therefore, the enemy has no claim over our lives. Christ has already won the victory. He triumphed over the spiritual forces of darkness when he died and rose again. He has put them to open shame. We are a new creation in Christ – the old has gone and the new has come. The old self is dead and defeated and Jesus is making us new! We have a hope and a future and it is eternally secure. We will overcome by the word of his power and the blood of the Lamb. And there is nothing Satan can do to defeat us.

These are the glorious Truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when we face the jeering and despising and false accusations of Satan, whether that’s coming from abusive people in our lives or welling up in our own minds, we need to begin to declare these truths, just like Nehemiah did. When we realize we’re under attack, we don’t just leave things the way they are. We learn to change our behavior – to fight the battle and stand firm in Truth. We renounce our pattern of destructive thinking and behavior and begin declaring the truth. It is in Christ that we stand and overcome the attacks of the enemy.

So I encourage you today to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you when you’re under attack, when you’re spiraling down in discouragement and defeat and giving in to the lies, ridicule, false accusations and shame. And to empower you in those times to stand firm in Christ, declare the truth, and overcome the enemy. Next Sunday we are going to talk about the need to join together in this battle together and I encourage you to seek out a close Christian friend to fight the battle with you – someone who will listen, encourage you, and pray with you and for you.