A Story of Leadership

Nehemiah, Builder of a City

And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.—Nehemiah 2:5

Wade Austen

Great leaders are made, not born. Great men and women are forged in the crucible of events and circumstances that ­create a sense of mission in their hearts. We learn valuable lessons when we study how men and women have responded to the burdens in their lives. We learn still greater lessons when we study men and women of God who have ­responded to God’s call revealed to them through a burden that he has cultivated in their hearts. The story of Nehemiah invites such a study.

Nehemiah’s story teaches many lessons in leadership that apply not only to great leaders, but to every person of God intent upon serving him in whatever way he may direct. God often uses the heaviness of our hearts as a call to action. Through prayer, the study of God’s word, and fellowship with God’s people, a ­vision of the will of God emerges. This creates opportunity for leadership. Nehemiah’s story teaches us valuable lessons about how we can respond to the opportunities that God creates in our lives.

Nehemiah’s vision of God’s will for him began when his brother and a small group of Jews from Jerusalem visited him in Persia at the palace of King Artaxerxes in Shushan. Nehemiah asked the group about the condition of his people in Jerusalem. Nehemiah describes his reaction to the sad news that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and that the people were living in disgrace: “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven” (Nehemiah 1:4, NIV).

From his own words we can feel the intensity of the sadness in Nehemiah’s heart and the urgency of his desire to rebuild Jerusalem. Nehemiah’s character is revealed both by what he did and did not do as a result of the duty that he felt. Nehemiah did not take it upon himself to devise a plan to restore Jerusalem apart from consulting God. He prayed to God fervently about the plight of his people in Jerusalem and he sought God’s direction in the matter. His prayer contains the three elements of adoration, supplication and confession, and it lacks only the element of thanksgiving to be considered among the complete model prayers recorded in the Scriptures.

Great leaders have no shortage of worthwhile activities to consume their time and talent. Which ones are those that God would have them pursue? His “fire in the belly” helps a leader to know the purpose for which God is calling him. It powerfully stirs the emotions of a leader, and a leader responds in ways ordinary people do not. Out of his sense of duty a leader envisions what can be and what ought to be. A leader sees farther than others see, more than others see, and before others see. His burden purifies his motives, cultivates his persistence and cements his conviction. As a result, a leader with a mission in life growing out of God’s revelation of his will can accomplish miracles.

Nehemiah certainly demonstrated his ability to see farther, more, and before others when he conceived a plan to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. A true leader not only knows where he is going, he takes others with him. He intuitively understands the wisdom of Solomon’s words, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). Nehemiah accomplished a miracle when he led the people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in a scant fifty-two days amid relentless opposition. This miracle resulted from a series of smaller miracles that ­included God’s interventions on behalf of Ne­hemiah and courageous actions by Nehemiah because he trusted in God. Nehemiah’s trust in God was demonstrated by his prayerful com­munication with God.

Nehemiah’s prayer—“grant him [me] mercy in the sight of this man”—was answered when the king inquired about Nehemiah’s sad countenance. Nehemiah courageously answered the king with a bold request to journey to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls. Then Artaxerxes asked Nehemiah about how long the journey would take and when he would return. Nehe­miah again prayed to God for the right words and answered the king. We are not told the specifics of the king’s response, but it seems unbelievable that Nehemiah would have asked for the years that he did spend in Jerusalem. It was a miracle that the king permitted Nehemiah to go at all, but when the king provided Nehe­miah with the materials to build the wall and an armed escort to travel to Jerusalem the miracle becomes awesome. It also testified to the ­respect Nehemiah had earned as the king’s trusted servant.

It took Ezra four months to travel from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:8,9). Assuming that it would have taken Nehemiah at least as long, we can assume that by the time the lumber was harvested and shipped to Jerusalem in preparation for the rebuilding of the wall and the gates that it would have been well into the second year since leaving the palace before Nehemiah began to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Prior to commencing work on the wall Nehemiah demonstrated more skills and character traits of a great leader. Once work on the walls began the miracle of completing the work in only fifty-two days was performed.

Not all miracles are supernatural. Certainly God’s overruling providence on behalf of Ne­hemiah and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem pervade this story, but the natural miracle resulted from the leadership skills of a great man who trusted in God, who planned thoroughly, who captivated the hearts of his people with a simple yet heroic vision, and who employed extraordinary people skills.

Let us now examine more details of his planning and evidences of his interpersonal skills that enabled him to navigate to a successful ­accomplishment of his vision.

Nehemiah’s Planning Skills

Great leaders rely on key influencers and Nehemiah was no exception. After taking his burden to God in prayer Nehemiah approached the king, his key source of assistance. Nehemiah writes: “Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it” (Nehemiah 2:4,5). Of course, the key in­fluencer here is God followed by King Arta­xerxes. Nehemiah most certainly selected and took other key people with him on the journey.

