Nehemiah 2:19 (NIV)
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?”
Nehemiah 2:20 (NIV)
I answered them by saying,
“The God of heaven will give us success.
We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you,
you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim
or historic right to it.”
Nehemiah 4:1-3 (NIV)
He [Sanballat] ridiculed the Jews, and in the presence of his associates
and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing?
Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices?
Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from
those heaps of rubble – burned as they are?”
Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said,
“What they are building – even a fox climbing up on it
would break down their wall of stones!”
Nehemiah 4:4-5 (NIV)
Hear us, our God, for we are despised.
Turn their insults back on their own heads.
Give the over as plunder in a land of captivity.
Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight,
for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
Nehemiah 4:7-9 (NIV)
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.
They all plotted together to come and fight
against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.
But we prayed to our God and posted a guard
day and night to meet this threat.
Nehemiah 4:19-20 (NIV)
Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people,
“The work is extensive and spread out, and we are
widely separated from each other along the wall.
Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us here.
Our God will fight for us!
Nehemiah 6:2-4 (NIV)
“Come, let us meet together in one of the villages
on the plain of Ono.” But they were scheming to harm me;
so I sent messengers to them with this reply:
“I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down.
Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”
Four times they sent me the same message,
and each time I gave the the same answer.
Nehemiah 6:15-16 (NIV)
So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul,
in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this,
all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their
self-confidence, because they realized that this work
had been done with the help of our God.
Matthew 14: 28-31 (NIV)
“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied,
“tell me to come to you on the water.”
“Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water
and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind,
he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out,
“Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.
“You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
Godly Leadership Lessons
1. Beware: The enemy hates it when we do God’s work.
Focus on God’s work, not the enemy.
2. It’s tough to drain the swamp when you’re up to your waist in alligators.
Stay focused on the task at hand, not the alligators.
3. When your boat goes down, pray to God, but swim to shore.
4. With God, all things are possible.