Nehemiah 4:4-6

So Nehemiah prayed. That is what we would expect him to do. Perhaps he called the people together to pray. (He says ‘us’ in his prayer.)

He knew that his enemies were not just insulting the *Jews. They were insulting God himself. So he knew that God was angry.

So the *Jews did not take notice of the insults of their enemies and they continued to build. They worked as hard as they could and the wall reached half of its final height.

Today, we do not pray that our enemies will suffer. Jesus taught us to forgive our enemies (Matthew 5:44). And we should pray that they will trust Jesus. But Nehemiah was in a different situation. Previously, God had told the *Jews to oppose their enemies (Deuteronomy 7:1-2). At that time, God was using the *Jews for his purposes. These enemies had become so evil that they could not avoid a terrible punishment (Genesis 15:16). And God gave their land to the *Jews.

Nehemiah lived long after these events. And his enemies were not the same enemies that God was punishing in the past. So Nehemiah did not actually try to fight his enemies. Instead, he trusted God. Nehemiah was confident that he was doing God’s work. So Nehemiah asked God to defend his (God’s) own work. And so Nehemiah asked God to oppose these enemies.

v7 But Sanballat, Tobiah, the *Arabs and the people from Ammon and Ashdod heard about our work. They heard that we were continuing to repair the walls of Jerusalem. They also heard that we were mending the gaps in the walls. So they were very angry. v8 They all plotted together to come and to fight against Jerusalem. They wanted to cause confusion in the city. v9 But we prayed to our God. We also placed guards round the city every day and every night in case our enemies came.