Nehemiah 5 is very solemn. There was failure amongst the remnant. As Peter said, and well he knew it, “We are men of like passions with yourselves” – and surely we also know it. Are we better than others in ourselves? Far be the thought. But, O, the grace that has gathered to that blessed one, to whom no man can come except the Father draw him. As our Lord said: “It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me” (John 6:44). The Father is not gathering souls to poor failing man, but to His own Son.
Men have formed themselves into innumerable bodies; but God by His Spirit has restored the long-lost truth of the one body of Christ – Christ the only true center. It is now an accomplished fact, that the wall of separation from every human society is being built. Souls are gathered on the same basis as at Pentecost, though in themselves but a feeble remnant out of the camp of Christendom. There is the camp of a leavened Christendom, and there is the sacred enclosure outside that camp, gathered to Christ, and bearing His reproach.
This just brings us to the sixth form of opposition – what Sanballat and his companions did when they heard that Nehemiah had built the wall. “Then Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of One. But they thought to do me mischief.”
Then Nehemiah “sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down unto you?” (Nehemiah 6:3).
We have had five forms of opposition – grief, laughter, wrath, mocking, and fighting; now we have subtlety without. It is as if they said, Do not be so narrow and exclusive. Do come down from your sacred enclosure to “one of the villages in the plain of One.” “Let us meet together.” Do come down, and sanction us in the plain of One. Do you ask, what was this plain of One? Turn to Nehemiah 11: 35, “Zod and One, the valley of craftsmen.” Do leave the only center of worship within those walls of Jerusalem, and come down to any one of the villages of “the craftsmen.” Well did they know that if the true worship of God was set up within that divine enclosure, they would feel like the Ephesians in after times, that their craft was in danger. “Sirs,” said the men of Ephesus, “ye know by this craft we have our wealth” (Acts 19:23-41).
Thus we have the camp of Samaria, with its villages of craftsmen, on the one side – open, compromising, liberal – willing to meet all, and take counsel with all together; ion the other side a few feeble Jews, gathered in separation on God’s ground, within the hated exclusive walls. And through the help of God they stand firm, and act as those who know they are just where God would have them to be, and doing that which is pleasing in His sight.
It was not one effort, or two, but four times did Sanballat send messengers after this sort, to induce, if possible, the servants of God to give up their exclusiveness, and come down from their excellency to the low level of the plain of One, the villages of the craftsmen. Still God preserved him — “I answered them after the same manner” (vs. 4). To Nehemiah it was a great work to be uncompromisingly for God.
Sanballat, judging after his own heart, now sends the fifth time his servant, with an open letter in his hand: “therein was written, it is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu (or Geshem) saith it, that thou arid the Jews think to rebel, for which cause thou thinkest to build the wall, that thou thinkest to be their king, according to these words.... Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.” Very firm was the reply, so like a man that walks in peace with God: “There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.” If Nehemiah had been acting in the pride of a self-seeking heart, then nothing could be more narrow, close, yea, contemptible; but he was acting in the fear of Jehovah, and nothing could be more beautiful and faithful.
Is not all this a picture of the movements around us in this very day? Nothing could be more strikingly so. There is the sacred enclosure of a few feeble saints, gathered to Christ; and there is the great camp of the Greek, Roman, and Protestant churches. And as there were many Jews still in captivity, so are there many Christians in this great camp of Babylon. But is it not written, “There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of, and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you”? (2 Peter 2:1).
(Continued from page 51).