"When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed."
Nehemiah 4:1
Nehemiah Chapter 4 (Part 1)
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Although we must not be morbid and crushed by Satan�s activity, it is important to understand and realise the truth the Scripture reveals. It is important for two reasons. The first is that if we understand the truth we shall be more able to recognise what is happening in our spiritual lives, and in the life of the church in times of difficulty and opposition. The second thing is that we shall have no confidence in the flesh because we will see that we are no match for the devil, and so we will place our whole trust and confidence in the Lord.

The truth about Sanballat�s anger, and the opposition we read of in this chapter, is that Satan was behind it, and the ultimate source of it. This illustrates the importance of the opening chapters of Genesis. If we don�t believe or understand what happened when Adam sinned against God, we will have no explanation for the state of the world, or for the conflicts which are in the world.

Adam was not simply disobeying God. He was doing this when he took and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but his action had further ramifications. What Adam was doing was deciding where his allegiance, loyalty and obedience was to lie, and he was deciding for all his posterity, the whole of the human race. He chose Satan�s authority and rule, and this is why all humanity ever since has been under the dominion of Satan.

The world does not understand this, nor will it acknowledge it as true. In fact many in the world would deny even the existence of Satan. The Bible, however, states the truth plainly. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4 "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Here is a clear reference to Satan. He is referred to as the god of this age, or the god of this world. In other words he rules over his subjects in this world, which are all people not freed by Christ, and he holds authority over them. Satan motivates people�s thinking and actions and holds the will in bondage. Paul speaks of one particular and important area of this bondage, and that is with regard to being able to see the trust we need concerning Christ as Saviour - Saviour from sin and Satan. Satan does not want to lose his subjects, so he blinds their minds - their understanding, so that they will not perceive the truth.

In 1 John 5:19 John tells us that apart from true believers in Jesus, the whole world of humanity is under the control of the evil one. This is a terrible and awful thought, but it does explain the state of the world all down history, and why people behave as they do, and why there are wars, and disputes, and so on.

We must not misunderstand the Biblical revelation. Satan is still under the authority and power of God in the ultimate. This is illustrated in the book of Job, where in the opening chapters we see Satan had no power over Job, God�s servant, without the permission of God, and Satan could not go beyond God�s permissive will. It is difficult for us to understand how this can be, and how God can have supreme authority and Satan still be allowed to dominate in this world. The fact is that, simply stated, but which still leaves us puzzled, if God destroyed Satan now, He would have to destroy all Satan�s subjects as well, with the eternal loss of so many precious souls. God could have made an end of the human race in Adam after he had sinned and Satan too, but this would have been a loss of God�s purpose in creation of humankind as living souls for himself. The whole plan of salvation is a demonstration of God working to be victorious over Satan in delivering people from Satan�s dominion and bringing them back into his light and love.

Satan is no absentee landlord. He does not sit back and let us get on with things. Satan is active to defend his kingdom, and any threat to his authority brings an instant reaction, as we see here in Nehemiah 4. Further Satan has a sadistic pleasure in hurting and harming his subjects. All his promises of delights are all, in the end, geared to bring harm and pain, which Satan delights in and to see.

Where the church is being revived by God, and is being blest, Satan is active in opposition to prevent this threat to his authority. Where souls are being delivered from his dominion, Satan fights back. This is why, as we see in this chapter, blessing in God�s work, and revival in the church, is always accompanied by problems, difficulties, persecutions and troubles. These do not come from God, but from Satan who is retaliating against God�s saving work.

We see this illustrated in the history of this revival taking place through Nehemiah. The work was being opposed. It is true that the opposition came from other human beings, but the truth is that Satan was behind this opposition and the ultimate author of it.

