Leadership traits in Nehemiah
...e lies no single verse in Nehemiah relating solely to commitment but the entire book relegates itself as a base of commitment from Nehemiah to the Lord and from The Lord to his people. Courage is something that most people need to find within themselves; it allows those that get pushed down to get back up and drives some to commit even when faced with unconquerable odds. In The book of Nehemiah, courage is best displayed in the fourth chapter. Within this chapter Nehemiah is ridiculed and faces strong opposition to rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem. The Main culprits are Sanballat and Tobiah the Ammonite. Both publicly mocked the Jews for trying to rebuild the wall. In sluts hurled at them include: What are those Feeble Jews trying to do? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble-burned as they are? Tobiah the Ammonite added “What they are building-even if a fox climbed on it, even he would break down their wall of stones.” The Jews needed prayer after being publicly ridiculed as such. They shouted to the Lord, “Hear us, O our God, we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.” The Lord gave them strength and when the wall had been built back to half its height they heard of mounting tensions between themselves and their enemies. The Jews were made aware of plotted attacks so Nehemiah made them ready by placing armed guards within families along the lowest parts of the wall. Nehemiah stood up and spoke to the nobles, officials, and the rest of the people, “ Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who I great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and daughters, your wives and your homes.” So all of the med heard of this and returned to the wall each at his respective post. While half of them men worked half of them kept watch. Humility could best be described as the act of being humble; not self-seeking or having self-revelry. Nehemiah best exuberates this characteristic in the fifth chapter of Nehemiah. During this chapter Nehemiah recognizes the fact that there are poor people and that those less fortunate than the status quo need some additional help at some points in life. Two specific ideals come out of this chapter; stopping unconscionable interest rates and taxes and not eating of the food allotted to the governor. The nobles and officials had been exacting usury from their people. To pay for this people had been enslaving their children to the Gentiles and mortgaging their fields and vineyards. Nehemiah called a town meeting and after having bougth back as far as possible allt he slaves, charged the nobles and officials to make the usury stop and give back fields and vineyards immediately. This was recognized and oaths were taken to make certain they followed their plans and promises. The second ideal that came out of this chapter was that of the governor’s allotment. Nehemiah had been appointed governor in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes reign and hadn’t since taken what the previous governors had allotted for themselves out of the peoples bounty. Nehemiah had taken none of it. He too had many mouth to feed but found other ways to do feed them and used his own personal money to do so. He strained not the people with extra burden, which made them able to meet their own personal needs easier. Integrity is not what you do when everyone is watching Integrity is what you do when nobody is watching. In the thirteenth chapter of Nehemiah, he expresses integrity by purifying the temple of all the wrongdoing he hears of and setting the Jews back on the right path. When Nehemiah had left and returned to the king he heard of many things happening that should not be taking place. Tobiah had been given a room in the temple to store his own personal items for he was closely associated with Eliashib, the priest who had been put in charge of the store rooms of the temple. The Levites had portions assigned to them from the offerings of others but had not received them. Also the Levites and singers assigned to the services had gone back to their own fields. Men of Judah also had been running the wine presses and collecting and selling grain, figs, and wine on the Sabbath. When Nehemiah returned he warned against such practices and put all affairs of the temple and the people back in order. He assigned men of integrity to run the temple affairs and disperse the offerings according to law. He rebuked and even beat men into submission who married out of their nationality and broke other laws of Moses. Before he left Judah again the set forth all of the laws so that everyone knew what was expected of them and he made provisions of support for the people of Judah. Purpose and vision have important roles to play in leadership. Purpose is the reason one is driven to excel while vision is where you are going with that drive. The same is true that without a vision you really can’t have a purpose. Nehemiah set-out to talk to this king with a purpose and a vision in mind; he wanted to rebuild the city wherein his fathers were buried to glorify the Lord and in turn return the city from depths which it had fallen into. Towards the end of the story Nehemiah leaves another vision for Judah to follow. I am sure that the vision was Gods Vision projected through Nehemiah. He set the peoples purpose back on glorifying God with a vision of returning Judah to a profitable city. Self-discipli...