Why, they have not even the necessary materials.  Where will they get their stone from?  Are they going to do what is impossible, to make good, solid building-stone out of the heaps of rubbish, the crumbling burnt masses which are all that remain of the old walls?

’Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?’

Then when Sanballat had done speaking, there follows the loud coarse sneer of Secretary Tobiah.  Why if a fox (or jackal) tries to get over their miserable wall, even his light foot will break it down.

’Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.’

We can picture to ourselves the burst of laughter with which this speech would be hailed by the bystanders, the officers and courtiers of Sanballat.

What does Nehemiah answer?  How does he reply to this cruel ridicule, these sharp, cutting, insolent words, that provoking laughter?

If we study Nehemiah’s character, we shall find that he was a man of quick feelings and of a sensitive nature.  He was not one of those men who are so thick-skinned that hard speeches are not felt by them.  He was moreover a man of great power and spirit.  He must have felt much inclined to give Tobiah the bitter retort he so richly deserved, or to call upon his men to drive Sanballat and his party from the walls.

But Nehemiah speaks not.  He does not utter a single word to Sanballat or to his friends.  He remembers that this is God’s work, not his; and he therefore complains to God, not man: 

’Hear, O our God; for we are despised:  and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity.’

Then, quietly and steadily, as if nothing had happened, he takes up his work again, and the people follow his example; they take no notice of the jeering company below, but they build on in silence, all the quicker and the more carefully for the scoffs of their enemies.

Sanballat and Tobiah soon tire of laughter and mockery, when they see it is of no avail; they move off discomfited, and the work goes on as before.

Satan, the great enemy of souls, is the same to-day as he was in Nehemiah’s time.  He never lets a good work alone; he never permits Christ’s servants to row in smooth water, but immediately he sees work done for the Master, at once he stirs up the storm of opposition.

The young man who is careless about eternity, who is living simply to please self, has an easy time; he will not come across even a ripple of opposition, his sea will be smooth as glass.  But let that young man be aroused, be awakened, be converted to God, let the good work of grace be begun in his soul, and at once Satan will stir up the storm of difficulty and opposition.  Very often it begins, just as Nehemiah’s storm began, in laughter.  It has been said that laughter hurts no one.  That statement might be true if we were all body, but inasmuch as we have a spirit within us, it is not true that laughter cannot hurt.  Surely it stings, and cuts, and wounds the sensitive soul, just as heavy blows sting, and cut, and wound the body.  Satan knows this, and he makes full use of the knowledge.