Opposition strategies

That ole devil.
He sure has a lot of different strategies, doesn't he? (Grin) He's had quite a while to hone those and develop just the right things for certain humans.

Some humans don't worry about people being angry with them, like we studied yesterday. Some don't care a feather or a fig about ridicule; the anger and the mockery just slide right off them like those beads of water on our ducklings' backs (once they got their feathers and their down was covered up!).
The devil gets more bold for people like that. He gets more aggressive.
He pulls out two more tools -- threats and intimidation.
Now, Sanballat, as governor of Samaria, and Tobiah, too, as leader of Ammon, were ultimately required to report to the fellow that sent Nehemiah out on this task: Artaxerxes. Yep, the high and mighty muckety-muck with all the power and the money. What does this have to do with anything the devil might devise?
Well, Nehemiah's enemies needed to be careful; he and his countrymen were working with Artaxerxes' permission. Tobiah or Sanballat or one of the other two neighbors couldn't just rustle up their armies, march on Jerusalem, and lay waste to the work being done.
Nope.
If they were to do that, they would actually be charged and tried for rebellion against King Artaxerxes.
But they could (and they probably did) use threats and acts of violence. Let's look back at chapter four.

They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.”12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.” (v. 8, 11-12)

Ohhhhhh, sneaky!
They circulated threats among the people working; they may even have sent small bands of terrorists in to pick off a few of the people working on the wall. That way, Sanballat would just tell Artaxerxes it was "just a band of rengades that I don't have any control over..."
Sounds a lot like the international politics of today, does it not? The nations ruled by Islam can shake off the blame or culpability for havoc and murders by saying, well, it's not something we did officially. It's just a group of renegades - surely you understand that we can't control them all!
These threats and the campaign of intimidation certainly put the Jewish people under immense pressure.
The devil still uses threats and intimidation to oppose us believers . . .  don't think so? "If you don't keep quiet about the boss's using the company's money unethically, you'll lose your job." Or, "don't say anything about being a Christian in that job interview, or they'll think you're a fanatic and not hire you."
How about this? "If you discipline your children the way you feel Scripture tells you, the department of social services will come and take them from you."
Or even this? "If you write that paper and defend the creation theory, that professor won't pass you and you won't graduate."
There's even something as simple and as subtle as a roll of the eyes or a slightly irritated eyebrow raise at a business dinner when you bow your head to thank God for the food, and they need to wait for an answer to their question.
Yes, the devil knows just what will stop us. Or at least slow us down.
And he will use whatever he needs to . . .
If we aren't careful, he can even use our "tireds."
We can see in verse ten of our chapter that the people were getting discouraged. And tired.

 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”

The piles of rubbish didn't seem to be getting any smaller! And even though the people had worked with all their might (verse 6) they were starting to "run out of steam" as my grandma used to say. They'd made such a great start! They had worked enthusiastically and the wall had gotten up to half of its planned height. Satan knows humans very well: he knows that right in the middle of things, exhaustion can set in. People start to focus more on the piles of rubble than on the wall they've gotten midway through on. They feel like quitting. (He knows he has to strike at just the right point, too, because humans seem to get another surge of enthusiasm if they can just get over that hump and think "we're almost done!")

Sometimes it's that way in our Christian life, too. When we are first saved, or immediately after an experience of re-dedicating ourselves to following Christ, everything is exciting. Each Bible study you go to is fresh. Every podcast is challenging. The time we spend in prayer is rich and satisfying. But somewhere down the line, the "new" wears off, as one of our recent posts noted. We start to focus more on the piles of rubble than on that wall we should be building. We begin to grow discouraged and fatigued, and wonder if our efforts are making any difference for the kingdom.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

Paul just knew that we needed to hear that, right? (Grin) That's where our study times will come in so handy! We can thwart the schemes of the devil if we have an arsenal of verses from God's Word to help us along!

He will just have to grab something else from his toolkit! Or go away and bother someone else! We're not giving up!