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Nehemiah 6 Bible study: I am doing a great work
Nehemiah 6 is a chapter of sending: in Hebrew one verb runs from Sanballat's invitations to Tobiah's letters, and among them stands the man God "had not sent" (6:12). And four times the chapter names fear as what those against Nehemiah were after (6:9, 6:13, 6:14, 6:19).
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“I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I can’t come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?””
Try it · Did you catch it?
“The open letter came the fifth time Sanballat sent to Nehemiah.”
Is that in Nehemiah 6, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Four invitations, one answer
It was reported to them "that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left in it" (6:1), though "even to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates" (6:1). Sanballat and Geshem send an invitation, "Come! Let’s meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono" (6:2). Before Nehemiah gives his answer, he tells you what they meant: "But they intended to harm me" (6:2). The chapter doesn't say how he knew. His answer is about the work, not about them: "I am doing a great work, so that I can’t come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?" (6:3). They asked again and again: "They sent to me four times like this; and I answered them the same way" (6:4).
Where it leads to Jesus
Should a man like me flee?
Nehemiah 6:11leads toLuke 13:31-33
Shemaiah said, "they will come to kill you. Yes, in the night they will come to kill you" (6:10), and Nehemiah answered, "Should a man like me flee?… I will not go in" (6:11). In Luke, "some Pharisees came, saying to him, “Get out of here and go away, for Herod wants to kill you.”" (Luke 13:31), and Jesus answered, "Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I complete my mission" (Luke 13:32), and "Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, for it can’t be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem" (Luke 13:33). Jesus doesn't cite Nehemiah, and Luke doesn't say why the Pharisees gave their warning, so setting the two side by side is a reading. It rests on a shared subject, a warning to get away from men who want to kill, and an answer that won't turn aside, not on a shared word. Some hear in Jesus' answer the same refusal to flee from the work in hand ("I am doing a great work", 6:3; "today and tomorrow", Luke 13:32). Others read each in its own setting: Nehemiah refused a hiding place in the temple "to save his life" (6:11), and the wall was finished (6:15); Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, where he said a prophet would perish (Luke 13:33).
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Nehemiah 6
That was a taste
The rest of Nehemiah 6 is waiting in Favor
- Fear, named four times
- "This work was done by our God"
- Sent, and not sent
- Doors not yet hung, and doors to shut
- 9 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
שָׁלַחshalachsay sha-LAKH
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "send". Strong's: "to send away, for, or out". It comes seven times in this chapter, seven of its thirteen uses in the Hebrew of Nehemiah. Sanballat and Geshem "sent to me" (6:2); "I sent messengers to them" (6:3); "They sent to me four times like this" (6:4); "Sanballat sent his servant to me" (6:5); "Then I sent to him" (6:8); and "Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear" (6:19). And one sending the chapter denies: "I discerned, and behold, God had not sent him" (6:12). In 6:17 the WEB's "the nobles of Judah sent many letters" is a different Hebrew verb.
For your group
Nehemiah 6 Bible study questions
- 1"I am doing a great work, so that I can’t come down" (6:3). What invitation keeps coming back to you, four or five times, that would pull you away from what God has given you to do?
- 2The open letter was built on "It is reported" (6:6). Nehemiah answered in one sentence (6:8) and went back to work. When something untrue is said about you, what helps you answer it without being pulled off course?
- 3Four times this chapter names fear as what those against Nehemiah were after (6:9, 6:13, 6:14, 6:19), and Nehemiah wrote, "But now, strengthen my hands" (6:9). What is trying to make you afraid right now, and what would strengthened hands look like for you this week?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Nehemiah 6 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home