The following is the script from the Take Ten with Pastor Don Podcast on January 24, 2024.

I’ve always been fascinated by the man Nehemiah. We have a book in the Old Testament that he is given credit for writing.

Several years ago, one my spiritual heroes, Pastor Bob Westphal, did a summer long series on the book of Nehemiah. I’ve been a fan ever since.

I’ve read and re-read the book. I’ve taught from it many times and am still drawn to it today.

So much has been written about Nehemiah as a leader that I hesitate to write these things but I’m confident there is someone out there that will be helped, encouraged or challenged by these words.

Nehemiah was real. You can’t escape that.

He leads by example—Nehemiah worked right along with the folks on the wall. He didn’t set himself apart from the team. In chapter 4:21-23 “So we labored in the work, and half of the men held the spears from daybreak until the stars appeared. {22} At the same time I also said to the people, “Let each man and his servant stay at night in Jerusalem, that they may be our guard by night and a working party by day.” {23} So neither I, my brethren, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me took off our clothes, except that everyone took them off for washing.”

My take on this is that Nehemiah remained at the ready, always prepared to respond to any challenge that came along.

He valued his team—In chapters 3, 7, 10, & 12 we find lists of those who worked with Nehemiah. I don’t know if these lists give us a complete roster of all the characters but you have to be impressed that Nehemiah could and would list the names of these folks. After all, most scholars think this might have been his diary of his time in Jerusalem. Why would he take the time to write all these names? Personally, I think he knew each one of them; knew their families; and valued them to the point of writing their names and praying for them as he wrote.

He led through prayer—I love chapter 1 of Nehemiah. There are some valuable lessons for us in this part of the diary. But the greatest picture there for us that Nehemiah was a man of prayer. When he heard the report of how things were in Jerusalem, he wept, fasted and prayed. He did this for four months before he did anything else. (We learn it was four months from what is said in chapter 2)

When he faced opposition in chapter 4, he prayed.

He heard God and obeyed God—In chapter 6 when the opposition became personal, Nehemiah was invited by a “prophet for hire” and encouraged to take a wrong decision. But God spoke to Nehemiah and he obeyed and didn’t follow the suggestion of Shemaiah. I don’t how God spoke to or impressed upon Nehemiah to not heed this man’s words but it happened. Perhaps even more important is that Nehemiah listened and obeyed.

He was self-less—In 5:14 we note that Nehemiah was appointed Governor of the region of Judah.  As a result of this he was entitled to an “allowance” but he chose not to take this.  The allowance he received would have come from a tax on the people. And even though earlier administrations heavily taxed them, he chose not to.  He even fed himself, his family and the 150 Jews who ate at his table from his own resources.

He was emotional—I love this part of the story. We’re never really told that Nehemiah became afraid during the time of opposition but he did keep guards posted. He did encourage the men to work with one hand and keep a weapon in the other. (We know what it means to “watch and pray” but this tells us to “work and watch!” We know that Nehemiah stood ready at an instant to jump into action. In 4:18 we read that the men who sounded the trumpet as a call to arms, stayed with him.

It would be safe to say Nehemiah had a fire in his belly.

Earlier in 5:6 Nehemiah became “very angry” when he heard the report of how some daughters had been sold into slavery to help pay debts.

When you get to chapter 13, the final chapter, Nehemiah exhibits some behavior that for some is questionable. But it provides a good chuckle for us.

In verse 21 he threatened to “lay hands on” some of the merchants if they continued their business on the Sabbath. And then in verse 25 he “rebuked,” “called curses down,” and “beat some of the men and pulled their hair out” for marrying the women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.

The problem was they were deliberately disobeying the commands of God.

They were not to sell on the Sabbath. They were to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. This meant no work. It meant no markets. No working the fields.

And they also disobeyed the command of God about who to marry or not to marry. They were not to marry women who worshiped foreign gods.

He reminded them of what happened to Solomon and ultimately to the nation of Israel because of these things.

Some reading this might remember an incident in college football. The Ohio State coach, Woody Hayes, co-cocked a player from the other team as he was running the ball. Of course, this was wrong. And Hayes lost a prestigious job in college sports and promptly became the laughingstock of college football. There is no way you could justify behavior of that sort. BUT, if you were the athletic director or the President of Ohio State, you would want your coach to have a fire in his belly and to be emotionally involved in what he was doing. You would want him upset when he lost and you would want him to celebrate when he won. You wouldn’t be too happy to hear a cold, calculated response about losing or winning.

Too many of our leaders today give a well rehearsed response to everything. They don’t want those they lead to see them in their “real moments.” They want folks to think they always have it under control. I think Nehemiah laughed, cried, celebrated, expressed great anguish and yes, even anger when things warranted those responses. As a leader, when was the last time those you lead saw you real? As a follower, who would you rather follow, someone who wasn’t afraid to let you know they were real or someone who always kept their guard up and offered those calculated responses to everything? I know I would want to follow someone like Woody Ha….er Nehemiah.

I want those who follow me to know I’m excited about what God is doing. I want them to know that I cry with them and suffer right along with them. I can’t lead well from a distance. I want to be in the midst of those I lead, working with them, laughing with them, crying with them, praying with them, and celebrating with them.

Let’s learn from Nehemiah and allow God to use us to help restore righteousness in our world.