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.”1 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.
What does this tell us about Nehemiah? One thing it tells us is that Nehemiah recognized a detailed plan’s importance, and that means that in this chapter we have a fourth great dynamic of effective leadership. We have looked at three great dynamics already. The first is the relationship of the leader to God. This is sometimes overlooked even by Christians—secular leaders ignore it entirely—yet it is critical. I referred to it as putting “first things first.”
The second dynamic is the relationship of the leader to his earthly superior or superiors. God is the ultimate superior, of course. But there are few people who do not have an earthly superior or superiors as well. The third dynamic is the relationship of the leader to those who are under him and for whose work he or she is responsible.
But it is not only people with whom the effective leader must deal.
There is also the work itself, and this, as I have already pointed out, is the fourth great dynamic. To put this in modern management jargon, Nehemiah needed to be not only a motivator but a task specialist. The task specialist is one who gets the work done.
How did Nehemiah do it? An examination of this chapter uncovers several important principles.
The most striking thing about Nehemiah 3, in my opinion, is something I have not seen specifically mentioned by any of the other writers on Nehemiah, except possibly Howard Vos, namely, the fact that Nehemiah divided the work into manageable sections. I suppose the reason for the omission is that the point is so obvious. But obvious or not, it is critical. If the rebuilding of the walls had been tackled as a task whole in itself and if one person or even a group of people had been assigned to it, the work would have seemed impossible, and rightly so. Who could rebuild an entire mile and a half or two and a half mile wall? Nobody could do it. But when the project was divided into forty or forty-one separate segments, as the chapter shows it was, then that two and a half mile project became manageable.
1Quoted in John R. Noe, Peak Performance Principles for High Achievers (New York: Frederick Fell Publishers, 1984), 134.