Principles of Leadership

The story of Nehemiah is the story of God mercifully restoring His people after, once again, they have fallen away from His law. As in any Bible story, the main character is God, but very often, He works in and through specific people.

In this case, Nehemiah is the human instrument, and he is going to be used by God as a leader among his people. Through Nehemiah, God will turn the people back toward obedience and back toward His blessing.

Most people, whether Christian or not, understand the value and the power of good leadership. I assume most of us want to be, or at least be associated with, a good leader. In one way or another, I think we can all relate to the feeling of being under poor leadership.

Proverbs 29:2 says—When the wicked rule, the people groan. On the other hand, Second Samuel 23 says—when one rules justly over men… he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.

Bad leadership corrupts, and good leadership brings light and life. We can see the effects of poor or helpful leadership on a large scale—like a country or a city or a multi-national business—and we can see it on a smaller scale—like a sports team or a music group, or a church or a classroom, or a family.

To varying degrees, we are all going to be used by Christ for His glory. And sometimes, that will happen in small ways, and sometimes it will happen in larger ways.

The book of Nehemiah helps remind us that God is working in and through His people, and it also gives us a good example of someone who was used by God in a mighty way. Nehemiah’s story should help orient the way we lead in our communities, in our work, in our church, and in our families.

Last week, we looked at chapter 1 and learned that Nehemiah is a servant and advisor to King Artaxerxes, the king of Persia. A group of men had returned to Persia from Jerusalem, and Nehemiah asked them for an update. Jerusalem is in ruins, and as a result Nehemiah mourns and prays.

As we continue the story today, I want to point out some principles that are simple, practical, and important as we think about how God wants to use us in the various roles we play.

Number one, we have the principle of pain. As I said last week, before God uses someone in a great way, He is going to move them. He is going to stir their emotions and give them desire.

Sometimes, we speak of desire as a positive thing, but godly desire will include pain. There will be some kind of burden to see God glorified. And that’s what Nehemiah felt. He was heartbroken over Israel’s state, and rather than complain, he grieved, and he fasted.

As a mom, as a dad, as a husband, as a wife, as an employee—you need to realize that before you start complaining about how hard life is with your kids or with your spouse or with your coworkers, you should go out into the world with a heart broken over the things that grieve God.

I believe that the things aligned with Scripture that grieve you most will likely become the areas in which God will use you most. That’s because God does not want dispassionate leaders. He wants people who care about what He cares about. And when you care about something that God cares about, and you don’t see it happening, there will be pain. There will be a burden. There will be a passion to see change and to make it happen if possible.

The second principle is the principle of prayer. A person whom God uses greatly should be a person of prayer.

There are many, many examples of this throughout the Bible, but our example today is Nehemiah. Prayer was his immediate response to his pain.

How does that compare to you and me? I’m not quick to jump into prayer. I’m quick to jump into measurable action. I want to get things done. But apart from the blessing and the guidance of God, we can’t do anything worthwhile. We’ll mess it up.

Nehemiah comes to God with a humble confession and with a sincere request. He wants things to change in Israel. And it seems he also gathered other people to be praying along with him.

In verse 1 of chapter 2, we find that it is the month of Nisan. That is about 4 months after the month of Chislev, which was mentioned in the opening verse of chapter 1.

And this leads me to a third principle. We had the principle of pain and the principle of prayer. Now we see the principle of patience. The principle of patience.

A good leader needs to understand that not every impulse needs to be acted on immediately. The level of pain does not always indicate the level of urgency. Don’t assume your timetable is automatically aligned with God’s. In fact, it’s probably not.

Nehemiah let four months go by. What was he doing for four months? He was praying. He was expressing his pain and his desire to the Lord whom he trusted.

Now, all that prayer leads Nehemiah to one specific request concerning one specific day. Look again at verse 11 of chapter 1. He prays—O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

What’s happening today? Nehemiah is going to speak to the king. That’s why he’s asking for God’s favor and mercy. The end of verse 1 in chapter 2 give us this bit of information concerning Nehemiah’s relationship with the king—Now I had not been sad in his presence.

