Nehemiah - Chapter 4

There are two key points to stress with respect to what began to happen to Nehemiah and his colleagues, as recorded in the first nine verses of chapter 4 which have, I believe, something significant to say to the question of being Church. The first thing is that conflict is inevitable. Sanballat had his indignation roused and he jeered angrily. Now you might well not expect me to start talking about conflict on such an occasion as tonight. But I wonder if one of the problems in the church too often is that we try to sweep conflict under the carpet and pretend that it doesn’t happen to us. We are surely far too nice! What we need rather is to be using conflict creatively. Conflict can, and does, happen – and it needs to be worked through and not ignored. The second point to make is about the importance of prayer. And that’s very interesting – because I actually fear that one of the problems in many churches today is that prayer has lost its centrality. Actually, it’s a fascinating prayer that we have here which doesn’t leave room for any niceties – Make their derision recoil on their own heads; let them become objects of contempt in a land of captivity. Clearly Nehemiah and his colleagues didn’t feel any need to not let God know exactly how they were feeling. And maybe there’s something for us to learn there too. And maybe part of the problem we have with prayer is that we don’t just take things how they are to God – because we can. Nehemiah prayed honestly. He prayed passionately. He prayed realistically.