Scripture to Read: Nehemiah 6:10-13
We have seen how the spiritual forces of darkness work to get us distracted from doing God’s work. Today the spiritual forces of darkness sought to deceive Nehemiah into doing something that would cause Nehemiah to sin. Nehemiah 6:10-13 lay out for us the next step of deception. Shemaiah was supposedly a prophet of God, for we read in Nehemiah 6:12, “but he uttered his prophecy…” Throughout the Old Testament, there were prophets of God, but there were also false prophets. Shemaiah was a false prophet who had been hired by Tobiah and Sanballat (Nehemiah 6:12). Tobiah and Sanballat looked for another way to accuse Nehemiah of something wrong so Nehemiah would stop working on the wall and the gates around Jerusalem. Shemaiah sought to set fear in Nehemiah’s heart by telling Nehemiah that Tobiah and Sanballat were going to kill him at night. Therefore, Shemaiah told Nehemiah he should hide in the temple of God. Nehemiah would have sinned against God’s law if he had gone into the temple. Only priests were allowed in the temple and Nehemiah was not a priest (Numbers 1:51; Numbers 3:10; Numbers 18:7). In 2 Chronicles 26, King Uzziah entered the temple of God and God struck him with leprosy. Again, the spiritual forces of darkness sought to use a false prophet to set fear in Nehemiah’s heart. God gave Nehemiah the discernment he needed to see through the deception. We must pursue God and His Word daily to overcome the deception of the spiritual forces of darkness.
Challenge & Application
1. What did God teach you today about the tools that the spiritual forces of darkness seek to use to get us to sin?
2. Who will you share with this week?
Don’t forget to pray using the A.C.T.S. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) method!