I Cannot Come Down
“So I sent messengers to them with this reply: 'I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?'”
— Nehemiah 6:3 (NIV)
Nehemiah was rebuilding Jerusalem's wall and his opponents invited him to a meeting on the plain. It sounded reasonable and it was a trap. He sent the same answer four times, and it was never a refusal to talk. It was a refusal to come down off the wall. The invitations were not evil in themselves. They were simply not his work.
People rarely lose a week to obviously bad requests. They lose it to reasonable requests that are easy to say yes to. Nehemiah answered every message and still declined every meeting. You can decline the meeting without declining the person.
Stay on the Wall
- 1Name the one thing this week that only you can do. Write it where you will see it.
- 2Say no to one reasonable request today. Be kind and be clear.
- 3Ask someone what they are building right now, and offer one concrete way to help.
Lord, show me the work that is actually mine this week.
I can decline the meeting without declining the person.
Was the meeting invitation genuinely dangerous?
Yes. The text says they intended to harm him. The plain of Ono was neutral ground away from the safety of the city.
How many times did they ask?
Four times with the same proposal, and a fifth with an open letter accusing him of rebellion. He gave the same answer each time.
Is this a licence to ignore people?
No. Nehemiah answered every message. He declined the meeting, not the relationship, and named his reason plainly.