The Finished Work and the Unfinished War
Introduction: Victory and Vigilance
There is a certain kind of satisfaction that comes with a finished work. A built house, a mown lawn, a completed book. In our text today, we see the culmination of a monumental task. A task that was met with mockery, threats, conspiracy, and every form of satanic opposition imaginable. But despite all of it, the wall of Jerusalem was finished. And it was finished in a stunningly short amount of time, fifty-two days. This was a clear, undeniable demonstration of the hand of God. When God is with a people, when He has appointed a work, it will be accomplished. All the Tobiahs and Sanballats of the world, with all their sneering and scheming, are ultimately impotent against the Lord's anointed purposes.
But we would be gravely mistaken to think that a finished project means a finished fight. This is a lesson the modern church desperately needs to learn. We are often tempted to think that if we can just achieve some great victory, build the building, pass the legislation, win the election, that we can then relax. But the enemy never relaxes. Satan does not take vacations. And as we see in this passage, the moment the external threat of the wall-builders was overcome, a far more insidious, internal threat was revealed. The external opposition was loud and obvious; the internal compromise was quiet and cancerous. The enemies outside the gates were one thing, but the friends of the enemy inside the gates were another thing entirely.
This passage teaches us two crucial things. First, it teaches us about the profound effect that God-honoring, courageous, and faithful work has on the enemies of God. It demoralizes them. It shuts their mouths. It forces them to acknowledge, however grudgingly, that God is real and that He is with His people. Second, it teaches us that the war for faithfulness is never over. The battle shifts. The enemy changes tactics. He moves from open assault to subtle infiltration. And if we are not vigilant, the very victory we celebrate can become the occasion for our greatest compromise.
The Text
So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. Now it happened that when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, their confidence fell. And they knew that it was from our God that this work had been accomplished. Also in those days many letters went from the nobles of Judah to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. For many in Judah were sworn by oath to him because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as a wife. Moreover, they were speaking about his good deeds in my presence and bringing my words to him. Then Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.
(Nehemiah 6:15-19 LSB)
A God-Sized Accomplishment (v. 15-16)
We begin with the glorious completion of the work and its immediate impact.
"So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. Now it happened that when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, their confidence fell. And they knew that it was from our God that this work had been accomplished." (Nehemiah 6:15-16)
The statement is simple, direct, and powerful. "So the wall was finished." All the threats of Sanballat, the mockery of Tobiah, the plots to murder Nehemiah, the false prophets hired to intimidate him, all of it came to nothing. The work of God cannot be thwarted by the schemes of men. The sheer speed of the project, fifty-two days, was a miracle in itself. This wasn't a garden wall. This was a massive fortification project undertaken by a discouraged remnant, with enemies on every side. Humanly speaking, it was impossible. And that is precisely the point.
The effect on their enemies was immediate and profound. When they heard and saw it, "their confidence fell." The Hebrew here is literally that they "fell very much in their own eyes." They were humiliated. Their swagger evaporated. All their proud boasts and sneers were shown to be empty air. This is what happens when God's people refuse to be intimidated and simply get on with the work God has given them to do. Faithful, obedient, courageous work is a powerful form of spiritual warfare. It is an argument that the world cannot refute.
And notice the conclusion they were forced to draw: "they knew that it was from our God that this work had been accomplished." The pagan nations, the sworn enemies of Israel, were forced into a theological confession. They were compelled to acknowledge the hand of Yahweh. They didn't convert, mind you. They didn't repent. But they were silenced. They knew they were not fighting against a rag-tag band of Jews; they were fighting against their God. This is the great goal of our labors in the world. We are not working simply to build institutions or to create a comfortable Christian subculture. We are working so that our good works would be so undeniable, so manifestly blessed by God, that the world would be forced to see them and glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). A finished wall is a powerful apologetic.
The Rot Within (v. 17-18)
But just as the cheers from the finished wall are dying down, Nehemiah pulls back the curtain to show us the rot that was festering within the city the entire time.
