Nehemiah

Having come back from Mexico City, where we had that seminar, and the title of that seminar was, Having a Servant Heart. And so this was a subject, of course, dear to my heart, and I was able to speak on the subject. Speaking about a certain man in the Bible that exemplified having a servant heart.

He's one of my favorite personages in the Bible, and I never cease to be amazed how much you can learn from this book in the Bible. It's as timeless and practical today as it was back then. You'd think that with time things age, but not here. You read this small book written by this very person, and it's a manual on having a servant heart, on servant leadership, the type of leadership that God wants. And so of course the greatest example we have of servant leadership is Jesus Christ. But the Bible has more than just the example of Jesus Christ.

God has added many men and women in the Bible who followed Him faithfully and have given us marvelous examples. And here's one of those men that was a man of faith, a man of action, a man that served his people in such an incredible way. To me, he is a hero, and he is a model. I try to follow his example. Of course, we don't reach up to his same height, but at least that's what I strive to do. And I want to share with you because it can apply to every person here, and we can apply these principles in our homes, where we work, school, wherever we are at.

And of course, I'm talking about Nehemiah. So let's go to the book of Nehemiah because we need to go over this example more than once. And again, I have more understanding now than before on the subject, and so I wanted to share with you about Nehemiah. What a great example he gives to all of us. In the meeting that we had over in Mexico City, Ben Light, the pastor of the Eugene and Salem congregation, spoke about the subject of servant leadership, and he mentioned about how this term servant leadership actually entered into our vocabulary in these modern times.

And it begins with a professor in the U.S. named Robert Greenleaf, and he wrote an essay, later books about the subject, and he wrote this essay called The Servant as Leader way back in 1970. He was a critic of how big corporations governed their companies from the top down, and there were many abuses in the system.

And so to remedy some of this, he proposed that the bosses should not look at themselves as that leaders are first in the company, but actually the leader should be a servant first. And he asked a simple question, are you a servant leader? And one indication of it is, do people grow and thrive under your guidance, or they wilt and become discouraged? And as Ben Light brought out, Robert Greenleaf, which took some of these principles from the Bible, was actually about 2,000 years late, because Jesus Christ was that epitome of a servant leader, so he didn't bring up something new.

He just brought it up to the present time. And we see throughout the Bible other examples of servant leaders, such as Noah, who God gave him a task, and he was a preacher of righteousness, and he did his part to serve God, to give an example, as mankind deteriorated and went into apostasy, immorality, violence, even as we see it in our society today. We have Moses, who was described in the book of Numbers as the meekest man on the earth, which means the humblest person.

And we have David, King David, who also was a servant leader. I'd like to read about King David. Of course, for lack of time, I can't go over all the examples, but let's go to Psalm 78, Psalm 78, where it describes David's leadership. Psalm 78, verse 70, describes this man of humble origins, rose up, was blessed by God, he was faithful the way he governed.

In Psalm 78, verse 70, it says, he also, talking about God, chose David, his servant. That's how he's described.

And took him from the sheepfolds. So David was a humble shepherd. From following the ewes that had young, he brought him to shepherd Jacob, his people. So he shepherd them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. So he had a shepherd's heart, and he was a very skillful administrator. It's called the Golden Age of Israel. When David finally ruled over Israel and then went on to hand it over to Solomon, those two kings comprised what is called the Golden Age in Israel. But we see that way before Robert Greenleaf described what this servant as a leader, we have the Bible already presenting many descriptions of servant leaders. And Nehemiah was a prime example of a God-led leader with a servant heart.

And we can learn a lot from him because we can use these principles in our own lives.

You know, our book of life is being written out according to how we either do it God's way or the world's way. Which way are we going to choose? Well, here's a prime example of doing it God's way. Let me give you a little background on Nehemiah. The book begins around 444 before Christ. Some 90 years after the first group of Jews returned to Jerusalem under a leader named Zerubbabel. So almost 100 years had passed since the first Jews came back from the captivity in Babylon. And Nehemiah was a later leader then. The temple had been rebuilt, but Jerusalem as a whole was still in ruins. A second group arrived later, led by Ezra the scribe, but the walls that should have protected inhabitants still laid destroyed. In those days, the city without walls could offer its inhabitants no protection and was subject to frequent raids.

