“Fake news” – it’s all around us, especially in an election year, as this one is in Mississippi. With every newspaper, news channel, and website putting its own spin on daily events, it’s hard to know whom we can trust, or even what to believe.

And back in Nehemiah’s time, his enemies used the same sort of misdirection to try to deceive him. Sanballat and Geshem began with a seemingly harmless invitation to a meeting at Ono, a place on the border between the areas governed by Sanballat and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:2). It thus seemed to be an attempt to meet him halfway. It all sounded reasonable.

And so do many of the world’s attempts to discourage modern Christians. After all, does it really make sense to try to build the kingdom of God when everything in the culture around us is working in the opposite direction? Isn’t despair and discouragement a more rational response to overwhelming problems? Why not just give up and give in?

But if we reject what is “reasonable,” when we cling to hope in Christ, when we stand firm on the truth of the gospel, our opponents often try a different tactic: not lying to us, but lying about us. Even though Nehemiah was a loyal servant of the King of Persia, his enemies threatened to accuse him of treason (Nehemiah 6:6-7). Just so, no matter how hard we modern Christians try to love our enemies, they often accuse us of being intolerant bigots or judgmental “holier-than-thou” types.

But the third kind of fake news may be the most dangerous, for it comes from sources we thought we could trust. For example, Nehemiah went to visit a sick friend, who urged him to seek refuge from his enemies in the Temple, even though only priests were permitted inside (Nehemiah 6:10). But no matter how much he respected his friend, Nehemiah refused, standing on the truth of the Scriptures, only later to discover that his friend had actually been hired by his enemies to deceive and discredit him.

In the face of each temptation, Nehemiah was able to stand firm because he kept his focus on the truth: the truth of his mission, the truth of his loyalty, and the truth of God’s Word. May we also keep our eyes on the truth, no matter what “fake news” may tell us today.

Nehemiah 6:1-14 (NASB)

Now it came about when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, to Geshem the Arab, and to the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it, although at that time I had not set up the doors in the gates,
2 that Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to harm me.
3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”
4 And they sent messages to me four times in this manner, and I answered them in the same way.
5 Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in the same manner a fifth time with an open letter in his hand.
6 In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel; therefore you are rebuilding the wall. And you are to be their king, according to these reports.
7 “And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem concerning you, ‘A king is in Judah!’ And now it will be reported to the king according to these reports. So come now, let us take counsel together.”
8 Then I sent a message to him saying, “Such things as you are saying have not been done, but you are inventing them in your own mind.”
9 For all of them were trying to frighten us, thinking, “They will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands.
10 And when I entered the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined at home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you, and they are coming to kill you at night.”
11 But I said, “Should a man like me flee? And could one such as I go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.”
12 Then I perceived that surely God had not sent him, but he uttered his prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
13 He was hired for this reason, that I might become frightened and act accordingly and sin, so that they might have an evil report in order that they could reproach me.
14 Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and also Noadiah the prophetess and the rest of the prophets who were trying to frighten me.