Mark and Meridine, would you take your Bible and turn please to Nehemiah.
Tonight I want to speak on the theme, is there a Tobiah in your life?
One does not have to be a Christian before very long, before finding out that God's
work will always be opposed.
As long as there is a devil, as long as there is a world system, as long as the power of
sin is working in people, the work of God will create opposition.
I am not concerned in my life or in my ministry for that matter when there is opposition.
The time that I get concerned is when things go too easy.
Jesus said, woe to you when all men speak well of you, for in the same way their fathers
used to treat the false prophets.
That is an interesting statement, isn't it?
He said furthermore to his disciples, if you were of the world, the world would love its
own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore
the world hates you.
Therefore we should not be surprised when we are confronted with animosity from time
to time in the work of God.
In John 17, Jesus prayed to the Father, I have given them thy word and the world has
hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world.
When the world hates us, we are in good company.
Peter said, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial among you as though some strange
thing were happening to you.
The apostle Paul joins with him and says, you yourselves know that we have been destined
for afflictions.
That word destined is the same one used by Paul in Philippians 1.16 when he says, I am
appointed for the defense of the gospel.
As surely as he felt appointed by God to defend the gospel of Jesus Christ, he said, we are
that sure as well to suffer afflictions.
Simeon, it is quoted, used this same term, Luke 2.34, when he said, this child, talking
about the Lord Jesus, is appointed for the rise and fall of many in Israel.
As surely as the Lord Jesus was appointed to that, so you and I have been appointed
to suffer afflictions.
And there is no better illustration of affliction and opposition to the work of God than in
the experience of Nehemiah, this great man of God from the Old Testament.
You will recall that Nehemiah was burdened of God to go back to the land of his fathers.
Nehemiah was among those who had been carried captive away to Babylon, his fathers were.
He had been raised there and had risen in prestige and power in the land to the point
of even being the cup bearer for the king, which was a very significant position.
He tasted the wine that the king drank so that it would be assured that the king was
not getting any poison.
When the king would have hundreds of officials around him and servants, it was the cup bearer
who stood by him.
And when they all left, it was the cup bearer who stood at the door who served actually
as the appointment secretary for the king.
That was Nehemiah in Babylon in the time of the Persian rule.
But God laid it on his heart to go back to Jerusalem to undertake the building of the
wall.
We will not take time to read about all of that except to turn to chapter 2 and verse
10.
When Nehemiah got back and began to survey the work and to see what was taking place,
there were two or actually three men who began to oppose Nehemiah in his ministry of building.
Verse 10 of chapter 2 says, And when Sanballet the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official
heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare
of the sons of Israel.
Despite that, Nehemiah went out at night and reconnetered to find out what condition the
walls were actually in.
And in verse 18, he gathers the Jews together to share with them his burden.
And he says, I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me and also about
the king's words which he had spoken to me.
Then they the people said, Let us arise and build.
And so they put their hands to the good work.
But when Sanballet the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab
heard it, they mocked us and despised us.
The two men I really want to focus on are Sanballet and Tobiah, and particularly Tobiah.
These three men were officials of the area around Jerusalem.
Sanballet the Horonite was perhaps the governor of Samaria, that area north of Jerusalem which
had been conquered by Assyria hundreds of years before this.
This term the Horonite has two possible origins.
It may mean that he was from Horoneum in Moab, which would have meant that he was a Moabite.
But more likely he was from a town of Samaria called Bethhoron, and thus he was called Sanballet
the Horonite.
Josephus, the Jewish historian, says it that way.
And there were some archaeological discoveries in recent years that also indicated that he
was the governor of Samaria.
Now this man Tobiah the Ammonite was perhaps the governor of another area called Ammon,
where today there is the city of Ammon in Jordan.
Very same area, very same city as a matter of fact.
Ammon is a very, very ancient city.
Tobiah the Ammonite was probably the governor of that area to the east of Jerusalem.
He was a descendant of a man by the name of Ben Ammi.
If you read your Bible in the Old Testament you will recall that Ben Ammi was the descendant
of Lot when he committed incest with his younger daughter.
