The Enemy Will Try and Try Again!

Have you ever heard the old adage,"if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again"! Well, we know someone who has heard it, and that is the enemy of our soul himself. If the saints of God had the persistence of the enemy we could conquer sins and satan for good! We see in Nehemiah 6 that Sanballat and Tobiah and all those in opposition to the re-building of the wall did not give up in their pursuit to stop the work:

When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates— ² Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono."

But they were scheming to harm me; ³ so I sent messengers to them with this reply: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" ⁴ Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. Nehemiah 6:1-4 (The Voice)

Fortunately Nehemiah was persistent too. He stayed focused on what he had to do and was not swayed with the invitation to meet with his adversaries:

⁵ Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter ⁶ in which was written:

"It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king ⁷ and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together."

⁸ I sent him this reply: "Nothing  like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head."Nehemiah 6:5-9 (The Voice)

Four times they tried to persuade Nehemiah to come down from the wall, and the fifth time they tried to trick him by sending false information that Nehemiah was trying to be king. One thing was sure Nehemiah knew his purpose and he knew that was not his objective, so he didn’t have to prove it to anyone else. So many times the enemy tries to trick us by causing us to believe we have to argue our case before those who oppose us; that somehow we will win them over if we just let them know what our plan is. This is a gross misconception. The enemy loves to back us in a corner and make us believe we have to fight our way out. If God has already given us the possession, why would we have to get the approval of men, particularly your enemy.

When Jesus went taken to Pilate because of the trumped up charges against Him that He was masquerading as something that He wasn’t, Pilate asked Him:

 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

² "Are you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate.

"You have said so," Jesus replied.

⁴ So again Pilate asked him, "Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of."

⁵ But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.Mark 15:1-2;4-5 (The Voice)

Nehemiah stood his ground, Jesus stood his ground; when we have been commissioned by God to perform a work – we can stand our ground too!

Maria