Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have demoralized the builders (Nehemiah 4:4-5).

Do these words not appear "unChristian"? Does Jesus' teaching, "Love your enemies," (cf. Luke 6:27) not apply to Old Testament saints? Both Jesus and Paul taught to bless and not curse (Luke 6:28; Romans 12:14). So when we read Nehemiah's imprecation (i.e. calling down curses on his enemies), how should we understand its application to our lives? 

I'm open to be corrected here, but here is my understanding thus far in my study. When we read imprecations in the Old Testament, particularly in the Psalms (e.g. Psalms 7, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 109, 137 and 139), and even possibly in the New Testament (e.g. 1 Corinthians 16:22; Galatians 1:8), they are not to be mimicked. These are descriptive and not prescriptive. They record what a prophet, a servant of God or an apostle said, but they are not instructions for believers to follow. The instruction for believers is to bless and not curse anyone (Romans 12:14), to treat everyone well and to leave judgment to God (Romans 12:17-21).

Was Nehemiah wrong to wish curses upon his enemies? Was the psalmist wrong to do the same? Was Paul wrong to wish a curse upon those who don't love Jesus? This is hard for us to judge because they may simply be prophetically reflecting God's judgment upon His enemies. Yet, who of us can make such a claim?

Paul instructed, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). While Jesus declared the aweful fate of the unbelieving religious leaders of His day (Matthew 23:13) and prophesied Judas' fateful doom (Matthew 26:23-24), these cannot be considered imprecations, for He did not wish evil upon His enemies so much as declaring their self-inflicted end. Instead, Jesus' life was characterized by love for His enemies, evident even on the cross, where He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). We should have this same attitude and do likewise. 

Nehemiah had a lot of opposition and obstacles to overcome in building the walls of Jerusalem. So how did he find the resolve to complete the work? I believe his reservoir of strength came from the LORD. Peppered throughout these chapters are the private prayers of Nehemiah. I believe they reveal his source of motivation and strength. He believed that God would not only help him to complete the work, but He would also reward Nehemiah for his part in faithfully bringing it to completion. 

Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people (Nehemiah 5:19).

But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” (Nehemiah 6:9).

Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me (Nehemiah 6:14).

Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services (Nehemiah 13:14).

Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love (Nehemiah 13:22).

Remember them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites (Nehemiah 13:29).

Remember me with favor, my God (Nehemiah 13:31).

Friends, I remember that even before my dad came to faith, he told me that he used to pray to God in the car right before he entered the dojo. He did not know who he was praying to, but he knew he needed God's help. I would like to believe that the spiritual foundation of our Martial Arts was established through those early prayers. 

I need to pray more than I do. But my daily habit has been for these many years to pray to God in the first hour before I get up from bed. While I am awake, I pray whatever is on my heart. While I pray for various things, my constant refrain is that I might bring Him the highest glory this day, and that whatever else I may experience, His glory and what pleases Him would be my intention, motivation, and ardent pursuit.

Sometimes, I pray onlyfor a few minutes, but other times it can extend to over and hour. I try not to be bothered by the anxieties that may bombard me that day, but I can testify that of all things, with only my daily quiet time in the Bible being comparable, nothing else so brings me peace and strength to face the day. And nothing else supplies the kind of wisdom and perspective to remove from me rash decisions, foolish behavior, and misplaced pride.

So I encourage all of you, who read my posts here, to not neglect this gift to us from God, namely, personal prayer. By it we learn to align our wills with His perfect will. It is certainly an act of humility, for prayer expresses our dependence upon God. In prayer we are reminded that God is in control.

We are comforted from any and every possibility of distress because by praying as Christians, we are also trusting in God's promise that our eternal hope of glory has been irrevocably etched into the Lamb's Book of Life by the blood of Christ from the foundation of the world. Therefore, we will not be anxious about anything, for what is there in our brief earthly experience that can compare to such a wonderful, eternal, and unshakeable hope.

