Nehemiah: Responding to Insults
Pastor Fletcher preaches from Nehemiah 4:1-23 about Nehemiah’s response to Jerusalem’s opponents. Discussion points: Nehemiah responds to insults and threats by first going to God with a prayer for justice, our prayer for justice is centered on asking God to save and restore our enemies, we trust in God and persevere through opposition.
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Scripture reader: [Nehemiah 4:1-23] Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews, 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 the burned ones at that?" Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, "Yes, what are they building? If a fox goes up on it, he will break it down their stone wall."
Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. Do not cover their guilt and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.
So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the wall of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry, and they all plotted together to come up and fight against Jerusalem and cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as protection against them day and night.
In Judah, it was said, "The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves, we will not be able to rebuild the wall." And our enemies said, "They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work." At that time, the Jews who lived near them came to them from all directions and said to us ten times, "You must return to us." So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall in open places, I stationed the people by their clans with their swords, their spears, and their bows, and I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes."
When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plans, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, the shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building who were building the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and each held his weapon with the other, and each of the builders had his sword strapped to his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me, and I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, "The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us."
So we labored at the work. Half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, "Let every man and his servants pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day." So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes. Each kept his weapon at his right hand.
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: Good morning. My name is Fletcher. I'm the lead pastor here at the church. Good to, good to have you and be able to bring God's word this morning. How do you respond when you are ridiculed, reviled, threatened, or criticized? I think that that's the question at the heart of this passage. Is how do we respond when we have enemies, when we have people that don't want our best interest and don't have those things in mind. So when someone criticizes you, when someone treats you unfairly, when someone undermines you, when some kid is mean to you at school, or even worse, when some kid is mean to your kid at school. Watch out, kids.
When someone makes you feel weak or foolish, that's, that's really what this passage is about. When you get down to the heart of it, is that Nehemiah is responding to what God has called him to do. We're in the middle of a series on Nehemiah, we're in chapter 4 this week, and he's been called by God to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. This is after the time of of exile. He's leading people back to exile. It's just 500 something years before the time of Jesus. And so it's one of the very last parts of the Old Testament as we're getting prepared for the Messiah to come back.
And as he is returning and bringing the people to build the wall, he has enemies. And they start shouting at him, and mocking, and jeering, and threatening. And it's a scary moment for all those who have returned just fearing that their work would be in vain, that their return would be in vain. How do we learn from Nehemiah? How does Nehemiah respond and what can we learn from it? As he's treated unfairly, criticized, and threatened.
Let's just walk through the passage a little bit so that you can be reminded. Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 1. Now when Sanballat heard that they were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. I just think that that is such a cartoon character way to describe him, honestly, he jeered at the Jews, he's angry and greatly enraged. Like it wasn't enough just to say he's angry. Like the man's ears are turning red and the little smoke piles are coming out of his ears. When I think about Sanballat, I, and because he always has his friend Tobiah with him also. Sanballat is like Harry from Home Alone, OK. Sam, Sanballat, he and, and Tobiah, they are like Harry and Marv, they go hand in hand. They're out to get that kid, we're gonna get him, and they're like scheming and conniving. Trying to find their way to take down the good guys. They're very obvious bad guys. It's also Horace and Jasper from 101 Dalmatians, if you prefer old Disney, same thing. It's the same. These guys are the prototypes for that.
So here's Sanballat. I imagine him being the brains of the operation like Harry, and he's shorter, he's balding. He has a New York accent, I'm gonna try my best, OK? And, and he said in the presence of his brothers in 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 heaps of rubbish and burned ones at that? He's just, he's just mocking, he's just a hater, OK? The ESV calls these the opponents. I think that the more 2026 version of that is the trolls, OK? These are just trolls out.
Tobiah, the perennial sidekick, he's the Marv character, he steps up, he adds his two cents, verse 3, Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and he said, yeah, Harry! What they are, what are they building? If a fox goes up on the, on it, he'll break down their stone wall. Good one, Tobiah. But behind all these insults, I think that what we find is, is a lot of different biblical principles, but one biblical principle is simply this, that when God's people are obedient to God's calling and try to do things for God's purposes, they face opposition. The trolls come out. They face opposition.