Few people would venture to live in such a vulnerable place. As a result, Jerusalem at that time was more of a shrine than a city. Most of the people lived outside the gates. They lived around Jerusalem. So we come to the book of Nehemiah. Let's turn there.

And he wrote his experiences firsthand. It says in verse one, it says, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah, it came to pass in the month of Chisliv, in the 20th year, as I was in Shushan, the citadel.

So this is where it begins.

He was way out in this. Actually, Persia was a huge empire. It had three of the main capitals, and one of them was what is called Susa, which was where the king many times dwelt. And so the story unfolds. He was working in the palace of this king of Persia, verse two, and he says that Hennonai, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. So here we learn that Nehemiah was a Jewish origin, and he was a high Persian official, but he still had his heart with his people in Jerusalem. And so we come to the first principle of a god-led leader with a servant heart, and that is a servant leader is aware of the needs of the church and the work of God, no matter what. He's not just involved in his own life. He's involved in his brethren and the work and the church and what's going on, because we have a church around the world with all kinds of needs. We need prayers, and always there's opposition.

There are things that try to cause destruction.

So he goes on and he asks them about the brethren. What's going on with the work of God?

The work of God was not in Susa, where he was at the capital. That was one of the beast powers, just like many of the Jewish-born captives. Many of them rose up because of their fear of God and obedience and being of impeccable character. They rose up like Daniel and his three companions, Mordecai and Queen Esther. And here we have Nehemiah, also a very high official, but they were still involved in what God was doing. And so he asked them about it.

Verse 3, and they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire. So he says things are disastrous. The work is hardly able to do anything. The only Jews that were there were actually very vulnerable, and they couldn't really raise up a work. Now remember, God is working all this out. So one day in Jerusalem, the Messiah would come. Jesus Christ would have to present himself. But here we are, a little over 400 years before that time, and it was a disaster.

Jerusalem had been basically destroyed for 70 years, and then God said as a prophecy in Jeremiah that after 70 years he would begin to bring his people back. It wasn't the end of his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but it was a punishment that they needed to realize God means business.

And so here we have Nehemiah, an official about a thousand miles away from Jerusalem.

And what did he do when he heard that? He could have said, well, too bad.

There were people over there. It's too far for me to do anything, a thousand miles away.

And guess what? I have a nice cushy job. I have all the good perks of Persian life. And what's going on with me? I don't have to do anything there. Some people, they just grieved. Oh, too bad. But he was a man of faith and action. Thank God for that. And so what did he do?

Verse four. So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept. He had compassion and he had empathy. Empathy is the ability of somebody to be able to place themselves in the other person's shoes and feel their pain, their suffering, their needs.

And mourn for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And so he went to God about it. Now God could have solved everything. He could have sent angels. He could have raised up a bunch of people to come down there and do it all. But God wants to see what we can do about it.

And so sometimes God's work suffers because nobody stands in the gap. Nobody takes up the cause.

What can we do? And so he went to God. And here we actually have his prayer in condensed form. And he said, I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments. So he begins addressing God respectfully, but he says you have a covenant and there are promises and you keep those promises with those that obey you and follow you. He says, please, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you now, day and night for the children of Israel, your servants. See, God's always talking about those that serve God. And confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. So he didn't say they said we. So he took up the responsibility. Yes, we have all fallen short.

Both my father's house and I have sinned. So he didn't come as one of these very self-righteous and thinking that, oh, God's really blessed to have me in his church and in his work. No, he said, no, I'm a sinner. I know I've fallen short, but we have a great God who is merciful.

He goes on to say, We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses. Remember, I pray the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. A warning. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. Now these are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name, and let your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the king's cup-bear.

It's interesting that in archaeology they dug up what was a tablet which had in the Assyrian empire, which had been the one previous to the Persians. They had the salaries of the different officials of the Assyrian kingdom, and guess what? You know, the first one was the head of the army.

He was a major general, had the highest salary except for the king, and then they had the other one who was the administrator of the king's lands and properties and everything. He had the second highest, but guess what? The third highest salary was the cup-bear because he was the one assured that the king wasn't going to be poisoned, and it was his life, his loyalty, that made sure the king was protected. And so he was his confidant. He ate with the king and had the complete trust of the king.

