Presents
Nehemiah Chapter 6Revelation 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
John 15:26
But when the Comforter is
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which
proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
John
16:13-14
[13] Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he
will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever
he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. [14] He
shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto
you.
This Bible Study was originally written by Roger
Christopherson,
published at http://www.theseason.org/
or here, as now edited by people at
The American Wisdom Series
Without the leading by the Holy Spirit, there is no understanding of the truths, for all the truth of the Scriptures are revealed to us by God's Spirit.
Now here is our revised study of:
Nehemiah Chapter 6
"Opposition and Stratagem, Compromise."
In the fifth chapter we saw that the families of Judah had a great problem within their own group, and that problem was usury. This got to the point the poor lost their farms and land, their children, and came to the point of bond slaves to people they called their own.
The sad point is that they allowed this to come upon themselves when the allowed the Kenites [Nethinims] to take control of the scribes and priest duties in the temple. These were the very sons of Cain, not of any part of Israel, and when that happened the very people that God had assigned to protect the people, the Levite priests, were not there to stop the injustices and sins taking place. In the place of these Levite priests were the very one that were ripping them off, in the form of Exodus 22:25 [usury].
These people of Judah were coming out of Babylon, and the prime root of Babylon is Confusion. There is only one way to stay out of confusion, and that is to use your brain, and the common sense that God has given us. That brain is in your forehead, and the knowledge you put in that brain is the seal of your protection. When that seal is based upon the Word of God, and all the warnings and signs recorded in His Word, then you have the seal of God, as recorded in Revelation 9:4.
It is time for each of us to wake up, and seal our minds with the seal of God, because we are in the final generation. At the sounding of the sixth trumpet, when Satan come to earth as the spurious messiah, you will either have that seal and be protected, or you will not. If you do not, it tells you right there that God will simply turn you over to Satan. When you know what is coming, then the deceptions are not tempting to you, and you can see through all the mystical powers and lying wonders that God will allow the false-christ to have.
This book of Nehemiah is a type of what is happening today, while the fifth triumpet is sounding, and it points out both the internal and external pressures that come our way. In this sixth chapter they are dealing with the pressures of governor Sanballat, and the other nations around Jerusalem. They will set snares and opposition that Nehemiah and the men of the house of Judah must overcome.
Nehemiah 6:1 Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;)"
In other words, Nehemiah is saying that the walls and gates were notcompleted, and the city was not as secure as it would be in it's completion. However the rumor that spread, and was in the minds of the enemy was that the walls were completed [no breach in the walls].
There was an remnant left in Judea, after the Babylonian conquered them seventy years prior, and it is these people that Nehemiah used also in the building of the wall. Tobiah lived amongst them, and had former friendships with this remnant, thus the flow of information back to Sanballat. However, we see that that information was not wholly correct. For it left Sanballat the governor with the impression that the walls and gates were now impassable, and completed.
We will now find out that Tobiah had a lot of good friends living behind the wall, and the years of friendship wasn't hindered by the very wall that he was trying to bring down.
Nehemiah 6:2 "That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, "Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono." But they thought to do me mischief."
Sanballat and Geshem had planed to kill Nehemiah, and after the conflict of the wall construction, Nehemiah knew that there would be nothing good that could come from a compromise with these men of the world. The "plain of Ono" and the people therein were in the control of Sanballat, and Nehemiah would be turning himself over to the enemy and their wishes and desires. He already knew their intentions, when the wall went up, for they planned to go to war and kill all the people.
This plain of Ono was about twenty five miles north of Jerusalem, and in the area of the old northern kingdom, "the House of Israel", that had been scattered about three hundred years prior.
Nehemiah 6:3 "And I sent messengers unto them, saying, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?"
Nehemiah answered back, "I'm not coming", and he gave the reason that he is to busy building the wall.
This is common today, if you kill the leader of a movement, side track him [her], or cause great shame to come upon that leader, then that movement will be crippled. We saw this in the many attacks on Jim Baker, and other ministries where the truth of God's word was pointing a finger at elements of the Kenite press, the Kenite leadership in government, industry, banking and education. The truth hurts, and when it hurts, the guilty team together and plot against those leading the assault.
Nehemiah 6:4 "Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner."
Four times in Biblical numerics, is the number for "earth". While we live on this earth, the snares are repeating themselves, and earthy. you know the manner; they come at you as your good buddy, and then take the words given and stored in friendship, and use them against you when it comes to their advantage. They twist the meaning, and shade the truth so that words of truth become a lie.
My fellow Christian, the message here is that we be aware of repetition from our enemies.