And Nehemiah, with the way that he responds, he really teaches us how to respond in so many different good ways. And for the rest of the sermon, we're just gonna look at Nehemiah's response and really the way that I like to think about this is it's a four-step response to responding to criticism. I hope that you can use it in your own life, but I think that if we look at Nehemiah, he has a four-step response to responding to the trolls, responding to the critics, responding to injustice, to threats, and there's these four steps, they actually are an acrostic for the word pear, P E A R. Pears have nothing to do with this sermon. It just made a word, and I felt like I needed to tell you that.
Number 1: Pray, cry out for justice. That's the first thing we see Nehemiah do. If you have the, the passage open, what you'll find is that there's this quote, and then without even a new paragraph, it goes into Nehemiah's prayer. It's just that, it's so fast he couldn't even start a new paragraph. It's like boom, we're praying, and he says this, here, oh our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where their captives. Do not cover their guilt and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.
Now, there's something kind of weird about Nehemiah's prayer. And it's this, that he's specifically praying, God, don't forgive them. God, get them. That's the, that's the full context of his prayers. He's like, God, give them what they deserve. Imagine you're in community group at 7:50 p.m. We're in a prayer circle. And Bob, who's new, he, he volunteers to pray, and he starts his prayer. Oh gracious God. Destroy my enemies. Not gently but forcefully, bash their heads against the ground, make their blood drip. Do not forgive them, do not cover their guilt, they deserve to die. Wow, Bob The surefire way to get a phone call from your community group leader afterwards. It's pretty counter to how Jesus taught us to love our enemy.
And this prayer, it's actually a whole category of prayer found in the new in the Old Testament and maybe sometimes in the new, but it's what we call imprecatory prayers, OK? And you might be familiar, if you've read the Psalms, you've come across a few imprecatory prayers. And usually what we do when we get to the imprecatory prayers, imprecatory, to invoke evil, to call down a curse or to wish misfortune upon someone. Usually what we do when we get to imprecatory prayer is we skip it because we don't know what to do with it, right?
And let me just clearly say that if you're reading the Bible year over year, sometimes it's OK to skip something if you don't understand it. I've read the Bible like well over a dozen times. I'm still getting the passages and being like. I think I probably should figure out what this one's talking about. It's like the 15th time I've read it now, and I still don't know what it means, like the whole book of Ezekiel, basically, you know, I need to just do a big thorough study of the book of Ezekiel because that one I read, I'm like, that's weird. And I just keep going. I roughly know what's happening in Ezekiel, OK, I'm not, I went to seminary.
But the reality is that you can get answers when you get to these tough passages, if you don't know what to do with them. There are lots of resources. I would love to point you to resources, believe it or not, this is my full-time job. I love answering questions about the Bible, even hard ones, and you know, if you email me and I don't know the answer to it, I'll just forward it to Alexis. And, and she'll figure it out for you.
So what we can learn from imprecatory prayers is this, we can learn a few things. First, God cares about justice, and he is just. God cares about justice and he is just. Nehemiah is praying an honest prayer. That's another thing we can learn, that you can pray honestly to to God when you feel like you've been slighted. We can all resonate with Nehemiah. He sees injustice and he hates it. And he wants God to get justice upon those who are unjust.
I don't know if there's any better feeling in the world than when you're riding on I-93 and you see someone being a complete idiot, zooming through all the lanes to see those blue lights turn on. It's just the best feeling cause it's like justice, like you were about to kill someone and like I'm so glad that you were getting a ticket and hopefully a night in jail or something, like you were being crazy. In our passage, Sanballat and Tobiah are threatening to harm Israel. They're threatening to do a terrible thing. They have armies with them, and they're threatening to invade, to turn back all the work that they've been doing. They're threatening to attack. It's natural to pray for justice.
