Pretending to desire a compromise of the opposing parties, they sought a conference with Nehemiah, and invited him to meet them in a village on the plain of Ono. But enlightened by the Holy Spirit as to their real purpose, he refused. “I sent messengers unto them,” he writes, “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?” But the tempters were persistent. Four times they sent a message of similar import, and each time they received the same answer. PK 653.2 Finding this scheme unsuccessful, they resorted to a more daring stratagem. Sanballat sent Nehemiah a messenger bearing an open letter which said: “It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king.... And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to t…
"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?"
The EGW passage directly quotes Nehemiah 6:3, making it a clear and explicit allusion.