And it came to pass when Sanballat, and Tobijah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left in it (though at that time I had not set up the doors in the gates),
The wall is closed; only the gates still wait for their doors. That one gap is what Nehemiah's enemies notice, and it decides how they attack next.
Sanballat heard not that the work had stalled, but that it was nearly done.
The wall had been rebuilt, but the doors had not yet been set up in the gates. In only a few days, the city would be protected against a surprise attack. Before it is too late, the enemy hurries to take advantage of this weak point. First of all, they must get rid of the leader of the people.
A wall with no gaps changed what the enemy could try next.
"No breach" was left in the wall, and so there was now no hidden way of entrance. The doors were still unhung, but these were open to view, and by these only could the enemies of God's people approach. It was time therefore to put out their final effort, and so they propose a conference, as if they too were interested in the welfare of Israel!
These three are only the latest in a line of opponents.
One group of men succeeds the other in their hatred against the work of God, some more violent, some less. But the opposition remains. The enemy who uses all these instruments has not changed. Oh, if only faith would never allow itself to be stopped by the obstacles which the agents of Satan raise up! If only we understood well that the work of God cannot be destroyed, because God remains over and above all!
The attack now changes shape, and it targets one man.
Nehemiah has faced, and triumphed over, the open opposition of the enemy; he has met too the corruptions of the flesh. Now he is called on to "stand against the wiles of the devil." The enemy comes with the appearance of friendly interest in Nehemiah and his work. By subtlety he will seek to lure him away from the simplicity of faith in God. In that way he would bring the work to nothing by causing the fall of the leader.
The change of tone calls for no change of judgment.
The first plan was a supposedly friendly interview; but the friendship of the enemy is no more to be trusted than his hostile plans are to be feared.
Stanley puts the invitation into the enemies' own words, and the place they name carries weight.
It is as if they said: do not be so narrow and exclusive. Come down from your sacred enclosure to "one of the villages in the plain of Ono." "Let us meet together." Come down, and give us your approval there. What was this plain of Ono? Nehemiah 11:35 says, "Lod and Ono, the valley of craftsmen." Leave the only centre of worship inside those walls of Jerusalem, and come down to one of the villages of "the craftsmen." They knew well that if the true worship of God was set up inside that holy enclosure, they would feel, like the tradesmen of Ephesus in a later day, that their trade was in danger.
Nehemiah weighed the invitation against the work God had given him.
It seems that Sanballat and Geshem offered a friendly meeting on neutral ground, suggesting some kind of alliance. But Nehemiah, whole-hearted as he was, refused to come down and stop the important God-given work. He would not turn aside from the place given to him by the Lord and the work which he had been called to do. Keeping this separation was his safeguard.
Did any of this hold up the work?
The reader will note that, though this chapter is given to exposing the enemy's schemes, the work of building the wall was in no way hindered. The faith and courage of Nehemiah never faltered... "So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days." "So" is a remarkable word here. It might mean "in this way," or "despite this," or "in spite of it all."
- Timing. The enemy moved when the wall was whole and the doors were still missing. Pressure comes hardest when the work is nearly finished.
- Constancy. The names change through Ezra and Nehemiah. The hostility behind them does not, and God still finishes His work.
- Change of weapon. Having failed at force and at internal trouble, the enemy switches to friendly interest, aiming at the leader rather than the wall.
- Distrust. The enemy's friendship deserves no more trust than his threats deserve fear. The invitation to Ono was a call to leave the place God had given.
- Result. The schemes fill the chapter, but the wall still went up in fifty-two days — the "so" of verse 15 reads as "in spite of all this."
that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.
The wall is finished and the gaps are closed. Now the enemies who once threatened violence turn polite: they invite Nehemiah to a friendly meeting on neutral ground, and he must judge what lies behind it.
Sanballat and Geshem had fought the rebuilding in the open. Here their approach changes:
Nehemiah has faced the open opposition of the enemy, and won. He has also met the corruptions of the flesh. Now he is called to "stand against the wiles of the devil." The enemy pretends to take a friendly interest in Nehemiah and his work. By this subtlety he will try to draw him away from simple faith in God, and so bring the work to nothing by causing the fall of the leader in the work.
The change of tone is no reason to relax:
The first plan was a friendly-looking meeting. But the enemy's friendship deserves no more trust than his hostile plans deserve fear.
The enemy picked his moment:
The wall had been rebuilt, but the doors were not yet set up in the gates. In a few more days the city would be safe from a surprise attack. So the enemy hurries to use this weak point before it is too late. First of all, the enemy must get rid of the leader of the people.
The unhung doors also explain why the enemy proposed a meeting instead of an ambush:
"No gap" was left in the wall, so there was now no hidden way in. The doors were still unhung, but anyone could see them, and the enemies of God's people could only come that way. So it was time for their final effort. They propose a conference, as if they too cared about the welfare of Israel!
The meeting place mattered. Ono lay outside Jerusalem, and the invitation asked Nehemiah to come down to it:
It is as if they said: Do not be so narrow and exclusive. Come down from your sacred enclosure to "one of the villages in the plain of Ono." Come down, and approve us there. And what was this plain of Ono? Turn to Nehemiah 11:35, "Lod and Ono, the valley of craftsmen." Leave the only centre of worship inside those walls of Jerusalem, and come down to one of the villages of "the craftsmen." They knew well what would happen if the true worship of God was set up inside that holy enclosure. They would feel as the Ephesians did later: their trade was in danger. "Sirs," said the men of Ephesus, "you know that from this business we have our wealth." (Acts 19:23-41.)
More than Nehemiah's safety hung on staying inside the city:
You see, it was not merely some ordinary invitation. The glory of God was bound up with it. God had given the remnant a city, the city where His eyes were. While they were not in that place, while it lay a mere heap of ruins, it was plain that it might be an object of pity; but there was no witness for the Lord there.
Nehemiah saw the intention behind the invitation at once. What let him see it was not cleverness:
But the servant of the Lord who walks in His presence, and pursues the path of His will with set purpose, is never deceived by Satan's tricks... He knew that darkness could have no communion with light. He knew that Satan could take no pleasure in the progress of the Lord's work, and that hating his Master, he must hate His servant too.
The real pressure in this invitation was to stop being separate:
If he cannot succeed by attacking the captives from outside, and if the trouble inside is settled, he will now try to make the remnant less exclusive... Here is the cry for union: "Why are you so exclusive? Can you not join with us in the work of the Lord?" ... God in His grace has called us out from the evil that has come into His Church. There is a distance between the ground we now stand on and the ground we came out from. We must be careful not to make that distance look smaller to others, and not to lose the sense of it in our own souls.
The offer looks reasonable, and that is the difficulty:
But when the truth of God or the work of God is in question, there is no room for compromise. The servant of God today may not fear physical harm. Yet he knows that what is of God is not open to human arrangement, however reasonable such a compromise may look.
- Timing. The gaps were closed, but the doors were not yet hung. The enemy moved while that last weak point lasted.
- Tone. Open attack gave way to friendly interest. The enemy's friendship deserves no more trust than his threats deserve fear.
- Ground. "Come down" meant leaving Jerusalem, the one place where the worship of God stood as a witness. Ono was neutral ground.
- Discernment. Nehemiah saw through the offer because he walked in God's presence with a fixed purpose, not because he was cleverer than his enemies.
- Refusal. A reasonable-sounding compromise is still a compromise. What is of God is not open to human negotiation.