The Discipline of Danger

''Should such a man as I flee?'' (Neh. 6:11).

   Life is continually beset by many dangers: physical dangers at home as well as on the highway or in the hospital; social dangers from within as well as from without; spiritual dangers from companions and customs as well as from carelessness or compromise. We cannot avoid dangers, even in the most sheltered circumstances; and our problem is detecting the dangers and facing them, avoiding them if possible, but never ignoring them.

   Illustrative of the discipline of danger is the experience of Nehemiah, the cupbearer of the mightiest monarch of his day, who preferred to identify himself with the remnant of his people in the Land of Promise than to enjoy the leisure and luxury of the world. At great personal sacrifice, he left the court, to be content with the hard lot of a pioneer in a country of desolation.

   One would think that his sacrifice in leaving position and pleasure would have been sufficient for him, and for any servant of God, but that was not the case. There were persistent and pestiferous foes

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in the land, who could not bear to see God's cause prosper; and they hated especially Nehemiah, who had come to assume leadership for the discouraged builders of Jerusalem. Any servant of God in a place of responsibility, however obscure or prominent that place might be, will have similar dogged and deceitful dangers. The Sanballats, Tobiahs and the Arabian Geshems did not cease to exist when the walls of Jerusalem were completed; rather, down through the ages the leaders of the Lord's people have faced their cruel and cunning connivances.

   There was the danger of intrigue (Neh. 6:1-4). In their machinations to do mischief unto Nehemiah they proposed a meeting in some village outside the city walls. Their plausible purpose was to come to an understanding, the one with the other, that all future difficulties could be avoided; their real objective was to put Nehemiah into a position of compromise, whereby he would be suspected by his compatriots, or to capture him by guile.

   Our critics and enemies always have ostensible reasons for wanting to talk things over a bit. They are adept at raising questions and instilling doubts. They want us to explain our convictions and our course of action not for their enlightenment and edification, but for our confusion. It seems that we should make an answer, that we should defend ourselves by explaining our motives and our methods, that we should set right the thinking of our opponents in one strong statement of fact, that we should dispel all doubts by a definition of our divinely

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appointed duty. But such is never the case. If they really wanted information, enlightenment, statement of fact, they could come to us; but they desire only doubt, difficulty, diversion from duty, and disgrace to us.

   Our strongest answer to intrigue is found in the course of action followed by Nehemiah. He weighed the alternatives in an even scale, and determined that he had been called to build, not to argue or to explain. He said simply and tersely, ''I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, to come down to you?'' (Neh. 6:3). How great danger of intrigue would be avoided in God's service, and how much would be built, if we determined that it was also our duty not to neglect the work by descending to the plane of pestilential critics. To the work, and not to words!

   There was also the subtle danger of innuendo. When the snare of deserting duty proved unsuccessful against the active and aggressive Nehemiah, his foes sought to discount his efforts by ascribing false motives to him (Neh. 6:5-9). There was the familiar technique of an ''open letter'' (vs.5), in which ''it is reported . . .that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king'' (vs. 6). Flight of imagination, false indications, fanciful implications—all are employed to make Nehemiah's motives subtle, selfish, and sordid. Unvarnished untruth, rumor run riot, downright deceit, nothing seems to be withheld

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from God's servant, to prevent his performing his appointed task.

   Is there not an old, yet up-to-date ring about this accusation? Toward the dawn of human history did not the enemy, the Father of lies (John 8:44) ascribe selfish objectives to Job, saying, ''Doth Job fear God for nought?'' (Job 1:9). Joseph's brethren said, ''Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him'' (Gen. 37:19,20). To Jeremiah, ardent patriot of Jerusalem and earnest prophet of Jehovah it was stoutly declared, ''thou fallest away to the Chaldeans'' (Jer. 37;13), and no denial by God's servant was able to reverse that false declaration. The Lord Jesus knew the biting bitterness of false accusation, by erudite Pharisees and their uninformed following, ''He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of devils'' (Luke 11:15); ''We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King. . . He stirreth up all the people'' (23:2,5). And who today has not had his motives misinterpreted, his methods maligned, his efforts endangered by insidious innuendo?

   Nehemiah gives us the solution of this discipline. He says frankly, ''There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart'' (Neh. 6:8); and thereafter he commits his cause to Him who judgeth righteously. We are to trust, and not be afraid (Isa. 12:2). We can say with David, ''For I have heard the slander of many:

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fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. But I trusted in thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God. My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. . . Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the  righteous'' (Ps. 31:13-15, 18).

   Intimidation follows unsuccessful intrigue and innuendo (Neh. 6:10-14). The enemy is persistent in his plot to undo the work of the godly. Nehemiah was warned by the Mafia of his day, ''Let us meet together in the house of God [how pious the fierce Prince of Darkness can become!], within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee'' (6:10).

   Down the ages men and women have stood in the place of danger for God; and their stand has been honored by Him. Gideon, with three hundred, faced the hosts of Midian and Amalek, that ''lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude'' (Judges 7:12), Shammah stood his ground when all fled, ''and the Lord wrought a great victory'' (II Sam. 23:12). Asa, before the onslaught of a vast horde of Ethiopians, prayed, ''Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude'' (II Chron. 14:11). Jehosaphat cried, ''O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might

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against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee'' (II Chron. 20:12). Three young men declared, ''If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up'' (Dan. 3:17,18).

   Nehemiah's reply to intimidation is worthy of record, ''Should such a man as I flee?. . . I will not go in'' (Neh. 6:11). Are we servants of the Most High, and should we fear to stand firm in His cause, in nothing terrified by our adversaries? (Phil. 1:28).

   Intrigue, innuendo and intimidation are insufficient to terrify and drive backward the soldier of the Cross, clad in the armor of righteousness (Eph. 6:10-18); so insinuation is substituted by the insistent and insatiable Adversary of our soul. ''Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them. . . Also they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear'' (Neh. 6:17,19). Letters, letters, letters, how they are multiplied against the servant of God, as in Nehemiah's day, even by ''the nobles.'' Few seem too high-principled not to stoop to writing letters about others, ''many letters'', with their sinuous and sly insinuations. What havoc they wreak in God's cause, what

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heartache they produce. One of the deepest testings of a true child of God is to stick to his divinely appointed duty when all the while there is a barrage of letters about him.

   Intrigue, innuendo, intimidation, insinuation, those constitute the discipline of danger. Our temptation is to turn from our task to untangle the intrigue, to take time to undo the innuendo, to flee from intimidation and to fight hidden insinuation. Our safety is in doing our duty, (2:3), in putting our trust in God (6:9), in standing stedfast and immovable (6:11), and in serving in silence. The result for us will be as it was with Nehemiah, ''the wall was finished. . . our enemies. . .were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God'' (6:15,16). Danger feared is folly, danger faced is freedom.

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Stand — withstand

Stand still! Stand firm!

Stand ever sound—

Stand armour clad,

''Tis fighting ground;

Then stand with victor's grip,

The ''foe'' to overthrow;

With holy hands, unloose the bands—

'Tis Christ that brought him low.

                     —Evan Roberts.

Chapter Three  ||  Table of Contents