As you can imagine, the king doesn’t want sad people around him. He wants happy people. He wants his visitors to see how wonderful his kingdom is, and he doesn’t want to be weighed down with the problems of his staff.

But today is different. Intentionally or unintentionally, Nehemiah is no longer hiding his pain. He brings wine to the king, but the grief is visible.

Verse 2—And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then [says Nehemiah] I was very much afraid.

What’s going to happen? Will it be “off with his head”? How is the king going to respond to a depressed servant in his presence? And if Nehemiah speaks up, will the king think he has a good enough reason to be unhappy? And if Nehemiah proposes a course of action, will the king think that’s an appropriate response? This can go very badly in a lot of different ways. There’s a lot of emotion tucked into three little words. Nehemiah is “very much afraid.”

Verse 3 gives us Nehemiah’s answer—I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! This is not simple flattery. This is an expression of loyalty to the king. And since he is about to talk about Jerusalem, it could be a way of making sure the king doesn’t interpret Nehemiah’s concern as a rebellion against Persian rule.

Nehemiah says—Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?

After four months of patient prayer, Nehemiah expresses his pain to the king. Nehemiah serves in the lavish, royal palace, but his homeland is in ruins. Israel is the burial ground of his ancestors, and it ought to be the burial ground of his descendants. It should be marked by honor and beauty, but instead it’s destroyed.

The king recognizes Nehemiah’s pain, and so the conversation continues in verse 4—Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.

Before making his request to the king of Persia, Nehemiah, the man of prayer, makes one more silent request to the King of kings, the God of heaven. And then comes his answer to the king.

Verse 5—And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' graves, that I may rebuild it.”

Nehemiah is saying, “Let me go back. Let me work to fix this. Let me rebuild.”

In that response, we find another principle of leadership and of being used by God, and that is the principle of perseverance. The principle of perseverance.

Nehemiah doesn’t ask the king to send another group of workers. He wants to personally go. He was personally invested in the people emotionally, and he wants to be personally connected to them in the work. That’s the type of person God uses.

Anyone can complain about a problem. And some might even have a good idea about how to fix it. But complaints and good ideas, on their own, won’t accomplish much. Someone needs to get to work.

Nehemiah is willing to invest the time and the energy to fix the problem on his heart. He doesn’t just want to order people around from a distance, he wants to be there in person, and he’s willing to make the journey, if the king will let him go.

When God saw the wickedness in Israel after the death of King Uzziah, he asked, “Whom shall I send? Who will go?” What was Isaiah’s response? He said, “Here I am! Send me!”

That’s a very different response than that of people who want to see God work in their family and in their neighborhood and in their workplace and in the church, and are praying, “God, I know You see the problems here. Send someone to fix it!”

That is not biblical leadership. That is not what we see in the example of Christ and of the Apostles. They weren’t waiting around for someone else to do the work. They got to work. They stepped into people’s lives even at great cost to themselves. They persevered, and God used them in a great way.

Now, Artaxerxes, as a wise king, asks for more information. If he’s going to authorize one of his servants to leave on a journey, he needs the details.

Verse 6—And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. [7] And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, [8] and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.”

As we come to a close in the story, we see a fifth principle from Nehemiah. We saw the principles of pain and prayer and the principles of patience and perseverance. And now we have the principle of planning. The principle of planning.

Nehemiah could have said, “Oh, well, err, let me get back to you in a couple weeks. I wasn’t sure what you would say, so I’m not ready right now to tell you what exactly I need. I just wanted to tell you what was on my heart and see if you’d let me go.” That’s not what he said.

Nehemiah has thought this through. He has a pretty good idea of how much vacation time he intends to take. Nehemiah gives the king a timeline. And the king approves. And then Nehemiah gives even more requests.

