If someone asked me what I believed the best book in the bible on Leadership is, I would tell them to go straight to Nehemiah. Every single chapter in this book gives us great characteristics of a godly leader. In this lesson, I would like to look at the first 2 chapters of this great book, to show just a few characteristics of this great man of God.
But first, let’s look at the historical context surrounding this book:
**Historical Context**
Around 586bc, the southern Nation of Judah went into Babylonian captivity as was predicted by Jeremiah & the prophets for many years. They were in captivity for 70 years until Cyrus, the King of the Persian Empire allowed them to return to Judea to rebuild Jerusalem. They went to Jerusalem and started to build the temple. They laid the foundations for the temple, but the work stopped because of their enemies.
LATER Haggai and Zachariah came and encouraged them by the word of God that they should get back to work on the temple, to stop building their own houses and to build the Lord’s house that was still not built. Later Ezra led people back to Jerusalem and made many religious reforms due to teaching of the Law. Then around 445bc, about 13 years after Ezra returned and about 70 years after the first Jewish captives returned, we read about Nehemiah.
WHO WAS NEHEMIAH?
Nehemiah was the cup-bearer of the Persian King, which was a high position of influence. Only a man of integrity would be given this duty. We see just in his position that he was a highly trustworthy and dependable man. The cup-bearer was the one who would taste the wine and the food before the king did so that the king would not be poisoned. You don’t want someone that you cannot trust doing that job. This was a significant position.
In Nehemiah we see a great man who led the people to do great things. We are going to look at in this lesson some principles that made Nehemiah a good leader and servant of God. Hopefully we see a few things in this lesson that we can apply to our own lives as disciples of the Lord. I would like to answer 3 questions: why was Nehemiah was a great leader? What motivated Him to lead? and why did the people follow him?
The first thing we learn in this book that made him a great leader is:
1. That he cared for the people of God.
Read Nehemiah 1:1-4
He cared about the people of God. One of his brothers comes and he asks about the welfare of Jerusalem, but first of all he asks about the people. His first concern was the people. When he found out that they were in distress and that the walls were broken down and that they had no protection from their enemies, he mourned. He wept, he prayed, and he fasted for many days. That is the first sign of a great leader. A great leader cares for the people of God. In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul describes all of the sufferings that he endured, and just as we saw in our “Greetings and Salutations” class, Paul had the daily concern, a deep concern about the welfare of the churches.
That is what Nehemiah felt. Nehemiah cared, and it showed, just as with the apostle Paul; it showed in ACTION. He ended up leaving his comfortable life and significant position for a mission of leading the building of the walls of Jerusalem. He left his comfortable life because of his concern for his Jewish brethren.
Read Nehemiah 2:10
What a great comment that is said here about Nehemiah’s leadership. He sought the well-being of the children of Israel. That is where true leadership begins. This is what motivated him to lead!
Nehemiah wasn’t motivated by a lust for power, or authority. He didn’t want a position of importance or wealth. He was motivated by a passion for the people of God.
Back to ch 1
2. Another reason that Nehemiah was a great leader was because he was a prayerful leader. Nehemiah was a man of prayer. Let’s take a look at his prayer.
Read Nehemiah 1:5-11
We see here that Nehemiah was a humble man in prayer. He tells God of His greatness, and then He tells him of his own corruption. He asked God to hear his prayer, even though he had sinned against him. We must see that praying to the Creator of the Universe is a privilege that we are given by the grace of God. We don’t deserve the privilege. We must, just as Nehemiah, honestly examine our own hearts before the Lord. We are talking to the Holy God. It should be a humbling experience to us.
Nehemiah knew that he was unworthy, but he still confidently came to God in prayer. Why?
We see in verses 8 & 9. It’s the promises that God made to His people made Nehemiah’s prayer confident. He trusted in God’s promises and knew of God’s great mercy for those who return to Him. We ourselves are instructed in the scriptures that we can confidently come before our God in prayer. We can do this for the same reason as Nehemiah. We have been given precious promises from our God that we can trust in if we remain faithful.
Nehemiah was a great leader because of his humility and also his confidence in prayer.
In verse 11, we also see that Nehemiah’s prayer was very specific. Nehemiah didn’t pray for someone else to have a door opened to them. He prayed that the Lord would open the door for him to do something. We always ask God to fix our problems or other people’s problems, but we probably never ask the Lord enough to give us a way to help them or to fix them also. Nehemiah prayed that the Lord would open the door to him. We see in Nehemiah that Isaiah 6:8 attitude: “Here am I, send me!” He wanted to be part of the solution of the problem.
We should never be part of the group that has the habit of pointing out the problems and asking why they aren’t getting fixed. We’re given a great example here in Nehemiah of what every follower of God should possess, the desire to work! The desire to want to make a difference in the body of Christ.
So we see Nehemiah’s prayers were humble, confident, and specific, but Probably the most amazing thing that I learned about this great leader’s prayer is that it was patient.
In Nehemiah 1:1 we see that he started praying for an open door in the month of Chislev, which is around December on our calendars. In Chapter 2:1 we see that the answer to his prayer was in Nisan, WHICH WAS FOUR MONTHS LATER!
He prayed for four months for the Lord to open up a door for him. Now that is patience. Do we pray for things persistently like this in faith that the Lord will answer? OR DO WE GIVE UP PRAYING BEFORE FOUR MONTHS? We probably always give up too soon. I’m sure we’ve all done it. Someone asks for us to pray for them, and we do for a couple days. But then we start to get lazy in our prayers or we just forget to mention that person. That didn’t happen with Nehemiah. We see in ch 1:6 that he was praying day and night, and he was probably doing it every day. This shows us Nehemiah’s true concern for God’s people, his trust in God, and his desire to make things happen.
Now at the end of Nehemiah’s prayer at the end of verse 11---“Now I was the cup-bearer to the king.”
I thought to myself, “What in the world does being the cup-bearer have to do with this prayer? I didn’t at first see how it fit at the end of this chapter; It seemed out of place, but then it hit me!
Do we remember the story of Esther? Esther, a Jewish woman, became the queen. Her people were in distress and threatened by Haman. He wanted to put to death all of the Jews throughout the kingdom. Mordecai sends a messenger to her to tell her (Esther 4:14), “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" He told Esther that she was in a position where she could do something to help the people of God, and that God probably put her in the position for that very purpose.
This is exactly what Nehemiah was thinking. He felt he was put into the position of the cup-bearer for the purpose of helping the children of Israel. He prayed that the door would be opened to him because he felt that he had the resources available to make a difference.
He prayed fervently night and day, probably every day at the door waiting for God to open it.
And after his 4 months of patiently waiting for God’s answer, it comes in chapter 2.
Read Nehemiah 2:1-3
So the time finally comes that he has the door opened and has a chance to say something, and he becomes dreadfully afraid. Why was Nehemiah afraid? The reason why was that you weren’t supposed to come before the king in mourning. It was everyone’s duty around the king to make sure the king was happy and had a good day. We see in the book of Esther that even when the queen made the king mad, it was not tolerated. You ruin the king’s day, you better be afraid! Nehemiah took this duty seriously, and we see that in verse 1, where he says that he was never sad in the king’s presence before.
But after months of praying and deep concern for his brethren, he just couldn’t hold back how he was feeling. But the Lord was with Nehemiah. He tells the King about his concern for his brethren, and the king replies by saying, “What do you request?”
Let’s take note of what Nehemiah does in verse 4. It says “So I prayed to the God of heaven.” Before he even answers the question of the king, he prays to God. That is amazing. I’m sure it wasn’t a long prayer though. He was before the king and didn’t want to keep the king waiting for an answer. Nehemiah was always ready to pray, whether he was by himself or in front of the king. He always was in need of strength and guidance from God. He went to God in prayer because he knew that God was listening, even if the prayer was short. This is a great example of how to pray without ceasing as we are instructed in the New Testament. We need to always be in the attitude of prayer.
After his prayer, Nehemiah asked for all that he needed to get the job done, and the king granted all of his requests. He saw that God was indeed with him.
3. We see here that Nehemiah planned ahead of time so he could ask for exactly what he needed. He trusted that the Lord would answer his prayers, So he made sure he was ready to give a response and planned ahead of time for all that he would need to get the job done. He prepared for God’s answer.
Even after setting a deadline for himself with the king, when he got to Jerusalem, he spent 3 days doing nothing but planning, examining, and getting ready for the work to get done. This was probably the most important part of the work. Great leaders like Nehemiah plan. They even get ready for any obstacles that may come their way.
If a leader does not plan ahead for what they are going to do, they will not be followed; they will lose their credibility. If something unexpected happens, everything could fall apart. Nehemiah planned ahead so he would have all of the materials he needed, then when he got to Jerusalem and had three more days of planning so everything could be done properly and in order so he could make his deadline.
Then finally, after his months of praying and preparing, Nehemiah shares his plans with the people:
Read Nehemiah 2:17-18
To answer our final question:
Why did the people follow Nehemiah?
The key thing he does here that makes the people say “Let us rise up and build” is that he showed them that the Lord was with them. He didn’t come to them and say “look at what I have done,” or “Look at what I’ve prepared.” He shows them what the Lord had done to get him to this point. Because they knew God was with them in this work they set their hands to do it.
I believe that--When the people of God believe that God is with them, there should be nothing they are not willing to do.
Nehemiah was a great leader because he knew that the Lord was with Him. When criticism comes at the end of ch2, which we’ll speak of in more detail in the next lesson, Nehemiah says to those who opposed
Nehemiah 2:20
"The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build”
Just a quick review and we’ll conclude with some applications:
Nehemiah gives us a great example of a leader. He had a deep concern for the people of God that lead to action. He was always in humble, but confident prayer, knowing that his God is faithful and is always there to listen. He planned and prepared for his work and as we will see in our 2nd lesson, he never let criticism stop Him. He trusted in the Lord, and he believed that he was put into his position of cup-bearer for a reason.
When we examine our own lives, do we see the care for the people of God within ourselves? If so, that concern for the brethren lead to action; to serve one another and to show our love and care for one another. That is what the love of the Christians in acts 2 & 4 lead to. They were willing to make sacrifices for one another. That is the love and concern for the brethren that we all need to grow in.
How does our prayer life measure up with Nehemiah’s? I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit envious of Nehemiah’s prayers and his trust in God. His prayers showed how much he knew his God, and how much he depended on his God to get him through day to day. I surely see where I fall short of Nehemiah’s example.
And finally, are we praying for open doors to do something for our God? Do we look for opportunities to serve the Lord? One thing we always need to remember is that we are here as Christians to serve and glorify God. Lord willing, He will give us all many chances to serve Him and bring glory to Him in the future.
