(Rough notes of a sermon preached on 27 February 2005, at Glen Eira Christian Community Church, Melbourne, Australia).

As you know my vocation/hobby is trying to figure out how the best put-together people got to be like that. Nehemiah is up near the top of my list of most-admired characters. He was an outstanding leader, a man of prayer, with a deep concern for God’s will above all else. He was a gifted administrator and motivator, able to plan and organise both difficult people and complex projects. But today we’ll discover five attributes of Nehemiah that we can all emulate.

First some background: In 587 BC the Babylonian empire annexed Judah (the region around Jerusalem) and most of the people were exiled to Babylon (roughly modern Iran). In 538 BC Cyrus, king of Persia, who governed people by permitting local autonomy, allowed people deported by the Babylonians to return to their homelands and to worship their own God, a good choice as it turned out, because they stayed in power for two centuries, only to be eventually conquered by Alexander the Great. Zerubbabel rebuilt the temple, and Ezra later restored the Law of Moses in Israel’s national life. And around 430 BC Nehemiah rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem, rendering the Holy City more secure from invasion.

Nehemiah served as cup-bearer to the King of Persia – a position requiring trust and integrity (ask the current president of the Ukraine!).

M Scott Peck made a fortune (in The Road Less Traveled) telling us that life is trouble, and we’d better accept that fact. Nehemiah did. It wasn’t easy for Nehemiah and his team. Despite careful planning they encountered internal and external crises which threatened to halt or destroy the work. Viewing the enormous task confronting them, the people lost their energy (4:10a), they lost their vision (10b), and they lost their confidence (10c). Local enemies caused trouble – poking fun at these people and even threatening harm. Nehemiah had to divide the workers into two groups, one to stand guard while the other worked with swords at their sides.

What can we learn from this great man?

1. Nehemiah had a strong commitment to *JUSTICE*

Overpopulation caused famine and starvation, and the people complained to Nehemiah (5:1-5): Besides the famine, there were too many taxes and an extortionate interest rate charged by rich fellow-Jews was causing them to sell their children and themselves into slavery. Their creditors were taking their land as payment and when they ran out of land, the creditors took their children as slaves. Over-population, famine, high interest rates, high taxes. who says the Bible doesn’t have anything to say about modern problems?

Nehemiah was angry (5:6) – for three reasons. The people had forgotten the Mosaic Law forbidding the charging of interest to their fellow-Jews (Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:35-37, and Deuteronomy 23:19-20), and selling Jews into permanent slavery (Leviticus 25:35-43). They were not practising grace/love to their fellow-Jews. And they were a very bad advertisement for their God to the local Gentiles. Their enemies were saying ‘They’re just like everybody else—no different at all; in fact, the whole project is a joke.’ Nothing could have thrilled Sanballat and his crowd any more than to see the job stopped because of internal strife. (Who applauds the loudest when Christians fight, or televangelists and pedophile priests misbehave, or churches split? Why should the enemy fight from without when those within fight each other? See Philipians 1:27-28, 1 Peter 2:11,12).

Back to Nehemiah’s anger: he wasn’t a hothead whose anger meter was in the red a lot. He was very calm and cool in most situations. But when he saw people with money, influence and/or power ripping off the poor, that got him mad.

What can we learn from how he handled his anger? First, he admitted it (5:6). It’s not good to repress anger and hide it. The pressure mounts and eventually there’s an explosion. Second, stop and think. In 5:7 Nehemiah says ‘After thinking through it …’ (or as one translation puts it ‘I consulted with myself …’) Thomas Jefferson said we should count to 10 when we get angry. One friend says he has to count to about 1,000! Allow yourself to cool down and gain perspective. Remember, anger isn’t necessarily bad (Ephesians 4:26). Paul got angry (2 Corinthians 11:28-29). Jesus got angry with those in the temple forecourt who ripped off the poor. If we don’t get angry at injustice, we are not true followers of Jesus. Third, Nehemiah called a meeting and offered a well thought-out proposal (read 5:7 ff.)

