Nehemiah 4:9 “Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.”
Mean-spirited and ungodly people are always bent on doing mean and ungodly things, they’ve been doing it ever since Cain slew his brother Able (Genesis 4:8). We should not expect them to have improved any in our day! These mean and ungodly people are especially vicious against those who seek to “lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (I Timothy 2:2), who are seeking to serve the Lord as the Children of Israel were in Nehemiah’s day. Those with Nehemiah had been given a blessed and holy, “mind to work” (Nehemiah 4:6). Their circumstances were different than our present troubles, but our response and approach should be the same; for they had a calm and reasoned and prayerful response that was focused upon their Lord, even in the midst of very bad times! When the adversaries tried to hinder their work (service to the Lord), they just kept right on working! When the adversaries mocked them, laughed at them, told lies about them, and tried to discourage them; they just kept right on working! It is true that the adversaries were incensed (“wroth”) at them, and even conspired to physically attack them to hinder their work; but Nehemiah reports, “Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.”, and they kept right on working! When it appeared that an attack was imminent, they organized themselves, made defensive plans, and even armed themselves; and they kept right on working! Our principal armament is “the whole armour of God” (Ephesians 6:11-18). They were so diligent, that Nehemiah reports that “So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing.” (Nehemiah 4:23). Our main concern today, must be to “be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58). That means, now is the time to “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die” (Revelation 3:2). For those that the Lord has given “a mind to work”, we need to reach and get the Word of God, and begin to pray as we read it, strive with all diligence to apply it in every aspect of our lives, go to the Lord’s Church, be an active part of the Lord’s Church, and joyfully live the Word of God as we daily take up our cross (Matthew 16:24) to follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God!