Satan's a schemer, part V

I feel a real empathy for Nehemiah.
Time after time, he must have thought, "Whew! Glad that's over! God brought me through, once again! Praise Him!"
And then . . .
The devil comes up with another scheme.
Been there?
Yep, me too.
But right now, let's concentrate on a victory!

 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. (Nehemiah 6:15)

Whoooooo hooooooo!
High fives all around!
Happy dancing is now commencing!
Ahhhh, now that should take the wind out of their sails! I mean Sanballat, Tobiah, and all the rest. And the devil.
And for the moment, it does.

When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. (v. 16)

When all the surrounding nations, both the people and the leaders, saw that the wall was completed, they became afraid. And they lost their confidence. Why? Because they were forced then to admit that the work was completed because of God! That's not something that they wanted to say or even think. All of the enemies that Sanballat had recruited and used . . . surely this was a time to pause and think soberly. In spite of all they had tried, the God of the Jews had helped them and the wall was finished.
It's ironic that since there were so many people who had been in the schemes and had worked against Nehemiah and the Jews, there were now so many people who were thinking about God's work in helping them complete the wall. Like ripples in a pond, the word was going out, far and wide: the plots and intrigue had failed! The Jews have completed the wall around the city of Jerusalem, and are giving glory to their God!
You see, even though Nehemiah and the workers had given it their all, not even their enemies attributed their success to their hard work. They knew that the success of the enterprise came from God.
What an example for us! Yes, we should be diligent. We should work hard. In fact, work as hard as if the success depends on us. But TOTALLY lean upon the Lord all the while. We need to remember:

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, (Ecclesiastes 9:10a, NIV)

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,    and he will establish your plans.(Proverbs 16:3)

Unless the Lord builds the house,    the builders labor in vain. (Psalm 127:1)

We can (and should) pour our hearts into the work that God has given to us to do. As we work, we can pray that even God's enemies will glorify Him when the work is successful:

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (I Peter 2:12)

This is great! Satan gave up the battle, packed his bags and when home! Right?
Ummmm, in a word, no.
Not exactly.
In fact, I think we can say quite definitely. NO!
Satan did lose the battle.
But he pulled out one more scheme . . . . he infiltrated the ranks.
Huh?
Remember Sanballat's buddy, Tobiah? Number Two Bad Guy. Well, he was the governor of the Ammonites. It's kind of a peculiar situation, almost like he was a half-Jewish person. After all, his name is Jewish, and means "Yah is good." We read in verse 17 that he was corresponding with a couple of the influential Jews.

Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. (v. 17)

In verse 18, we read that he was related to them by marriage, and also had business contracts with them, too.

For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shekaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. 

Now, these "brother-in-laws," as we will call them, stayed in frequent contact with Tobiah, since verse 17 says "many letters." What a grapevine!

Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. v. 19a)

According to these verses, they were reporting things  to Tobiah that Nehemiah said. And they also were telling Nehemiah what an awesome guy Tobiah was!

Time to show your true colors, Tobiah! Let's look at the last half of verse 19:

And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me. (v 19b)

We are going to see that this is not the end of the trouble that Tobiah causes. Like a pot of soup left on the stove, things are going to simmer along until in a later chapter we have things boil over into a mess!
Yes, Satan is infiltrating the ranks. We'll talk a bit more about this tomorrow.