Nehemiah’s calm conclusion to the matter is: “So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work” (Neh. 4:6). Nehemiah’s confidence in God is reflected in the people’s willingness to work. Oneness in a work is not produced by common agreement; oneness is produced by having one mind, and that mind is God’s mind. “I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord” (Phil. 4:2). Paul is not exhorting them to get together and come to an agreement, but rather, as we find earlier in this letter: “Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind” (Phil. 2:2). And what mind would that be? “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). Only when we have the mind of Christ will there be concord and unity.
Despite Nehemiah’s prayer, this was not the end of the trouble. Though there was an initial respite, the enemy’s attacks are renewed. Was God’s answer to Nehemiah’s prayer incomplete? No! God’s deliverance is not always to take us out of our circumstances; sometimes He must take us through them.