He comes straight to the point about charging exhorbitant interest (probably 1% per month, or 12% per year), and reminded them of the fact that they had been redeeming Jews sold in bondage to their heathen neighbors. Then Nehemiah poses a question to them, asking if they were going to do just the opposite, selling them back to fellow Jews? This put them on the spot, and they ‘kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say’ (5:8).

Nehemiah took another step to make the decision in cement (5:12). He made them take an oath, promising that they would stop taking advantage of their brothers. He called the priest to witness this decision. This was to give solemnity to the oath and partly to make the declaration legally valid for judicial decisions: this was serious business, and now there was going to be some accountability.

But Nehemiah doesn’t just stop there. In 5:13 we see him emphasize the point even further. Nehemiah shook his cloak to illustrate that the heavy wrath of God would fall upon all who should fail to act according to their promise. He actually pronounced a curse on them. Here we have a foretaste of the great NT principle: ‘The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14-15)

2. Nehemiah devoted himself to *WORK*

‘We built the wall…, for the people had a mind to work’ (Nehemiah 4:6). ‘I devoted myself to the work on this wall’ (5:16a). ‘I am doing a great work’ (6:3).

Some people, like the comic-strip character Beetle Bailey, work hard to avoid working. Eugene Peterson talks about pastors who ‘are busy because they’re lazy’.

Work for many is hard, and emotionally unrewarding. These days the skill level of the labour force is increasing, but those with few qualifications face a bleak future and possible underclass status – poor pay in short-term jobs alternating with unemployment. Young people could be forgiven for adopting a pessimistic outlook in the face of such trends, facing a future where it’s everyone for himself or herself, where obsolescence and downsizing and rapid change are the order of the day, and where not only the goalposts but the rules of the game keep changing.

In The Acquisitive Society, (1920) English economic historian and Christian R.H. Tawney critiques modern Western society’s headlong pursuit of the acquisition of wealth and its inane focus on the attainment of personal pleasure at the expense of the wellbeing of others. Tawney’s words echo those of a wise man long ago recorded in Ecclesiastes [2:10-11, 17-23; 4:4; 5:15-16]. I’m reading a book just out which says the same thing: ‘In Search of the Good Life: the Ethics of Globalization’ (Rebecca Todd Peters, Continuum 2004). Watch on our website for a summary/review…

Ideally, and in principle, work is a good gift from our Creator. God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden ‘to tend and keep it’ (Genesis 2:15). Work is essential to our well-being.

God wants us to work, and he wants us to put our hearts into what we do. That’s easy for some people who can be enthusiastic about our work because we’re paid for doing what we would enjoy doing for nothing. But how can a person put their heart into a job that is drearily monotonous, or so stressful that it brings on high blood pressure or ulcers? The apostle Paul gave these answers to followers of Christ: ‘Work with your own hands,… that you may lack nothing’ (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). To another church he wrote, ‘Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord’ (Colossians 3:23).

‘Whatever you are working on, /Engage in it with zest, /Because your work is for the Lord /And He expects your best.’

WORK BECOMES WORSHIP WHEN YOU WORK FOR THE LORD.

What was the result of this commitment to hard work? In the story at the beginning of chapter 6 Nehemiah is invited to be distracted. Christians also must be able to say “no” to things which would pull them away from “great works”. “To put it another way, there’s a great different between being an available man or woman of God and being a puppet of people”. In 6:15-16 we find the work completed in a record 52 days, with God’s help. Those Jews worked under exceedingly difficult circumstances. But, as the saying goes, hard work never did anybody any harm. Proverbs 14:23: ‘Hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty’ Proverbs 14:23).

God blesses hard work and conscientious workers. God doesn’t bless bludging. But on the other hand, God doesn’t expect you to work yourself into the ground, or to devote yourself so fully to your paid work that your family are left on the sideline. That’s why God initiated the principle of the Sabbath – a rest every seven days. Even God rested on the seventh day after he had created the universe! Regular rest and recreation are vital to good work. Divert daily, withdraw weekly, and abandon annually – and you, your employer, your colleagues and your family will notice the benefits.

