Listen up, little ones
Listen for the words Jerusalem and people.
Reading
Nehemiah 4:7-14—And We Prayed to Our God
Keys for kids
- Sometimes God’s enemies use violence against God’s people.
- God’s people should always keep praying.
- God fights for his people.
Questions
- What did Sanballat do this time?
- How did God’s people express their discouragement?
- What did Nehemiah tell them?
Notes
(Today’s notes are from a commentary on Nehemiah by Stan K. Evers) When Sanballat and his allies realized that their ridicule had failed to stop the work they threatened the Jews with violence (4:8). This intimidation was dealt with by earnest prayer for divine assistance and increased labour on the wall (4:9). There was prayer and perspiration! Prayer without work is presumption, and work without prayer is self-confidence. We must pray because we accomplish nothing without God’s power, but at the same time we are to labour for God as if everything depended on our efforts.
As the Jews pressed on with their assignment they could hear the relentless and disheartening words of three groups pounding their eardrums. Some of their own number, who had prayed with them for God’s help, were still overwhelmed at the enormity of the task: ‘The strength of the labourers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall’ (4:10). When does realism become pessimism? It is true that we should weigh up carefully the difficulties in any spiritual enterprise, but we ought not to let our evaluation depress and defeat us. Nothing is too hard for our God! (Jer. 32:17).
Nehemiah perceived the mood of the builders as he galvanized them into action: ‘Don’t be afraid of them.’ They were to fix their thoughts on the Lord ‘who is great and awesome’ (4:14; cf. 1:5). The fear of the Lord is the cure for the fear of man. … Nehemiah, as ever, was careful to give the credit to God for overturning the spiteful schemes of Sanballat
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 138b, 133a
Prayer
- Ask God to fight for you.
- Give thanks for something from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.