Nehemiah 4:1
But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews.
This verse belongs to the account of opposition to the rebuilding of Jerusalem's wall, when Sanballat and the other neighboring chiefs were jealous at Nehemiah's arrival and set themselves to hinder his work. When Sanballat heard that the Jews were building the wall he was wroth with fierce anger and great indignation, with hatred, falsehood and treachery, breaking out in mockery and ridicule meant to stop the building. That ridicule included the taunt that even what they built was so flimsy that if a fox went up it would break down their stone wall.
The opposition was made harder because disloyal persons among the Jews themselves joined with the enemies to oppose God's people. The experience shows that those who do the work God has given them may meet serious hindrances, reproach, derision and contempt from open enemies, with sacred things made objects of mockery in order to turn the workers away from duty, and that such hostility may afterward grow into more violent measures. The enemies also sent messengers again and again soliciting a conference, used bold threats, and offered flattering inducements promising the builders freedom from restraint and wonderful privileges if they would unite their interests with the enemies and cease building, but Nehemiah refused to meet them, and the people were commanded not to engage in controversy with their enemies and to answer them not a word, so that no advantage of words might be given them.
Such contempt must be endured by those who remain faithful to God, and Nehemiah clung to the Lord, did not depart from following Him, and kept His commandments commanded through Moses. He answered the contempt by prayer, Hear, O our God, for we are despised, and turn their reproach upon their own head, and by holding to the work with the answer, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. The Lord was with Nehemiah, for He hears the prayers of His servants and opens the way for the work to continue, moving even heathen kings to help carry out His purpose. The hatred, falsehood, treachery and mockery are set in Scripture side by side with the nobility, devotion and self-sacrifice of Ezra and Nehemiah as a sharp contrast between sin and holiness, placing before every person a free choice which course to copy, with the fearful results of transgressing God's commands set over against the blessings of obedience, so that each must decide whether to suffer the one or enjoy the other.