Another important aspect to work: Thomas Merton somewhere exhorts us to have an ‘unspeakable reverence for the holiness of created things’. Joseph and Jesus made tables and chairs (and crosses?); Paul used woven goats’ hair to make tents; Dorcas was a seamstress, Nehemiah a butler; David and Amos were herdsmen. We serve the living God washing dishes or sweeping a room; preaching or administering the sacraments; teaching geography or giving advice about superannuation; organizing a day-care centre or fasting to raise money for the poor.

‘Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:31). Everything we do – working or playing, partying or praying is to be done to the glory of God. All of life – family, church, job, sex, sleep, study, whatever – is sacred, when offered to him.

In the book Illusions, Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, writes, ‘Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.’

3. Nehemiah refused to be *DISCOURAGED*

‘You and the Jews are planning to rebel’ (6:6). Nehemiah has rebuffed their invitations to meet in the plain of Ono, so his enemies try to intimidate him with rumors, gossip and lies. Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. They hired counselors to work against them and frustrate their plans (Ezra 4:4-5) ‘You wouldn’t come when we sent our invitation, and so we’re letting the truth be known. We plan to expose you. We want everybody to know two things. When you came to Jerusalem, you came for the express purpose of collecting a group of people around you so you could lead a revolution.’ Note how Nehemiah deals with gossip and rumor, ‘Such things as you are saying have not been done, but you are inventing them in your own mind (6:8). Points To Note: 1. Chuck Swindoll somewhere suggests: The way to deal with gossip is simply to say, ‘It’s not true’, and then to let your life back up those words. Trying to track down every rumor to its original source is often a waste of time and emotional energy. 2. Wisdom should force all of us to ask the following questions: “Is it necessary to say this?” “Is this confidential information?” “Do I have a right to pass this on?” “God hates those who sow discord among brothers/sisters” (Proverbs 6:16-19) “Is this true, can the original source be quoted?” “Will this benefit the person who hears me?” Or, “Can he do anything about it? Or is this just going to be another pouring of useless hearsay into someone’s ears?” “When you give unverified information to people who are critical and negative, knowing they can’t do anything about the situation anyway, that’s an unwise move. When you go to an individual who can do something about relevant information and in a spirit of love share it, that is constructive criticism” (Ephesians 4:29). “Speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15): if what we are saying isn’t the truth and our motives are less than impure for saying it, then it qualifies as gossip.

Perseverance is a good antidote to discouragement. In 1798, in the Scottish manufacturing town of Newcastle, a young lady began teaching a Sunday school class of poverty-stricken boys. The most unpromising teenager was Robert, a young man who ran with the wrong crowd. After three Sundays, he did not return.

So the teacher went to look for him. Although the superintendent had given Robert some new clothes, they were already worn and dirty when the teacher found him. He was given another new suit, and he came back to Sunday school. But Robert’s friends again discouraged him from going and he quit again.

The teacher went out once more to find him. When she did, she discovered that the second set of clothes had also been torn. “I am completely discouraged about Robert,” she told the superintendent. “I guess we must give up on him.” “Please don’t do that,” he pleaded. “I believe there is still hope. Try him one more time.”

They gave Robert a third suit, and this time he began to attend faithfully. Robert Morrison became a Christian and nine years later he became the first Protestant missionary to China. He translated the Bible into Chinese and brought the Word of God to millions of people.

Who are you reacting to: discouraging people or events or God? Today in prayer, give any discouragement you have received to the Lord and seek to follow your Lord in all that you do.

God’s Word: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”- Joshua 1:9

4. Nehemiah was a person of *INTEGRITY*

Nehemiah was a living example of how to act in front of others. We learn from 5:15 that Nehemiah didn’t use his position for his own gain. He provided hospitality for 150 Jews and officials in need. He was an example of how to treat his “brothers.” He didn’t ask others to do where he wasn’t willing to lead by example.

Concerning the methods used by enemies (or our Satanic enemy) to tempt us, Paul says that we are not ignorant (2 Corinthians 2:11). Notice that Nehemiah’s enemies attack just as he is about to finish this project. ‘Not very long before they were ready to cut the ribbon and have a jubilant celebration, the enemy attacked (Nehemiah 6:1-2). Satan often attacks right before or right after some sort of success or accomplishment. David fell right after he had gained control over all his enemies (2 Samuel 11), Jonah fell into self-pity after the entire population of one of the greatest cities of the time repented before God. Jesus was tempted by the devil immediately after he was baptized (Matthew 4:1).’

