4. Prayer. 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).
5. Planning. The most striking secret of middle management success revealed in Nehemiah’s encounter with king Artaxerxes is careful planning. To put it in simple language: 1) Nehemiah had a single fixed goal (he wanted to rebuild Jerusalem); and 2) he had worked out how he would achieve it.
Let me take those one at a time. First, Nehemiah had a goal. Goal setting requires that we put first things first. But how can we put first things first unless we work our goals out carefully? It cannot be done. This is because, unless a leader has a clear understanding of what he is trying to do and why it is important, other important but lesser matters will crowd in to chase the proper goals out.
Careful planning begins with goal setting. As some humorist has said, “People who aim at nothing are sure to hit it.”
The second part of planning involves ways to achieve the fixed goal. It had been four or five months since Nehemiah had begun to pray how he might rebuild Jerusalem, but he had not been inactive during those four months. First, he gathered information. As his requests to Artaxerxes unfold we are impressed by his knowledge of the area to which he is going, even to knowing the name of Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest. Second, he had worked out what he would need to get the walls built. He was specific: 1) he knew how long it would take (twelve years, cf. Nehemiah 5:14; 13:6)1; 2) he needed letters of safe-conduct for the governors of the Trans- Euphrates region; and 3) he asked for requisitions of the supplies that would be needed.
When his opportunity came Nehemiah was ready. He said, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?”
Careful planning! If he had not thought the matter through carefully, his conversation with the king might have ended with permission for him to go to Jerusalem, but he would have been stopped by the governors of Trans-Euphrates. If he had asked for letters of passage and had therefore been able to get to his destination but had neglected to secure the requisitions, he would have arrived without being able to obtain the necessary materials.
It is surprising how often careful planning is overlooked by persons in leadership, whether in the church or outside of it in business or government. In Christian circles the problem may be traceable to a false spirituality that goes like this.
“God has told me to do so and so,” the dreamer says.
“Yes? And how are you going to do it?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m just going to start out and see what the Lord does for me.” People who start like this usually return with the job not finished.
Chuck Swindoll seems to have seen a great deal of this and writes in his book on Nehemiah:
It is of great concern to me that so many people who undertake some project in the Lord’s work enter without careful planning. They abruptly begin without thinking through questions such as: ‘Where will this lead us? How can I express this in clear, unmistakable, concrete terms? What are the costs, the objectives, the possible pitfalls? What process should be used?’ I could name a number of individuals or families who entered the ministry with enthusiasm but later dropped out because they had not considered the cost. The most disillusioned people I know are those in the Lord’s work who are paying the price of not thinking through their plans.2
1Some commentators have questioned whether Nehemiah could have been specific about needing twelve years to rebuild the walls and reestablish Jerusalem on the grounds that Artaxerxes would not have been willing to lose a trusted servant and counselor for so long a time. They have postulated that Nehemiah went to Jerusalem initially for a period of at best a year or two, returning perhaps two or three times more over the twelve year period (cf. Howard F. Vos, Bible Study Commentary: Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987], 89-90, and Derek Kidner, Ezra and Nehemiah: An Introduction and Commentary [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979], 81). Against this view is the fact that Nehemiah was not merely given a leave of absence from his duties in Persia but was appointed the governor of Jerusalem, a post he would have been expected to fill for a significant period of time, and the fact that Nehemiah distinguishes between his twelve years of initial service and his final visit described in chapter 13. Of course, he could have made trips back to Persia to report on his progress during the twelve-year governorship.
2Charles R. Swindoll, Hand Me Another Brick (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1978), 50.
