Pastor W.J. Seaton

“Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;) that Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief. And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you? Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.”

The above words are found in the Book of Nehemiah, chapter six, and they contain, what is probably the best-known statement that Nehemiah the Lord’s servant ever uttered, viz – “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.” The statement has been often used, and rightly so, to express a determination on the part of the Lord’s people to be about the Lord’s business. But the total setting of the statement ought to be appreciated, and the application of it implemented in our lives where appropriate. Nehemiah chapter six sits in the context of a whole series of plots and devices on the part of the enemies of the Children of Israel, to put them off the work of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem with all her defences once more. Sanballat and co. have used ridicule, derision, and scorn in an effort to sow misgivings and doubts in the minds of the people engaged in that work. They have also used open force, and confrontation, and threats. Each of these “devices” of the previous chapters has had some measure of success for Israel’s enemies, but for all that, the work has managed to proceed and come very near a point of conclusion. In the light of this, Sanballat and the others begin to resort to some other tactics as well; and in the above words, the first of these tactics is brought before us, with Nehemiah’s response to that tactic in that famous statement of his. What is the tactic? What is the reasoning behind the statement? The tactic is a very simple one: Sanballat and co. aim to lure Nehemiah away from the work on Jerusalem’s defences in order to delay that work, and impede that work on hand. When they suggest a meeting for dialogue “in some one of the villages of the plains of Ono,” we are to bear in mind that such a journey, with the meeting included, would have occupied about a week of Nehemiah’s precious time. If Sanballat and the other “adversaries” of Israel hadn’t been able to completely halt the work up to this point, at least they could now maybe hinder it for a given period of time, and that would always be something.

Now, it’s that device behind the tactic that the shrewd eye of Nehemiah sees; “I am doing a great work,” he tells them in the message he sends back, “so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” It was the delay of the work that was intended in the invitation to “enter into dialogue” regarding the things of Jerusalem in that day; Nehemiah saw that, and so issued his reply in the well-known statement that he uttered.

The application of that should not be missed. We live in the days of “dialogue,” and of great discussion concerning the things of our Jerusalem – the Church of Jesus Christ. Much of this is carried on with those who are nothing other than the “adversaries” of the church and the gospel, rightly understood. Not a few of the “good brethren” who enter into such discussion would assure us that they would never “give way” in the issues of the church, or the gospel. That is not the point: in the light of Nehemiah’s action, they have already given way in the dissipation of precious “working hours” that are meant to be devoted to the strengthening of Jerusalem’s bulwarks. You see, Nehemiah had long-since settled Sanballat and Tobiah’s position. As soon as Nehemiah had appeared on the scene to build the walls of Jerusalem, he made the position of those two men quite apparent; ch 2:20 – “but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.” Like the leadership of Ezra’s day, “Ye have nothing to do with us, to build an house unto our God.” Nehemiah knew their position, therefore, there was nothing to talk about; and any such time of talking would be a waste of precious time in the “great work” that the Lord had called him to. “They thought to do me mischief,” says Nehemiah in the course of those verses. And we may rest assured that the devil is always up to mischief when it comes to the work of the Lord that has been given into our hands to do; and it serves his purpose well enough to send us off on wild goose chases with those who have “no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem.” The value of the ploy in Sanballat’s estimation, had it worked, is evidenced in the fact that they sent “four times after this sort;” Those involved in endless ecumenical dialogue and so forth, take note; and may the Lord grant Nehemiah’s spirit to us all, as, four times over, he tells us, “I answered them after the same manner.” Very simply, he said, No, to the invitation. There was nothing to discuss, therefore there was no point in wasting time in discussion, when that time was precious for Jerusalem’s good. It is interesting to note Nehemiah’s description of that work on the walls of Jerusalem, which is part and parcel of that famous statement. “I am doing a great work,” he says, “a great work.”

No doubt there were many who would have looked on the work of Jerusalem of those days and considered it a very small work, or a very insignificant work, that the Lord’s servants were engaged in. That only sets before us a very vital fact of the Word of God, viz, that those things are “great” that are counted so in God’s sight, not in man’s sight. Even at the best of times, the city of Jerusalem, as far as size, and outward splendour, and magnificence were concerned, didn’t rank with some of the other cities of her day. She was no Babylon such as Nebuchadnezzar had built, with its hanging gardens, as one of the seven wonders of the world. And at that present time, she was most-assuredly in a bedraggled state, when all was said and done. But she was God’s city now being refurbished once again; and if that wasn’t a “great work,” then nothing was.

My friends, never let us be intimidated by the estimations of men. If God has called us to the work of the Church of the Word of God, then that is a “great work.” It has never appeared great in the eyes of men anyway; “we are counted as the offscouring of the earth,” says Paul. If it is the Lord’s church, however, as revealed in the Lord’s Word, then to be engaged in the work of it is to be engaged in a great work. The more we are convinced of that the better.

From The Wicket Gate Magazine, published in the UK, used with permission.