Strengthen My Hands

Nehemiah 6:1-9

 

    Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it ( although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates),[2] Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, "Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono." But they intended to do me harm. [3] And I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?" [4] And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner.[5] In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand.[6] In it was written, "It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. [7] And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, 'There is a king in Judah.' And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together." [8] Then I sent to him, saying, "No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind." [9] For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done." But now, O God, strengthen my hands.

 

 

Nehemiah did not ask God to wipe out his enemies, as we might have done. He did not ask God to give his daunting responsibility to someone else, which we almost surely would have. He did not even ask for the walls to be miraculously built by legions of angels overnight, which we may have at least tried. Instead, he prayed, "Strengthen my hands."

 

 

Sometimes God prefers to do the miracle in us or thorough us.

 

 

"Strengthen my hands." And God responded, as is revealed in the first five words of

 

 

Nehemiah 6:15

 

So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days

No one would have believed it possible. Engineers are still marveling at the accomplishment. Mission Impossible became Mission Accomplished. Prayer guided, fueled, forced, and completed the impossible. Nehemiah refused to quit, and God did not fail to bless Nehemiah and the work. When God gave Nehemiah strength to complete the project, his enemies became so discouraged that they acknowledged that the rebuilding of the walls was the work of God!

 

Nehemiah 6:16

 

    And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.