It is a sordid story found at the end of Genesis chapter 19.
His two daughters as they lived in the cave, having lost all of their possessions because
of Lot's worldly living, his two daughters got him drunk and they committed incest on
successive nights.
The result of the birth of a son to the older daughter was the Moabites.
The result of the child of the younger daughter was the Ammonites of which Tobiah was a member.
The Ammonites were allied often with Israel's enemies.
They worshipped the god Malik.
These two men, Sen Ballet and Tobiah, along with an Arab, Gesham, who was also a political
leader in that area, allied themselves to oppose the work of Nehemiah.
They did not want the walls to the city rebuilt.
They used a number of tactics.
In verse 19 we see them intimating rebellion in this project.
You notice the three of them mocked us, says Nehemiah, and despised us and said, what is
this thing you're doing?
Are you rebelling against the king, that is the king of Persia?
And so they began to mock them, to deride them, and to say, I know what you're up
to.
You are leading an insurrection, aren't you, against the king of Persia?
Of course, Nehemiah wouldn't be real excited about that report getting back to the king,
but it didn't stop him.
In chapter 4, verses 1 through 3, we find another tactic that they used as they tried
to oppose the work of God.
It came about that when Sen Ballet heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious
and very angry and mocked the Jews.
And he spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria, where he was
governor, and said, what are these feeble Jews doing?
Are they going to restore it for themselves?
Can they offer sacrifices?
Can they finish in a day?
Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble, even the burned ones?
Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him, and he said, even what they are building, if a
fox had jumped on it, he would break their stone wall down.
And with that they mocked, they laughed, they derided the Jews because of their work, but
it didn't stop them.
Verse 7, now it came about when Sen Ballet, Tobiah the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites
heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be
closed, they were very angry.
And all of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a
disturbance in it.
And so their plan was now to create a disturbance, a riot if you please, and in so doing to intimidate
the Jews to stop their work, but they would not be intimidated.
They prayed to God, and they set up a guard against them day and night and went on with
their work.
They would not accept intimidation.
It reminds me of the Marine Sergeant that I heard about who spoke to his men, and he
said, men we are surrounded on every side by the enemy.
Don't let one of them escape.
That's what you call feeling to be intimidated.
Chapter 6, verse 1, we come to another tactic.
We've seen intimidation, we've seen the intimation of rebellion, we've seen ridicule
and mockery.
Now it came about when it was reported to Sen Ballet, Tobiah, to Gasham the Arab, and
the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it,
although at that time I had not set up the doors and the gates.
The Sen Ballet and Gasham sent a message to me saying, come, let us meet together at Sherifim
in the plain of Ono.
And they were planning to harm me.
So I sent messengers to them saying, I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.
Why should the work stop?
Why leave it and come down to you?
They said, Nehemiah, come over for a summit conference.
We'd like to meet you at the plain of Ono.
And Nehemiah said, oh no.
Oh no, I will not come down.
I will not leave the work.
He knew that they were going to attempt to harm him physically, perhaps even assassinate
him at that conference, and so he refused to go.
Verse 5, they tried something else.
Then Sen Ballet sent his servant to me in the same manner a fifth time with an open
letter in his hand.
In it was written, and here he quotes the letter, it is reported among the nations and
Gashamu says, that would make a great title for a sermon on gossip.
It is reported among the nations and Gashamu says that you and the Jews are planning to
rebel, therefore you are rebuilding the wall and you are to be their king according to
these reports.
And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem concerning you a king is in Judah.
What was happening, they were taking the words about the coming Messiah and misapplying them
to Nehemiah on purpose, twisting, distorting the message to intimate that Nehemiah wanted
to be king.
And now it will be reported to the king according to these reports.
So now come, let us take counsel together.
You see what they're trying to do?
Then I sent a message to him saying such things as you are saying have not been done, but
you are inventing them in your own mind.
And so here is an attempt at slander, at open slander, and again intimidation, trying to
get them to stop before the work is finished.
But they didn't stop.
Verse 10, when I entered the house of Shemiah, the son of Deliah, son of Mahedabel, who was
confined at home, he said, let us meet together in the house of God within the temple.
Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you, and they are
coming to kill you at night.
But I said, should a man like me flee, and could one such as I go into the temple to
save his life?
I will not go in.
Then I perceived that surely God had not sent him, but he uttered his prophecy against me
because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
He was hired for this reason, that I might become frightened and act accordingly and
sin so that they might have an evil report in order that they could reproach me.
These two, Sanballat and Tobiah, had hired this Jewish prophet to deliver a false prophecy
to Nehemiah.
You see, their attempt was that they might be able by this treachery to get him to enter
into the holy place in the temple unlawfully, a place he did not belong, and thus trip him
up, ruin his testimony among the people, and thus compromise him as their leader.
But God gave him wisdom to see that, and it did not work.
Verse 15 says, So the wall was completed on the 25th of the month of Elul in 52 days.
An amazing, amazing piece of engineering.
It goes on to say, And it came about when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations
surrounding us saw it.
They lost their confidence, for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with
the help of our God.
And in those days many letters went from the nobles of Judah to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters
came to them.
For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shekiniah,
the son of Erra, and his son Jehoahnan had married the daughter of Meshulam, the son
of Barakiah.
Moreover, they were speaking about his good deeds in my presence and reported my words
to him.
Then Tobiah sent letters to frighten me.
What's happening here?
Well, the work had been finished.
But Tobiah takes up correspondence with some of the leading families of Judah, particularly
those families that were in some way related to him by marriage, and perhaps who were obligated
to him in other ways.
And his aim was to create hostility among those leading families against Nehemiah.
And so there were spies who would report what Nehemiah said in private, and it would go
back and forth in these letters from Tobiah to the elders and from them back to Tobiah.
But it didn't work.
In addition to all of these tactics from the enemies without, Nehemiah had problems from
within the house of Israel and we'll not take time to even look at those as they're
recorded in this book.
The thing I want to point out to you that despite the opposition, from what could be
called I think a well-organized opposition, the work went on and was accomplished.
You know, we have enemies as a church outside of us, enemies that I hope we have not created
by anything we have done.
We should not be surprised by that.
I think, Paul, of the experience that the Edina Church has had in several of its programs
when the neighborhood was up in arms, that the church was growing and going to build.
And some concerns they had were legitimate, I suppose, but by and large the opposition
was fed by rumor and misunderstanding and where it came from only the devil knows.
Anytime the work of God goes forward, even in a literal physical building like that,
you can expect opposition to the point of politics in the community, to the point of
a passing of a resolution in Edina that prohibits, I think for the next year, isn't it, any
construction by a non-profit organization?
Isn't that right?
Which isn't going to affect the church because they don't intend to build it anymore for
the next year, anyway.
Recently I received a letter.
Whenever people join our church, we send a letter if they request it to the church they're
coming from to let them know that they should remove that person from their membership.
And I got a letter back, scrawled on the bottom of it.
This is the original letter we had sent from the pastor.
That church was all not named.
It's a liberal church.
It just scrawled on the bottom of it.
I've taken note of the content of your letter with sheep stealers like you around.
The end times must surely be close.
And then he signed it.
We can expect that, folks.
And it should not greatly alarm us.
Though we don't enjoy that, it should not greatly alarm us when there is opposition.
We should expect that.
Now Nehemiah made some interesting decisions in the light of all of this after the work
was done.
In the first place, he appointed his brother to be the governor of Jerusalem.
A good move on his part because this man was a faithful man and he feared God more than
many, which is not a bad report.
In addition to that, he began to list all the people according to their genealogy so
that the nation could get itself straightened out.
There was so much intermarriage.
In the midst of all of that, Ezra and the priests led the nation in a great revival.
We talked about that a couple of weeks ago.
Chapters 8 through 10 speak about what happened.
And it culminated with a national covenant and a great reformation in the nation.
Those who had married wives of he the nations around them put away their wives.
They restored their marriages to pure marriages.
The wall was rededicated.
And then Nehemiah returned to Babylon.
This was about 12 years actually after he had come.
But the king had said, now Nehemiah don't belong.
And he said, well, I probably won't be.
