In chapter 6 of Nehemiah we see him in conflict, but it is in personal single-handed fight. In chapter 4 he is marshalling others, putting the sword in one of their hands and the trowel in the other, but in chapter 6 he is fighting alone and face to face with the wiles of his enemies. In the progress of this chapter, he is put through different temptations. Generally we see him as a single-hearted man whose body therefore, is "full of light." He detects the enemy and is safe. Besides this, he has certain special securities which are very profitable to consider for a moment.
1. He pleads the importance of the work he was doing (v. 3).
2. He pleads the dignity of his own person (v. 11).
These are fine arguments for any saint of God to use in the face of the tempter. The Lord Himself uses them, and teaches us to use them also.
In Mark 3, His mother and His brothers come to Him, and they seem to have a plan to withdraw Him to themselves from what He is doing, just as Nehemiah's enemies are seeking to do with him in this chapter. But the Lord pleads the importance of what He was doing in answer to the claims which flesh and blood had upon Him. He is teaching His disciples and the multitude, getting the light and word and truth of God into them. And the fruit of such a work as this, He solemnly lets us know, was far beyond the value of all connections with Him in the flesh. The claims of God's Word, which He was then ministering were far weightier than those of nature.
In like manner He teaches His servants to know the dignity of their work. He tells them, "not to salute any man by the way," or to stop to bid farewell to them that are at home, or to tarry even for the burial of a father (Luke 9; 10).
In Luke 13, the Pharisees try to bring Him into the fear of man, as Shemaiah seeks to do with Nehemiah. (Neh. 6:10). But the Lord at once rises into the sense of His dignity, the dignity of His person, and lets the Pharisees know that He is at His own disposal, can walk as long as He pleases, and end His journey when He pleases. The purposes of Herod are vain, except as the Lord allows them to transpire. And so, in John 11, when His disciples would have kept Him from going into Judea, where so lately His life had been in danger, He again rises in like manner, in the consciousness of personal dignity, and answers them as from this elevation. (See verses 9-11.)
The Holy Spirit by the apostle in 1 Cor. 6, would impart courage and strength to the saints, from a like sense of the elevation and honors that belonged to them. "Know ye not," says Paul to the Corinthians, "that we shall judge angels?" And again, "Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price." "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?”
There is something very fine in all this. These are weapons of war indeed, weapons of divine material. To gain victories with such is Christian conquest indeed. Temptations can be met and withstood by the soul carrying the sense of the importance of the work to which God has set us, and the dignity of the person which God has made us. It would be well if we would take down and use those weapons, as well as admire them, as they thus hang up before us in the armory of God. It is easy, however, to inspect and verify the fitness of an instrument to do its appointed work, and yet be feeble and unskillful in using it, and in doing the work it is appointed to do. J.G. Bellett