For Nehemiah knew from where his blessings flowed. He would not use his office to expect special favors from man or God – especially not from God. Nehemiah, though, being a man whose heart truly belonged to his God, was not inclined toward this kind of pride. It was an appeal to Nehemiah’s pride of office and was an invitation for Nehemiah to sin against God. This was the innermost part of the sanctuary where only priests were allowed to go. On the surface, this seems like a nice offer, but according to Keil and Delitzsch (e-sword), Nehemiah’s friend was offering to bring him into the Holy of Holies. His intimate friend then suggests they go together to the temple and lock themselves in for safety. Nehemiah goes to his friend’s home where he is told his enemies are coming to kill him. Nehemiah has been showing us what this looks like and he is about to do it again. We must move from religion to personal experience and relationship with Him. We must know Him for ourselves, not by what we have been taught. We each must come to our own real and personal relationship with Jesus.
We cannot carry our parents’ faith and our children cannot carry ours. It also shows us that though he comes from a line of priests and assuming they were faithful followers does not mean he automatically becomes faithful, too. If the prophet’s life reveals the fruit of Christ and his or her words prove true then we can agree they are at least prophetic if not of the office of prophet. We should always judge by fruit and not by words. Their correct words will advertise for them. Most often prophets do not have to advertise themselves. Though he claimed to be a prophet, it did not mean that he was a prophet. For this is the only way to grow in our ability to discern truth from lies and sense when the Holy Spirit is telling us things are not as they seem.Īnother point to recognize is though this man was called “Heard by God” does not mean he was hearing God. We must be daily in His word and experiencing an ongoing surrendered relationship with Him.
This is why it is so very important to remain in Jesus and He in us (John 15:4).
NEHEMIAH PRAYER AGAINST ENEMIES SKIN
Who better to get under our skin than someone we trust and hold dear? We should also note if he can manipulate those we love to work on his behalf against us, he also has the potential to manipulate us to do the same. This is important to recognize that our enemy will try to use those closest to us to do us harm or instill fear. Nehemiah’s close and trusted friend was turned against him for an undisclosed sum of money. Further, his father’s name was Delaiah and meant “Jehovah has drawn” and his grandfather was Mehetabeel which meant “Favored of God”.įirst, according to the information above and in light of the tactics of the enemy, we see the attack moved from a personal public attack to a private and intimate attack. Shemaiah was a Levite, son of a priest, an intimate and confidential friend of Nehemiah, and claimed to be a prophet, but was secretly bribed (Jamieson, Faucet, and Brown, e-sword). He was a Merarite Levite (Brown, Driver, Briggs, e-sword). This is where we meet Nehemiah’s friend, Shemaiah. There was one more tactic they would use and though the walls were built except for the doors and gates they were not going to let up until all access was cut off. He prayed and continued the work, but his enemy was tenacious. He withstood their public attacks on his character knowing their lies had no merit. Nehemiah overcame his enemies’ attempt to draw him away from his work.
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