There's a lot going on here, Nehemiah HAD the king's permission to do what he was doing. But the men in question wanted nothing good to be done for the people of God. They sought to oppose the work, calling what the king had allowed rebellion... but notice Nehemiah's reply. He does not mention the king at all. Instead he aims at the deeper truth, asserting that they are doing the work of God. That He will prosper their hand, that they WILL arise and build what God has called them to build... isn't it tragic that to many Christians this seems like a foolish path. They ask, wouldn't it just have been easier to show these men the writ from the king, to demonstrate that you have the authority, that the right permits have been filed, and that they are the ones who are, in fact, rebelling? But beloved, ask this of yourself... does that bring glory to God? Or to man? How often are we more concerned with how man sees, how man thinks, what man believes, than with the very God of all the universe? And further, notice that Nehemiah HAD obeyed the law and done everything right and righteously. But when he faced opposition, he did not appeal to man's governments but instead to the God of heaven. He also clearly displayed the divide, telling them, you have no part in this, you have no inheritance here, you are out of your depth, and out of your place. How much anguish and misery would we avoid if we stopped caring what people who have no part in our labor think of what we are doing? How much joy could we retain if we focused instead on the pleasure of the only One whose opinion matters? Let us seek to please God rather than have recourse to man and his opinions.