This is the Bible Book Club, the book of Nehemiah.

Welcome to the club.

Last episode, in chapter four of Nehemiah, we covered two forms of opposition.

These are the strategies the enemy used to keep Nehemiah from building that wall,

to try to keep Nehemiah from building that wall. The first was ridicule, a form of opposition

that can lead to us losing heart. Sambalat and DeBiah used ridicule to try to discourage

the small Israelite community from believing that they could accomplish

this build. Nehemiah would not have it. He prayed and continued building. The second was threats,

a form of opposition that can lead to fear. The contingency against the Israelites grew to the point

where Jerusalem was surrounded and the enemy planned an attack.

Well, Nehemiah was not having that either. He prayed and prepared for battle, but he never stopped

the building. In this episode, we will learn four more tactics to battle four more types of opposition,

while at the same time taking care of a little community governance. Scene one, the opposition

attacks with conflict. Internal conflict is a form of opposition that divides. When the enemy

fails in creating enough opposition from without, he goes to work stirring up opposition from within. Nehemiah chapter five. Now the men and

their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. Some were saying, we and our sons and

daughters are numerous. In order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain. Others were saying, we are mortgaging our fields,

our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine. Still others were saying, we have had

to borrow money to pay the king's tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same

flesh and blood as our fellow Jews, and though our children are as good as theirs,

yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery.

Some of our daughters have already been enslaved,

...