Nehemiah 6:5 "Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand;"
Before the offers the Sanballat made to Nehemiah were secret, and to the point, however this letter is like a leak to the press, in today's terms. It is a form of letting the people know what he wanted Nehemiah to do, and thus cause the people to push for the meeting on the plain of Ono.
In this letter, Sanballat is starting a rumor within the camp, that is meant to excite the people of Judah, and turn them against Nehemiah. Watch today's press nightly, and you can see this tactic become a state of art.
Nehemiah 6:6 "Wherein was written, "It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words."
The "heathen" are the nations around Jerusalem, and Gashmu is another form of Geshem [the Arabian]. Did you get the point? Because it is thought, and said aloud it becames the truth. They gave authority and respect to people who agreed with them, then repeated what they said, as a fact for the statement. We see this every time a newscast comes on the air. Truth is what, and how it is created, and the authority that you give the source; so what they did is create the authority in Gashmu, and the support for the lie in the heathen nations, and passed this off as the truth for the people of Judah to accept as the truth.
Sanballat is saying in this open letter that Nehemiah is building these walls to set up his own kingdom, to exist within the kingdom of the Persian kings realm.
Nehemiah 6:7 "And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, "There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together."
How does gossip get started? It takes particles of truth, and mixes it with huge amounts of lies, and out of it comes gossip.
Remember that Haggai, Zerubbabel, and many others of the prophets had prophesied of a coming Messiah, so the prophets, and the prophecy of a coming Messiah were true, the wall has been built, and the expectation of a coming kingdom was true. However, Sanballat just put the thought that Nehemiah's intensions were that he become that Messiah, and you have a lie that will stir the community.
This open letter then was an attack on Nehemiah, that he was on an ego trip, and that he had planned to become that Messiah. That Nehemiah was building his own kingdom. This was aimed at causing dissension which already existed in their own camp. The drought was on, food shortages existed, they were over worked, and then the usury and heavy taxes, and with the dispute between the rich and the poor; and now Sanballat added one more thing to cause trouble for Nehemiah. From all this you could bring fear on the people, when there is nothing to fear.
God gave Nehemiah a mission, and when God gives anyone a thing to do, that is a mission from God, even if it is a smile to your neighbor, God expects that mission to be carried out. Then when you are doing that mission, don't be afraid when the opposition comes, for it will.
Nehemiah 6:8 "Then I sent unto him saying, "There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart."
This term, "out of thine own heart", should be "out of thine own mind". In other words, Nehemiah is telling Sanballat that he has made all this up in his own head. It is not true. The purpose is not to set the setting up of a kingdom, but simply setting up the walls of our fathers town.
Nehemiah 6:9 "For they all made us afraid, saying, "Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done." Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands."
In the Hebrew text, it should read, "For they tried to make them all afraid". This was a snare to delay the work of God, if it be possible, and it did not work, for the work continued. When the snares come your way, do you let them throw you off? Has anyone ever tried to take advantage of you using fear? People will try to do the same thing to you that Sanballat did to Nehemiah, create illusions and fears in you mind, to get you off track.
When the trouble came, Nehemiah knew who to go to, and he did. He went to the Father, and he knew that because it was God that gave the order to do this work, that he would be all right and God would strengthen his hands. We can do just as Nehemiah did, and God will do the same for us as He did for Nehemiah. God is greater then all the giants of this world; of the systems, the governments or what ever the problem, and He is waiting to assist you.
Nehemiah 6:10 "Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, "Let us meet together in the house of God, within the Temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee."
Remember that one of the first things that we discussed of Nehemiah was that he was of Judah. He was not a Levite and he was not a priest, and a person that is not a Levite can not go into the holy place of the Temple. Nehemiah knew this, and that would brake God's Law. In other words, if Nehemiah would have taken advantage of this liar, he would have broke God's own law, and violated the prayer that he had just prayed; "O God. strengthen my hands." He would have turned God against him.
Nehemiah went to the house of Shemaiah after Shemaiah had requested Nehemiah to come. Then when Nehemiah went to meat with Shemaiah, he told Nehemiah that they are going to kill you and me [a priest], so lets lock ourselves away in the Temple. Keep in mind the phrase, "who was shut up", meant that this priest was already a prisoner for something he had done, and now he is trying to drag Nehemiah into those troubles with him.
This Shemaiah is a paid prophet [Kenite], or a paid preacher that is teaching false hood not for the benefit of Nehemiah, but for the benefit of his friend Tobiah, and Sanballat, and Gushem.