And so the first thing we should do when we experience injustice or mockery or criticism or attacks or persecution is just what Nehemiah does, run to God in prayer.
The second step is this, entrust your enemies to God. Entrust your enemies to God. Notice that Nehemiah, he's praying for God to get justice. He's not going out as a masked vigilante to dole out what he thinks is right. The next chapter is not Nehemiah putting on his leather suit and going out there to secretly kill Tobiah and, and Sanballat. No, he, he's entrusting God to do the right thing. We're reminded of Romans 12:19. Where it says, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.
And so Nehemiah, he's really threatened by these guys. He has his own army. And he might pray to God and he says turn back their taunt on their own heads and and to give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives, do to them what they want to do to us. But He doesn't act upon it. He entrusts it to God. He says, God, do the right thing. I entrust you that you will do the right thing. I know you are sovereign over everything, and so I trust you, therefore, these guys are evil. Would you do the right thing? It's a great principle. You can pray for justice, but leave it to God to get the justice.
Sometimes God uses governing officials to get the justice like those blue lights that might turn on. Sometimes God uses natural consequences to get injustice. An entire record setting American television show named America's Funniest Videos has showed us that God will oftentimes use natural consequences to help people to learn about stupid choices. But let God do it. You cannot assume to understand justice so thoroughly to where you alone can decide what is right and how to punish it. Nehemiah's prayer is a prayer for justice according to the revelation available to him at the time.
But now, one thing that we can actually learn from this passage is to see where this passage is pointing us. And so the third step in responding to the trolls is just this, allow the gospel to reshape your idea of justice. Nehemiah's prayer for justice really points us forward to the ultimate moment of justice when Christ is crucified. Jesus was the recipient of terrible injustice and mockery and criticism. He was rejected in his own hometown. He was rejected by the religious leaders of the day. He was betrayed by one of his closest followers and friends. He was abandoned in his time of highest need and framed for a crime he didn't commit. And as Jesus was being prepared to hang upon the cross, what did he say? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they're doing.
On the cross, what actually occurred in that moment is that Jesus took on the full wrath of God reserved for sinners, reserved for those who perpetuate injustice. He bore the sins of all those who would call upon his name. Now, Nehemiah knows that God is just. He knows that God will always respond to injustice with justice. But what Nehemiah doesn't know that we do know is that God has made a way for him to respond with full justice at all times, but to also be merciful. At the cross, where he sent his own son to bear the punishment for all those who would call upon him. So that they might receive forgiveness and grace. He doesn't have to choose between justice and mercy. He accomplishes both at the cross.
And so when we're wronged, we should cry out for justice, but because we know what Jesus has accomplished on the cross, we should allow the gospel to reshape our ideas of justice. As Christians I hope that this is your heart, and I hope that you can get to this place, and I know that you might have to go through steps 1 and 2 first before you get there. This, there's a reason why this is step 3. You don't skip to step 3. You pray for justice, you trust God that he will get justice, and then you go to 3 and you remind yourself that he has gotten justice. And that your deepest desire is for our enemies to actually repent of their sin and to follow Christ. Because as they do, God will give them a new heart and our enemy will become our brother or sister.
Isn't it a beautiful thing that God is able to do that? And it's as if we're saying, God, deal with their sin, but save them. When one of our brothers or sisters sins against us, therefore, we have all the more resources to forgive and to reconcile with the brother and sister who's sinned against us, because we know that if they trust in Christ, their sins have been paid for already. We don't have to dole out vengeance once again or to punish them with our emotional distance. We can forgive because the way that he has forgiven us.
My primary seminary teacher was a man named by the name of Doctor Russell Moore. Doctor Moore is now the editor in chief of Christianity Today. He had a stint, working in, what do you call it when you are trying to influence govern governance and lobby, yeah, he worked in like a religious lobby for a little while,=. And back in 2016, something really surprising happened. I took like five classes with this guy. So I, I like don't know him well, but I know him. If I see him, we'd speak to one another, right? And in 2016, something really crazy happened. Then candidate for the United States presidency started tweeting at my primary seminary professor. And,, he, you know, he started to attack my primary seminary teacher on Twitter, which was really a surreal moment. And regardless of how you feel about Donald Trump, hopefully you don't agree with him just like attacking seminary professors online.
