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THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS
and God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work. (16) And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half o f my servants w rought in the work, and the other half o f them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, arid the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. (17) They which builded on the wall and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one w ith one of his hands w rought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. (18) For the build ers, every oire had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me. termined to put a stop to it. Had they sent a courier to the king they would have been apprised of his approval, but this they did not do, and took the mat ter into their own hands. But Nehe miah had a source of help always near and made his appeal to Him, “We made our appeal unto God,”— the never-fail ing source and supply for every need (Psa. 50:15) “Gall upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” not only for those days, but for these (Phil. 4:19) “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.*” The enemy was united and strong, and conspired secretly. Their plan was for a sudden attack when the workers were unprepared. It was a gangsters’ proposition— old as Satan and still in vogue. The enemies of God’s work are doing the same thing today. They have a secret understanding. They all read the same books and quote the same ob jections to the Scriptures. Not a thing that is new. Satan’s old game is clothed in new garb of verbiage, but is still the same, “ Yea, hath God said?” of Genesis. Nehemiah did something else besides praying. He prepared for an attack and set a watch against them. “Watch and pray” is a good slogan for . every age and for every believer (1 Pet. 5:8)
them, and cause the w ork to cease. (12) And it came to pass, that, when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places, whence ye shall return unto us they w ill be upon you. (13) Therefore set I in the low er places behind the wall, and on the higher places, X even set the people after their fam ilies with their swords, their spears, and their bows. (14) And I looked, and rose up and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which Is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, a n d , your daughters, your wives, and your houses. (15) And It came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, Outline: (1) Opposition from Without, vs. 7-9. (2) Overcoming Difficulties Within, vs. 10-13. (3) Operating by Co-operation, vs. 14-18. Introduction: Following the prayer of Nehemiah (Ch. 1) Artaxerxes, the king, gave Ne- hemiah permission to go to the assist ance of his brethren in Jerusalem, and gave to him letters to LESSON the governor, together EXPOSITION w i t h captains and T. O. Horton horsemen for his pro tection (2:9>. So God not only answered prayer, tut abundant ly supplied the need and set His seal to the king’s appreciation of his cup bearer. We should take courage and in the midst of difficulties and problems seemingly impossible of solving, or service impossible of rendering, we should lay hold of God as did Nehemiah. (1) OPPOSITION FROM WITHOUT, vs. 7-9. “ Then they were very wroth.” Sanballat and his friends were filled with surprise ■tfhen they heard that the work of repairing the walls was really under way. How could this feeble com pany of Jews undertake so great a work which would require so long a time? But the work was going on and they de-
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