And 12 years later, he came back.
In reading the book, though, you'll notice that in the meantime, he got permission.
He got an extension of his time in Jerusalem.
But the time came when he had to go back.
After a period of time in Babylon, Nehemiah again returned to Jerusalem.
We don't know how long that may have been.
Maybe five years, seven years.
We don't really know.
But he returned.
And this is where I want us to focus as we bring this message to a close.
In chapter 13, between chapters 12 and 13, there are probably, as I've said, several
years.
And during that period of time, Malachi, who was used of God to write the final book of
the Old Testament, preached among the people in Jerusalem.
Well, it says in chapter 13, verse 1, on that day they read aloud from the book of Moses
in the hearing of the people.
And there was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite, remember who the Ammonites
and the Moabites were?
I told you earlier, descendants of Lot by his daughters, that none of them should ever
enter the assembly of God because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and
water but hired Balaam against them to curse them.
That goes back to the Willem's journey.
However, our God turned the curse into a blessing.
How often that happens when God's work is opposed.
So it came about that when they heard the law, they excluded all foreigners from Israel.
So again, there was a reformation.
And this is only a few years after the great revival we talked about earlier.
But the people had slipped back into their old ways.
You see, they weren't a whole lot unlike us.
Now prior to this, Eliashib, the priest who was appointed over the chambers of the house
of our God, being related to Tobiah, remember him, had prepared a large room for him where
formerly they put the grain offerings, the frankincense, the utensils, and the tithes
of grain, wine, oil prescribed for the Levites, the singers, and the gatekeepers, and the
contributions for the priests.
But he says, during all this time I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year
of our exerxes, king of Babylon, I had gone to the king.
After some time, however, I asked leave from the king and I came to Jerusalem and learned
about the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by preparing a room for him in the
courts of the house of God.
And it was very displeasing to me, so I threw out all of Tobiah's household goods out
of his room.
And then I gave an order and they cleansed the rooms and I returned there the utensils
of the house of God with the grain offerings and the frankincense.
Reception from the tribes around them, specifically the Ammonites and the Moabites, was necessary
again.
But there was one exception to that, and that was Eliashib's arrangement with Tobiah.
This is the very same Tobiah who had fought tooth and nail to keep Nehemiah and the people
from rebuilding the walls, the very same character.
But Eliashib was related to Tobiah.
He was not only related to Eliashib, but to several other leaders, as we have already
suggested.
And as a result of his political pull, Tobiah caused an area of the temple structure to
be emptied of its normal contents and he set up house there.
And this was all by permission of Eliashib, who was probably the high priest.
Everybody else apparently had obeyed the law of separation.
The Ammonites were kicked out, the Moabites were kicked out, except for this Ammonite,
Tobiah.
In doing so, Eliashib deliberately compromised God's Word, God's holiness, by allowing
Tobiah to remain.
And the only remedy for that was a cleansing.
Nehemiah threw out all of his belongings and probably they were thrown out and burned in
the garbage dump in the Valley of Hinnom.
And then, according to the law of God, he cleansed that part of the temple and caused
the utensils and the goods that belonged there to be stored there once again.
There's an application, people, that I want to make to us.
And that is, as I asked earlier, is there a Tobiah in your life?
You may feel that there is a cleansing of your life, that you have gotten rid of those
things that ought not to be a part of you.
But I wonder if you have retained, as Eliashib did, something that doesn't belong.
If you have protected, for one reason or another, something that is inconsistent with your position
as a child of God.
Perhaps as Eliashib found, there is a relationship that is more dear to you than total obedience
to Jesus Christ.
Believe it or not, Eliashib, the high priest of Israel, was willing to work in cooperation
with Tobiah, the enemy of the Lord.
It reminds me of King Jehoshaphat.
Do you remember him?
Sure you do.
King Jehoshaphat was one of the good kings of Judah.
And he had a son who married the daughter of a fellow who lived north of him a ways by
the name of Ahab.
He was married to a woman by the name of Jezebel.
That marriage caused Jehoshaphat, the good king, the godly king, for the most part, of
Judah, to be willing to make an alliance with Ahab.