My fellow Christian, in these final days this is exactly what is happening. As you sit in those church pews, and listen to the traditions of men, you are a prime candidate of being ushered into the one world system that is starting to choke the entire world today. That system in Revelation, is referred to as Babylon, the Mother of Harlots [religions], and it is a state of confusion. Any person that thinks that any man of the cloth will not deceive him is ripe for being deceived.
Editor's Note: I'm not saying your preacher will say it to intentionally deceive you but, remember what Jesus taught us in Luke 21:8 "And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them." Yep, many preachers will stand in the pulpit and say that Jesus is the Christ, therefore; gaining your confidence; But if he tells you "the time of the end draweth near" without also telling you that Satan is going to come first claiming to be Christ, that preacher is setting you up to fall right into Satan's camp!
Shemaiah is paid by the enemy outside the camp to deceive, and most of these modern day preachers will follow exactly as Shemaiah did and preach what they are told to preach. Why do they do this? Because God's work to them is an occupation, and within it is their salary and their pension. They are afraid to preach the whole truth of God's word, but instead they preach fairy tales of a rapture and other traditions of men that will cause the Christian to chase after the false-christ upon his arrival.
In Numbers 18:1, "And the Lord said unto Aaron, thou and thy sons and thy fathers house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of you priesthood."
Numbers 18:2 "And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but they and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness."
Numbers 18:3 "And they shall keep thy charge and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the alter, that neither they, nor ye also die."
This was a death sentence that would be on the head of anyone that violated this law. Though the altar was not completed, it was symbolic of what would happen to those who violated this law. Had Nehemiah gone in unto the house of the vessels, it would have been a death sentence on him. But what about Shemaiah the priest? He was a Kenite, and the death sentence was already upon him spiritually. The enemy [Tobiah] here used this so called priest to force the downfall, when all the other forms simply did not work.
Nehemiah 6:11 "And I said, "Should such a man as I flee: and who is there that being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in."
The response of Nehemiah to Shemaiah the priest shows us that Nehemiah knew the laws that God gave Aaron, and what would have happen if he had gone in. He knew he was not of Levi, but of Judah, and that his life would be in danger. Why did I say that Shemaiah was a Kenite, because a true Levite would not have entertained such an idea, and the very words of this fake priest were lies and deceptions.
Nehemiah 6:12 "And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophet against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him."
This term, "I perceived that God had not sent him", is spiritual discernment by the leading of God. God allowed him to see that this so called priest was little more then an hireling, a preacher for profit. They are all around us today, from the top of the religious world to the small hirelings in the corner churches near us. Any hireling that preaches and is confined to say what he is told to say, is not a man of God. The only limits that a man of God has is confined to the pages of the Scriptures.
Nehemiah could tell this false prophet for a real one, by what he said, and when those words defiled the very word of God, Nehemiah branded him as one of Tobaih and Sanballat's hirelings. Better known today as a preacher for hire. they will wear the cloth, and spout the words that they are hired to say. It is time to wake up, my fellow Christian.
Nehemiah 6:13 "Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me."
Nehemiah sees that Sanballat was trying to use the very things that he held dear to destroy him. This is common today, for daily rules and teachings that Christians know God's word teaches against, the world is presenting them as of God. Christians who do these things, by doing them are sinning against God in ignorance. Then when the time is right for the world to turn on them, those very things will be used against them.
When Nehemiah heard the words that were against God Word, it immediately pointed out the fact that this was a hireling, and then Shemaiah tried to bring fear to Nehemiah, Nehemiah knew he was doing the work of God, and he saw right through Sanballat's tricks.
Nehemiah 6:14 "My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear."
This is a prayer of thanks to God for alerting Nehemiah of this plan to bring him down. Notice how it was done. They first got Shemaiah to get the other Kenite priest to become part of the lie, then they went to get their little [platinum blond] gal that would soften your mind, and together they came at Nehemiah with their lies. Did their plan to scar Nehemiah work? No.
Is it starting to look like what we see continually on TV. I think so. I'm sure that Noadiah [means "who God meets"] came to Nehemiah and said tenderly, "come along Nehemiah and stay the night with me in the Temple and you will be safe there." Sounds like some altar calls used today. I'm sure that these Kenite priests used all their sources to attack every weakness of man that Nehemiah possessed.
Thank God he did not have them, for Nehemiah said to God in prayer, Let them set their own sentence. Nehemiah 4:4, "Hear, O our God, for we dare despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head;" If you are doing a work for God, Satan's little servants will try to trip you up in any manner that he can.
