Nehemiah | Rebuilding the Walls: The Bible's Guide to Faith and Leadership

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How did Nehemiah rebuild the walls of Jerusalem?
What leadership lessons can we learn from the Bible?
What role did Nehemiah play in the post-exile period of Israel?

The podcast episode on Nehemiah dives into the narrative post-exile period of Israel, emphasizing God's sovereignty and strategic placement of leaders like Nehemiah, Ezra, and others to accomplish His purposes. Nehemiah, formerly a cupbearer for the Persian king, is positioned to lead the effort to rebuild Jerusalem's walls, and the podcast explores his bold request to God, relying on God's promises rather than personal vision.

The discussion emphasizes Nehemiah's faith, leadership, and reliance on prayer while acknowledging the challenges he faced, including opposition and internal sin among the people of Israel. The co-hosts touch on the significance of Nehemiah's prayer in chapter one, showing how he approaches God to honor His covenant, calling for the restoration and return of the people, while taking on the task of rebuilding the city walls—a reflection of safety, community, and God's faithfulness.

Interestingly, the podcast also explores Nehemiah's leadership in depth, noting how he approaches opposition, challenges, and the human tendency to falter, especially in a post-exilic world. Despite all the work and reforms led by Nehemiah, there’s a realistic portrayal of human nature and the continued struggle with sin, even after significant victories. The episode touches on Nehemiah's frustration in later chapters, particularly with those who break the law and engage in sinful practices, and his passionate, albeit sometimes extreme, actions to reform the community.

The episode ends by acknowledging that while Nehemiah’s efforts and leadership were substantial, true change in the hearts of the people was still lacking, reflecting the larger biblical theme that only God can fully transform individuals. There’s also a focus on how Nehemiah’s story shows that while leaders and reformers are essential, without a heart change among the people, societal reform alone is insufficient to accomplish God’s ultimate purpose for His people.

#BiblicalLeadership #Nehemiah #EzraNehemiah #GodsSovereignty #FaithInAction #RebuildingJerusalem #BibleJourney #LeadershipLessons #GodsPromises #CommunityReform

Transcript

 GWS-Nehemiah

GWS-Nehemiah

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, you're listening to God's Whole Story. This year we're taking a book by book journey throughout scripture to see how God uses the story of scripture to accomplish his purposes. If you enjoy the content, we would love to partner with you. Look at the show notes to see how you can do that and we hope you enjoy this episode.

Well, welcome back, everybody. This week, uh, we're kind of in part two of Ezra and Nehemiah, which used to be one book, but it's gonna be the book of Nehemiah, uh, if you're just joining us for this episode. Uh, we are set right after Babylonian exile. So just a little reminder, the end of Chronicles, the, uh, Israel was sent into Babylon for exile.

They spent 70 years there. which was predicted by Jeremiah, uh, in the beginning of Ezra or depending if you've read Daniel, it's in there as well. They were released, allowed to go back in the land. We follow Zerubbabel and Ezra in the book of Ezra. Now we're going to see kind of the, the third member of this group that's helping to rebuild the temple, [00:01:00] rebuild the people, and actually now rebuild aspects of the city, the city walls.

Uh, so Nehemiah, uh, is, uh, spends part of this time up in, uh, in the area of exile, and then he is actually given permission to return and rebuild the walls by the Persian king, which, uh, the Medes and the Persians were the ones who took over from Babylon. So, really in chapter one, we pick it up with that, uh, permission, or him requesting permission.

Uh, the famous line, I was the cupbearer to the king, uh, and request permission to go back and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Ryan, you were mentioned before we started recording that you love this, this introduction here. Tell, tell me a little bit about what you love about it. All right. Let me give you two spins.

You were expecting one point, but I'm going to give you two. The first one, and I regret cause I didn't talk about it in Ezra, but the first one is God's sovereignty. Over all of these situations is incredible because Nehemiah is obviously very [00:02:00] strategically located to be able to do this because he is, in fact, compared to the king.

