This chapter more fully reveals to conspiracy against Nehemiah as well as the completion of the wall in spite of it. His enemies continue to undermine his work, but Nehemiah is wise to their true intentions. I’m not sure if this is because God revealed it to him or maybe he just knew because there would be no other reason for him to go visit them.
Since the wall had apparently been completed in only 6 months, the surrounding areas were getting nervous that Israel’s God would also build them up into a great nation quickly. So they try to publicly accuse Nehemiah of leading the Jews in this direction. They are even able to pay off a priest to give a fake prophecy to Nehemiah. I’m not entirely sure how much this could have negatively portrayed Nehemiah, but if a leader who has been confident in God’s leading all of the sudden started hiding, it would probably harm his credibility. Fear in this situation would have been the opposite of faith in God. I think that in many instances in our lives, fear represents a lack of faith. Fear to me seems like another version of worry and who by worrying can add another hour to their life. As I sit here writing this on a plane, I wonder how does it reflect on my faith in God if I am scared of it crashing? Do I really believe that to die is gain? Do I believe in the sovereignty of God, because if He is sovereign should I really always be afraid of risk and try to only put myself in situations where I’m in control?
In the last section of this chapter, the wall is finished but we also are told how deeply the nobles had betrayed Nehemiah.n they had been secretly reporting back to Tobiah about everything he was doing. To me this means it was definitely God’s doing if the wall could be completed so quickly with such influential and extensive opposition. This probably gives Tobiah even more reason to fear the Jewish nation.