Then I explained to the nobles and officials and all the people, “The work is very spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. When you hear the blast of the trumpet, rush to wherever it is sounding. Then our God will fight for us!” (Nehemiah 4:19, 20 NLT)

For some Nehemiah's words appear almost contradictory. First, he is encouraging preparedness in the event of an attack. But then he says that God would fight for them. Can you both trust God and also prepare? Yes! While there are occasions when God tells the people to just stand and watch Him achieve the victory, there are many more occasions where He commands them to fight and then He would give them the victory. This was certainly the case throughout the Book of Joshua where Israel fought many battles to conquer the Land of Promise. Trusting the Lord does not mean sitting on our duffs and waiting for the Lord to do something or move us to do something. It means to (1) live in obedience to what we know, (2) pray for providential guidance, and then (3) pursue a course of action in keeping with the wisdom He has given us. People usually fail in one of these three things. When they fail to obey what God has already revealed, they should not expect God to do anything for them. They need to first repent and then obey. This was the case in the battle against Ai in the days of Joshua. When people fail to pray, then they should not expect any guidance or protection from deception. This was the case when the Gibeonites deceived the Israelites into making a treaty with them. When people fail to act, then we find the situation in Nehemiah, where the walls of Jerusalem remained in ruins. 

For many in Judah had sworn allegiance to him [Tobias] because his father-in-law was Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan was married to the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. (Nehemiah 6:18 NLT)

Here we see the people of Judah connected to Tobias at the hip because they had family ties with him. Thus, they let their family ties supercede their spiritual responsibility to God. Consider the words of Jesus:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:26). 

Jesus' words make clear that God and the pursuit of His will supercedes even family ties and even our very lives. As we order our priorities for ourelves and our families, I wonder how many of us order these priorities with God and His will at the helm?

Friends, Nehemiah responded to those that were trying to discourage and distract him from the work of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down" (Nehemiah 6:3). Andy Stanley, in his application-commentary on Nehemiah titled Visioneering, first made me aware of the profound lesson in Nehemiah's response.

Many of us are discouraged and distracted by many things and people because we have either lost sight of or have not engaged ourselves in a "great work." I understand this great work to be something important, meaningful, and having enduring value. I understand that it is the kind of work such that other concerns must take a backseat to it in priority. It is a work that demands the lion's share of our focus, resources and energy. By definition, then, it is a work that is God-centered and intimately connected with God's will for our lives. As such, it is a work that permits us to entrust everything else into God's care.

Different people talk about having a sense of "peace." I've come to understand that this means something different to different people. As I see them, for some it defines their apathy or indifference. For others it defines their resignation to not worry about things they cannot control. For others it is their imagined sense that God approves everything that they do, no matter what it is. And still for others it is a focused conviction to trust and obey God's Word.

I see Nehemiah as the last of these, such that his peace did not arise from his unconcern for many things but rather from his intense concern for just one thing, namely, to do God's will. Is this not also the heartbeat of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6:33-34 and Luke 10:41-42 and Paul's teaching in Philippians 3:8, 13-14 and Philippians 4:6-7, 11-13?

This is the peace I seek, to somehow bring everything I do, think, say and feel in submission to the will of God. At any given moment I would like to say, as Nehemiah did, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down."

Nehemiah 5:14-19, Nehemiah prays or praises that for his 12 years in Judah, he never took his governors share of food, etc...While I understand why he is writing it, he almost sounds boastful and PROUD of this fact.  While I'm sure it was a great thing, how far removed is it from the other great Jewish leaders whose pride got in the way?

Again, I'm giving it a jaded interpretation, and maybe that is due to my attitude this afternoon, but it struck me as odd.

Yujin responds... I don't think this is Nehemiah being proud, for he is not going around parading this thing to the people. This enters his private memoirs in this book, as well as his personal prayer to God to remember him for what he has sacrificed and done for the people of God (cf. Nehemiah 5:19). Note, the text also clearly says that he did this "because of the fear of God" (Nehemiah 5:15). He is not seeking credit from people but from God.

What is more, consider why he does this. The people are suffering from a famine in the land. It would not be right for him to indulge himself with luxurious food while the people are barely scraping for food. Consider the complete contrast with our U.S. government officials, who are reported to have even given themselves raises during the terrible recession of recent years. 

What a great man he is! Nehemiah was not only a great leader but had a compassion on the poor as well. He truly led the post exilic Israelites with God's law. However, the attitude of the nobles was in such a stark contrast. They had the same mind with Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod against God and His servant. Previously Nehemiah described the same attitude of the nobles in 3:4:"The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors."

 What they were interested in was probably to maintain their social status and wealth. Social and financial establishment is not necessarily a blessing from God unlike most prosperity gospel preachers claim. We must pray for our needs just as Jesus taught us and let us "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness"