Nehemiah 1- 6:16
Today we are looking at the story of Nehemiah, in the book by the same name. Nehemiah is probably not as well-known as some other historical figures, but he is one of the greatest examples in the Bible of Godly leadership. He is responsible for repairing the wall around Jerusalem after the Jews returned after their exile in Babylon. Nehemiah was not a prophet or a priest, he had a job in the government. When he is first mentioned, he is the cupbearer to Artaxerxes, the king of Perisa. At that time in history, Artaxerxes was the most powerful person in the world. So being cupbearer to him was an incredible position of honor. As cupbearer, it meant that he would taste the King’s wine and make sure it was not poisoned. This was a position that only the most trusted person would be given.
Nehemiah 1:2-3 tells us that his brother and some men from Judah brought him news of the conditions that the Jewish people in Jerusalem were living in. It says, “And they said to me, ‘The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and disgrace, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire.’” If you remember the backstory, Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the walls when he captured the Jews. It had been in ruins since that time, which left the city vulnerable and weak. This report caused Nehemiah great distress. He was troubled and distraught, and so he prayed.
Nehemiah 1:4-11 tells us his prayer. It says, “4 Now when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 I said, ‘Please, Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps the covenant and faithfulness for those who love Him and keep His commandments: 6 let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open, to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have committed against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8 Remember, please, the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; 9 but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I have chosen to have My name dwell.” 10 They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. 11 Please, Lord, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and please make Your servant successful today and grant him mercy before this man.’”
Nehemiah, faced with this report, immediately sought the Lord’s help. He reminded God of His covenant, confessed the people’s sin, and asked for help. It is a model for effective prayer. We should do the same when faced with problems. But in order to pray that same way, we too must know God’s word. Nehemiah had obviously learned the commandments and writings of Moses, for he knew what God’s covenant was, so he was able to quote it in his prayer. If we know God’s word, then we can quote the Word during prayers. We can remind God of His promises. Doing that can build faith in our hearts, which causes our prayers to be more effective. As James 1:5-7 (ESV) says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”
Nehemiah prayed with faith for forgiveness, help, and for favor. He asked for favor for he had a plan. He needed to ask the king for permission to leave his position and go to Jerusalem to repair the wall. While serving the king one day, the king asked him why he looked sad. Chapter 2:3-5 explains, “And I said to the king, ‘May the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the site of my fathers’ tombs, is desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?’ Then the king said to me, ‘What would you request?’ So I prayed to the God of heaven. Then I said to the king, ‘If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, I request that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.’”
As we see from the text, Nehemiah prayed again before he spoke. I think he was asking for favor again. God granted him that favor, for he was respected and liked by the king and his wife, and that was why they allowed Nehemiah to go, and why they appointed him governor of Jerusalem. He also asked them for letters he could show to the governors of the surrounding areas so they would allow him passage. And he asked for a letter for the keeper of the king’s forest so he could get the wood needed for the repairs. As Nehemiah writes, “the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me” (Nehemiah 2:8b).
Even though Nehemiah had a plan all worked out, as he mentions in 2:12, “I did not tell anyone what my God was putting into my mind to do for Jerusalem.” He simply got to work. This is a sign of true leadership. He didn’t consult with a bunch of people. He didn’t ask for opinions. He knew he had been given a task to do from the Lord, and so he methodically set to work. He arrived in Jerusalem and he surveyed the task and worked out the details. Then, when he was ready for action, he brought all the people into the plan. He communicated the job so clearly that the people agreed to join him. Nehemiah 2:17 through 20 tells us, “Then I said to them, ‘You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates have been burned by fire. Come, let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a disgrace.’ 18 And I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me and also about the king’s words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, ‘Let’s arise and build.’ So they put their hands to the good work. 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked us and despised us, and said, ‘What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?’ 20 So I answered them and said to them, ‘The God of heaven will make us successful; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no part, right, or memorial in Jerusalem.’”
These three men, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, are like annoying flies that just won’t leave him alone. They are buzzing around, trying to stop the work. They not only mocked the people, but now they were threatening them with accusations of treason. To be accused of that would have been very worrisome, for if found guilty, that would have meant death. Nehemiah wasn’t deterred, though. He and the people kept working. Chapter 3 tells all the details of the work, then chapter 4:7 & 8 says, “Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry. So all of them conspired together to come to fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.”
No longer annoying flies, they are going to cause real trouble. Again, showing great faith and solid leadership skills, Nehemiah writes, “But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night” (Nehemiah 4:9).
Under this threat of attack, Nehemiah came up with a strategy. He saw that the people were afraid and so he encouraged them. Nehemiah 4:14 says, “When I saw their fear, I stood and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people: ‘Do not be afraid of them; remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.’” He told the people to remember that God is with them, and he inspired them to think of what they were building this wall for: for their families. Then he had the people building the wall split into two groups. One group kept building (but built with one hand working and one hand holding a weapon) and the other group, fully armed, kept watch for an attack. Nehemiah also writes that “none of us removed our clothes; each took his weapon even to the water” (Nehemiah 4:23b).
At this same time this was happening, chapter 5 tells us how some of the people were getting upset about the taxes they were having to pay to the king. They couldn’t afford to pay them and so they were borrowing money from each other, but those who they were borrowing money from were charging them interest and so they were having to sell their children as slaves. Nehemiah became very angry, the text says, when he found about all this. He told them they must stop charging interest. The text doesn’t tell us this, but Deuteronomy 23:19 says, “You are not to charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned on interest.” This is more proof of how well Nehemiah knew the Book of the Law. He knew God’s commandments and so he confronted the rich people and officials and told them to stop charging interest on loans and to give back the land they had taken from them. They agreed to stop and agreed to give back the land. Then Nehemiah testified how he, as appointed governor of Jerusalem, could have made life hard on the people like the prior governors, but he had not. Instead, he had taken the taxes he could have collected, and he fed the poor people with his surplus. Nehemiah proved his leadership skills by leading by example. I think the rich people and officials listened to him because he was a man of integrity and he had proven himself worthy of their respect. He was a true leader.
When the wall was almost complete, those three men who had tried to stop the building tried another tactic. They sent a message to Nehemiah asking him to come meet with them. The text tells us that he knew this was a plot to harm him. Nehemiah 6:3-7 says, “So I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing a great work and am unable to come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?’ 4 Then they sent messages to me four times worded in this way, and I answered them with the same wording. 5 Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in the same way a fifth time with an open letter in his hand. 6 In it was written: ‘It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; for that reason you are rebuilding the wall. And you are to be their king, according to these reports. 7 You have also appointed prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem concerning you, ‘A king is in Judah!’ And now it will be reported to the king according to these reports. So come now, let’s consult together.’”
Those men were determined to derail the construction of the wall. They were trying every tactic they could think of, but Nehemiah’s response to their messages of fear is perhaps the greatest proof of not only his prowess as a leader, but his unwavering faith in God. He writes, in verses 8 & 9, “Then I sent a message to him saying, ‘Nothing like these things that you are saying has been done, but you are inventing them in your own mind.’ For all of them were trying to frighten us, thinking, ‘They will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done.’ But now, God, strengthen my hands.”
Did you know that the tactic those men were using to discourage Nehemiah is exactly the same tactic the devil uses today on us? They were trying to scare Nehemiah into stopping his work. In the same way, the devil uses fear to try to stop us from following God.
Those men told Nehemiah that reports were saying he was committing treason, and that he was building an army of Jews who were going to rebel. They said everyone was saying he wants to be king. And the reports were reporting that soon the king would receive these reports. They warn him that all of this is going to happen, because this is what the reports say. But Nehemiah’s response is perfect. I love his simple reply: “Nothing like these things that you are saying has been done, but you are inventing them in your own mind.”
Isn’t this exactly what the devil does to us? Through the media and other individuals, the devil will place these same kinds of thoughts into our minds. He is constantly shouting, “All these horrible things are about to happen to you! You better stop what you are doing and worry about all these looming catastrophes.” But how many times have you worried about something, only to find out that nothing bad actually happened? How many times has the worry only been an invention of your mind? So many times I will find myself worrying about something that has not happened. In fact, most of the worry I experience is due to imagined fear. I start to worry when I am afraid that some particular thing might happen. Jesus tells us not to do this. He says in Matthew 6:34, “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Imagined worry robs today of its purpose. If we listen to the imagined reports telling us to fear, we can become sidelined. The reports, from the media, other people, and our own minds, are always the worst-case scenarios. If we listen to them, we might become frozen with worry. There are always reports telling us the worst possible outcome for everything going on. If you check the news today, there is war looming on the horizon, global destruction, disease, famine, droughts, and too much rain. There is economic collapse, pandemics, terrorists and violence around every corner. Every stranger is a danger. Every person is a threat. The message we are being told is that times have never been as bad as they are today, and tomorrow is going to be even worse. There are endless reasons to be afraid. But have you ever stopped to consider that the news cycle is simply a tool of the devil to keep us all in the clutches of fear and worry? I grew up in the 1980s, and the news media was constantly pushing the idea that nuclear war with the USSR was imminent. I remember worrying that the world would be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. And every decade since then, the media has been fraught with news of “wars and rumors of wars.” What if the Devil is behind it all because he wants to keep us afraid and distracted from the things that really matter?
In Matthew 24:4- 8, Jesus says, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many people. And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains.” That tells us that there will always be reports of bad things about to happen. And bad things do happen. Wars do start. Famines do happen. But unless they actually happen, we do not need to worry that they might. And if and when we do face real trouble, Jesus also says in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Even in the midst of real trouble, we don’t need to worry, for as Psalm 118:6 says, “The Lord is for me; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” For just like Proverbs 29:25 says, “The fear of man brings a snare, but one who trusts in the Lord will be protected.” That is why Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
If God is with us, we do not need to worry or stop doing the things God has given us to do, no matter what the reports may say. Instead of worry, we can go to God in prayer and ask Him to help us. A faithful leader throughout his life, Nehemiah did not stop doing what God had called him to do. He did not give in to fear and let it derail his plans. He kept to the task he had been given to do. But that was not the end of the devil’s attacks. We see they tried another tactic. Nehemiah 6:10-14 says, “When I entered the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined at home, he said, ‘Let’s meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let’s close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you, and they are coming to kill you at night.’ 11 But I said, ‘Should a man like me flee? And who is there like me who would go into the temple to save his own life? I will not go in.’ 12 Then I realized that God certainly had not sent him, but he uttered his prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 He was hired for this reason, that I would become frightened and act accordingly and sin, so that they might have an evil report in order that they could taunt me. 14 Remember, my God, Tobiah and Sanballat in accordance with these works of theirs, and also Noadiah the prophetess and the rest of the prophets, who were trying to frighten me.”
The text doesn’t tell us this, but if you know the laws concerning the temple, if Nehemiah had gone into the temple, that would have been breaking God’s law. That is why Nehemiah said it would be a sin for him to do so. Only the priests were allowed into the inner temple. Had Nehemiah listened to this prophet, he would have been breaking God’s law. This is also a tactic the devil uses today. In times of fear, he will have false prophets give false counsel, telling to us do things that go against God’s law. We should be on the lookout against this tactic. So, like Nehemiah, we too can stand strong and not allow fear to cause us to sin.
Finally, verse 15 & 16 tell us, “the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, they lost their confidence; for they realized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.”
Nehemiah was not deterred. He did not stop following God’s plan. When faced with reports, he prayed and sought God’s direction and help. The lesson today is not that we shouldn’t prepare. The lesson is, we shouldn’t worry or stop what we are doing, instead we should ask God what we should do. Nehemiah heard reports of the attack, and he got ready for it, but he didn’t stop the work on the wall. Another time, he heard the reports and he simply ignored it. That’s why we must be in prayer, so the Holy Spirit can guide us and lead us to the right response. Sometimes we do need to prepare, other times we can ignore, but we never need to worry. As 2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV) says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” God will help us not to fear, but to respond to reports with sometimes power, sometimes love, and always with discernment.
Let us be like Nehemiah. He never gave in to fear. He never quit doing what God had given him to do. Through prayer, he followed God’s leading, and he gave all the credit and glory to God for what God accomplished through him. He was a true leader and a faithful follower of God.
Pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for Your great love for us. Help us to not give in to fear. Please help us to not worry about tomorrow. Please lead us by Your Holy Spirit, to know what our response to the reports of the world should be. Give us wisdom and discernment so we can follow You and not sin or pause in what You have given us to do. We need Your help. We ask these things, in Jesus our Savior’s name, amen.
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