Here the weapon used against God’s people is derision. This can be very painful for us. We must learn that the slanders of the world against Christ and his people are spoken in ignorance, and ‘as the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come. (Proverbs 26:2). The world in deriding the church assumes far more confidence in its scathing tones than it is entitled to. It is a bluff, and they have made themselves the enemies of the most high God, who will overturn their schemes. Scorn is designed to make us feel ashamed, but we hold on to the truth of God’s word without shame. Our confidence in God’s word will prove to be our strength long after scorners have disappeared from the scene.
We have to be careful who we work with and who we accept help and support from. If we make alliances with the enemies of God, we will bring discipline from the Lord on ourselves. Israel was from the beginning commanded to be a separate people – ‘Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. 4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly’ (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). The Samaritans mixed together their pagan worship with elements of the worship of God (2 Kings 17:28-29), and Nehemiah knew that Israel could have nothing to do with them, and could certainly not allow them to join them in the work.