This truth concerning Satan�s activity is the reason that every believer knows conflict in their lives. This conflict is between the flesh and the spirit. Paul speaks of it in various places in his epistles. He mentions his experience of it in Romans 7:7-end. He speaks of it again in Galatians 5:13-26. The flesh, or sinful nature is no way changed by new birth, and is still a source of infiltration into our lives by Satan. We have been delivered from Satan�s dominion by new birth, and we have a spiritual new nature which is created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness, and this is why we can and do resist Satan�s temptations and the desires of the flesh, but we still know the desires of the flesh, and Satan exploits this against us. This is why Paul tells us to mind the things of the Holy Spirit and the new nature within us, and not the things of the flesh.

Satan uses his subjects, the people of the world, against the church and against God�s work. So we see Satan behind the action and attitude of Sanballat and his friends. Where did Sanballat�s anger come from? Well! on the surface we can see that he felt threatened by the revival in Jerusalem. If Jerusalem was rebuilt and the condition of the Jews bettered and enhanced, then his influence would be undermined. But there is also an irrational element we can detect in this anger. There is perhaps a sense of jealousy, and hurt pride, and such like things. Where did this come from. It came from Satan exciting the sinful flesh in Sanballat and motivating him to this opposition.

This is what Satan does, and we see it in all the conflicts in our world, whether national, or social, or in a community, or in families. Take the middle east crisis in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. All know that the violence and hatred only makes things worse, but neither side can overcome their suspicions and fear of the other side, or overcome their hate and sense of injustice. Where does this come from. It comes from the activity of Satan motivating and exciting the sinful nature in people, and fuelling their fears and hatred.

In our individual lives, and in the work of God�s church, we see something of things we may expect here in Nehemiah�s experience. Satan employed ridicule (v.1). Sanballat ridiculed the Jews in public, before other people in the land. How painful is the weapon of ridicule. How it undermines our confidence, and we feel we have no weapon to combat it. If we lose our temper we have only played into the hands of our tormentors.

From ridicule Satan motivated the opposition to denigrate the efforts in rebuilding that were being made (v.3). Tobiah told the Jews that their work was totally ineffective and poor. How discouraging this is. How often in God�s work people tell us how impossible everything is, and of all the difficulties, and because we have already thought about the difficulty of the task ahead, we find our minds leaning towards this talk, and our energy is weakened, and there is the temptation to give up.

From this came discouragement. Discouragement is a very potent weapon for Satan to use. We are so easily discouraged. We read of this discouragement in verse 2 where the Jews are told they are feeble, and because they felt feeble, this hurt and had power to discourage them.

As we go on in the story, we find Satan does not let up in the struggle to stop the work of God. When his first assault does not work we find as we read verse 7 and the following verses, that the enemies of Jerusalem began to plot against Jerusalem as to how they could defeat this rebuilding. Satan started a campaign of subversion behind the scenes, where Sanballat preached his message of anger and fear against the Jews to others, and sought their co-operation in his efforts to stop the work of rebuilding.

We will find this also in God�s work. People don�t stop at personal opposition, but share their views with others in order to bring an adverse reaction against God�s work, and to gain support and help to further the opposition.

In the history here we find that when peaceful means of ridicule and such like did not work, the opposition became of a violent kind, and Israel were threatened by physical attack, so that they had to defend themselves. Satan does not stop at the first reverse in his plans, nor does he get discouraged. The fact is that Satan is never tired and fights relentlessly against God and his church. We will find that if one difficulty or opposition ends or is overcome, soon another one will spring up. Satan is constantly thinking of and inventing new ways to harm and hinder God�s work, and bring trouble on God�s people.

This history tells us of this, and warns us that we must expect this Satanic activity, and not be surprised at it.

All this may seem rather negative, but the Spirit of God does not record this history in an aimless way. It has been recorded for our good and our instruction. By this study we have had to face the reality of Satan�s power and activity. We now know what to expect and that if we are active and enthusiastic in God�s work we will face trouble and persecution. However, to be forewarned is to forearmed. We shall not be surprised when opposition and difficulty come our way. Also we shall look for ways of combating Satan�s attack, and learn how we can trust God. This is what we will be considering from this chapter in our next sermon.