There in later days stood Lydda, the place where St.Peter healed Aeneas; there stood Joppa, from which Jonah embarked; there, at the present day, may be seen fields of melons and cucumbers, groves of orange and lemon trees, and fields of waving corn.
Nehemiah would have a journey of about thirty miles before he reached the appointed meeting-place.
Sanballat's proposal sounded very fine and even very friendly, but it was a trap.

His real desire was to tempt Nehemiah from behind the walls of Jerusalem, to entice him to a safe distance from his brave friends and companions, and then to have him secretly assassinated.

Who then would ever hear again of the power of Jerusalem?
Who then would ever see the gates put in their places?
Is Nehemiah moved from his post of duty by Sanballat's message?
Does he leave his work at once, and set off for the Plain of Ono?
Look at his decided answer.
'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 ?' God's work would be done better, and with more success, if all His workmen were like Nehemiah.

But, alas! many who call themselves workers for God are ready to run off from the work at every call, every invitation, every appeal from the world, the flesh, or the devil.

I am doing a great work, but there is that amusement I want to take part in, the work must be left to-day.
I am doing a great work; but I do not feel inclined for it just now, I feel idle, or the weather is too cold to go out, or the sun shines so brightly I should like a walk instead, I must leave my work to others to-day.
I am doing a great work; but I love my own ease, or pleasure, or convenience, better than I love the work, these must come first and the work must come second.
So speak the actions of many so-called workers, and thus it is that so much Christian work is a dead failure.
But, says Nehemiah, '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 ?' Let us remember his words, let us inwardly digest them, and the very next time that we are tempted to give up work for God and to run off to something else, let us take care to echo them.
But Sanballat is determined not to be beaten, he will try again and yet again.