Referring briefly to the story of Nehemiah, we recall that a large number of the Jews who had gone into captivity had escaped and had congregated at Jerusalem, which they found in utter ruin, with the great walls broken down and the nine huge gates burned. When news of the devastation reached Nehemiah he asked of King Artaxerxes permission to go to Jerusalem, and that letters be given him to "the governors beyond the river" and also to "the keeper of the king's forest" that timber might be supplied with which to rebuild the city. The king granted his request, and when Nehemiah reached Jerusalem he found a people who rejoiced in his leadership and "strengthened their hands for this good work."
To each man of valor was allotted a certain section to repair. Then Sanballat and Tobiah, who were hostile, began to ridicule the workers, calling them "feeble Jews" and ironically suggesting that even a fox would "break down their stone wall;" but Nehemiah prayed for protection and helped to bring about the answer to his prayers by continuing the work. At last these enemies, growing bolder through desperation, conspired with outlaws, concerning whom we are told that Nehemiah found it necessary to "set a watch against them day and night." In addition, the workers were armed and a trumpeter stood always beside Nehemiah. The demand for watchfulness made it impossible for servants or guards to put off their clothes except for washing.
Baffled again, the crafty conspirators sent a message to Nehemiah asking that he meet them for a conference on the plain of Ono. Nehemiah sent back word, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?" Four times he refused the same message. A sixth and last attempt, made to draw him off into the temple under the plea of protection, was neutralized by Nehemiah's knowledge of God's omnipotence and omnipresence. "So the wall was finished ... in fifty and two days;" and Nehemiah adds, "When all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God."
