Nehemiah 4:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Nehemiah 4:1

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When Sanballat heard that the building work was proceeding he mocked the Jews, that is to say, mocked to demoralise and to signal to his paid minions in the city his own opposition to what they were doing. This is about the enemies of the people of God. ‘He spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria.’ He held a gathering of fellow governors, officials, and many others, including what appear to have been the generals, the leaders, of the army of Samaria, the pagan army of Samaria. He tried to enrolled them. ‘And [he] said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice?’ That word ‘fortify’ is interesting. It translates the Hebrew word which means loosen or detach. Will they loosen themselves? Our translators have chosen to translate it as fortify. It is probably more likely that it refers to their intention to claim independence from the Persian state. ‘Will they commit treason? Will they detach themselves, loosen themselves? Are they fortifying in order to rebel?’ Now that would be an argument that would legitimately involve the army of Samaria in being opposed to them. So it would make sense. But overall it's done with a clothing of contempt. ‘Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?’

Application

This is intensely interesting because it reflects what happens in every age. Our enemies in society around us – society promoting an alternative morality, society promoting atheism, unbelief – really follow very similar lines. They are confident in their position. They despise God; they despise faith in God; they despise the Christian faith in particular. They are intensely angered by us, and they mock. They assume that we are pathetic and drawing near to extinction, and we can be trampled out, we can be got rid of. This is put their motivation, their attitude. Of course it was a great mistake on the part of the Samaritans to think that the Jews were so feeble. They were feeble in themselves, but God had summoned them to build, and God was with them. But of course their enemies took no account of the divine power which was with the people of Judah. Their attitude is one of scorn and contempt, so they underestimated the Judeans and what they could accomplish under God. The world would underestimate us too. It doesn’t underestimate us in ourselves – in ourselves we have no power – but underestimates what we are when we have our God with us, hearing and answering our prayers, and empowering our efforts.

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Nehemiah 4:1 Commentary and Bible Study