Nehemiah 6:3
“And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?”
Any time you do a work for God, you will always have critics who will criticize everything you do. Nehemiah found this out when he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. Sanballat and Geshem did everything they could to get him to come down from the wall, but he understood that the work that he was doing wouldn’t allow him to come down. He completely understood that their attempts to get him to come down were only an attempt to get him to stop building the wall, so he resolved that no matter what they said, threatened or offered that he would not come down from the wall.
One of the unpleasant parts of having a ministry that is somewhat national is that there are critics who are closely watching every move you make and listening to every word you say, not to learn what to do or to praise what the LORD is doing through you, but to find something for which to criticize you. After reading the story of Nehemiah several years ago, I determined that I would not come down from the wall to address critics. I learned from Nehemiah that there are several reasons as to why you should not come down from the wall to address your critics.
First, God’s work is greater than their pettiness. You must always understand that you will never please your critics. They are being critical because they are critics and want nothing to do with doing right. You can try to address their concerns and even show them the truth, but a critic is not interested in truth; they are only interested in being critical of what the LORD is doing through you.
Second, you cannot come down because the urgency of the work is greater than addressing their empty criticisms. Nehemiah understood that the wall needed to be finished more than he needed to address their criticisms. When you are doing a work for the LORD, your work involves lives and the souls of mankind. Helping people through their problems and reaching the lost is of greater importance than addressing the criticisms of the critics.
Third, you cannot come down because God has given you orders to build the wall. God didn’t tell Nehemiah to correspond with the critics, but He told him to build the wall. Until God changes your orders, you need to stay on the wall and keep doing what God has commanded you to do. If God gave you orders to address those who criticize then address it from the wall, but stay on the wall and keep following the last orders given by God to build the wall.
Fourth, you cannot come down and cease the work to entertain empty accusations and play their foolish games. You need to understand that criticism is a game to your critics. There is a great work to do and addressing foolishness is only causing you to enter into the world of the fool who criticizes.
If you are doing a work for God, you will unfortunately have to deal with criticism. Let me remind you that building your wall is of greater importance than anything else. I encourage you not to come down from the wall, for if you do the work will cease. Stay on the wall and keep doing what God has commanded you to do and He will deal with the critics in due time.