Making America Great Again: Continued Intimidation Despite Victory

By:  Dale Weckbacher

Nehemiah 6:19

These nobles kept mentioning Tobiah’s good deeds to me, and they reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.

(CSB)

With completion of the wall, the party can begin (Nehemiah 6:15-16).  While the completion of the project intimidates the enemies of God’s people (Nehemiah 6:16), the intimidation of God’s people has not stopped.  The main enemy in Nehemiah’s time was Tobiah who even after completion of the wall, continued to send Nehemiah letters of intimidation.  Followers of Tobiah kept mentioning the good works of Tobiah to Nehemiah hoping to soften Nehemiah’s perception of Tobiah as someone evil.  Perhaps as a last ditch effort to sway Nehemiah’s thinking, Tobiah sends letters of intimidation to Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:17-19). 

The reaction of people to the 2016 Presidential election illustrates the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.  The thrill of victory for the forgotten men and women over the previous eight years, (1) and the agony of defeat for those wishing to continue the fundamental transformation of the country.  (2)  While as a Trump voter I remember the great feeling of euphoria at Trump’s victory, I also understood that the opposition was not just going to go away but instead would simply change tactics in trying to bring down a president not wishing to continue the radical transformation of the nation. 

We who continue to support President Trump must therefore remain diligent to these new tactics of the enemy by,

1)      Praying – While some may view prayer as a passive powerless activity, Ephesians 6:18 urges Christians to put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17).  Prayer is anything but passive and powerful (James 5:16, Exodus 17:8-16).  Before, during, and after putting on the armor of God, we must pray. 

2)      Stand on Godly constitutional principles wearing the armor of God – Each implement of the armor of God stands for something needed by a believer in opposition to the attacks of the enemy.  Likewise, it is important politically to take a stand based upon a solid constitutional and Biblical foundation for our nation and culture. 

3)      Go – Faith without subsequent work supporting that faith is dead (James 2:20).  While taking a stand is noble, we also must go.  Biblically this means using the offensive weapon in the arsenal of a believer, the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.  Politically this means supporting financially, through working to get out the vote, and voting for candidates supporting the Constitutional principles that made the United States great. 

While the completion of the wall in Jerusalem was a time for celebration, the enemy would continue their intimidation efforts.  There may also be times of disobedience as we will see in Nehemiah 9.  Likewise, the election of Donald Trump as President calls for celebration, diligence by Trump and his supporters must continue, including insuring Republicans keep control of both houses of Congress in the upcoming election.  We can do this by first continuing to pray for the election, supporting Constitutional conservative candidates financially, through volunteering to work in their campaigns, and most importantly by voting and urging others supporting Constitutional government to vote as well for these candidates. 

May God bless the United States of America and everyone reading this.

1. Hunt, Jeff. How the Forgotten Man saw the rise of Donald Trump. thehill.com. [Online] The Hill, August 16, 2016. [Cited: April 1, 2018.] http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/291543-how-the-forgotten-man-saw-the-rise-of-donald-trump.

2. Smith, Raymond A. The Daily Beast: Hillary Clinton Will Be Barack Obama’s Third Term. Progressive Policy Institute. [Online] PPI, July 6, 2016. [Cited: April 1, 2018.] http://www.progressivepolicy.org/issues/education/daily-beast-hillary-clinton-will-barack-obamas-third-term/.