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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Making
Peace With The Enemy If
you read Nehemiah 6 you'll see one of
many ways God's enemies attempt to discourage God's people from
doing His work. Satan knows
that if he can defeat God's people, God's work on earth will be
hindered. The
Jews in Nehemiah's day put great effort into repairing the wall around
Israel's enemies sent Nehemiah an
invitation to meet with them. It's
my opinion that this invitation was meant
to appear to be an invitation to make peace.
Nehemiah saw through this invitation. He
realized that he'd be ambushed and subsequently killed at this meeting.
Peace was the furthest thing from Nehemiah's enemies' minds.
Nehemiah
responded by saying that God's work was way too important to leave.
He understood God's work was more important than negotiating a
peace treaty, especially if he was to be killed in the process. The fact
of the matter is God negotiates with no one.
He simply states His point of view and leaves it up to us to
either embrace His point of view or reject it. There's
no middle ground of compromise and negotiation with God.
In
today's world the idea of negotiating peace is prevalent in all areas of
life, and there is a place for such negotiations.
Yet, when it comes to the things of God, and when it comes to
God's people doing His work, we don't negotiate with anyone, especially
those who oppose us. We
simply state the truth of Scripture as we know it to be and accept the
consequences. It
seems to me that many Christians today are falling for the trick that
Nehemiah's enemies tried to pull. In
many circles Christians are negotiating a truce with those who have
traditionally opposed God's work. The
liberalization of Christianity is this negotiated truce.
It
is important to know that when you mix Biblical truth with the
prevailing philosophies of the world for the sake of peace and unity,
you lose the truth. It's not
really a negotiated peace. It's
actually a switching of sides. Paul
clearly states that such alliances with non-Biblical philosophies should
never take place (2 Corinthians 6:14).
Again, there's no middle ground of compromise and negotiation in
respect to Biblical truth. It's
our Lord's way or satan's way. And
let me add, this doesn't only apply to the Christian community.
It also applies toIsrael, even though she is still far from living in the truth of her God.
Neither the Christian community or Jewish community should
compromise God's truth or His work for the sake of peace and unity. There's
no middle ground. I know
this is not politically correct, but it is Biblically correct.
As time goes on, and if you are doing God's work, expect to
suffer the same stress that Nehemiah
would have died if he had accepted the invitation to peace from God's
enemies. In like manner, our
faith and God's work through us will die if we accept the peace being
offer to us today.
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