Nehemiah 6:17
Also in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters came back to them.
Sermons
HinderersHomilistNehemiah 6:1-19
Nehemiah's HeroismJohn McNeill.Nehemiah 6:1-19
PersistencyHomiletic CommentaryNehemiah 6:1-19
The Witness to the TruthW. Ritchie.Nehemiah 6:1-19
Trial and VictoryW. Clarkson Nehemiah 6:10-19
The Good Work Finished in Spite of Man by the Power of GodR.A. Redford Nehemiah 6:15-19














I. A great MANIFESTATION OF DIVINE POWER is a great casting down of God's enemies.

1. There is real weakness in all sin. "In their own eyes" defeat meant shame and confusion; but the true heart never doubts that its cause is right, even when success is delayed.

2. The world will perceive God's hand. When the finished work is before them they will not dare to deny who has accomplished it. Therefore we should hasten it on, and be more eager to bring it to completion.

3. The great facts of Divine grace spread their message not only among the enemies of the Church, but among the heathen, who have been sitting in darkness. A revived zeal and energy in God's people will have a mighty effect in casting down the imaginations which exalt themselves against the name of Christ.

II. The best preparation of the true Church against discouragements, both from without and from within, is to know that ITS WALLS ARE BUILT UP, AND ITS GATES IS THEIR PLACES.

1. That will put a stop to the corrupting intercourse between the Church and the world.

2. It will help the people of God to know their true leaders. The nobles were traitors; but henceforth men after the example of Nehemiah will be the defenders of Judah.

3. In the sight of the finished work the hearts of God's people are strong. In the best sense success makes success. "Tobiah's letters" will do no harm, for there are the walls speaking in the name of God, "epistles written by the Spirit of God, known and read of all men." Let the world trust as it may in its devices, we rejoice in "the walls of Jerusalem," which are "salvation," and "her gates" "praise." - R.

For they perceived that the work was wrought of our God.
Christianity does not stand in any merely literary defence, although its literary defence is complete; it stands rather in its beneficent accomplishments, in its regenerated hearts, its elevated lives, its new spirit of consecration, its broad unselfishness, its generous sympathy — "Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see."

(J. Parker, D. D.)

Homiletic Commentary.
I. WORLD'S PAST ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GOD.

1. Biblical instances.

2. Later instances.

II. WORLD'S PRESENT ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GOD.

1. Unconscious acknowledgments. Think of the way in which Christianity penetrates the life of the modern world.

2. Unwilling acknowledgment.

3. Frank acknowledgment.

III. THE WORLD'S FUTURE ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

1. Willing.

2. Enforced.Application

:

1. Make acknowledgment of God.

2. Now.

(Homiletic Commentary.)

It is amazing sometimes to find how many there are who heartily endorse a good work when it has arrived at or is approaching success, however much they may have frowned at it, or even opposed it, when it was struggling with difficulties.

(W. P. Lockhart.)

In the present day there is an impatient craving for immediate results which comes perilously near to mistrust of God. But verily there are results, and when such results are seen, then even enemies are constrained to admit that God's hand is in the work. The faith of converts must always be evidenced by their works, otherwise the world will not, cannot, perceive that God is working with us.

(W. P. Lockhart.)

People
Arah, Berechiah, Delaiah, Gashmu, Geshem, Jehohanan, Johanan, Mehetabel, Meshullam, Noadiah, Sanballat, Shecaniah, Shechaniah, Shemaiah, Tobiah, Tobijah
Places
Hakkephirim, Jerusalem, Ono
Topics
Chiefs, Freemen, Further, Judah, Kept, Letters, Moreover, Multiplying, Nobles, Replies, Sending, Tobiah, Tobi'ah, Tobiah's, Tobi'ah's, Tobijah
Outline
1. Sanballat practices by craft, by rumors, and by hired prophecies, to terrify Nehemiah
15. The work is finished, to the terror of the enemies
17. Secret intelligence passes between the enemies and the nobles of Judah

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Nehemiah 6:16

     5630   work, divine and human
     8728   enemies, of Israel and Judah
     8754   fear
     8820   self-confidence

Library
June 18. "I am Doing a Great Work, So that I Cannot Come Down" (Neh. vi. 3).
"I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down" (Neh. vi. 3). When work is pressing there are many little things that will come and seem to need attention. Then it is a very blessed thing to be quiet and still, and work on, and trust the little things with God. He answers such trust in a wonderful way. If the soul has no time to fret and worry and harbor care, it has learned the secret of faith in God. A desperate desire to get some difficulty right takes the eye off of God and His glory. Some
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Hindrances to Revivals.
Text.--I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you."--Nehemiah vi. 3. THIS servant of God had come down from Babylon to rebuild the temple and re-establish the worship of God at Jerusalem, the city of his fathers' sepulchres. When it was discovered by Sanballat and certain individuals, his allies, who had long enjoyed the desolations of Zion, that now the temple, and the holy city were about to be rebuilt, they raised a great
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion

Sharon. Caphar Lodim. The Village of those of Lydda.
Between Lydda and the sea, a spacious valley runs out, here and there widely spreading itself, and sprinkled with villages. The holy page of the New Testament [Acts 9:35] calls it Saron: and that of the Old calls the whole, perhaps, or some part of it, 'the plain of Ono,' Nehemiah 6:2, 11:35; 1 Chronicles 8:12... The wine of Sharon is of great fame, with which they mixed two parts water: and remarkable is that they say concerning the houses of Sharon. R. Lazar saith, "He that builds a brick house
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

"My Little Children, These Things Write I unto You, that Ye Sin Not. And if any Man Sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,",
1 John ii. 1.--"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,", &c. Christ Jesus came by water and by blood, not by water only, but by blood also, and I add, not by blood only but by water also, chap. v. 6. In sin there is the guilt binding over to punishment, and there is the filth or spot that defileth the soul in God's sight. To take away guilt, nothing so fit as blood for there is no punishment beyond blood, therefore
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Exhortations to Christians as they are Children of God
1 There is a bill of indictment against those who declare to the world they are not the children of God: all profane persons. These have damnation written upon their forehead. Scoffers at religion. It were blasphemy to call these the children of God. Will a true child jeer at his Father's picture? Drunkards, who drown reason and stupefy conscience. These declare their sin as Sodom. They are children indeed, but cursed children' (2 Peter 2:14). 2 Exhortation, which consists of two branches. (i) Let
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Ezra-Nehemiah
Some of the most complicated problems in Hebrew history as well as in the literary criticism of the Old Testament gather about the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Apart from these books, all that we know of the origin and early history of Judaism is inferential. They are our only historical sources for that period; and if in them we have, as we seem to have, authentic memoirs, fragmentary though they be, written by the two men who, more than any other, gave permanent shape and direction to Judaism, then
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
Nehemiah 6:17 NIV
Nehemiah 6:17 NLT
Nehemiah 6:17 ESV
Nehemiah 6:17 NASB
Nehemiah 6:17 KJV

Nehemiah 6:17 Bible Apps
Nehemiah 6:17 Parallel
Nehemiah 6:17 Biblia Paralela
Nehemiah 6:17 Chinese Bible
Nehemiah 6:17 French Bible
Nehemiah 6:17 German Bible

Nehemiah 6:17 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Nehemiah 6:16
Top of Page
Top of Page