Seeds for 09/12/2024 - Nehemiah 2:19
Scripture:
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?”
Observation:
“But”
There always has to be one, right? We’ve heard of these characters already—Sanballat and Tobiah. Now they’ve got another collaborator—Geshem. We know they are the antagonists in this restoration story. What do we observe here?
When they hear about Nehemiah and the Jerusalem leaders’ vision for rebuilding the walls and that their project is taking shape, what is their response? “[T]hey mocked and ridiculed us.”
Rather than challenge or critique, they mock and ridicule. This is a move of the desperate and dastardly. When reason, principles, and solid arguments are absent, mockery and ridicule are often the only tools left hanging on the belt.
This brings Psalm 1:1-2 to mind:
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
If Nehemiah knows his scriptures, and he sure seems to, he will not “sit in the company of mockers” but instead “delight.. in the law of the Lord,” and stay grounded in His word.
Application:
When have you been tempted to mock and ridicule?
When have you had to weather the mocking or ridicule of another?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, so ground us in your Word and Spirit that we may neither succumb to the mockers nor participate in the mockery. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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