And, and it's actually, I mean, I guess today it sounds like kind of a silly role, but it's actually like a pretty powerful security role, right? It's like secret service. And so he has, he has a lot of influence. He obviously has relationship with the king and, and God has. Like, make no mistake, God has placed him there, and, and one of the coolest things about, um, these post exile periods is not only is God moving in the people that are being raised up to lead the people, God is obviously present and moving in the, the lives of these rulers, like these, like, like men who would have been probably the most powerful men in the world, in the history of the world at that time, and God clearly is moving them and, and, you know, Motivating them towards what he wants to accomplish, which to me is always like incredibly humbling because it's, I mean, imagine in your mind who you think is the most powerful man in the world today, like probably presidents or I don't know, like politicians or something.

[00:03:00] Um, they are not immune from, from God's hand. On them and they are not, they actually, I believe are not able to do things that God does not intend for them to do. I'm talking big picture. Like obviously, um, I do not believe all rulers are Christians do it, like honoring God with their decisions. Um, but God is sovereign over all creation.

And in this, I think particularly this post exilic period, um, Um, he's obviously moving in, you know, Ezra's life, Nehemiah's life, but also Cyrus's life. Um, and these, as you said, these people are strategically positioned. So here is Nehemiah, like a civil servant, a government worker, maybe even a little bit of security detail because you know, that would prevent the king from being poisoned and things like that.

Potentially you've got Daniel who we will talk about eventually, but he's serving in a pagan king. Well, both of them. Daniel's a great example. Pagan king. Yeah. And, they're being faithful to what God has called them. Not necessarily vocational Christian ministry. Not when it's easy either. Like, [00:04:00] they are doing something very odd.

Yeah, and God basically says to steal a line from Esther for such a time as this. Like, I have put you there. Yeah. Um, Spoiler alert for next week. Uh, and uh, man, like God is able to do something historically significant here because of that. So that's point one. That was, that was the point leading up to the point.

Uh, point two, Nehemiah's, I would say in, in, Whatever Christian circles today, Nehemiah is kind of like the leadership book. Do you agree with that? Like, it's kind of like the go to. It, it, Nehemiah gets preached a lot, um, because it, it's a, it's a good story for one, but then yeah, lots of leadership. There is the element of opposition, which is very true in leadership.

Yep. Uh, so yeah, I, I definitely. Uh, top five, certainly top five, top five biblical characters. Uh, so here's what sticks out to me and I love this and I, I feel like I have not heard this well represented, um, because, and I'm like making broad [00:05:00] statements here obviously, but I feel like a lot of times what I hear is like, Nehemiah casted a great vision and he was committed to it and he like went and accomplished it.

And it's like, um, I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. And the reason I say I'm not sure is because if you look at, I'll actually pull it just right from the Bible here. Nehemiah chapter one, verse five. And I said, Oh Lord, God. So this is Nehemiah essentially like preparing for this. Um, and I said, Oh Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant and to Uh, that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you, even I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, the rules that you commanded your servant, Moses.

Remember the word that you commanded your servant, Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, uh, Uh, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven from there, [00:06:00] I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make them dwell there.

That's so obviously that's a little bit of a long reading. Um, I love that Nehemiah essentially goes to God and says, God, you need to do what you promised to do. Um, and, and he's pretty bold about it actually. Like, God, like I know that you declared this, I believe that you keep your promises. Do you know that you keep your promises because you said you would do this and it's time to do this.

And what I like about that is that Nehemiah is not claiming Nehemiah's vision and following Nehemiah's vision, Nehemiah's claiming God's vision that has actually been laid out. A long time beforehand and, uh, extra credit again, you and I would not know that if he had not studied God's word, or at least was aware of God's plans.

Um, so, so it's, it's not a classical leadership book. I don't think, because what he's doing is not classical leadership. Like he's not, Nehemiah is not casting his own vision and carrying it out. And I, I, it's a bummer for me when people miss that. Nehemiah is boldly declaring what God has already declared [00:07:00] and saying, Hey, You said you would do this.

