(NIV) Nehemiah 2:8-9
And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.

(NIV) Nehemiah 2:8-10
When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.

1. Relational Opposition

(NIV) Nehemiah 4:1
When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews…

(NIV) Nehemiah 4:4
Hear us, our God, for we are despised…

(NIV) Nehemiah 4:6
So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.

(NIV) Nehemiah 4:8
They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.

Pray for God to do His part and keep giving your best energy to our part.

2. Mental opposition.

(NIV) Nehemiah 4:11
Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.” Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.” Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”

(NIV) Nehemiah 6:9
They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”
But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”

*We didn’t plan on thinking negative today, but we can plan on thinking positive. *

3. Physical opposition.

(NIV) Nehemiah 4:10
Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”

(NIV) Nehemiah 6:1
When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates— 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.”

(MSG) Psalm 18:30
“Every GOD-direction is road-tested. Everyone who runs toward Him makes it.”

(NIV) Nehemiah 4:19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”