Nehemiah

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.

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.

In yesterday’ study, we looked at the first two aspects of planning. Today we begin by mentioning the third.

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.

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.

Arnold Toynbee, the English historian, said, “Apathy can only be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.” That “definite intelligible plan” was developed in the time period described in chapter 2. But it is in chapter 3 that we see it unfolding.

Most managers know how to subdivide projects, of course. But there are lots of people who do not know how to manage projects. When faced with a large assignment most people make one or more of these mistakes.

The second striking but also obvious thing about Nehemiah’s approach to the work of rebuilding the walls is that he assigned different teams of people to each part. First, he divided the project into sections. Second, he made his assignments. This is what the chapter is primarily about. It is a list of those who rebuilt the gates and each adjoining section of the walls. I want you to see two important things about this today.

Not only did Nehemiah coordinate the work so that no gaps were left and all worked closely to another. He seems to have arranged the work in part also for the convenience and motivation of the workers. Many were assigned to (or chose) portions of the wall in front of or directly adjacent to their houses. This would be convenient for all, since no time would be lost in commuting back and forth or in going home for lunch. And it would ensure good work. A person would be certain to build strong walls where his own house needed to be protected.