Commentary - Nehemiah 4:7-9

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent section of Nehemiah, we see the unholy alliance of God's enemies boiling over into a rage as the work of rebuilding progresses. The success of God's people in closing the gaps in Jerusalem's walls is a direct affront to the powers of darkness and their human agents. Sanballat, Tobiah, and their motley crew of Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites represent the standard worldly opposition that always arises when the kingdom of God advances. Their response is predictable: anger, conspiracy, and the threat of violence. But Nehemiah's response is the model for all faithful saints. It is a one-two punch of rugged, dependent piety. They prayed to their God, and they set a guard. This is not "pray and do nothing," nor is it "work as if it all depends on you." It is the perfect fusion of absolute reliance on God's sovereignty and the diligent exercise of human responsibility. Prayer is the foundation, but it is a foundation that demands and empowers action. This passage is a master class in how to face opposition: look up to God in prayer, and then pick up your trowel and your sword.

The central theme here is the nature of faithful work in a fallen world. Any time God's people set their hands to a great work for His glory, whether it is building walls, planting churches, or raising godly families, they must expect opposition. The world, the flesh, and the devil do not sit idly by. The anger of the enemies is a sign that the work is succeeding. Nehemiah teaches us that the proper reaction to such threats is not fear or retreat, but a doubling down on both our spiritual and practical defenses. We are to be a people who pray about everything and who are simultaneously ready for a fight. The trowel in one hand and the sword in the other is the enduring symbol of the church militant.

Outline

Context In Nehemiah

This passage comes after the initial mockery of the enemies has failed. In the beginning of chapter 4, Sanballat and Tobiah tried to stop the work with ridicule and scorn, suggesting the wall was so weak a fox could knock it over (Neh 4:1-3). But Nehemiah prayed a fiery imprecatory prayer, and the people kept working, "for the people had a mind to work" (Neh 4:6). The wall reached half its height, and the breaches were being closed. It is precisely this success that escalates the conflict from verbal taunts to a credible military threat. The enemy sees that words are not working, so they prepare to use swords. This section, therefore, marks a significant turning point in the nature of the opposition. It sets the stage for the rest of the chapter, where Nehemiah arms the builders and organizes them into a militia, ready to build and fight simultaneously. The threat of violence forces the people of God to embody the reality of the church militant.

Key Issues

Pray and Pass the Ammunition

There is a false piety that is all wings and no feet. It is the kind of spirituality that says, "I'll just pray about it," and then sits back and waits for a miracle, as though God were a cosmic vending machine. Then there is a worldly pragmatism that is all feet and no wings. It rolls up its sleeves and gets to work, trusting in its own ingenuity and strength, treating prayer as a nice but ultimately unnecessary preliminary. Nehemiah will have none of either. His approach is thoroughly biblical and robustly Reformed. He knows that without the Lord, they labor in vain who build the city (Ps 127:1). He also knows that God ordains the means as well as the ends. God's sovereignty does not negate human responsibility; it establishes it.

So what does Nehemiah do when a multinational coalition conspires to attack? "We prayed to our God, and...we stood a guard." This is the perfect synthesis. The prayer acknowledges that the battle is the Lord's. The guard acknowledges that the Lord commands His soldiers to fight. This is not a contradiction; it is a covenantal partnership. Prayer is the declaration of dependence that sanctifies the work of our hands. Setting a guard is the act of faithfulness that flows from a genuine trust in God. It is the Old Testament equivalent of "watch and pray." The enemies of God are real, their threats are real, and so our prayers must be real and our preparations must be real. This is the posture of the church until Christ returns: always on our knees before God, and always on the wall against His enemies.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 Now it happened that when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the places broken down began to be closed, they were very angry.

The roll call of the opposition is telling. Sanballat the Horonite (from Samaria to the north), Tobiah the Ammonite (from the east), the Arabs (led by Geshem, from the south), and the Ashdodites (Philistines from the west). Jerusalem is surrounded. This is a coalition of the ungodly, united by one thing: their hatred for the work of God. The world can be deeply divided on many things, but it often finds a strange and sudden unity when it comes to opposing the church. What provokes them? The success of the work. They heard that the repair...went on and the places broken down began to be closed. Progress in the kingdom is an offense to the world. A broken-down, disgraced Jerusalem was no threat. A rising, fortified Jerusalem was intolerable. Their reaction was not mild irritation; they were very angry. This is the impotent rage of those who see their own influence waning as God's glory advances. It is a sure sign that Nehemiah and the people were doing something right.

8 All of them joined together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it.

Their anger immediately curdles into conspiracy. All these disparate groups, historical enemies of one another in many cases, now joined together. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Their plan has two prongs. First, to fight against Jerusalem. This was a direct military threat. They were planning an armed assault to stop the work by force. Second, and perhaps more subtly, their goal was to cause a disturbance in it. The Hebrew word here means confusion, or wandering. They wanted to create chaos, to disorient the builders, to sow panic and discord within the city. This is a classic tactic of the enemy. If he cannot defeat you with a frontal assault, he will try to do it through internal confusion, fear, and turmoil. He wants to distract the builders from their work and get them fighting among themselves or simply running around in a panic.

9 But we prayed to our God, and because of them we stood a guard against them day and night.

Here is the glorious pivot. The verse begins with "But," setting the response of God's people in stark contrast to the enemy's plot. The first action is vertical: we prayed to our God. Notice the possessive pronoun, "our." This is personal, covenantal trust. He is not some distant deity; He is the God who has bound Himself to us in solemn promise. They laid the whole matter before Him. They did not panic; they prayed. But prayer was not their only response. The second action is horizontal and practical: we stood a guard against them day and night. Prayer led directly to prudence. Faith led directly to action. They did not pray and then go back to building with their heads in the sand. They prayed, and then they picked up their spears and shields. The guard was posted day and night, indicating their seriousness and vigilance. The threat was constant, so the watchfulness had to be constant. This is the balanced, muscular faith that God honors.

Application

The lesson from this short passage is profoundly relevant for Christians today. We are called to be builders. We are building our families, our churches, our communities, all as outposts of the kingdom of God. And whenever we make progress, whenever the gaps in the wall begin to close, we must expect opposition. The Sanballats and Tobiahs of our age will get very angry. They will mock us, conspire against us, and seek to bring confusion and disturbance to our work.

How are we to respond? Exactly as Nehemiah did. First, we must pray to our God. Our first instinct in the face of any threat, any opposition, any discouraging news, must be to turn to the Lord. We must cast our anxieties on Him, because He cares for us. We must remind ourselves that the work is His, the glory is His, and the power is His. Our prayer life is the measure of our true dependence on God. A prayerless Christian is a practical atheist, no matter how orthodox his creed.

But second, having prayed, we must get up off our knees and set a guard. We must be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. If we are building families, we must guard what our children watch and read. If we are building churches, we must guard the pulpit from false doctrine and the flock from wolves. If we are building Christian institutions, we must guard against worldly compromise and mission drift. We must do our homework, think strategically, anticipate attacks, and take practical steps to defend the work God has given us. To pray for protection and then leave the gates wide open is not faith; it is foolishness. True faith prays, and then, empowered by that prayer, it picks up a sword and stands watch, day and night.