I'm trusting that you will do this. Now, give me the authority. I need to continue this, um, which, which is very different to me. Like, I think, um, as a leader, um, you're always going to get in trouble when you're claiming your own vision and expecting God to follow you and what you think. Um, but how could you possibly be let down?

When you're claiming what God has already claimed and you know, accurately, lots of people are going to claim that God told them all kinds of things. Um, but Nehemiah is accurately claiming what God has promised and saying, like, we are repenting. Now you keep your promise and I love that I love that I think it's super powerful and probably I've talked about too long at this point Well, and I and I think we do have one of the passages that does come to mind too Is that this is God's vision, but it is going to require Nehemiah's work, of course, he still has to work a hundred percent.

You always still have to work and it actually reminds me of like Paul used to Paul would say like Like, it's by the grace of God and my hard work. [00:08:00] Yeah. And it's, it's like, it's actually never just one or the other. Like if we, if it's all our hard work, well, there's a problem there. And if we're, Sometimes when you talk about God's sovereignty, it gets the bad rap that you just sit around and wait for like, No, that's dumb.

Don't do that. The next shoe to drop and it's like, okay, no, that's a really poor understanding of God's sovereignty. God has always welcomed people into steward his creation, take dominion over it. There was always a partnership there. And so we see that, that Nehemiah gets this. Or is reminded of God's vision, goes back and does it.

But it takes, it takes a lot of hard work. A hundred percent. He does have to rally people and there's going to be opposition. Yep. So, uh, not against work for sure. There you gotta put the work in. I just think today so many people. Go about this in a foolish way because they're actually just declaring their own vision and trying to get God to endorse what they think instead of having themselves think what God thinks.[00:09:00]

And if you try to lead in a way Where you're just claiming whatever you want and hoping that God fills in the details like I just don't think that's wise and I love that Nehemiah is like I know what you said and I will do the work to help you accomplish what you said and I think it's a great example for us to follow.

So there are some definite leadership principles here. A hundred percent. Yep. A hundred percent. I just, the thing that sticks out to me in this first chapter is like. I've talked about it at length already, but he's, he's claiming God's promises. And that is huge. Don't and, and the specific ones that he's claiming is, uh, God, you're going to bring your people back to land.

You're going to rebuild a city. And so we've already seen that drew will brought them back. They rebuild a temple. The covenant has been renewed, even though it's been a little bit bumpy and particularly the thing that Nehemiah is concerned about, of course, is rebuilding the walls. So, uh, most of you probably know this, but just, just to be clear here, like in this kind of a culture, walls [00:10:00] for a city would represent a number of different things.

Uh, there would be. Uh, it's obviously safety and security from outsiders, from your enemies. Uh, it's also a lot of times where like the economy would take, a lot of the trading would take place near the city walls. It was kind of like a gathering place. A community. Rahab, for example, lived in the wall. Like there there's residences in some of them.

So it's, There is an aspect of like community development or, or kind of reconstruction that is here. So there's, there's nothing like there's inherent goodness in having a safe place for people, having a viable home. Uh, but as we mentioned last week, if you listen to that one, there is a lot of these, this hope and expectation that going back is fulfilling promises that God gave, but there's also the reality that maybe this isn't the ultimate promise So Nehemiah goes back and he builds the walls But as they start doing this right around the same time There's a guy named Zechariah prophesies that the new Jerusalem is gonna [00:11:00] be a city without walls So it's kind of like okay.

This is the step in the right direction This is the season that God has for them, but there's still more to come And so again, the return is prophecy fulfilled. It is hope that God is still working amongst his people He has not abandoned them But then In the midst of some of the challenges that they will face, they're also reminded, Oh, this isn't.

We're not here yet. There's still more to come. There still is a greater Jerusalem, a greater kingdom that will be safe and peace, and we'll not have any enemies because everyone who is a part of the people of God will be there and there will be no, no opposition. So that's, they're reminded of that hardship because there's opposition, there's difficulty in the midst of this and a lot of.