Nehemiah’s enemies pretended to be concerned for him: “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you” (Nehemiah 6:10). Another tactic: “Let’s pray about this together”. How phony can you get? Shemaiah had been hired by Tobiah and Sanballat. Shemaiah must have been a man Nehemiah trusted, for it would have been illogical to meet secretly with someone he did not trust. When Nehemiah arrived, Shemaiah suggested they meet in the temple behind closed doors. He pretended to be protecting Nehemiah from would-be nighttime assassins. But Nehemiah discerned two flaws in this so-called prophecy. First, God would hardly risk Nehemiah to run when the project on the walls was nearing completion. Second, no true prophet would ask someone to violate God’s Law. Only priests were allowed in the sanctuary (Numbers 3:10; 18:7). Nehemiah knew that the end didn’t justify the means, and even saving his own life wasn’t a good enough reason to violate a command of God. If Nehemiah had listened to his critics, the wall around the city of Jerusalem would never have been rebuilt. Some of what those critics said to him was accurate. The wall was rubble and fire had burned the stones and caused them to crack and crumble (4:2-3). But the critics talked much and did absolutely nothing to help. Their only aim was to be negative and destructive and obstructive.

Haddon W. Robinson quotes Theodore Roosevelt:'”It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood… and who, …if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” Where do you see yourself in this picture? Are you being pelted by unfair criticism as you are serving Christ? If so, keep on going and God will reward your efforts. Or do you recognize yourself as one who tends to be critical of others? If so, it’s time to quit the demolition team and join the construction crew.’

I would not criticize the one who works,/ The one who listens to God’s Word and heeds;But I would criticize myself, dear Lord,/ Confess to you my faithless words and deeds. –

Whenever we do the work of God, there will always be opposition. The enemy attacks at every opportunity and usually at our most vulnerable places. He is a master of deceit and we, like Nehemiah, need to be aware of his devices. Every leader has experienced some type of personal attack. Whether it is an attack on character, conduct, motives, decisions or abilities, it all can be very hurtful.

So, watch out for phony people, phony solutions, and phony sweet talk. Watch out, too, for temptations that can be very appealing and sound very promising — but be equally deceptive. Remember, too, that oft times the good can be the enemy of the best!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me always to live and work in harmony with your will — no matter how great the challenge — and not be sidetracked with tempting offers — no matter how appealing (especially ones that are directed to my ego … or my pocket book.) Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

A church leader must be able to rise above those attacks in order to survive and remain faithful to his calling. But, what should be your immediate response when you feel you’ve been wrongfully attacked? The immediate temptation may be to defend yourself and react in an emotional manner.

Following the example of strong leaders, however, shows us it may be wiser to take a higher road.

Here’s a story about the great preacher/pastor C. H. Spurgeon:

C. H. Spurgeon seldom responded to personal attacks. A good example of that is the time that his famous pastoral colleague, Joseph Parker, of the City Temple in London, wrote an open letter to Spurgeon that was published in the newspaper in 1890. The letter issued from a disagreement the two men had over Parker’s frequenting the theatres in London. Spurgeon was not amused by such worldly practice for a Christian leader. As well, Spurgeon frowned upon Parker welcoming the recognized liberal pastor, Henry Ward Beecher, into his pulpit.

As a result, Spurgeon ceased cooperating with Parker in evangelical endeavors. Parker felt rebuffed, and responded unwisely in a public manner. There was a lot of comment in the public press. But, Spurgeon never addressed the letter in a public fashion. For him, the matter ended there. He just let it go. Sometimes we need to do that. Just let it go, as difficult as that may be. An unmerited response might simply make matters worse.

While Spurgeon did not generally respond to personal attacks on him as a person, he did, on occasion, respond to personal attacks on his position as pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle http://www.metropolitantabernacle.org%2F. He believed his calling to be a sacred one and if someone attacked his role as a minister, he did respond to those critics accordingly.

Such was the case in the early part of his London ministry when the newspapers derided his immediate popularity and castigated him with every vile description possible. He was lampooned as a country bumpkin from Essex, whom the media elite considered uncouth and vulgar. He was caricatured in cartoons as a charlatan seeking fame and fortune in the city.

