In the last two chapters of Nehemiah we have seen three forms of opposition, each of which threatened to defeat Nehemiah’s plan to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. The first two were external and came from Nehemiah’s pagan enemies: 1) opposition by ridicule; and 2) opposition by the threat of violence
What is our problem? Isn’t it our love of money, the very thing that was causing the officials of Nehemiah’s day to exploit those around them? Don’t we put the good life for ourselves first, at whatever cost? I cannot say that the evangelical church is consciously exploiting other Christians or even
I am indebted to Frank R. Tillapaugh for some important thoughts at this point, based on the fact that in order to have a public meeting Nehemiah must have pulled his workers off the wall. In normal circumstances this would not have been remarkable. But these were not normal circumstances. Nehemiah’
How is a leader to deal with injustices, such as that which occurs when the rich mistreat the poor, particularly when they are practiced by the influential against the uninfluential? How can a person confront evil when the strong have the law on their side, as they usually do? The first thing Nehemi
The problem that erupted internally at this point is described very well in verses 1-5. "Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers. Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”The probl
In chapter 4 we saw how Nehemiah faced two common forms of opposition: ridicule, the easiest of all forms of opposition, and the threat of violence. The latter is the path often taken when ridicule fails. Nehemiah overcame the first by recognizing ridicule for what it was, namely, a weak attempt to
Here is the third thing we need to see to appreciate the force of this second form of opposition. 3. It was effective. It is not surprising in light of the first two points that this form of opposition was effective, at least upon the people who lived near these enemies but who were helping to rebu
The larger second half of Nehemiah 4 contains a second form of opposition to the governor's work, the threat of physical violence. Nehemiah introduces the problem in verses 7 and 8 and describes how he met it in verses 9-23. The introductory verses say, “But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Am
In the light of the various reasons for opposition to a leader’s success, it is obvious that any leader, whoever he or she is, will always be opposed by others and should be prepared for it. This is the fifth dynamic of leadership. The first involves the leader and God; the second is the leader and
In yesterday’s study, we looked at two reasons why people do not like when someone else succeeds. Today we consider some other reasons.3. Some oppose others or their projects because they have a different agenda than they do. Of all the reasons for opposition to a good work, this one is probably the
One day a farmer, who was a Quaker, was having trouble with his mule. He was trying to plow his field and the mule was being unusually stubborn. He wouldn’t move. So the Quaker decided to talk to him “reasonably.” He said, “Thou knowest I am a Quaker. Thou knowest I can’t curse thee. Thou knowest I
Two more things need to be said about Nehemiah’s relationship to his work. First, he coordinated the effort. That is, he not only divided the task into manageable units and then assigned the right people to each part. He also fit the whole together so there were no gaps and so each picked up where t
Yesterday, we considered some of the different types of workers Nehemiah used to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Today we look at some others who were also involved.City officials. At several points in these lists there occur the names of people said to be rulers over a certain district or sub-distri
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
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.1. Underestimating the task. Sometimes this is due simply to a lack of experience. They have
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 intelligibl
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 le
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, wa
In yesterday’ study, we looked at the first two aspects of planning. Today we begin by mentioning the third.3. Implementation. There is one more aspect of this that is often overlooked, mainly, I suppose, because we do not think of it as a part of good planning. It is what Robert J. Schoenberg calls
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. 1. Information. One of the best known incidents i
One of the complaints raised against the Bible is that it is impractical, that it is too “spiritual” to be of real use. The opinion is usually voiced by those who do not know the Bible well, though in fairness to their view it is right to acknowledge that the Bible does have spiritual goals. Even Ne
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
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. He
2. Tact. The second secret of dealing with a superior successfully is tact. We speak about tact often. Yet more often we fail to exercise it. We think that it is more needful to “speak our mind,” Notice how tactful Nehemiah was with Artaxerxes. First, when the king asked why he was sad, Nehemiah ans
