Nehemiah 6:5 Commentary and Bible Study

Now there is a change of tone. It's going to be friendly, but there’s a threat in it now. ‘Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand.’ What does that mean? It means that now it's not private correspondence, or a confidential invitation; it's now a published letter. The contents of this letter are not only being given to Nehemiah as governor, but they are being proclaimed by criers, so that the general public in Judah know what is on offer. The Samaritans are going over the heads of Nehemiah, and they are making this appeal to Jerusalem in general. It is rather interesting, when you see what the content of this letter is in verse 6, because it was the claim that it was being talked about among all the nations – and certainly the officials; he names somebody, Gashmu, who seems to be in a position to confirm this – that Nehemiah and his fellow leaders think to rebel, and that is why they have repaired the wall. This rumour could quite easily get to Persia and to emperor Artaxerxes. As a result, there will soon be a Persian army here to deal with these things, it is suggested. ‘Now, why don't you come and negotiate with us and meet with us, because’ – this is the implication; it’s not what the text says – ‘we can help you. We can also speak against these rumours and we can speak for you. So we can not only befriend you and trade with you, but we can help you with this rumour, which is going to bring Artaxerxes, who has trusted you with this governorship, and given you this commission. He is going to lose his trust in you if he finds you have got people who are ready to declare you king in Jerusalem.’ Now that's designed to alarm Nehemiah, because if this got back to the emperor who has trusted him and made him governor, and given him this privilege and this commission, then the emperor would instantly depose him, and send of troop along and punish everybody who's behind this. They would be very firm about that. So they calculate Nehemiah will be frightened; he will be alarmed by this. They are using a mixture of alluring offers of peace together with intimidating threats to try to shake Nehemiah and dislodge his trust in God. They want him to start leaning on them and coming to them for help and support, but he refuses to do so. He rightly does not trust them and he sees God alone as his defence in every danger. Well this is very dangerous, if all the neighbouring governors are ready to persuade the emperor that this is what one governor is doing in their midst. So they come much more strongly now with threats. ‘Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono.’ Certainly they would have poisoned him, or contrived to have him injured and killed on the way. Why go to that village? The report is so interesting. Why not to Samaria? Why not to a city in Judah? Because if they bought Nehemiah into a city, the public in that city would pay attention. Everybody would know in the olden world – you can't have secret negotiations. They couldn’t kill him in a prominent city; it would have been too public, too open, so let's go into a sort of Bedouin tent in a village somewhere, and they would do away with him. They will try any means to bring down the man of God, the people of God.