Tomorrow is my last day in the book of Nehemiah. I've been reading through it this month and have grown to really love it. I've also grown to admire Nehemiah's leadership (I'm sure somewhere out there is a book about leadership based on this guy . . . or at least there should be!).
Nehemiah was fearless and strong. But not on his own. He was clear about the fact that it was through God that he was fearless.
He had to deal with prophets/secret informants (who were really hired by the enemy) who attempted to get him to sin before God by telling him a false prophesy. As well as neighboring kingdoms who tried to sabotage the rebuilding of the wall by attempting to trick him come to a "meeting" with them where they were planning to hurt him. Then they tried to intimidate him by making up and spreading rumors about him. Pretty intense stuff.
But the whole time, Nehemiah was calm, cool, and collected—because he chose to trust and obey God and stay focused on the work he was doing. He wasn't running around trying to win any popularity contests. He knew he had a job to do and he was going to accomplish it! And do an A+ job at it too!
On top of all of it, he had to be social justice reformer, cleaning up the corruption within the leaders in Jerusalem and relieving the people from their oppression. But he did it without shrinking back. And he succeeded!
Here are some of my favorite verses from Nehemiah (along with some notes I wrote in the margins ; )
Random side note I just thought of: A really cool thing about the book of Nehemiah is that he wrote it kinda like a journal.
"O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." For I was the king's cupbearer" 1:11.
—Ok so I didn't actually write this note in my Bible's margin but I did think about this, and that is, I can really relate to Nehemiah's prayer here. I love how he says, "be attentive to the prayer of Your servant . . . who desire to fear Your name." That's me, I have this desire but my actions don't always follow suit. And so I think it's really cool how he prays in such an honest yet humble manner. He's not ashamed to go before God even if he doesn't have it all together. He's just going to choose to trust and rely on God anyway. I think that's awesome.
I also had a big interview for a project I'm working on around the time I read this, so the end of his prayer really spoke to me too, "I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man."
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". . . the people had a mind to work" 4:6b. I just love that line! That's all.
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"And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, "Each of you is exacting usury from his brother." So I called a great assembly against them. And I said to them, "According to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?" Then they were silenced and found nothing to say" 5:6-8.
He went on to tell them that this what they were doing was wrong [this was when the people came to him about the oppression they were experiences from the leaders] and what he was doing to help the people. He was very strong with them about what they needed to do. They listened and followed his example and he was promoted to governor over Judah.
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"Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me" 6:12, 13.
[The note from my margin]: God will never require you to sin to save your life. //
Also, God does not use fear to motivate us, which is what these false prophets were attempting to use against Nehemiah.
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"My God remember Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these their works, and the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid" 6:14.
Same thought at up there ^: God will never use fear to motivate us. Fear is a torture technique for the mind and that's not really what He's into.
[Note from my margin]: Never let anyone cause you to be afraid. //
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"So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in the fifty-two days. And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was done by our God" 6:15, 16.
[Note from my margin]: Wow! How powerful is that?! When you persevere despite the odds people will attribute [your success] to God!
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There's more, but that's all for now.
Suzanne Ocsai
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