He anticipates some possible trouble, so he wants a written declaration from the king allowing for safe passage to Jerusalem. He’s ready in case this work of his gets opposition. He also wants approval to use wood from the king’s forest. This is to build the gates of the city and Nehemiah’s own home.

Nehemiah is prepared to give the king details because he has thought this through. He has begun to plan. And his plan wasn’t generic; it was specific. He’s already invested time and mental energy.

Some of us don’t like to plan specifically because we don’t want to risk rejection. “What if these plans don’t move forward? Then I will have wasted my time planning.” Well, if you care enough about something, and you’re a good leader, you’ll take the risk, and you’ll be ready with some plans.

I recognize that I fall short in a lot of ways with these principles I’ve been mentioning, and planning is no exception. I tend to assume things will just work out on their own. I’ll make the most of it, and it’ll be fine. But that’s not always good leadership.

Which do you think serves my wife more? Number 1, asking her out on a date, and then having her pick the place and time and organize childcare, or, number two, organize childcare on my own before I ask her, and be ready one or two options for where we might go and what we might do. Do you think having a plan will work our better? I think it does, but that’s not what I do many times.

I think you’ll find that great works of God through a person are rarely an afterthought or a coincidence. There’s planning. There’s intentionality. There’s readiness.

Those of you who have worked in construction, you look at a project, and you immediately have an idea of how long its going to take and how much its going to cost. That comes from experience. That’s part of your expertise. You know how to plan.

Men, if you want to be a better husband and father who shepherds and loves your kids and your wife, do you think that’s going to happen all by itself? You will be greatly helped by some kind of plan. You need some kind of intentionality. You may not always stick to the plan, but you’ll do more with a plan than without one.

So, pick which book you’ll be reading to the kids at night. Ask other dads what they’re reading. Commit to some kind of schedule. At first, it can be very simple, like saying, “I will pray with my wife every night before she goes to bed. And we will pray for the kids and for the church.” If you only do that three nights a week, it’ll still be a lot better than not doing it at all.

If you want to start a new ministry here at the church, it can’t just be a general idea. You need to be able to direct people who want to get involved. Lay out some of the roles. Think about how many people are going to be needed for the work. Think about how much it’s going to cost.

The ability to plan is what makes the difference between a dreamer and a leader. A dreamer can have all kinds of ideas, but nothing ever gets put into practice. The dreamer claims to be wise, but in fact, he is lazy. He expects things to happen all on their own. He expects to be commended for his great ideas, but he won’t do the work of planning.

To plan things is part of what it means to be made in the image of God. God is a planner. He is working out all things according to His will. He has ordained what will come to pass, and then He works to bring it to pass. That was true in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it’s still true today. God has a plan laid out.

We are not all-knowing, the way God is, but we can make plans. And many times, we should.

Proverbs 16 says—The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord… Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established… The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Nehemiah understood those principles. He made plans, but he was continually dependent on God as he made them.

And this brings us to the final principle for today, which we see briefly in the close of verse 8. After giving more detailed explanation of his plans, Nehemiah says—And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.

The final principle is the principle of praise. The principle of praise.

As the doors begin to be opened for Nehemiah’s plans to move forward, Nehemiah recognizes that God is the one working behind everything. He was dependent on God in prayer. And now that dependency expresses itself through praise. He doesn’t credit himself with the king’s positive response. He doesn’t think, “Well, of course the king told me yes! I’m the greatest cupbearer he ever had!” No, he understands that behind every decisions of the king of Persia, is the sovereign and merciful hand of the King of kings.

If things move in a good direction, and we don’t thank God and praise Him for that, it demonstrates that we were, ultimately, depending on our own strength and our own wisdom.

From beginning to end, everything we do in planning and in action, should be characterized by humble prayer and praise.

We don’t know what God is going to do in us and through us, but we should always remember that He’s the One who’s going to do it, and He’s the One who should get the glory.