In these first chapters we learn something important about the secret of Nehemiah’s success as a leader and man of God. This is a place to review these leadership characteristics. There are five of them.

The final form of opposition was outright intimidation. Like the others it too was subtle. Shemaiah, a man who was regarded as a prophet, sent for Nehemiah. Nehemiah tells us that Shemaiah was shut up in his house, though we do not know why. Whatever the immediate cause, the underlying reason was a carefully designed ruse to discredit Nehemiah. When Nehemiah accepted the invitation and went to see him, Shemaiah said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you….”

Who is not afraid or disturbed or hurt at times? We all are. Yet it is precisely when we yield those fears to God and press on that we show leadership.

Isn’t dialogue good? Isn’t it always better to talk than to fight, to keep the lines of communication open? Isn’t refusal to talk to our opponents always unnecessarily and unreasonably belligerent? Isn’t there a time to let bygones be bygones, to bury the hatchet? What possible reason can there be for refusing to talk once the election is over or the job is done?

With the internal dissension behind him, Nehemiah once again returned the workers to the walls and soon made such progress that within a short time the entire wall was completed to its full height. Only the gates remained to be constructed. Suddenly, just when the work seemed about to be finished, a final phase of his enemies’ opposition unfolded.

The astonishing thing about this chapter is that Nehemiah succeeded. We know that he was against stiff opposition because the nobles did not respond when he had approached them earlier. Nevertheless, after Nehemiah had exposed the wrong being done and had challenged the offenders to return the pledged fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, refund the interest and stop the usury, the nobles responded, “We will give it back…and we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say” (v. 12). Nehemiah made sure it happened.

I am indebted to Frank R. Tillapaugh for some important thoughts at this point, based on the fact that in order to have a public meeting Nehemiah must have pulled his workers off the wall. In normal circumstances this would not have been remarkable. But these were not normal circumstances. Nehemiah’s one goal was to build the wall, and to build it quickly before the effort could be stopped by Israel’s enemies. He had everyone working. Yet now Nehemiah stops the work and holds a public meeting. Why was this?