And so here we have one of the highest officials in the kingdom, and he just says that matter of hand doesn't say boasting what he did. He just says, I was the king's cup-bear. And so he asked him, he says, grant mercy in the sight of this man. He's talking about the king, because he knows the only way to get to Jerusalem in this way is through the king that can open up the doors, and he being right there. So he just had God, I need grace and honor before the king. And then he waited four months. He prayed, he prepared for the right moment. And so he was concerned about his people. He didn't quit praying about them. He didn't give up. He said, oh, the task is impossible. There's no way to do it. No, he knew with God behind him, he could carry it out. And he had that compassionate heart. He wasn't doing it for his own position or ambition. He was doing it because God's people needed this desperately.

Let's leave a finger here and let's go to 1 Corinthians 12 verse 24, where we see the same spirit that Nehemiah showed. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 24, talking about the body of Christ, in this case, talking about the church as such. And he says here, 1 Corinthians verse 24, 12, 24, says, but our presentable parts have no need, but God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ and members individually, so we should have that compassion and care for those in need.

And so here, Nehemiah didn't see that the problems were in Susa, where he was at. Yes, he kept the Sabbath. He would congregate there with other Jews, but it was in Jerusalem, where the big problem was. And so he ventured out in faith, and he said, God, this is going to be the toughest thing in my life, but I need to do something for those inhabitants of Jerusalem, who are just being raided and humiliated, and God's work is being hindered at that time.

And so what did he do? Here in chapter 2, verse 1, four months later, he found a moment before he came to King Artaxerxes.

He says, and it came to pass in the month of Nisan, the first month of the year, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him. So, okay, he was a wine giver. He was the cup bearer, and so this was a chance to come up before the king. That I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had never been sad in his presence before.

Of course, this wasn't some type of democracy. The king was an absolute dictator. He was an absolute governor, and if he saw somebody unhappy, you know, they'd lop his head right off. So he says, during all my time, I had never dared to come to the king with a sad countenance, very dangerous as a cup bearer. You even have back in the book of Exodus, remember when Joseph was imprisoned, that one of the fellows who was imprisoned was a cup bearer, because he had somehow slighted or offended the king. And so, what happened? Verse 2.

So he took a risk when he did this. He found, this is the moment I have to show the king, I'm very concerned about something. Therefore, the king said to me, why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. So I became dreadfully afraid.

Why? Because the king could suspect somehow Nehemiah was not in good favor with the king.

He was mad at the king, or something was going on, and usually the king is not going to have a person like that. He's going to send him to the gallows immediately. And so then he said to the king, may the king live forever? He's saying, I'm not here to be a traitor.

Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire? And so he waited because usually, like I said, these monarchs, they didn't care about the servants. And here's the servant coming up to him and saying, well, king, I need something from you. That's pretty daring. The Persian system was complete top-down type government. And here's a cupbearer asking a petition.

And then the king said to me, what do you request?

So, boy, there was a great relief from Nehemiah.

I'm glad God changed his mind there and allowed me to receive this reply.

So I prayed to the God of heaven, thanking him. Okay, I reached first base here. I didn't get my head lopped off. And then I said to the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, very humbly asking this, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs, that I may rebuild it. So he was ready. The king said, what do you need? One thing about Nehemiah, he always planned ahead. That's one of the examples of a leader. He thinks through the situation before actually asking about it. So he already had the plan. He'd been four months. What if, okay, I'm going to go to the king. I'm going to go in faith, just like Esther, Queen Esther had done before him in the past, and she was granted grace. Well, he was granted grace here. And so he was ready.

Verse 6, then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him. Again, this was an opportune moment because she was there with him and felt better. He says, how long will your journey be? And when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I sent him a time, basically about 12 years. That's a long time. Furthermore, I said to the king, if it pleases the king, letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah. So again, he already had thought ahead, well, I need these permissions, these letters from the king.

So as I travel those thousand miles, they will see that I do have the permission.

Not only that, but then where are you going to get the material from? And so he says, well, I need for the king before I lose this opportunity for him to grant me also to permit to use the king's forest there in the area of Israel. He says, and a letter to Esaf, the keeper of the king's forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel, which pertains to the temple for the city wall and for the house that I will occupy. So he knew the name of the forest keeper, and he was ready. I need a letter. So again, you have to, as a leader, know how to take advantage of the occasion. Don't just give it a piecemeal. You might never get a chance to see the person that's so busy or is going to change his mind. And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me. So he always gave God the credit, not himself, not because he thought he was so clever. He just yielded to God's will.

