When the Enemy Mocks What God Is Rebuilding Nehemiah Teaching, Part 2

Nehemiah 4:2 reveals that Sanballat was not simply making random comments. He was using mockery as a weapon against the rebuilding work of God’s people.

He stood before his brothers and the army of Samaria and publicly mocked the builders:

“What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish, even the ones that have been burned?”

This was the voice of opposition trying to discourage, shame, and weaken the people’s faith before the work was complete.

The Enemy Attacks Covenant in the Mind

Sanballat’s first attack was not against the wall. It was against the people.

He asked, “What are these feeble Jews doing?”

This was an attack on their identity, their strength, and their covenant thinking. By calling them feeble, he was describing them as weak, fragile, insignificant, and incapable.

The enemy often speaks this way when the people of God begin to rebuild. He wants them to see themselves through weakness instead of through the Word of God. He wants them to agree with his assessment instead of standing upon God’s covenant.

The enemy understands that if he can influence what the people of God believe, he can weaken how they stand, how they pray, how they build, and how they respond to opposition.

The Bible says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

If the enemy can corrupt your thinking, he can weaken your faith. If he can weaken your faith, he can interfere with your ability to stand, build, and persevere in what God has assigned to you.

That is why Sanballat’s words were so strategic. He attacked their identity before he attacked their work. He wanted them to forget who they belonged to, what God had spoken, and what God was able to do through those who trusted Him.

But the Word of God answers the voice of mockery.

“Let the weak say, I am strong.”Joel 3:10

The enemy says, “You are feeble.”

God says, “Say you are strong.”

This strength does not come from self-confidence. The strength of the believer is not rooted in flesh. It is rooted in God.

“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts.Zechariah 4:6

Sanballat’s words presented a spiritual challenge: Would the people believe what the enemy called them, or would they believe what God had spoken over them?

Mockery Is Often the First Sound of Resistance

When the enemy sees the people of God rebuilding, he often mocks before he attacks physically.

Mockery is designed to produce discouragement, intimidation, shame, weariness, self-consciousness, and doubt about whether the work can actually be finished.

Sanballat wanted the builders to look at the wall, then look at themselves, and begin to think, “Maybe he is right. Maybe we cannot do this.”

That is why mockery becomes dangerous when it gets into the heart. It may begin as noise around you, but it becomes warfare inside you when you begin agreeing with it.

The enemy wants the people of God to break covenant with God in their thinking. He wants them to doubt what God said, question what God started, and lose confidence in what God is able to do through them.

The Enemy Questions Ability

Sanballat asked, “Will they restore it for themselves?”

This question mocked their ability. It was as if he were saying, “Who do they think they are? Do they really believe they can rebuild what has been broken?”

But the rebuilding was not their own idea. It was a work initiated by God and carried out through obedience.

The enemy loves to make God-given assignments sound self-appointed, foolish, and impossible. He wants you to question whether you were truly called, whether the vision came from God, and whether you have what it takes.

But the assignment does not depend upon human strength alone. When God calls, He also provides grace for the work.

The Enemy Questions Sacrifice and Worship

Sanballat then asked, “Will they offer sacrifices?”

This question mocked their worship, covenant, and devotion to God. It was as though he were saying, “Do they really think God is with them? Do they think worship is enough to sustain this work?”

Yet what the people were doing was itself a sacrifice. They were giving themselves to the work of God. They were labouring in obedience and rebuilding in the face of resistance.

There are seasons when obedience, perseverance, prayer, service, and remaining faithful to the work are all part of the sacrifice we offer unto God.

The enemy loves to mock prayer, worship, consecration, sacrifice, and obedience because he knows these are the very places where strength is released.

The Enemy Mocks the Process

Sanballat asked, “Will they finish in a day?”

This question mocked the rebuilding process. He belittled the work by making it sound foolish and impossible.

The enemy often mocks what God is building because it does not happen instantly. He wants believers to despise the process, despise small beginnings, and despise gradual rebuilding. He wants them to become discouraged because the work is not finished immediately.

But God often rebuilds stone by stone, day by day, prayer by prayer, and obedience by obedience.

Whether He rebuilds slowly through a process or suddenly by His power, the work belongs to Him. God is not limited by human strength, human timing, or human opinion.

If God desires to restore, rebuild, or save in a moment, He can. What looks impossible in the natural is still possible with Him.

The Enemy Questions the Possibility of Restoration

Sanballat asked, “Can they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish, even the ones that have been burned?”

This question mocked the materials they were working with and challenged the very possibility of restoration.

