6. Dependence on God. 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).
Isn’t that wonderful? Nehemiah had done everything he possibly could. But when he achieved success he acknowledged that it had come about not because of his wisdom but because God had been with him.
This is the difference between a Christian and a secular view of history. The secularist says, “But surely there were other factors that disposed the powerful Persian monarch in his favor.” No doubt there were. There had been a revolt in lower Egypt in the late 460s B.C., encouraged by the Greeks of Athens. Then, in the 440s there had been a rebellion in Syria. Persian forces had crushed both these rebellions, but pockets of resistance still remained and the region was unstable. At this point in history Artaxerxes may have reasoned that a stronger Judah populated by loyal Jews would strengthen his position in the west and be a buffer against Egypt.1 Because of his position, Nehemiah may even have known of this plan and have conducted himself accordingly.
But Nehemiah did not thank man for the favorable outcome to his request. Man had acted. But it was God who had directed events and steered the heart of Artaxerxes.
The climax of this encounter comes in Artaxerxes granting his cupbearer’s requests. And not only did he grant them. He seems to have exceeded what Nehemiah asked for since he also sent army officers and cavalry along with him. These must have impressed the governors of Trans-Euphrates greatly, not to mention the Jews of Jerusalem.
God will provide beyond what we ask Him for too. Haven’t you found that to be the case? It is true that God does not always answer our prayers when or how we expect Him to. And there are willful, stubborn prayers that we should not even be praying. He will not answer them at all—except to say no. But when we pray in God’s will and wait on Him to answer in His own time, we find that what God does is perfect—it is that “good, pleasing and perfect will” Paul writes of in Romans 12:2—and that it is beyond our expectations. As Paul also says, God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Eph. 2:20).
1Howard F. Vos, Bible Study Commentary: Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), 91.
