Four months had passed since Nehemiah had asked Hanani and the men of Judah about the Jews at Jerusalem, and the city itself. He was now at his post of duty, serving the king who noticed his sadness, and asked him about it.
Nehemiah was very sore afraid, for his life was in danger, quite possibly, but he must answer in such wisdom as God would give him at the moment, and so he proceeded to lay before Artaxerxes the state of Jerusalem. The king then inquired for what. he asked, and before answering, Nehemiah prayed to God. It was on his heart to go to Jerusalem to rebuild it, and God granted him favor with the king, so that he was shortly directed to go there. Ezra had gone at the head of a large company of exiles; 'Nehemiah went alone, except for a guard supplied him by the king.
As Nehemiah progressed toward the city which God had chosen long centuries before to set His name there, he delivered to the governors the king's letters. One man is mentioned, apparently a governor, who disapproved strongly of the project Nehemiah had come to carry out. Sanballat the Horonite was an enemy of the Jews; so also was Tobiah the Ammonite; it grieved these two exceedingly that there had come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. But there are always Sanballats and Tobiahs where there is a work of God.
Nehemiah rose in the night with a few men, and went around parts of the wall of the city, observing the ruin,—-and the gates consumed with fire. Afterward he told the leaders of the people what he had seen, and why he was come, asking them to undertake the rebuilding of the wall. There was willingness to begin, and preparation was made, but Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem, the-Arabian sneered at the work.
This is one of Satan's methods of trying to break down the work of God in our day.
Nehemiah, however, told the mockers that God would prosper the builders, but they, the Horonite, the Ammonite and tile Arabian had no portion or right nor memorial in Jerusalem.