"Also in those days many letters went from the nobles of Judah to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. For many in Judah were sworn by oath to him because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as a wife." (Nehemiah 6:17-18 LSB)
While Nehemiah was on the wall with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other, dodging assassination plots, the "nobles of Judah" were running a secret postal service with the enemy. Tobiah the Ammonite, the man who had mocked them, threatened them, and conspired against them, was their pen pal. This is staggering hypocrisy. These are the leaders, the men of influence, who should have been setting the example of faithfulness. Instead, they were committing treason.
And the reason for this treason is laid bare: compromise through intermarriage. Tobiah had woven himself into the fabric of the covenant community through family ties. He was the son-in-law of a prominent Jew, and his own son had married the daughter of another. This is precisely what God had forbidden for centuries (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). God had warned that such unions would turn their hearts away from Him. And here we see the rotten fruit. Their loyalties were divided. Their affections were compromised. They were "sworn by oath to him." They had a covenant with the enemy.
This is a permanent, standing warning for the church. The greatest threat to the people of God is rarely the roaring lion from without, but the smiling, friendly, well-connected compromiser from within. The world's strategy is always to blur the lines, to make us believe that we can be friends with God's enemies without being tainted. It wants to marry our sons and daughters. It wants to get on our boards. It wants to convince us that men like Tobiah are not really that bad. But friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4). You cannot be sworn by oath to both Christ and Tobiah.
The Fifth Column (v. 19)
The compromise was not passive; it was active. These nobles became a fifth column, working to undermine Nehemiah's authority from the inside.
"Moreover, they were speaking about his good deeds in my presence and bringing my words to him. Then Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid." (Nehemiah 6:19 LSB)
This is utterly shameless. They had the audacity to stand in front of Nehemiah, the man of God, and run a PR campaign for the chief enemy of God's people. "They were speaking about his good deeds in my presence." They were trying to rehabilitate Tobiah's image. "He's not such a bad fellow, Nehemiah. He's a good businessman. He's a family man. You're being too harsh, too black-and-white." This is the language of compromise in every generation. It seeks to soften the edges, to downplay evil, to call sin a mere difference of opinion.
And at the same time, they were acting as informants. They were "bringing my words to him." Every strategy session, every plan, every vulnerability was being relayed back to the enemy camp. Nehemiah was leading a people who were actively betraying him. This intelligence from the inside then fueled Tobiah's campaign of intimidation. "Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid." He knew exactly which buttons to push, what threats to make, because he had collaborators on the inside telling him everything.
This is why church discipline is not some optional, mean-spirited exercise. It is a matter of spiritual life and death. When we allow covenant-breakers to remain within the camp, when we allow those who are "sworn by oath" to the world to hold positions of influence, we are inviting the enemy to sit at our strategy table. We are giving him the ammunition he needs to intimidate and frighten the faithful. Nehemiah's external enemies lost their confidence when they saw the wall. But Tobiah's confidence was bolstered by his friends inside the city.
Conclusion: The Unending Conflict
So what is the lesson for us? The work of building is glorious, and when God blesses it, it testifies powerfully to a watching world. We should labor with all our might, with trowel and sword, to build the walls of Christ's kingdom in our families, our churches, and our communities. We should aim to complete the work in such a way that our enemies are demoralized and forced to confess that God is with us.
But we must never, ever believe that the war is over. The moment the wall is finished, the enemy will simply shift his attack. If he cannot breach the walls, he will try to corrupt the leadership. If he cannot win by intimidation, he will win by assimilation. He will use marriage, business partnerships, and the desire for social respectability to weave his way into the camp.
And he will always find willing accomplices among the "nobles," the respectable, the sophisticated, the men who think Nehemiah is a bit too zealous, a bit too divisive. They will praise the "good deeds" of the world, and they will betray the counsels of the godly. The final battle is never against the Sanballats of the world, but against the spirit of Tobiah that seeks a place of honor within the very courts of the Lord.
Therefore, we must be vigilant. We must celebrate God's victories, but we must not be naive. We must finish the work God has given us, but we must also be prepared to fight the unending war for faithfulness and purity within the camp. For the wall is not an end in itself. The wall is there to protect a holy people, a people set apart for a holy God. And that work of separation, of sanctification, is a battle that continues until the Lord returns.