And then, verse 9, I went to the governors in the region beyond the river, talking about the Euphrates, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. And then what happens? Then Sambalat, the Quaranite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite, official, heard of it. They were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel. So here you're always going to find opposition if you're trying to do God's work, if you're part of God's church, you're doing the pleasing things, even something like going to Pentecost next week. It's going to be a trial for some people. Satan doesn't want you to be there.

He doesn't want you to keep a feast with God's people. So he'll always find willing people to do his evil deeds. He will always find those that are going to do his handiwork. And so it happened here. They are even named directly here, Baya. And so the second great principle of this leader with the servant's heart is to find the right moment and be ready to go into action.

Because God will open the door, but if you're not ready, many times that door will close and it'll be too late. So you ask God and then prepare and be ready for the answer. So now we come to the third great principle, which is that a servant leader assumes personal responsibility for his job. He doesn't let others just inform him, but he's on top of things. He's on top of the matter. Notice in Nehemiah 2, once he gets to Jerusalem, verse 11, he says, So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem, nor was there any animal with me except the one on which I rode.

And so here's this Persian official that was Jewish extraction. People didn't really know too much about him. They thought, oh, there's another Persian official who's going to tax us to death. He's going to exploit us like the previous Jewish governors had done.

And yet Nehemiah knew that this was from God, and there was going to be a great miracle because what looked like just a devastated city, he was going to raise those walls and make Jerusalem into a city again where the Messiah one day would come and be able to fulfill prophecy.

But at this moment, it looked an impossible task. So then he says, verse 13, And I went out by night through the valley gate to the serpent well and the refuse gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down and its gates, which were burned with fire.

And so he did a reconnaissance. He went around the whole thing, checked out how the situation was. He didn't just have somebody inform him. He went and did it personally.

You want to be on top of things. That's why many times you travel. You find out for yourself what is going on. And I can tell you, sometimes because of other issues, I haven't been able to go and do my responsibility in a place. And I'll just say, well, I'll have somebody else go. And they weren't too prepared. And boy, did I ever pay for that later on. Things just weren't organized. They should have. And so, of course, you can only do so much. But this is the opportunity that you have to do your job well. Be on top of the job that you have been assigned. And so going on, in verse 16, he says, and the official did not know where I had gone or what I had done.

He didn't want to spread rumors. He wanted to have the plan ready once he knew it could be accomplished. I had not yet told the Jews, the priests and nobles, the officials or the others, who did the work. Then I said to them, you see the distress that we are in. Again, always including himself. Not you are. He could have gone back to Sushah and just had a wonderful time for the rest of his life. And he says, I'm in this. I'm involved. How Jerusalem lies waste and its gates are burned with fire. And then he goes on and shows that leadership. He had planned. God had already opened the door and now he says, now we are going to accomplish this. And everybody thought, well, 90 years we haven't been able to do it. Here comes this fellow, kind of like Moses, going back to Egypt and said, who are you? And they're saying, well, how can this be? And so sometimes you have to convince. So he goes on and he says, come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach, which means embarrassment. And I told them of the hand of my God, which had been good upon me, and also the king's words that he had spoken to me. So they said, let us rise up and build. Then they set their hands to this good work.

Work of God was going to be raised up at this time. Basically, one man's faith being used by God, this was the way God chose to do it. Yet, what are you going to find?

Opposition. Satan is going to raise up people that are hostile, that don't want the church and the work to prosper. And so here we have verse 19, but when Samballat, the Hernite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Gesham the Arab, so okay, we have some Arabs now, posing Jews, heard of it. They laughed at us and despised us and said, what is this thing that you're doing? Well, you rebel against the king, so they started threatening him.

They're in the Persian Empire, very easy for rumors to start spreading, and the king hear about it, and he says, are you rebelling? Are you going to build up your own nation to rise up against the Persians? And so he calmly, as he was a court official, knew about diplomacy, knew how to keep a cool head, not get hot-headed about things. He coolly said, the God of heaven himself will prosper us. Don't you forget who is our real boss in heaven.

Therefore, we his servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem. Yes, these are the unconverted hordes that try always to stifle and destroy the church. We constantly are receiving offers from other groups.

Well, let's get all together and let's just all be Christians and just be one happy family.

And the Sabbath, we'll let you do that, but we keep Sunday. Let's all just get together and do things.

