Heathen Plots
427
This conclusion was strengthened by the fact that the letter was sent
open, evidently that the people might read the contents, and become
alarmed and intimidated.
He promptly returned the answer. “There are no such things done
as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.” Ne-
hemiah was not ignorant of Satan’s devices. He knew that these at-
tempts were made in order to weaken the hands of the builders and
thus frustrate their efforts.
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Again and again had Satan been defeated; and now, with deeper
malice and cunning, he laid a still more subtle and dangerous snare
for the servant of God. Sanballat and his companions hired men who
professed to be the friends of Nehemiah, to give him evil counsel as
the word of the Lord. The chief one engaged in this iniquitous work
was Shemaiah, a man previously held in good repute by Nehemiah.
This man shut himself up in a chamber near the sanctuary as if fearing
that his life was in danger. The temple was at this time protected by
walls and gates, but the gates of the city were not yet set up. Professing
great concern for Nehemiah’s safety, Shemaiah advised him to seek
shelter in the temple. “Let us meet together in the house of God, within
the temple,” he proposed, “and let us shut the doors of the temple: for
they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay
thee.”
Had Nehemiah followed this treacherous counsel, he would have
sacrificed his faith in God, and in the eyes of the people he would have
appeared cowardly and contemptible. In view of the important work
that he had undertaken, and the confidence that he professed to have in
the power of God, it would have been altogether inconsistent for him
to hide as if in fear. The alarm would have spread among the people,
each would have sought his own safety, and the city would have been
left unprotected, to fall a prey to its enemies. That one unwise move
on the part of Nehemiah would have been a virtual surrender of all
that had been gained.
Nehemiah was not long in penetrating the true character and object
of his counselor. “I perceived that God had not sent him,” he says, “but
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that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat
had hired him. Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do
so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they
might reproach me.”