The Character of a Leader - Nehemiah 6

 

This is Chuck Rapp with Multiply, a podcast to provide a word of encouragement for village church planters.

We continue our series on the leadership qualities of Nehemiah, the Old Testament leader who led the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. There is so much for us to learn – and, more importantly, apply – from our study of this outstanding leader!

Today’s message is from Chapter 6, and includes some of my favorite dialog in this book.

We read about the attacks and distractions from Sanballat and Tobiah (vs 1). They requested a meeting with Nehemiah, and I just love his response! “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down.” (3b) “Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.” (4) Nehemiah and godly leaders are focused. They discern the distractions and schemes of the enemy.

Verses 6:5-8 tell us more. Sanballat sent a fifth message to which Nehemiah replied, “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.” I love that reply to Nehemiah’s adversary.

But, Nehemiah’s adversaries were persistent as is the enemy of our souls. More threats followed in 11-13, to which Nehemiah responded “But I said, Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go! I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.” Nehemiah was perceptive. As a missionary friend of mine frequently says, godly leaders “understand what is really going on when what’s going on is going on.” In other words, godly leaders see – and perceive – what is taking place beyond what is obviously apparent to one’s eyes.

A third trait of godly leaders that Nehemiah models is that declares his dependence upon the Lord. We see this first in the last portion of verse 9 where he prays, “Now strengthen my hands.” And, again in verses 15-16. “So the wall was completed …in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.”  We see in chapter 6 that Nehemiah models three additional traits of good and godly leaders. They are focused, perceptive, and they express for all to see their dependence upon the Lord. May we set an example in these as well.

This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.