1. Part 6: Seeing Through The Schemes
Nehemiah
Part 6: Seeing Through The Schemes

2. Schemes and Deceptions
Have you ever been the intended victim of an internet scheme?
“I’m the widow of a very rich doctor in Nairobi, Kenya. Send me your bank info and I’ll deposit a bazillion dollars in your bank.”

3. Satan Is A Schemer
 2 Corinthians 2:11 -- …so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

4. Scheming Against Nehemiah
By chapter six the work on the walls of Jerusalem is nearly complete.
Only the gates remain to be installed. No breach remains in the walls.
Nehemiah’s enemies try again.

5. Their Proposals
Vs. 2,4 – “…then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to harm me…. They sent messages to me four times in this manner, and I answered them in the same way.

6. Nehemiah’s Refusal
Vs. 3 – “So I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?’”

7. Threats And Intimidation
“You and the Jews are planning to rebel.
“You are to be their king.”
“You have appointed prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem…’A king is in Judah.’
Come talk to us.

8. Nehemiah’s Second Refusal
Vs. 8-9
“We’re doing no such thing.
“You’re making that up.”
They are trying to frighten us.
“O God, strengthen my hands.”

9. Infiltration Prophecy for dollars Vs. 10-13 Shemaiah a prophet
“Let’s hide out in the temple.”
“They are coming to kill you at night.”
“I perceived that…Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him…that I might become frightened…and sin.”

10. How Satan Schemes Intimidation Shock and Awe
1 Peter 5:8- -- Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Why does the lion roar?

11. Isolation
Hebrews 10:24-25 – “…and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

12. Insinuation
Proverbs 16:28 -- A perverse man spreads strife, And a slanderer separates intimate friends.
2 Corinthians 12:20 -- For I am afraid… that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances….

13. Intrigue
Matthew 10: For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.

14. Don’t Quit Working!
The Jews finished rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days!
When we keep our minds and hearts on God’s work, amazing things can happen.

15. Enemies Lose Confidence
Vs. 16 – “When all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, they lost their confidence; for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.”

16. But…Satan Never Gives Up
Nobles in Judah continue correspondence with Tobiah
Bound by marriage ties
Tobiah continues sending intimidating letters.

17. We Need To Keep Working
John 9:4 -- We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.