Leadership Lessons From NehemiahSample

Day 3: Committing to Excellence

Yesterday, we looked at Nehemiah's formula for impact – Pray + Plan then Push Forward (at the right time). As I mentioned yesterday, I want to double click on that third step: pushing forward.

In yesterday’s example, Nehemiah was asking the King to let him return to Jerusalem and restore the wall. For today's study, the relevant point is that restoring the wall was not a new idea. As you may recall from the first day, Nehemiah actually led the third group returning to Jerusalem.

The earlier groups had started rebuilding the wall, but the same King who would later send Nehemiah to Jerusalem had explicitly ordered (by letter) the rebuilding of the wall stopped in Ezra 4. (We’ll get to that exchange today.)

Remember when we said that the King was akin to a modern-day dictator? If he had wanted Nehemiah dead, all he would have had to do was tell one of his guards to kill him. While I don't know what specific adventure God is calling you to, I can guarantee you that, at some point, it's going to require you to take a risk. While it probably won’t be literally life-threatening, it may feel like you are risking your life to accomplish the vision God has put on your heart. 

Another big lesson for us is around why the King agrees to send Nehemiah to rebuild the wall. It comes back to the relationship developed between them.

As a Hebrew boy, Nehemiah would not have started at the top as the King's cupbearer. He would have moved up through the ranks as a refugee serving his captor’s government. Nehemiah advanced because he served with excellence, which was not for his selfish ambition but to fulfill the mandate of God through the prophet Jeremiah, which would have commanded all of the Jewish captives in Babylon. 

In fact, the Book of Ezra opens specifically referencing these three trips back to Jerusalem were "that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled." (ESV)

Let’s pause a second on that "word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah"? If you have spent much time in a church setting, you’ve probably heard the second part of that proclamation from Jeremiah 29:11. Let’s add the context. These were the promises the Lord gave his people before they went into exile in Babylon, saying they'd return to Jerusalem.  Nehemiah leads the final group back to fulfill that promise.

Specifically, the entire promise from God to his people documented in Jeremiah says (which you'll read as part of today's Scripture reading) to "seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." (Jer 29:7 ESV)

Nehemiah as a young Hebrew boy had likely been taught these words and had grown up committed to helping "see the welfare" of the city where he was living in exile. 

When Nehemiah then asks for the King's favor, it's not just four months of praying but the years of serving with excellence that ultimately gave him credibility with the King. For years, the King has trusted Nehemiah to protect him from being poisoned and Nehemiah never betrayed that trust. Unlike the earlier groups returning to Jerusalem, this time the King would have known he was sending someone reliable and trustworthy. 

That trust was earned over years of excellence in Nehemiah's service to the King. Much of the work was likely menial. It's easy to overlook the significance of the work you are doing, especially when we don’t have a lens to fully appreciate its future impact. Nehemiah's story is a powerful example that the work we choose to do is deserving of excellence. 

Is there work in your own life that you need to re-commit to doing with excellence?