Once he arrived in Jerusalem, Nehemiah quietly and under cover of night took stock of the challenge that lay ahead. He took personal charge of assessing the damage and planning the project. Next he met with the people and shared with them his vision for rebuilding the wall and its spiritual benefits to them. He encouraged them by recounting the support he had already received from the king. Two inspiring sentences describe the buy-in he received from the people: “And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work” (Nehemiah 2:18). Finally, he organized the people and set them to work. He organized them by family because he recognized the importance of meeting the people’s own personal need for safety that would motivate them to complete the portions of the wall nearest their own homes. He also got them to work according to planned priorities, beginning with the city gates.

Nehemiah’s People Principles

Great leaders follow basic principles when working with people; Nehemiah was no exception. First, he stated his vision in the simplest terms possible. The people’s goal was to rebuild the wall. Next he tried to include as many people as possible and he organized them by natural family groupings to increase working harmony. He delegated work as necessary, especially when it came time to protect the laborers and some were needed to hold spears and swords while others built the wall, and still others lead the people (Nehemiah 4:16). He kept the people motivated with the words, “Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses” (Nehemiah 4:14). He prepared for the worst and he let the people know what he had done so they would feel more secure: “I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from ­another. In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for us” (Nehemiah 4:19, 20). He created a culture of cooperation among the people. He stopped the practice of usury and encouraged unity between the wealthy rulers and the people who felt oppressed. He set a personal example by bringing people together and feeding them at his own expense. Finally, Nehemiah recognized the value of celebration. When the wall was finished he arranged for music, a great feast and for the Book of the Law to be read. He then sent them on their way to share their blessings with the less fortunate.

Leaders Pay A Price

Nehemiah’s leadership did not end once the wall was rebuilt. The enemies of Israel remained and were determined to subjugate the people once more. Nehemiah recognized that the people needed to rebuild their relationship with God and he set about to reestablish the practices enumerated in the Book of the Law. This took much longer than the practical yet highly symbolic accomplishment of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. At some point, after the celebration, Nehemiah returned to King Arta­xerxes. It was twelve years from the time Nehemiah had set out to build the wall until he returned again. What an incredible personal sacrifice this must have been for him, and what a great disappointment it was to find his former enemies polluting the sanctuary and the people again reverting back to sinful practices. Nevertheless, he again arose to the challenge of restoring the hearts of the people to God by cleansing the “strangers” from the city and establishing honorable priests instead of those who had polluted the temple. Nehemiah concludes his story with the remarkable words, “Remember me, O my God, for good” (Ne­hemiah 13:31).

Nehemiah devoted his life to the burden of his heart. The slavery of the Jews to the ­surrounding peoples and their degradation weighed heavy on him and he envisioned not only rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem that was fallen down, but restoring the relationship between the people and God of which the broken-down wall was but a daily visible symbol. He responded to this vision with the passion and skill of a great leader. He left all of God’s people a great example of how God works in our lives “to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13, NIV). 

Inspection Precedes Reformation

Nehemiah did not begin his work by chiding his brethren with unfaithfulness to God or lack of enterprise, etc.; such a course would have further discouraged them, and would have made them feel antagonistic, and perhaps to say, “You will see how it is yourself when you are here a few years,” and some would then have taken pleasure in his failure to do more than they had accomplished. Neither did he begin by boastfully saying, “I have come here to do such a work, and within an incredibly short time you will see it accomplished; I will accomplish in days what you have failed to accomplish in as many years.” To have taken such a course would have been to arouse the opposition of the very ones without whose aid his mission, humanly speaking, would be sure to fail.

Many Christian people can learn a valuable lesson here: whoever desires to be a co-worker with God should work in the Lord’s way and be guided by the spirit of love—for love does not think unkindly or ungenerously or slightingly of the efforts of others, nor is it boastful. On the contrary, its trust is in the Lord, and its boast therefore must be in him. This lesson is valuable to us also in respect to individual efforts in our own hearts—to build up good characters acceptable in God’s sight through Christ Jesus. We are to remember that nothing is gained, but much to be lost, by thinking or feeling boastfully of what we hope to attain in self-control and character-likeness to the Lord: nor is much to be gained by mourning and weeping over misspent opportunities of the past. The proper course is to begin work afresh with confidence, not in ourselves, but in him who called us and who has given such exceeding great and precious promises. This is our way to success in individual development, and also in our labors upon the walls of Zion, as it was Nehemiah’s successful method for the building of the natural, typical Jerusalem.

—“Teaching the Law of God,” The Herald, August 1922