He was saying, “Look at what they have left. Look at the ruins. Look at the damage. Look at what has already been burned.”

The enemy was not only mocking the builders. He was mocking the possibility that anything broken, scattered, burned, or ruined could ever be useful again.

But what Sanballat did not understand is that God specializes in bringing life out of what looks ruined.

We are living stones, and Christ is the chief cornerstone. The God we serve brings beauty out of ashes. He takes what looks broken, burned, discarded, and unusable, and He restores it for His glory.

What looks like rubble to man can still become a wall in the hands of God.

The Enemy Mocks What God Is Restoring

The words about the burned stones carry a deep spiritual meaning.

Burned stones can represent areas of our lives that have been through fire, loss, devastation, disappointment, delay, warfare, and ruin.

The enemy says that part of your life cannot be used anymore. He says the ministry cannot rise again, the person cannot recover, the family cannot be restored, the calling is too damaged, and the season burned too much.

But Nehemiah 4 shows us that the enemy’s opinion of the rubble is not the final word.

God can still use what has been through fire. He can still rebuild from ruins. He can still restore what looks too far gone.

The enemy sees ashes, rubble, and burned stones. God sees a people He can strengthen, a wall He can rebuild, and a work that will still be completed for His glory.

Rebuilding Proves the Story Is Not Over

When the enemy looks at the people of God rebuilding, he mocks because rebuilding is evidence that God has not abandoned the story.

The wall was broken, but the people were building. The city was ruined, but the people were building. There had been shame, but the people were still building.

Rebuilding is a declaration that devastation does not get the last word.

The enemy is comfortable with broken walls that remain broken. He is comfortable with believers who remain in ruins, gifts that remain buried, callings that remain silent, prayer lives that remain dead, and vision that has been abandoned.

But when the people of God pick up the stones again, pray again, obey again, build again, and hope again, opposition begins to speak.

Rebuilding provokes opposition because it proves the story is not over.

Why Believers Must Know the Word and Stand in Armour

This is why we must know who we are in Christ, what God has spoken, and what we carry.

If we do not know the Word of God, the enemy will try to twist what God has said and cause us to question what is true.

That is what he did in the garden. He twisted God’s Word to Eve in order to create doubt and separation. It is what he tried to do to Jesus in the wilderness. He used temptation and distortion in an attempt to move Jesus away from truth.

The enemy still works the same way today. If we do not know the Word, hold to the Word, and stand on the Word, we can begin to question what God has already spoken.

That is why Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the whole armour of God and stand.

We do not stand in our own strength. We stand in truth, righteousness, faith, and the Word of God.

We need the belt of truth because the enemy traffics in distortion and deception. We need the breastplate of righteousness because the enemy attacks identity and covenant position. We need the shield of faith because fiery darts often come in the form of thoughts, accusations, and discouragement.

We need the helmet of salvation because the mind must be guarded. We need the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, because the believer must answer opposition with truth.

Nehemiah 4:2 teaches us that opposition is not always physical at first. Sometimes it comes through words. Sometimes it comes through mockery. Sometimes it comes through questions intended to weaken faith and corrupt perspective.

But the people of God must not build according to the voice of the enemy. They must build according to the Word of God.

Leadership Principle

A leader must learn not to measure the validity of the assignment by the volume of mockery surrounding it.

Sometimes mockery is not proof that you missed God. Sometimes it is evidence that the rebuilding matters.

If the enemy cannot stop the work at the level of assignment, he will try to stop it at the level of confidence.

The question then becomes: Will you keep building while being misunderstood, belittled, and mocked?

Sanballat saw feeble Jews, burned stones, and impossible odds. God saw a people in covenant, a work ordained by Him, and a wall that would rise again.

The enemy attacked the mind, questioned the sacrifice, mocked the process, and challenged the possibility. But his mockery did not cancel the assignment.

The same is true for the believer today.

What the enemy questions, God can establish. What the enemy mocks, God can restore. What the enemy calls weak, God can strengthen.

If God said rebuild, then rebuild. If God said restore, then restore. If God said stand, then stand.

The responsibility of the believer is to know the Word, stand in armour, and keep building.

Personal Reflection Questions

1. What area of your life feels like God is rebuilding right now?

2. In what ways has the enemy tried to make you feel weak, incapable, forgotten, or unqualified?

3. When you think about the burned stones, what area of your life comes to mind?

4. Have you become tired or discouraged during the rebuilding process?

5. Has the enemy made you question whether God is truly with you?

6. What thoughts, fears, or lies do you need to bring under the truth of God’s Word?

7. What is one area where God is asking you to stand, trust Him, and keep building?