Nehemiah 6:1 Commentary and Bible Study

This chapter is about attacks on God's word from without and within. It is remarkable how as we go through a book like Nehemiah and the history of events at that time, we see the inevitable parallels between these circumstances and the circumstances of the people of God in every age. The apostle Paul says of Satan's methods, ‘For we are not ignorant of his devices.’ They may be known. It had become evident to Paul that Satan's methods and strategies didn't vary, and were continued in every age and repeated. So we are not surprised that the things that are recorded here happen in our own time, in principle. This is literal history. It’s not pure allegory, but it is analogous to everything that happens in the history of the church. You see here that there was not a great deal left to be done, as far as the fundamental wall repair was concerned. There were no breaches left, no gaps. Yes, the finishing hadn't been done. The mighty gates hadn't been hung on the wall, the various gates around the city, and possibly the top of the wall was unfinished, and its battlements or defensive balconies for archers. These things were not in place, but fundamentally it was there. So it is the eleventh hour. It will be completed in 52 days, an astonishing achievement, particularly with all the marauding parties and the difficulties, and the thefts conducted by their enemies around them. All this took place amidst Nehemiah’s labours to lead the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and to bring about recovery from spiritual decline, and the decline occurred because of the failure of faith, because of the failure of the spiritual lives of so many people, because of sin and idolatry and waywardness.