The Bible Study Podcast, episode 624. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues with the study of the book of Nehemiah with chapter 4.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen.

We continue on with this story of Nehemiah.

We have already got them working very feverishly finally after years of not doing much work,

rebuilding the wall and everybody is pitching in and they're building the wall and then they build a wall and it's all done.

No, that is not how this book goes. There is,

as we hinted to two chapters ago, opposition. Opposition to the rebuilding. When Sanbalat heard

that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews,

and in the presence of his associates and the army of

Samaria, he said, what are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer

sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of

rubble, burned as they are? Tobiah the Amarite, who was at his side, said what they are building, even a fox

climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones.

Hear us our God, for we are despised, turn their insults back on their own heads,

give them over as plunder in a land of captivity.

Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight,

for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.

So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height,

for the people worked with all their heart.

I'm going to pause here for a second here.

So the first thing that happens is these people who don't want to see Israel prosper.

These people who have other priorities, they are standing outside and they're doing what people do when you start something is they're

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