And God's people have never followed that type of mentality. Now, we've had leaders who have disappointed us, but those that are spirit-led are not going to compromise with God's commandments or his truths. Just like Nehemiah said, you have nothing to do here.

God's going to carry this out.

And then we have the fourth principle of this servant leadership. The servant leader delegates and distributes responsibilities, and he has many participate. It's not just him giving out orders. Notice Nehemiah chapter 3 verse 1. It says, Then Eliaship, the high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priests, and built the sheep gate.

They consecrated it and hung its doors. Here you'd had the high priest, and you had like 90 years.

Everybody had just been passive. They were afraid, and they just put it off, and they basically had their own fields and just taking care of their own lives at that time. But you have a man who says, no, it's time to raise this church and raise this work up, and sure enough, people back and support him. And so here you have the priests doing their duty now.

And it goes on to say in verse 5, next to them the Tekoites, which was a tribe of Israel, made repairs, but their nobles from this tribe did not put their shoulders to the work of the Lord.

So here you had the upper classes of this tribe. They said, no, we don't believe this is ever going to happen. And they didn't want to dirty their hands. They didn't want to get tired. They wanted things to be stable because after all, they were upper classes. So they were kind of rich and wealthy. Things were doing okay. And so they didn't participate. Can you imagine having a verse like that written about us in that way? That, well, they didn't do the work.

They had excuses. They didn't want to support things. And here you have this for the rest of history in the Bible. Some who did not participate at that time to serve God in the proper way.

Well, here's one verse that's near to my heart. Verse 12. What about families that only have daughters? Well, surely, you know, this is a hard work. This takes muscle. It takes effort.

What do we do if you only have daughters? Well, I'm very happy we have verse 12 here because I can identify. I had four daughters, right? So it says here, and next to him was Shalom, the son of Halashish, leader of half the district of Jerusalem. He and his daughters made repairs. Yeah, women can do work too this way to their eternal glory.

They were part of building the walls of Jerusalem.

They participated as well. And in Nehemiah 4, verse 21, what about Nehemiah himself?

What did he say? Did he just supervise and didn't get his hands dirty at all?

Verse 21, it says, So we labored in the work, and half of the men held the spears from daybreak until the stars appeared, because they had to be ready for the attacks of their enemies.

At the same time, I also said to the people, Let each man and his servants stay at night in Jerusalem, that they may be our guard by night and a working party by day. So neither I, my brethren, which were his family, nor the men of the guard who followed me, took off our clothes, except that everyone took them off for washing. So he was getting dirty. He was tired. But he was there also in the wall, working away with the rest of the brethren. And so a servant leader doesn't just watch others do something. He rolls up his sleeves and gets going as well.

Now, the way Nehemiah was able to do all of this in chapter three that we're going through, the rebuilding of the wall, he did a brilliant thing. God guided him. And that was, instead of having everybody work on just one section, he actually did the same thing as Tom Sawyer and that famous Huckleberry Finn, where it was the way he got others to participate of whitewashing the wall. I remember as a kid reading Tom Sawyer, where he said, well, I've got this job now. And boy, I tell you, it's going to be so great to do this job. And he got all the kids in the neighborhood to participate. And he didn't have to do as much of it. Well, Nehemiah, instead of having them just work all together, he said, you're going to have the honor of having this section of the wall.

And this wall is going to be named after your family and your tribe. And this is going to be the section that you are going to be responsible before God. And so pretty soon you had a pretty healthy competition. People said, well, boy, this person got up at six o'clock in the morning and they're building up this wall. Where are we? Boy, we're a couple of days behind. And so everybody participated in a healthy competition. And guess what? You know, in the church, we also have a healthy competition. You know, who can serve better? Who can do his responsibilities better before God? Whatever it is, whether it's prayer, supporting, many other ways. It doesn't matter the age. It doesn't matter how infirm you are.

Remember, you're competing against yourself in the sense that you're trying to do your best before God. That's what counts. And so we come to the fifth principle, Nehemiah 4 verse 1.

It says, but it so happened when Sam Ballot heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant and mocked the Jews. And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria. Remember the Samaritans were the Babylonians who had been brought in into that area of Samaria. And he says, what are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish stones that are burned? Now, Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall. So he's saying, this is shoddy. If just a little animal gets into the wall, the whole thing's gonna collapse, ridiculing. And so what did Nehemiah do? He prayed, and then he acted. Verse 4. He said, Hear, O Lord, for we are despised. Turn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity. God, you take care of the adversaries.

Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you, for they have provoked you to anger before the builders. So what did you do? Did he just pray? No. He acted. So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to have its height.

For the people had a mind to work. Boy, everybody was so enthusiastic about it. And see, it's just like when you have a very tough job or a complex problem to solve, it's always better to break it down into sections. What I mentally do many times when there are all kinds of issues to resolve, it's like a grid. You divide it up, and just like when I had to work as a gardener, cleaning the grounds there in Pasadena, the college, that you had to do a lot of weeding to remove the weeds. Well, there was a whole field there, and you could just go and pick and just weed here and there to remove them. And pretty soon you look back and say, I can't even tell the difference because there are so many other weeds. No, but if you build this grid, I started on section, little section A, and I dedicated myself to clean every weed from that small section. And then I went to section B, and then I did the same thing, C, D, and I didn't get to cover the whole field, but I knew that those sections were weed-free. And so the same type of thing here where he divided it up into something that could be achievable. And every family and their tribe, they were all there saying, we're gonna be the first ones to get that wall up. And they worked tirelessly, but they had enthusiasm, and they were happy because they had a leader that had a servant heart, really cared for them, did his part as well. And then another problem arises.

And here's the sixth principle. Don't take advantage of your job or position to get the most for yourself. That's not being a servant leader. In Nehemiah chapter 5, you think they had enough problems as it was. No. What happened? Nehemiah chapter 5 verse 1 says, And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren. For there were those who said, We are sons and our daughters are many. Therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live. There were also some who said we have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses that we might buy grain because of the famine. So what happened? Here Nehemiah comes, but they have weather problems, climate problems. God's not going to solve everything in a person's life. And so Nehemiah could have said, Well, God, here you sent me and here we have a drought and people are hungry. Well, guess what? There was a purpose here. God was looking and seeing how people are going to handle this as well. And Nehemiah led by his example.

And so verse 6, we see here that he wasn't thinking about himself. He had the governor's portion. He had his food already insured through the Persian Empire. But he says in verse 6, And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.

So you see, he did have a servant's heart. He was concerned about those that were needy and poor.

Verse 7, After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers and said to them, Each of you is exacting usury from his brother. So I called the great assembly against them. Usury is when you are earning excess interest on the loans. And I said to them, According to our ability, we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us? Then they were silenced and found nothing to say. Why? Because Nehemiah was a righteous man, and he shamed them for taking advantage of the poor during this drought. Then I said, What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations or enemies?

I also with my brethren and my servants am lending them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury. Actually, in the Bible, it talks about that brethren shouldn't charge interest, like on a loan and things like that when they are church members. It should be something that you're not earning interest, like in a bank.

And then it goes on to say, Restore now to them, even this day their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you have charged them. So they said, We will restore it and will require nothing from them. We will do so, as you said. They were shamed into acting properly. This is the advantage when you have a righteous ruler. He can use his authority to protect the poor, to represent the poor before those that are taking advantage of them.

Then I called the priest and required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. He didn't just say, Well, this is what you're saying. I want it in a document. I want it written you know, before the high priest that you committed to doing this. Then I shook out the fold of my garment and said, So may God shake out each man from his house and from his property who does not perform this promise. Because it's easy to promise, but probably the rich people went back to their homes and they thought, Boy, we're going to have to give up. Look at all the money and all the properties and all of this. And they had second thoughts. So Nehemiah said, No, before they have second thoughts, I'm going to get them written out so they don't go back on their word.

And then he says, Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied and all the assembly. Of course, most of them were poor. Said, Amen. Let it be so. And praise the Lord. Then the people did according to this promise. And then he goes on to say in verse 14, says, Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the 20th year until the 32nd year of King Artaxerxes, 12 years neither I nor my brothers ate the governor's provisions. He felt so bad because he saw how many people just didn't have enough to eat that all of these provisions said he under the law could tax people and could take their grain and take their meat. And he said he never had the heart to take from the poor and the needy. Verse 15, But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but I did not do so because of the fear of God. Again, he was driven by that deep respect and honoring God's ways not to take advantage of his position and to do things in a lawful way. And then he was a very generous man. He didn't have the rich and the powerful with him there dining and thinking about themselves. He says, verse 17.

