“I Am Doing a Great Work, So That I Cannot Come Down”
By I. H. EVANS.
ARTAXERXES was one of the great kings of the ancient Persian Empire. Nehemiah, one of the noble Jewish captives, who seemed to have been promoted to the high office of cupbearer before the king, brought him wine to drink. On one occasion the king saw the sadness in Nehemiah’s countenance, and said to him, “Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.” Nehemiah had received sad news concerning the people of God who had returned from the Babylonish captivity, and concerning Jerusalem, the city so dear to the heart of every true Israelite. For some time Nehemiah had been, fasting and praying and weeping. Though surrounded with wealth, loaded with honors, and a bright future before him, judged from a worldly point of view, yet his heart had great sorrow at the sad news he had received concerning the city of Jerusalem and the remnant people of God. When the king had heard from the lips of Nehemiah the conditions at Jerusalem, and saw how intensely it affected this servant of God, he said to him, “For what dost thou make request?” Nehemiah then set before the king the report he had received from Jerusalem, and asked that he might be sent to that place with suitable letters of instruction to enable him to rebuild the wall, restore the gates, and set things in order. Nehemiah went to Jerusalem under the commission of the king, and began to rebuild the wall and the gates of Jerusalem. But in doing this work he had great opposition from the Jews’ enemies. Some high in authority mocked and derided him, and made light of the work he was doing. One great man said, “Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.” Since we are not in the trouble, such public remarks and scorn lose their force and sting, but to Nehemiah and his associates they seemed hard to bear. Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem were the three men who annoyed Nehemiah most. They tried scorn and ridicule; they used threats and intimidation; and at last, when Nehemiah refused to leave the work of God, they invited him to a council, saying, “Come, let us meet together6in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono.” Then Nehemiah sent that famous message in reply: “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” God’s people have always been tempted by the enemy to stop the work God has given them to do. There never has been a reformation, never a great movement for God and humanity, but the devil has tried to hinder the work by getting the workmen to cease working. In the Pentecostal church, when the Holy Ghost was working mightily, the apostles were haled before rulers, and repeatedly commanded to cease speaking and teaching in the name of Jesus. Frequently Paul was persecuted. He was imprisoned, scourged, and stoned, to prevent his preaching the word committed unto him. Nearly all the apostles gave their lives as a sacrifice to the work committed to them. Paul was beheaded, Peter was crucified, John was cast into a caldron of boiling oil; yet all this suffering could have been escaped, apparently, had these men been willing to quit their work. Today voices are calling men of God to quit their work. Here and there a man will leave his post of duty for earthly gain or worldly honors; but the great majority of our evangelists remain faithful to duty’s call. Like Nehemiah, they say, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.” Pleasures tempt them not. Speculations and opportunities for gain are treated with indifference. While the world and the professional classes seek release from heat at resorts and seashores, our men are in the midst of work as tiring and exhausting as the most arduous labors in the world; yet whoever heard or knew of an Adventist evangelist spending the heated season at a resort? No, only when necessity compels, and then only for the sake of doing better work, do these men of God seek relaxation from their labors. They say, “We are doing a great work, and cannot come down.” Sometimes opportunities are offered for making money,—and every one knows our evangelists are generally poor,—yet to all these calls one answer is made, “We are doing a great work, and cannot come down.” This is the day of our opportunity. To cease work now would please the enemy; but to extend the preaching of the message by every agency used to call men to God is our work and duty; and as Nehemiah said to his enemies, so we can answer every voice calling us, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?”