Spurgeon took advantage of the situation and rallied his congregation to support him in the wake of the vilification he was receiving. It turned out to be a positive force for the gospel, as many people came to hear him out of curiosity, and in the process, came to faith in Christ.

Interestingly enough, Spurgeon became somewhat amused at the ridiculous nature of the criticisms in the press, and compiled a scrapbook of the news clippings entitled “Facts, Fiction, and Facetiae.” He enjoyed showing them to visitors. At least he did not take himself so seriously and was able to see the humor in it all. But, the criticisms did hurt and he felt the sting at times. He wrote privately to his wife and lamented the false accusations. But, he charted safely through those stormy waters, and went on to become the first megachurch pastor in modern times.

A leader must demonstrate wisdom and exercise restraint in responding to personal attacks. But, if Spurgeon and Nehemiah are valid examples, it may be appropriate to respond to attacks upon one’s position in ministry at certain times.

The crux of the matter is determining whether you are simply out to protect and defend yourself or the integrity of the ministry to which you have been called. With much prayer and appropriate humility, divine guidance will be granted. Then you may make the best decision for the sake of the gospel.

Samuel Goldwyn said that “Ninety percent of the art of living amounts to getting on with people you can’t stand.”

5. *PRAYER* in Nehemiah is a study on its own. A couple of important aspects:

5-1 Identificational Repentance

There is no doubt from scripture that national or corporate sin, just like personal sin, damages a nation’s relationship to God and needs to be confessed. Both Daniel and Nehemiah did just this for Israel as recorded in the Scriptures of the Old Testament: “While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people…” (Daniel 9:20). In Nehemiah we read: “I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you” (Nehemiah 1:6). John Dawson calls this “identificational repentance” in his book Healing America’s Wounds. He points out that it is a spiritual process whereby a person or group identifies with and repents for the sins of another person or group. This is vividly portrayed in 2 Chronicles: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). The church plays a key role in this process of addressing the wounds of the past, for it is the vehicle of reconciliation in our world even though it is at times caught up in and bound by the same forces as that world. Hand in hand with identificational repentance goes intercessory prayer.

5-2 Praying for Strength

The time involved in prayer may be brief or long. If I am normally talkative then my prayers may well consume many words. If I say little then it will be so when I talk with God. Whitfield, the famous preacher contemporary with the Wesleys, used to lie all day prostrate in prayer, and Luther in a crisis of his life said, “I am so busy now, that if I did not spend two or three hours in prayer each day I could not get through the day.” But Spurgeon, no less outstanding an evangelist, said of prolonged prayer, “I could not do it even if my eternity depended upon it. Besides, if I go to a bank with a cheque, what do I wait loafing around the premises for, when I have got my money?”

The length of time spent upon it is not the decisive criterion in prayer. We may pray most when we say least. We may pray least when we say the most. The depth of our “sincere desire” is the all-important thing.

Notice how individual are the prayers and the ways of praying recorded in the Bible. Paul kneels when he prays. Jeremiah stands up. David sits down. Jesus lies prostrate. Hannah prays silently. Ezekiel prays aloud. They prayed in the temple, in their private rooms, in the open country. Some prayers are about practical matters – like those of Nehemiah; others, devotional and poetical – like David’s; melancholy – like Jeremiah’s; radiantly hopeful – like Isaiah’s; concerned with people’s personal problems – like some of Paul’s.

Study these Bible prayers and you find how widely they differ in content, language and style, reflecting the individual temperaments of the people who offered them. The Bible recognises that each may pray according to the kind of person they are, the problems they face, the needs or delights of the hour. So with our own prayers. We must each pray as best we can, by experiment discover our own technique, and have a robust respect for our own perfectly natural way of praying.

Here’s an example of a brief prayer: “They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.’ But I prayed, ‘Now strengthen my hands.'” – Nehemiah 6:9

*CONCLUSION*

Let me offer you today as we close, the best text in Nehemiah: ‘The joy of the LORD is your strength’ (Nehemiah 8:10).

Shalom! Rowland Croucher

http://jmm.org.au/