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LaunchPad: Day 20 · Equipped: A Podcast Platform for the Equip Ministry of Cuyahoga Valley Church

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Picture the builders up on the wall.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: The mortar is still wet on their hands, and they hear the voices of Sandballot and Tobias saying things about them.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not words covertly whispered behind their backs.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: These guys want to be heard.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: They use the word feeble and imply that the work is shoddy, it wouldn't withstand the tender gait of a fox upon it.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just criticism.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: The jibes are meant to drive the workers to give up.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us grew up hearing some version of sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Some may be more familiar with the radio-friendly version of the saying, shake it off.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: No matter how it's worded, the implication behind it is that they're only words, chasing a kind of toughness of character that dismisses what others think.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's some wisdom there, but also a falsehood.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Words do hurt.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Even if we can say our feelings are intact, words can drive us to anger or frustration, which still cause pain.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah doesn't pretend otherwise.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't shake this off.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't act like it doesn't bother him, but he also doesn't do what comes naturally to so many of us.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: We either turn it inward and it becomes anxiety or shame, or we turn it outward and it becomes a retort or aggression.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: But not Nehemiah.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Here, Nehemiah turns it upward.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: He never answers Senbalat directly.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: He never organizes a comeback.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't launch into a diatribe to defend the wall's construction or the quality of the work they're doing.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's clearly bothered by what they're saying, and the hurt goes somewhere, but it isn't sideways and it isn't buried.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: It goes up.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 4, he prays, Hear, O our God, for we are despised.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's no performance of being unbothered.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Paul picks up that same instinct centuries later in Romans 12, 19, echoing a line that goes all the way back to Deuteronomy.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Paul isn't telling anyone to pretend the offense didn't happen.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's telling them where to put it.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Leave room for God's judgment rather than carrying the case yourself.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's a hard word for someone like me who likes the last word.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Other times, I'd rather skip past the hurt and call it forgiveness, but it's still there, and really it's conflict avoidance wearing forgiveness's clothes.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah doesn't skip past anything.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: He names it, hands it over, and only then goes back to work.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah and Paul are standing on the same ground.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Neither one denies the wound.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Both hand the verdict to God and both trust that God will be just.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing we can consider is that Sanbalat and Tobiah wanted the builders distracted, discouraged.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: They'd have been overjoyed to see the workers off the wall and arguing instead of working.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's usually what mockery like this is built to do.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't need to win an argument, it exists to distract you long enough for the work to stall.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah seems to know exactly what's being aimed at him, and he doesn't give it that power.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: He hands the insult to God and picks the trowel back up.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not every criticism deserves an answer.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Some of it is simply better carried to God first, not inward and not outward, but upward so the work can go on.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Question to consider What criticism or distraction have you been carrying lately?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And what has holding on to it cost you in attention or peace?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Pray for the willingness to leave the verdict with God.