But this was, this, this was a man that I've known personally who's been a huge influence in my life, in my ministry, and he's being insulted by the future president of the United States, and what it came down to was like, Doctor Moore disagreed with some of his immigration policies, and he had written about that in The New York Times. And Trump's tweet read as follows, Russell Moore is truly a terrible representative of evangelicals and all of the good that they stand for. A nasty guy with no heart. He went after him. And Russell Moore the next morning was invited to news programs to respond, and he could have easily defended himself or doubled down or critiqued the future president further.
But instead, this is what he said, Mr. Trump and I can agree on this. I am a nasty guy with no heart, which is why I need forgiveness of sins and redemption through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Just the best Jesus Duke that I've ever seen in my entire life. It's so good. He said, we sing worse things about ourselves in our hymns on Sunday mornings. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. You really can't respond better than that. Where he's able to say. Look, everything that you're saying about me has some validity. I actually deserve the judgment of God too. But because I know Jesus, my sins have been paid for, and I go free. And so your insults, they can't hurt me because I know Jesus.
So in this story, let me ask you this, who do you resonate with the most? In the story about Nehemiah. Is it Nehemiah? Or maybe we can resonate with Sanballat and Tobiah a bit. Weren't we at one point enemies of the cause of Christ? Weren't we at one point against living for the causes of Christ, pursuing our own selfish advantages? Colossians chapter 1, and you who are once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds. Hostile in mind, we were enemies. Romans chapter 5. For for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. This is what changes everything for Christians. If you have been saved by Christ, you know that you are actually no better than, than those of your harshest critics or haters. When weren't you at one point, an enemy of Christ, an enemy of Christ, deserving the punishment of death. Yet Christ bore the wrath reserved for you and me, so that we might be declared righteous before God, so that we might have freedom from our sins.
This changes the way that we respond to our worst critics. Their words might still hurt, and that's OK, they should hurt. You have to go through steps one and two, you have to call out the hurt. But we have the internal resources, far beyond what Nehemiah had to actually forgive and to love our enemies. And that's what empowers us to be able to do what Matthew 5 and everybody's favorite Beatitude says, Blessed are you, when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
And so the last step in your dealing with critics is just this, number 4, remember God and persevere. I don't know where you're at right now. Maybe you are facing some real criticism in some area of your life, or maybe you have something that this could be encouraging for, but remember God and persevere. After Nehemiah completes his prayer, he goes back to the people. The people are terrified. His people are terrified. They see the armies camping outside of the city gates. They're so afraid. They know Sanballat and Tobiah and their armies could attack at any moment, but Nehemiah calls them to be courageous and to trust in God.
Verse 14. And I looked, and arose, and said to the nobles, and to the officials, and to the rest of the people, so he's giving a speech. It's got them all there. Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, Yahweh on high, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, fight for your sons, fight for your daughters, fight for your wives, and fight for your homes. He's getting people riled up and saying, God is for us, who can be against us? He commissions the people to stand guard, to build with one hand and to keep the other hand on a sword. Nehemiah is confident that God would protect them and provide for them, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be prepared for an attack.
And so he gives them instructions on what they should do if they're attacked. Verse 20, in the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there, our God will fight for us. Nehemiah is 100% convinced that God is on their side, that he's been called to this. And friends. If you were in Christ, God is on your side. Not because you were the good guy. You're not, the story's not about you so much, not because you were the good guy, but because Christ is. And in him, your sins have already been punished. There's nothing else to do else to dole out. Jesus is enough. When you're critiqued or judged or threatened, run to the cross. When your enemies are wrong, know that God gets justice. And look, friends, We can't be so bold to say that our enemies are always wrong. Sometimes they're right, and when you're fairly critiqued, run to the cross. Your sins have been paid for. You don't have to die for them again. You can remember the love of God in that moment, and you can endure, and you can persevere. Remember God and persevere.
