Three times in three consecutive chapters Nehemiah uses the word Remember.
Firstly, ‘don’t be afraid, Remember the Lord’. A good word for believers in today’s world.
6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. Nehemiah 4
The enemy opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls, they wanted it left defenceless.
14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, ‘Don’t be afraid of them. REMEMBER the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.’ Nehemiah 4
Nehemiah rallied the people to finish the building. Sometimes it just takes one voice to give people hope in the face of discouragement.
The rich Jews were oppressing the poor with unjust financial burdens and enslaving them all over again. In the face of an overwhelming enemy, they took advantage of their own people to enrich themselves. Do believers today take advantage of their brothers and sisters in Christ?
9 So I continued, ‘What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? 10 I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. Nehemiah 5
– twelve years – neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. 15 But the earlier governors – those preceding me – placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also LORDED IT OVER THE PEOPLE (Beware any leadership that takes from the flock instead of giving to it).
19 REMEMBER ME WITH FAVOUR, MY GOD, for all I have done for these people. Nehemiah 5
Nehemiah reminded God of his sacrifices for God’s people.
Finally, Nehemiah was under direct personal attack from outside and inside his camp. Specific named people were harassing him to try and stop the work.
2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: ‘Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.’ Nehemiah 6
They sent him the same message four times and then the assistant of one brought an unsealed letter; could be read by anyone.
They used false prophets to try and get Nehemiah to go into hiding and so suffer disgrace before the people.
Shemaiah, ‘let us meet in the house of God and close the doors because men are coming to kill you’.
12 I realised that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him (just like Balaam, hired to curse the people of God). Nehemiah 6
14 REMEMBER Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; REMEMBER also the prophet Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me. 15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.
Nehemiah named specific enemies, who had troubled him most, to God. God knows the ringleaders who harass His people the most and will no doubt remember them in due course. But Nehemiah and the people built the wall despite all opposition, they prevailed and so must we!
God bless and keep us in these troubled days.