Ridicule
is a mighty weapon.
"What do these feeble Jews?" said Sanballat. "Will they fortify
themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day?
Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which
are burned?"
"Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break
down their stone wall," said Tobiah the Ammonite.
But Nehemiah was wise. H
paid no attention to them. He just looked
to God for grace and comfort:
"Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon
their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:
and cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out
from before: for they have provoked thee to anger before the
builders."
Young man, if you wish to be successful in this world, don't mind
Sanballat or Tobiah. Don't be kept out of the kingdom of God or out
of active Christian work by the scorn and laughter and ridicule of
your godless neighbors and companions.
Next, these enemies conspired to come and fight against Jerusalem.
Nehemiah was warned, and took steps to guard against them. Half of
the people were on the watch, and the other half held a sword in one
hand and a trowel in the other. There was