The final step of Nehemiah’s success in arousing the people to rebuild the walls was his skill in taking them into his confidence, in the sense that he kept them informed. Of what? At this stage it was the progress already attained. It had two parts. First, there had been a victory at the highest level: the king had altered his policy to permit the rebuilding. Second, God was behind the great project.
The final step of Nehemiah’s success in arousing the people to rebuild the walls was his skill in taking them into his confidence, in the sense that he kept them informed. Of what? At this stage it was the progress already attained. It had two parts. First, there had been a victory at the highest level: the king had altered his policy to permit the rebuilding. Second, God was behind the great project.
The people of Jerusalem were motivated by their earthly citizenship and responded, as the story shows, by rebuilding their city’s walls. We have a heavenly citizenship (Phil. 3:20). Are we proud of that citizenship? Are we motivated to work enthusiastically for its good? There is work to be done, walls to be rebuilt. Besides, in contrast to the mere earthly building of Nehemiah’s days, what we are to build is lasting.
In yesterday’ study, we looked at the first two aspects of planning. Today we begin by mentioning the third.
First, Nehemiah was a great planner—a prayer and a planner. He knew, as we should know also, that the two are not opposed to but rather support one another. There are three aspects of this first step of planning. We will look at the first two today.
We have studied two of the dynamics of leadership: the relationship of the leader to God, and the relationship of the leader to his superior or superiors. In this study we will look at the relationship of the leader to his subordinates seen in Nehemiah’s account of his arrival in Jerusalem and the manner in which he took command.
The final secret of successful middle management in this story is dependence upon God. Nehemiah had been planning. Dependence on God does not eliminate planning any more than it eliminates hard work. But while he was planning he had also been praying. And at the end, after the king had granted his request to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and had agreed to supply him with the necessary letters of requisition, Nehemiah acknowledged that in the final analysis his success was not due to his own careful planning but to God: “And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests” (v. 8).
The fourth secret of middle management success is prayer. We have already looked at Nehemiah’s great model prayer in chapter 1, noting that it had the elements of a formal petition: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. It gives insight into Nehemiah’s habits of personal devotion. Here we see something else. Nehemiah is talking to the king. The king asks what he wants. He realizes that after months of prayer the decisive moment has arrived. He is ready to speak. But before he speaks he utters a quick additional prayer “to the God of heaven” (v. 4).
Canadian Committee of The Bible Study Hour
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