Nehemiah 6:10-13

One day Nehemiah went to visit Shemaiah. Shemaiah may have been a priest (Ezra 2:60; Nehemiah 10:8). We do not know why Nehemiah visited him. Perhaps Nehemiah wanted Shemaiah to pray with him. Nehemiah thought that he could trust Shemaiah.

It seems that Shemaiah was a *prophet (see verses 12 and 14). Perhaps Nehemiah was hoping that Shemaiah would give him (Nehemiah) a message from God. And Shemaiah did pretend that he had a message from God. But in fact, this message really came from Nehemiah’s enemies.

Shemaiah would not go out of his house, but he offered to go to the *temple with Nehemiah. Shemaiah pretended that he wanted to protect Nehemiah. Shemaiah told Nehemiah that men were coming to kill Nehemiah. But the *temple was a strong building. If they closed the *temple doors, Nehemiah would be safe inside.

Nehemiah realised that Shemaiah had given him bad advice. God’s law said that only priests could enter the inner *temple. Nehemiah was not a priest, so he could not go there. Such an action would be a *sin.

Nehemiah realised that Shemaiah had received money from Tobiah and Sanballat. They wanted Nehemiah not to obey God’s commands. Then they would be able to accuse Nehemiah. And the people would not continue to respect him.

Nehemiah refused to do what Shemaiah advised. But Shemaiah was not the only *prophet who tried to frighten Nehemiah. The *prophets should have supported God’s work. But instead, like Balaam (Numbers chapter 22), they accepted money to oppose God’s work.

v14 I prayed, ‘God, you know the bad things that Tobiah and Sanballat have done. And you know about Noadiah, the female *prophet, and the other *prophets who have tried to frighten me.’

Again, Nehemiah prayed to God for help. We can see from his prayer that he had other enemies as well as Tobiah and Sanballat. Some of the *prophets were trying to frighten him also. But Nehemiah trusted God. Nehemiah could not stop what his enemies were doing. But God could stop them. Nehemiah’s enemies were also God’s enemies and the enemies of the *Jews. So Nehemiah asked God to deal with all the enemies.

v15 We finished the wall on the 25th day of the month called Elul. It took 52 days to rebuild the wall. v16 Our enemies heard that we had finished. All the nations round us became afraid, and they felt less important. They realised that God had done the work.