Ahab came and said, you know, I've got some enemies over here.
Would you fight with me against them?
And Jehoshaphat looked at him and said, oh yeah, they are my enemies too.
Let's get together.
We'll wipe them out.
We'll just smear them.
We'll do them in.
We'll work together at this thing.
And so they did.
And you know what happened?
Jehoshaphat almost got killed.
God didn't bless that battle because there was an alliance that was unequal between a
godly king and a very ungodly king.
God spared the life of Jehoshaphat.
Ahab was killed.
But when he got back to Jerusalem, God sent a prophet, knocked on the door, and came in
to talk to Jehoshaphat.
You know what he said?
He said, Jehoshaphat, why do you love those that hate the Lord?
My friend, that's a question to ponder.
Eliashib, why do you love Tobiah?
He hates the Lord.
And yet you've made a room for him in the temple.
I want to ask you the same question, that thing that you're protecting in your life,
that you will not yield to Jesus Christ, that area of your temple where you have said to
the Lord, do not enter.
Why do you love that instead of the Lord?
You may feel that your life is pretty well cleaned up, and yet somehow you cannot get
joy in the Christian life, or you cannot experience the fullness of God's blessing in your ministry,
your teaching, whatever you do.
And you say, what is it that's interfering in my service for the Lord?
Have you considered that it could be a Tobiah?
The Tobiah perhaps of pride or self-glory?
Why do you do what you do?
Is it for yourself that you might be prominent, that people might look at you and say, what
a successful person.
This guy has sacrificed so much.
Isn't it amazing?
Is that what you're looking for?
Then my friend, that is a Tobiah to you, that is hindering God's work in your life, the
lack of submission.
What about the Tobiah of jealousy, of comparing yourself to others and saying, well, how come
that person gets a break?
Why don't I get this?
My friend, that is a Tobiah that you're allowing in your temple that's going to hinder the
Spirit of God from working your life.
What about the Tobiah of anger?
You may have your act pretty well together as a Christian, but somehow there is that
Tobiah of anger.
And when something hits you wrong, you fly into a rage.
God's blessing will never be yours until you deal with that Tobiah.
What about the Tobiah of impurity?
You're doing pretty well in the Christian life, but there's a problem in some of the
things you read and look at.
In your mind, if it could be displayed on a television, it would be rated R or X or
worse.
You may be a humble person, you may be a patient person, but my friend, if you've got the
Tobiah of impurity, God's blessing will not be in your life.
It's that simple.
What about the Tobiah of gossip?
The Tobiah of a critical spirit.
Dear people, it is time for you and for me to do what Nehemiah did, to see where the
Tobias are that are afflicting us and keeping the hand of God's blessing off of our lives
and deal with that Tobiah.
And there's only one way to do it, and that's drastically.
To kick that Tobiah out and to cleanse the life, how do you do that?
It begins by an honest admission before God that Tobiah is in your temple.
And then saying, Lord, I go with you into this temple of mine, and together with your
strength I remove this Tobiah from my life.
And I ask you to cleanse me.
You know what will happen when you do that?
God's blessing will fall.
It did in Israel.
And what happened to them will happen to you.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, search our hearts.
Try us and see if there be any wicked way in me.
Father cleanse and purge us of Tobias.
Forgive us for loving those who hate the Lord.
Forgive us for loving that which is unholy and hindering your Spirit's freedom in our
lives.
And give us tonight, I pray, hearts of repentance that our temples may be cleansed and Tobiah,
whatever that may mean to each of us, be removed.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Would you take your hymnal and turn to 317?
With this we will close.
Search me, O God, and know my heart today.
Cleanse me from every sin and set me free.
Can we pray with you?
Can we get down on our knees together in a quiet place in this church and share with
you that struggle, that spiritual battle with Tobiah?
Can we have that privilege?
My friend, don't go out with your heart breaking, with that struggle remaining in your life,
but deal with it tonight.
I invite you to come here to the front.
Yes, it will take humility.
Yes, it will take courage.
But my friend, if you want the blessing of God, you have to deal with Tobiah.
Let's stand together as we sing.
Search me, O God.