A lot of press has been made about rebuilding the wall, standing guard against your enemies, facing opposition, which is all good and true. Um, but again we have the intersection of this is restoration [00:12:00] and at the same time it's reality. It's, it's not we're, we're still on a sinful planet. Um, And towards the end of Nehemiah, actually, we have Ezra kind of reappears on the scene and they join forces.

They teach the people, they celebrate, they keep the Feast of Tabernacles. It seems like this is part of that covenant renewal celebration. But then we also have lots of accounts of people not being faithful to the covenants, not keeping the Sabbath. Uh, they're um, Not honoring, honoring the commands of the law.

There, there's a number of different, they're having unjust trade. There's injustice towards the poor. There's a lot of sinful human things taking place in this moment too. Uh, and so Nehemiah. Um, one of the things that I find interesting is that for the most part, Nehemiah is often held up as a great example of leadership.

But what do you do with chapter 13, Ryan? What do you do when the [00:13:00] people do these things? I see no problems with 13 at all. And Nehemiah Doesn't necessarily respond in the most Christlike way. What am I referring to here? He beats them all up, right? He does. He beats people up and he pulled, it actually says he pulls out the hair from their hair, head and beards.

I think that if Nehemiah had been more Mennonite, it would have been a more positive, more positive experience. That's, that's my, that's my take on this. You're tapping into your roots here. These are my roots. I appreciate them very much. And you know, they could have come in handy for Nehemiah. I'm pretty sure I've seen lots of books about the leadership style of Nehemiah, but it's no beatings in those books It just seems like they skip chapter 13.

Yeah. Well, you know, it's convenient Well, it is because it's kind of like we're gonna end with that. Like that's how we're gonna end this this book Okay, so the the thing is actually he's trying to accomplish reform right? Yes, and it's it's it's I do not endorse beatings just to be clear, ripping out people's beards.

Uh, we are not endorsing [00:14:00] Nehemiah's leadership style in chapter 13. Um, it is interesting to me. I don't even know how to handle this well. So, um, if you, if you're a Rayler listener, please give me some grace. Um, It is worth noting that they are having this, um, I would say moment of like significance recommittal, like significant recommittal to, to, um, God and his promises and his, his law.

And obviously there's still many people who are not on board and it's wild to think about like what these people have gone through. And yet there's still people who. Are not willing to fully commit and, and, you know, again, not endorsing the beatings. Please understand that. Um, DMI is definitely, I think, taken aback by this and frustrated by this and desires that his people not do this.

Um, so. I don't know, how do you handle it? I don't know how you handle it. I think in some ways looking at the bigger picture here [00:15:00] to it, I think it, it does help us like there's so many, and some of these good things happening. We've got, I don't want to put Nehemiah down like too much here where we are.

We're trying to do the God's whole story. So we got to talk about the good and the bad, but he is, he is a good guy. He is a good leader. Um, he does a lot of good. So generally speaking, we've got a good leader. He is enacting like. Like community reform, pointing people back to God. So we've got good leader doing good things.

And those two things, as we've seen several times in scripture already, it doesn't necessarily equal change hearts, right? You know, we can have the best leader. We can really have, you know, a godly culture, society, all these things. But unless hearts are being changed, we still find ourselves. In this, like, this isn't what we were hoping for.

This is there's glimpses of what God wants, but it's not the full reality of where they are. And if you [00:16:00] think, how many times did we see that in Kings? Uh, I think, you know, we've had, even when there was good Kings, like Josiah is the most famous good King. Yeah. Uh, and reform happened for a season, but with his son reversed.

So that, like that, that shows the pain of human nature. Right. So like, certainly. Certainly reform is a good thing. Yes, absolutely. And, and certainly, um, being led by a man who loves God is a good thing. And it's pretty impossible to go through these narratives and try to make the case that having a leader who loves God is a negative thing.

Um, but obviously it does not guarantee that every single person will commit to honoring God with their lives because you, you still have faith in God. So like, you know, Nehemiah is doing what he can to bring reform. Ezra is doing what he can to bring reform in large part. It's a great thing, uh, for the people of [00:17:00] God.