So what do you do when you are critiqued, judged, or treated unfairly? Step one, pray. Cry out for justice with God. Step two, entrust your enemies to God. Step three, allow the gospel to reshape your idea of justice. And step four, remember God and persevere. PEAR.
I cannot think of anyone in recent history who exemplified this better than Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. Doctor King was faced with constant hate, constant oppression, yet because of his understanding of who God is and what he has done. Doctor King always preached nonviolence and love for enemy. All the way until his dying day. Doctor King said that Christian love means defeating evil without seeking to defeat the individual. Here are a couple of quotes. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system you love, but you seek to defeat the evil system. Or love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
And so friends, when you are insulted, don't pretend it doesn't hurt. But when you are wronged, cry out to God for justice. And when you want revenge and trust vengeance to God, and despite and desire their repentance rather than their destruction. And why can we live this way? What empowers us for all of this? It's the exact way that Jesus. Treated us while we were still his enemies. He loved us. Despite those things, he desired our repentance more than our destruction, and so he took on our destruction himself. And even now, he's calling us to return, to be reminded of what he's done, what he continues to do, and to receive him again, and to entrust him with all of our lives.
As we close today, I'm going to invite us for a time of confession. Where we take some of the realities of what we've learned from the scripture this morning and we give them to God. And I will, I will have some words on the screen that you can pray along, and then we'll have some underlined words that you, you speak out loud with me. And as we prepare to do that, I'm just gonna encourage you to, to seek the Lord in prayer for a moment. How can you remember what Christ has done for you? How does that change the way that you respond to the, to others? And how does that change the way that you can persevere? Would you just take a moment to pray? Pray with me. Remember the underlined portions are for you to speak.
Gracious God, we confess that when others wrong us, we often forget you. We are quick to defend ourselves, quick to return insult for insult, and quick to imagine how others should be punished. We want justice, but often we want to be the ones who deliver it. Forgive us for taking vengeance into our own hands. Forgive us for holding on to anger and refusing to forgive. Forgive us for allowing the words and actions of others to control our hearts. And when we are rightly criticized, give us humility to repent. When we are falsely accused, give us faith to entrust ourselves to you. In every circumstance teach us to remember Jesus. Lord Jesus, you were reviled, yet you did not revile in return. You were betrayed, yet you entrusted yourself to the Father. You bore the judgment we deserved so that you, so that we could be forgiven along with me. Help us to trust you with our enemies, our hurts, and our desires for justice. Teach us to love those who oppose you, to forgive us, we have been forgiven, and to persevere in doing what is good. Amen.
Hear this word of assurance from Romans chapter 5. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. In Christ, you are forgiven, you are reconciled, and you are held by God.
We're gonna prepare our hearts to receive a communion meal. Each week we participate in a sacred meal that we call communion or the Lord's supper, or Eucharist, whatever you wanna call it. And what we're remembering at this time is that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took a loaf of bread and he tore it. He said, this is my body broken for you. And he took a cup and he said, this is my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so each week when we take the sacred meal, we're being reminded that Christ's body was broken for us. That his blood was shed for us so that we might have life. He got what we deserved. If you are a believer here with us this morning, we encourage you, repent of your sins and come receive this anew, be reminded of what Christ has done for you. I'm gonna invite you to stand as we respond. And pray with me.
Great Father in heaven, who is great and awesome, you are, would you fight for us as we fight the good fight of faith? Would you help us to receive the truths of forgiveness and love, to see with humility what you have done for us so that we might in turn do the same for others. Would you help us to love enemy? Would you help us to see enemies turn to friends? Would you help us to respond, knowing that nothing can shake us? In Christ we are full, we cannot be shaken. Would you give us that power? We ask these things in Christ's name, Amen.