Hardship serves a purpose. In his wisdom the Lord permitted diabolic resistance on his people’s path in order to test and then to strengthen their trust in him. It is the principle articulated repeatedly in Holy Scripture (Romans 5:3–5; Hebrews 12:3–6 (quoting Proverbs 3:11–12); James 1:2–4). In the circumstances of our present chapter, the Lord sovereignly turned his people’s gaze away from people (including their threats) and directed them to their Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. That is a principle that remains valid for all church-building and kingdom-promoting activity, and so for all of life (Psalm 146:1–10).
19 And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another.