1a Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 2And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves?b Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” 3Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!” 4Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. 5Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.
6So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
Have you faced similar mockery and ridicule? What are the danger in this type of attack?
Share it with your friends
Most of us have had experience with what is called Murphy’s Law, the idea that if anything can go wrong, it will. There are many applications of it. For instance, if you try to fix something, Murphy’s Law says it will take longer than you anticipated; it will cost more than you expected; it will break down before it is paid for; and someone will not like it when it is done! We have come to such a circumstance in chapter 4 of the book of Nehemiah. Here Nehemiah faces severe and violent opposition to his work of rebuilding the walls and gates of Jerusalem. The opposition takes off its gloves, and the real battle begins. We, like Nehemiah, have an enemy who opposes us with craftiness and power. Against every effort on our part to get our lives together and recover from damage, hurt, and ruin, we will experience opposition from the enemy. Almost invariably his first attempt to halt such recovery is to discourage us through ridicule, derision, or rejection.
Hear the scorn, derision, and sarcasm in those comments! Many of us, perhaps, have experienced this kind of attack. I know personally of people who are unwilling to do what is right because they fear their friends will laugh at them or mock them. I know a man who is unable to stop drinking because his drinking friends make fun of him. Yet drink is destroying his life. I know of others who are hooked on drugs, but they do not want to stop because they are afraid they will be laughed at. These are the powerful weapons the enemy employs here.
Most of us have had some experience with this weapon of ridicule and mockery that the enemy employs here. Perhaps you have had someone say to you when you are trying to stop something that was wrong, Who do you think you are, anyhow? Do you think you are better than us? Or perhaps someone says, You’ve made a good start, but you won’t hold out. You won’t last.
Nehemiah regards this attack as an insult against God Himself. Note that he does not argue back nor does he retaliate. He does not blister these men with angry rebuttal. He simply responds by praying. It reminds us of Peter’s words about Jesus: When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats (1 Peter 2:23). This is a helpful picture of how to handle that kind of attack.
How do we respond when we are ridiculed or scorned? What is a better way to respond than in fear, anger, hurt, or rebuttal?
Good afternoon bros, being a Christian, you will face mockery & ridicule for your faith. When you complete projects in the world, you will face the same. People always have something to say. ? For the faith aspect, in my own life, I have had people call me a “Jesus freak” or made fun of the beliefs that I hold. They have made fun of me for simply being a Christian. As Tu said, a lot of times they do not understand why we meet so much (small group, ministry groups, practice, church service). The danger of this is that it could drive you away from your faith or cause you to hide your faith. I used to care but now it is kind of a compliment to be a Jesus freak. At least, they are aware of my faith and maybe it will open doors for them to want to become one too. It is worse when they call us Christians hypocrites or speak lies. On my social media, many of my acquaintances do this especially now during pride month or when something controversial comes up. They see that the church speaks hate and not love. However, this makes me more aware of my actions and the standards that I should uphold. I think being a Christian there are eyes on you 24/7. If you were to do something bad one may say “wow christians aren’t different than us at all. Why would I want to become a Christian?” Yes, we speak on repentence and how we too sin but I believe it is important to set yourself apart from the world. The danger is, one may fall for the lies of the world or be provoked to or blinded by their anger which was the objective of the enemies in Nehemiah. They may question their own faith and walk away if they do not have a steady foundation. The enemy will win as their objective is to shake us in our faiths but we must stand firm and “keep building” up our faiths like Nehemiah. I hope that my life can draw others to Christ and cause them to wonder what makes Christians different.
when we were preparing to plant RP, I recall hearing one of the Vietnamese speaking leaders tell us how another plant that splintered from the mother church was not “successful” since they had to rent out buildings and move around from place to place. I don’t remember being deterred by that comment but I’m sure if we allow people’s comments to be our primary focus then it will undoubtedly affect us in obeying what God is calling us to do.-Steve Hoang
I agree with Kevin that social media can lead to misleading and dangerous mockery of our faith.
I myself haven’t faced much mockery as a new Christian, but I’ve seen it in the same way Kevin has, as you just hear things or see things everywhere. It could be scary for someone like me who’s recently accepted Christ in their life, but I like to respond as Charles does and keep in mind who I’m serving, and that God has my best interest.
On productions I often see people make fun of Christians for our beliefs and lifestyle. However I often find its the conservative Christians my peers find frustrating. Sometimes I wanna speak up but I don’t. For me I don’t really face this mockery or ridicule.
Today I had the chance to share my faith too but I backed out. My friend is gay and I didn’t know how she’d react if I told her my pov (we were talking about why I wont date a certain individual). Its tough cause im sure she still be my friend if I told her but I was simply afraid of the outcome.
Living a life that resembles Christ is definitely a hard road to walk. Not only do we fall short, but the enemy continues to deceive us and have the world pressure us into conforming to their lifestyle. It’s crazy to think that you could be so passionate for Christ and want to do His will but fall into sin and the temptations of this world in an instant if you don’t keep your guard up and have a strong foundation. Just like how we takes about building our walls, we must protect ourselves from the lies of this world.
Unfortunately mockery is a common experience for most people but it hits different when the mockery is not only aimed at you, but your Almighty God. I remind myself that Jesus faced the worst mockery ever and if He was willing to experience excruciating pain and humiliation for a sinner like me, then I can stand up for Him and His sacrifice. Mockery can cause people to shift from caring about what God thinks of them, to caring about what the world thinks of them. I’ve had people publicly post about me on social media and anonymously bag on me for my faith; and it’s fine. The disciples faced much worse by being martyred and tortured. I live for an audience of one, God. I am also determined to be a Nehemiah who trudges on in his will from the Lord instead of a Peter who denied Christ thrice (although no hate on Peter cus he was a boss in his own ways)
What God and Nehemiah faced and endured are much worse than what we endure. God gave His all for us, and in turn, we need to stand up for Him. When we get discouraged by the world which constantly opposes us, we must remember that we belong to God and that God sees the sacrifices we make and endurances we take on. I admire Nehemiah praying for the people who has done him wrong; it shows love. It shows character and perseverance.
From brother Don
“Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews,” (Nehemiah 4:1). It is interesting to me that Sanballat would be so enraged. The NKJV says, “he was furious and very indignant.” This would implicate that perhaps he felt as if Nehemiah thought he was better than him. I have experienced this myself multiple times. Perhaps the time that stands out most in my mind as being the first, would be when I indirectly turned myself and my daughters’ mom in to social services. At the time I was deep in my addiction, and surrounded by people that were also living within the dark confines of the addicts code. I was ridiculed, mocked, and even threatened as a “narc,” but deep down I knew that something had to change to prevent my children from suffering even more than they already had. To this day I am convinced that we were dangerously close to tragedy. Looking back, of course, it was perhaps the best decision I’ve ever made- and I am entirely certain that God Himself is the One that caused it to actually happen- but at the time it was not easy. Today I am not sure what happened to any of those people or where they are- including my daughters’ mom- but I do know that my life today is better than I’ve ever known, and my girls are healthy, happy, and relatively safe. God is faithful to those who trust in Him, and, as Nehemiah seems to know very well, He is bigger than anyone or anything that could come against us!
Lord, thank You for Your faithfulness, and for leading each of us out of the darkness of our past lives. Give us courage to stand for righteousness, and give us a mind that stays on You in the midst of opposition and ridicule. Let all that we do be done for You! “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”