And yet you still have, I'm making air quotes. Can't see them. Obviously, uh, the, the people, there are people of God who are not following God. And it's interesting. I remember saying this in the, in the last, um, In the episode last week, but one of the things that Nehemiah is shouting at these people, uh, did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women among the many nations.

There was no king like him and he was beloved by his God and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made him even him to sin. So like he's like ranting about like, guys, we literally just saw this happen. What are you doing? Yeah. Um, yeah. It's interesting to me. He seems, he seems to be a passionate guy.

And there is like being someone who's been in full time ministry, um, you know, most of my adult life, there is a frustration, like, there's a frustration and acceptance that people are going to do stupid things. Like you, they're like, Oh, We've gone through the whole Bible. How could you do this? And then you're like, [00:18:00] Oh yeah, well this is what we do.

This is what it seems like. It's even more evidence of the fact that God ultimately does the work in our lives. And obviously we're not actually, that's how we started this episode. Obviously, obviously we're not immune from putting the work in. Um, but I, I feel like you just can't, we'll do a bonus episode on that sometime.

Um, I just feel like you can't ignore the fact that God sovereignly initiates these things. And. You know, with outside of a work of God in your life, you're not going to accidentally honor God with your life. Yeah. Like you never stumble into honoring God more in your decisions. You know, I think too, like, um, I mean, if we remember, okay, so they've been sitting in exile for 70 years.

Yeah. They would have had a hope of getting out of exile, and it probably, because this is what humans do, like, they probably would have been like, well, when we just get out of Babylon, when we just get out of Babylon, when we just get the temple rebuilt, when we just kind of renew the covenant, when we get the walls, like, and it's all these things, it's [00:19:00] like, okay, those are steps, but like, there's something bigger here.

Um, first of all, there's bigger fulfillments to all those promises there, there that God has something kingdom in mind, not just, uh, these temporary steps, but then there's like, it's not just about being in the right place. It's not just about being, you know, able to worship in a certain way. It's like, are your hearts actually being changed?

And, I mean, that's a good question for all of us, like, we can, you know, whatever our Christian disciplines are, ultimately, they're works, they're disciplines, they're, well, if I just read my Bible more, if I just go to church more, if I just get out of exile, um, we need our hearts to be changed, which is an act of God.

It's an act of the Holy Spirit. Um, it can't, it can't be changed. We can't just muster that up ourselves. There's things that we can do to help. Well, I think reading your Bible helps far more than not reading your Bible, but ultimately it's God moving. And certainly you shouldn't not read your Bible. Like, [00:20:00] and there will be people that you'll bump into them.

Make that case. Like I'm, I'm super spiritual and yeah, no, that's nonsense. Um, but if you're trying to do those things to earn your relationship with God, you're going to be really disappointed. I think, um, certainly they, Um, enrich it and help you, uh, walk in Christ. That's that's Paul's term. I think. Um, You are actively renewing your mind when you're doing these things.

Um, but obviously I think you wrote the book on it. You're not, you're not going to accomplish right relationship with God by doing these things. Yeah. So kind of an interesting place that we find ourselves is we're actually nearing the end of some of the historical journey through the old Testament.

Yeah. We've got next week, we've got as Esther, which isn't. Kind of another, I can't wait. Esther is super scandalous. That's what I think. But it's also another person in the right place at the right time, even though it's like, Oh, wow. You got your, you're there. Yeah. Um, but yeah, a really cool thing there.

And then we, we will [00:21:00] step into wisdom literature. Then we'll kind of like go back through some of the history and see some of the prophetic messages to those moments in history. And eventually we are going to get to some of. The fulfillments of what god is moving towards the the inauguration of the kingdom Obviously jesus coming and then him pointing to the ultimate fulfillment of the kingdom So there's a little spoiler alert for like the next 40 some books or whatever We have but uh, hey, thanks for being with us today.

Um If you want to dive deeper into some of those passages, remember to go back and check out our daily podcast, uh, that you can see a deeper explanation of all of those. If you want to see some more, uh, information on some of the hard passages. Thanks a lot. See you next week.