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Union With the World Hinders God’s Cause
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letters of Tobiah came to them. For many in Judah were pledged to
him, because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah.” A Judean family
had intermarried with the enemies of God, and the relationship had
compromised their commitments. Others had done the same. These
were a source of constant trouble.
The nobles of Judah who had married idol-worshipers and who
had held traitorous correspondence with Tobiah now represented
him as an able and perceptive man, someone with whom the Jews
would do well to make an alliance. At the same time they betrayed
Nehemiah’s plans to him. In this way they gave opportunity to
misinterpret Nehemiah’s words and acts and to hinder his work.
Satan has always directed his assaults against those who advance
the work of God. Though often repulsed, he renews his attacks with
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fresh vigor, using new approaches. But the attack we should fear
the most is when he works secretly through the “friends” of God’s
work. Open opposition may be fierce and cruel, but it carries far less
danger to God’s cause than does the secret scheming of those who,
while professing to serve God, are at heart the servants of Satan.
The prince of darkness will use every trick that he can suggest
to persuade God’s servants to form an alliance with his agents. But,
like Nehemiah, they should reply, “I am doing a great work, so that
I cannot come down.” God’s workers must refuse to let threats or
mockery or falsehood divert them from their work. Enemies are
continually on their track. They must always “set a watch against
them day and night.”
Nehemiah 4:9
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As the time of the end draws near, Satan will use human agents
to mock and condemn those who “build the wall.” The builders
should work to defeat the plans of their adversaries, but they should
not allow anything—not even friendship or sympathy—to call them
from their task. Those who discourage their fellow workers by any
unguarded act bring a stain on their own character that they cannot
easily remove, and they place a serious obstacle in the way of their
future usefulness.
“Those who forsake the law praise the wicked.”
Proverbs 28:4
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When those who are uniting with the world urge joining with those
who have always opposed the cause of truth, we should shun them
as firmly as did Nehemiah. We should resist such counsel reso-