Well, verse 16, it says, Indeed, I also continued to work on this wall, and we did not buy any land so he could have just expropriated because people couldn't pay. You know what happens with debts?

That finally the bank will embargo things. But he says, No, I didn't take any land. I could have, but I didn't take any of this land. All my servants were gathered there for the work. They were doing it as well. And at my table were 150 Jews and rulers, besides those who came to us from the nations around us. Now, when that which was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep, also foul were prepared for me and once every 10 days, an abundance of all kinds of wine. Yet, in spite of this, I did not demand the governor's provisions because the bondage was heavy on this people. So he didn't take advantage of his position. He knew they were going through hard times. He didn't have many crops. People had to eat. It was easy to take advantage of them and mortgage them to death, but he didn't do that. And he took it out of his own pocket. He used his own funds in order to not exploit the people. And what does he then say before God? Does he say, oh, yes, I'm such a great person? No. He says, verse 19, Remember me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people. Have mercy on me in my judgment. Look at these things that they be pleasing to you so I can be forgiven of my sins, my shortcomings.

And so he did a tremendous thing. And that takes us to the last principle, which is don't give up, persevere to the end, and get it done. Follow it through. A good leader doesn't give up along the way. Some can begin something, but they don't finish it. And so it says in chapter six, verse one, now it happened when Samballat, Tobiah, Gesham, the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no breaks left in it, though at the time I had not hung the doors in the gates.

That's Samballat and Gesham sent to me saying, come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me harm. They were going to assassinate him. Of course, he knew a lot about assassination plots with his job, so he could perceive. This wasn't a well-wish from these others. No, they wanted to get them out some place where they could kill them. So I sent messengers to them saying, I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?

But they sent me this message four times and I answered them in the same manner.

And so verse 12, then I perceive that God had not sent him at all, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Samballat had hired him, the assassin.

And verse 13, for this reason, he was hired that I should be afraid and act that way in sin so that they might have cause for an evil report that they might reproach me. And then he goes on, remember my God, Tobiah and Samballat, according to these, their works and their prophetess. Now they had a lady prophetess, Noiah, and the rest of the prophets, who would have made me afraid. And verse 15 is the culmination of the book. So the wall was finished on the 25th day of Elulah in the 52 days.

And it happened when all our enemies heard of it took less than two months.

And all the nations around us saw these things that they were very disheartened in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was done by our God. And so Nehemiah carried out a tremendous job in Nehemiah 10, verse 28. He makes them commit themselves to keeping the Sabbath day holy and the holy days. Nehemiah 10, verse 28. He says, Now the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the nethanim, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, to the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge and understanding, these joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God and His ordinances and His statutes. We would not give our daughters as wives to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons. It didn't have to do with racism. It had to do with religion. The person who subscribed to God's ways and follows God's way becomes part of God's people. Verse 31.

If the peoples of the land brought wares on or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we would not buy it from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day, and we would forego the seventh year produce and the exacting of every debt. And so he talks about that if anybody came to sell, they just didn't allow that. They didn't want to have these market fairs and businesses being run on the Sabbath day. And so, of course, they control the land. We live in a different circumstances where we don't control what's going on outside, but we should not work on the Sabbath.

We should rest on the Sabbath. It's a holy day to keep before God, and we're not to be doing business, raising up our job, doing things like this. Selling on the Sabbath day is, and of course, not going out and doing anything that we can avoid on the Sabbath day.

So let's summarize what we've learned in Zechariah chapter 4. It's one of the minor prophets, Zechariah.

This is the way Nehemiah was able to carry all this out. And basically, from that time on, in Nehemiah 10, he has the Jews to commit to keeping God's ways. And from that time to this day, the Jewish people have kept the Sabbath in a continual cycle. And they were faithful, even if they've fallen short here or there. From Nehemiah's time, when they made that commitment and vow to the present time, we don't see any interruptions in the keeping of the Sabbath and holy days by them. Zechariah chapter 4 verse 6.

This is talking about Zerubbabel. And it says verse 6, So he answered and said to me, This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel. That was the governor about 90 years before Nehemiah. Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.

It is through God's spirit that God's work is carried out in every one of us. And may we also have the same spirit and drive as Nehemiah showed us, a man after God's own heart who had a servant's heart.