The astonishing thing about this chapter is that Nehemiah succeeded. We know that he was against stiff opposition because the nobles did not respond when he had approached them earlier. Nevertheless, after Nehemiah had exposed the wrong being done and had challenged the offenders to return the pledged fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, refund the interest and stop the usury, the nobles responded, “We will give it back…and we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say” (v. 12). Nehemiah made sure it happened.

I am indebted to Frank R. Tillapaugh for some important thoughts at this point, based on the fact that in order to have a public meeting Nehemiah must have pulled his workers off the wall. In normal circumstances this would not have been remarkable. But these were not normal circumstances. Nehemiah’s one goal was to build the wall, and to build it quickly before the effort could be stopped by Israel’s enemies. He had everyone working. Yet now Nehemiah stops the work and holds a public meeting. Why was this?

How is a leader to deal with injustices, such as that which occurs when the rich mistreat the poor, particularly when they are practiced by the influential against the uninfluential? How can a person confront evil when the strong have the law on their side, as they usually do? The first thing Nehemiah tells us is that he got angry about these injustices. In fact, he got very angry. “When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry,” he says (v. 6).

The problem that erupted internally at this point is described very well in verses 1-5. “Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers. Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”

Suddenly, to judge from the tone of chapter 5, a new form of opposition erupted and from an unexpected source. The first two forms of opposition had been from without, from Israel’s enemies. This new form was from within. It arose because of wrong conduct by some of the Jewish people themselves.

It is not surprising in light of the first two points that this form of opposition was effective, at least upon the people who lived near these enemies but who were helping to rebuild Jerusalem. They knew the strength of these foes and reported, apparently with genuine fear and discouragement, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us” (v. 12).

The larger second half of Nehemiah 4 contains a second form of opposition to the governor’s work, the threat of physical violence. Nehemiah introduces the problem in verses 7 and 8 and describes how he met it in verses 9-23. The introductory verses say, “But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.”