Lies from without and lies from within. That is what Nehemiah faced. The Samaritans accused him of things he never dreamed of: that he was plotting a revolt against the Persian king, that he had made himself a king and that everyone was saying so. When this didn’t dissuade him from his mission, they hired a false prophet to frighten him into hiding in the temple (where only priests were allowed to go). Jesus said of the devil that “he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). He will lie about us, and he will lie to us. He will even lie about how many people believe his lies. If he cannot deceive godly people using worldly lies, he will try (as with Nehemiah here) to deceive them with religious lies. One of the ways in which we can recognise a religious lie is by its association with fear. Religious lies tend to lead people to fear. By this I mean the kind of fear that allows a person to control or manipulate others. I mean a fear that causes people to do the wrong thing. If you are reading this and thinking of other people who disagree with you and assume this applies to them and not you, then you may be caught in the worst lie of all: the lie of self-righteousness. We are all victims to some lies to some extent. Otherwise, we would be without sin. And, “if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). It is best, then, to focus on self-examination.
Ask God to make you more aware of the devil’s schemes against you.
Read Nehemiah 6