We know that the Nethinims are at the root of this, or they would not have had the stronghold on all these priests, including Noadiah the prophetess. They were hired guns wearing the robes of God to kill the very one that God had chosen to do this work.
Nehemiah 6:15 "So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days."
This is a miracle that this entire wall was completed in fifty two days, with all the pressures put of the people, and the snares that Nehemiah faced. God had all the materials right where it was needed, and the outside threats were all defused by God. The problems within the community were taken care of, and even the Nethinims sitting in their priestly positions had now revealed themselves for what they are [Kenites].
Both timbers and stone were bought by the king's money, brought to Jerusalem, and stacked in place for their right time to begin. God used the Persian king to do His work on the city and the Temple, to supply all the materials and keep them in stock.
Nehemiah 6:16 "And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God."
The heathen nations knew when the Walls were completed, that it could only have been done with the help of our God. This demonstration of God's power and control over all matters made them very sad.
Apply this to you, when you are doing a work for the Lord, that He has shown you to do. If that work is truly of the Lord, God will stockpile the materials necessary, and supply what ever the resources are that are necessary to get the job done. What we should do is to keep on the wall and doing the work, and pray and watch the hand of the Lord complete the work He is requiring it of you. You do the work, and allow the Lord to bless that work.
Nehemiah 6:17 "Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobaih came unto them."
Nehemiah 6:18 "For there were many in Judah sworn unto him, because he was the son in law of Shechaniah the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah."
So now we see why these why Tobiah had such a strong bond in the nobles of Judah. There were two strong marriages binding the families of the Nobles to Tobiah. Tobiah was an Ammonite, and God forbid the men of Israel to marry and mix with the Ammonites. These two families of Judah were working on the wall, right along side of the Nethinims, who were living in the tower and section of Opher, doing the duties of the Levite priests, and binding themselves to the heathen in marriage.
Do you see the deception the is hidden from most eyes that were present. These family ties of the Kenites, and hidden agreements with the enemies, and agreements that would dismantle our very nation reach into every fabric of our United States today, just as they were in Nehemiah's day. The pompous religious leaders, with their souls sold out to the Kenites [Nethinims] stand before the people and preach their lies, and say they do it "In the name of God". My fellow Christian, their God is Satan. They write letters back and forth to the enemy, and they don't even know that it is the enemy of God.
Are you starting to see what Nehemiah went through?
Nehemiah 6:19 "Also they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear."
Did you catch that? all the warnings of fear to Nehemiah came from these letters, that floated through these families intermarriages with the enemies.
Remember in world war two, when the Japanese and German peoples were separated and confined from the population at large? Our leaders then knew from the Scripture lessons the damage that interfamily talk could cause. Years later, the bleeding hearts, and hirelings of the pulpit have so distorted the Word of God, that even our leaders today are cowering to these people, as if it was a wrongful act.
Fellow Christian, it is time to put a spiritual application to this lesson, for we are in the "time of the end". Our enemies in that day of the false-christ will even come from within our own family members. Jesus warned us of this in Mark 13:12, "Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death." This time is coming very shortly. In that day your own family members will not stand with you.
Editor's Note: Why, because they love you and they will think, that man with supernatural abilities, standing in the church telling everyone who will listen that he is the Christ, really is Jesus, and they are afraid you will be left behind when, as they believe they will be raptured out of here. You see, it not physical death Jesus is talking about in Mark 13:12, it's the death of your soul if you listen to them and follow Satan also!
In the house of Judah, these families rebelled against Nehemiah talking against Tobiah, when he was out to destroy Jerusalem, and now that the end time system is being set up, and this evil system is trying to undermine and destroy the entire work of God, you can hear from within even our own families, "but their doing such a good work, their feeding the starving children, they are protecting the rights of the minority [homosexuals] and on and on; when what is being done is the setting up of a world order that the spurious messiah will sit upon.
Do you think Satan will bring harm to your body, and starve you? Of course not, he is trying to present himself as God, your redeemer and have you worship him. Fellow Christian, if you know the truth and stand by God's Word, Satan will use the same tactics as Tobiah did, and use your very family and your minister to draw you to him, because they will think he is our Lord. It is time to wake up.
To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals. We pray that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you accomplish both.
The American Wisdom Series
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doctrine of many of our Christian churches, (The Man on a White Horse)
political direction of our country, (The Man on a Red Horse)
economic direction our country has taken, (The Man on a Black Horse)
and teaching of our schools and media, (The Man on a Pale Horse)
The Four Hidden Dynasties of the New World Order Revelation 6:1-8
"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"
Did you know all four are being ridden by Satan