The Dedicated and the Devious

Colin continues in His series in Nehemiah.

Introduction: Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem just would not give up! They’d already tried to intimidate Nehemiah and the workers in chapters 2 and 4 but they’d underestimated the determination of Nehemiah. Despite the work being almost finished, they still sought to destroy – not the walls but Nehemiah himself! In this chapter we discover four distinct plots:

Intrigue – the plot to kidnap him (6:1-4)

Innuendo – the plot to malign him (6:5-9)

Intimidation – along came a priest (6:10-14)

Infiltration – the plot to undermine him (6:15-19)   

We can learn much about Satan’s subtlety but also about the Lord’s sufficiency. Let us, like Nehemiah, be on our guard against Satan’s devices: Intrigue, Innuendo, Intimidation and Infiltration, and trust in the Lord’s sufficiency, committed to what God has called us to do.