Nehemiah 6:9 For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.” Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
Have you ever had a difficult relationship? Of course you have. What about one where it just seems the person is out to get you? You begin to question why things are as they are. “Is it me? Or are they just a terrible person?” Those are good questions to ask and sometimes they help begin the process of healing. But sometimes there seem to be no answers.
Nehemiah had grown up in Babylon but he had a real desire (from the Lord) to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. (The Jews had been conquered and carried away 70 years prior.) Nehemiah got the approval from the king and soon was on site and the work begun. But there was a problem: Sanballat and Tobiah. They were dead set against the project and began to make Nehemiah’s life as miserable as they could. They plotted, insulted, belittled, threatened, and just did their best to make Nehemiah’s life miserable. They attempted to get the king on their side with false accusations.
Nehemiah did his best to ignore them. He had very few interchanges with them. But he did talk about it. He talked to God about it. Nehemiah prayed that God would take care of the situation. He did pray that God would take care of them directly, but Nehemiah did not have the advantage we have of being able to consult the New Testament. There, we will find in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians these words on the subject.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
A lot of times in the life of the follower of God, the problem isn’t “you” or “me” but “them.” There are unseen forces in the world. The Bible calls them demons. But they don’t work against you because of you personally. They hate God and anything or anyone assoc-iated with God. I’m not suggesting that you know someone that is demon-possessed! It’s just that these evil ones exert influence in subtle ways to bring confusion and discord.
I realize a lot of people don’t really believe in demons, but Jesus did and Paul did! If we could learn to take all of our problems to God, we would need to spend less time figuring out who’s at fault. Not only that, but God is the One who can really deal with the issues anyway! He can help us find a way when there seems to be no way!
Blessings
Pastor Russ
