He remembers that this is God's work, not his; and he therefore complains to God, not man: 'Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity.' Then, quietly and steadily, as if nothing had happened, he takes up his work again, and the people follow his example; they take no notice of the jeering company below, but they build on in silence, all the quicker and the more carefully for the scoffs of their enemies.
Sanballat and Tobiah soon tire of laughter and mockery, when they see it is of no avail; they move off discomfited, and the work goes on as before.
Satan, the great enemy of souls, is the same to-day as he was in Nehemiah's time.

He never lets a good work alone; he never permits Christ's servants to row in smooth water, but immediately he sees work done for the Master, at once he stirs up the storm of opposition.
The young man who is careless about eternity, who is living simply to please self, has an easy time; he will not come across even a ripple of opposition, his sea will be smooth as glass.

But let that young man be aroused, be awakened, be converted to God, let the good work of grace be begun in his soul, and at once Satan will stir up the storm of difficulty and opposition.

Very often it begins, just as Nehemiah's storm began, in laughter.

It has been said that laughter hurts no one.
That statement might be true if we were all body, but inasmuch as we have a spirit within us, it is not true that laughter cannot hurt.
Surely it stings, and cuts, and wounds the sensitive soul, just as heavy blows sting, and cut, and wound the body.