Title: Strengthen My Hands/Nehemiah 6:5-9
Contents
Bible: Nehemiah 6:5-9
Title: Strengthen my hands
When the Jewish people returned to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity in Babylon, they had to do two things. One was to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, and the other was to rebuild the temple.
This text is a record of what Nehemiah, the leader of the Jewish nation at that time, experienced in the process of rebuilding the city.
Rebuilding the castle, which had been left in ruins for 70 years, was not an easy task. The neighboring countries were not complacent. They persistently prevented the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. Because it was an incident of increasing military threat.
But Nehemiah did his best to rebuild the city, at the expense of all kinds of challenges and threats.
We find several lessons in the text.
1. When will the crisis come?
Verse 1 says, "Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies, when they heard that I had built the city and left no ruins in it, but I have not yet put the doors on the gates."
The meaning of these words is that Nehemiah was unable to rebuild the city and put only the doors on the last gate in spite of the obstacles of his enemies. Then the crisis came.
Neighboring countries believed that closing the gates would leave no more opportunity for offensive action, so they had to make a final attack before closing the gates.
However, their tactic was to overthrow the Jewish nation by assassination of Nehemiah through conciliation and deception rather than an armed invasion.
If the crisis came before the door was hung, it means that the crisis came just before the big event was finished.
In the case of farming, there are no difficulties when planting or planting seeds.
However, when the crops are ripe and the rice is ripe, typhoons or heavy rains can ruin the farming. No matter how successful the farming is, the last time to bear fruit is as important as the time before the door is opened in your personal and religious life.
From the late 80s to the 90s, the world's largest corporations in the United States either closed their doors or suffered from poor management and weakened productivity. Experts point out the causes as follows. The first is pride. We It is the pride that our products are the best in the world, the second is that we are slowing down in technological development, and the third is that it is because of bureaucracy. The same is true.
The thought or attitude that I am the best, that I am the best, or that I have to do all this is temptations that make me inferior in faith. You must always win the battle with yourself. And you must stand in front of the Word every day. is.
It is said that men and women have different attitudes to listening to sermons.
A man hears with his right ear and leaks out through his left ear. However, unlike men, women listen well with the right ear and listen with the left ear as well.
The crisis of faith comes when we are arrogant. And it comes when we do not finish the big task that we must do properly.
The devil's temptations and temptations are like briquette gas, so if there is a gap, it will permeate. However, if there is no gap, it will not permeate.
The Lord taught His Beloved Disciples to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” If you lock and lock the door, temptation and temptation will not come near you.
2. How does the test come?
In verse 2, the enemies have proposed to meet in Hanchon on the Plain of Ono, wearing the mask of peace negotiations. And in verse 4, they sent people four times to persuade them to meet and have a peaceful conversation.
However, it was a deception and a trick. At the end of verse 2, it says, “The truth is, they want to harm me.”
They had a strategy to lure Nehemiah to the Plains of Ono and then assassinate him. Nehemiah knew that, so he refused the meeting he had asked for four times.
There are three types of encounters.
First, there is a necessary meeting.
For example, meeting with the Lord, meeting between husband and wife, meeting with loved ones, meeting for good, etc.
Second, there are meaningless encounters.
I chatted, chatted and chatted and met a lot of people, but looking back after meeting them, there are meetings that are meaningless.
Third, there are harmful encounters.
If you meet a pickpocket on a train, a crazy dog on the road, or a thief or a thug, it is a harmful encounter.
However, among various encounters, the more harmful or useless the encounter, the more frequent and the more temptation to meet.
Harmful and fruitless encounters inevitably result in greater waste and loss of time, energy, and money. However, beneficial encounters are both spiritually and mentally beneficial and economically beneficial.
There was an article published in the daily newspaper that a domestic construction company would select the 「Creator of Time」 from July.
There was also an article that said that a small and medium-sized company had been carrying out a “second management campaign” since 1992. The content of the article is to introduce two companies that are running a campaign to save time in seconds.
The idea is to reduce meeting time significantly and reduce the approval process as much as possible, and calculate time in units of 1 minute to calculate how much loss is lost if one minute is wasted and how much profit is saved if one minute is wasted. If 1,000 people smoke one at a time, 1.2 million won is wasted in an instant.
It is said that it costs 3,000 won an hour to drink a cup of coffee.
If the church makes a mistake, it is a session or board meeting, so there are many times that the meeting time is longer than the time to pray, read the Bible, and evangelize. will be
Wasting time on unproductive arguments is a time steward's failure.
Why did Nehemiah decline when the challengers around Jerusalem persuaded him to meet four times?
It was because their conspiracies were staring at them, and there was no benefit to meeting them.
Let's get rid of temptation, temptation, and unrighteous conciliation.
3. The challenge is that it is not easy.
Their challenges and temptations were not in vain.
In verse 5, it says, "The fifth time Sanballat sent a letter in the hand of his servant." The content of the letter is "The rumor is spreading that you are rebuilding the city to become king. He said, "Let's meet and talk openly about whether it's true or not." In short, he used all kinds of means such as slander, slander, and threats.
But Nehemiah dealt with it resolutely. In verse 8, he dismissed it, saying, “It is not true, and you fabricated it.”
If you do big things, you may be slandered, slandered, threatened, and criticized. However, if I am the only one who is proud, there is no problem.
Some people gossip about what other people say, and there are people who only talk about their weaknesses.
To borrow the words of psychologists, most of these people are people with a sense of inferiority or complex.
To do great things, we must have a determined attitude like Nehemiah.
A big tree branches even when a typhoon blows, but it shakes, but a small tree is uprooted.
Small emotions should not shake or change the color of your face.
Nehemiah was not agitated or arrogant because he was proud of himself while reading the letter from Sanballat.
4. Strengthen my hands.
Nehemiah stood firm even after repeated threats of conciliation and slander. However, it was very difficult to overcome them on his own.
So, at the end of verse 9, he prayed, “Now give me strength.”
There is good reason to pray for strength in your hands.
According to Nehemiah 4:14-20, when the momentum of neighboring countries to hinder the great history of rebuilding the city grew stronger, Nehemiah issued an emergency order. A man living in Jerusalem participated in the construction work, holding a weapon in one hand and holding a weapon in one hand. In other words, they were working with full armor. And when they heard the sound of the trumpet, they all went to battle.
Because the castle was being rebuilt under such an emergency system, the tension and fatigue were indescribable.
That's why I prayed, "Make my hands strong."
Hands have many functions. They make tools. They play musical instruments. They express their intentions and emotions with their hands.
And a person's health status and hands are closely related. A person whose hands are cold and sweaty is a person who lacks energy. And if the energy is insufficient, his hands do not work.
We do good things with our hands, and we do bad things with our hands.
I also hand-painted the New York subway and its walls, and I also hand-painted the Mona Lisa.
The prayer, “Give me strength with your hands,” contains the following meanings. The first is, “Give me strength. Humans are beings who make tools. They make tools with their hands. I can't and I can't use it.
I can handle creative work only when I receive the power.
He asks you to do the work of the second week.
It is asking for power to do the Lord's work with a strong heart and strong hands. If you ask for strength to do bad things, He will not give you, but He will give you for the Lord's work.
During World War II, Dutch evangelist Ms. Coridenboom, who was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp and survived, went to the Soviet Union to evangelize and took a bunch of Bibles in two trunks. Customs clearance was a problem. She prayed at the customs checkpoint." "Give me your address." Finally, her turn came. "Is this bag for Grandma? It must be heavy, so I'll pick it up."
"Lord, strengthen my hand." Let's work hard for the Lord and the church, and for the things you have given me with the strength you gave me.