Nehemiah. Part 14

Nehemiah. Part 14.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Any effective leader must not only be able to communicate with God, but they also must be able to communicate with people.

In NEH 2:1, Nehemiah was attending on the king and had high ranking power as cupbearer, but always remember, that there was nothing Nehemiah could do – he could not even leave the city – without the king’s permission.

Nehemiah is sad and asks about it (“Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill?”) –
This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”

Nehemiah was not overcome with the temptation and the arrogance that would have arisen from a person who expected someone as important and busy as King Artaxerxes to take notice of and be concerned for him.

The clear implication of verse 10 is that the opposition to Nehemiah and the Jews in Jerusalem from these powerful leaders is spiritual opposition.
(Spiritual Warfare)

If you are trying to serve God faithfully, then you are also going to be engaged in spiritual warfare, EPH 6:10-18.

Yet up to this point, Nehemiah has been able to keep his burden a private matter while he waited for an answer from God.

The point is that no one like the king had been able to observe the agony that Nehemiah had been feeling.

Principle:
A true leader is no0t always the person who is self-assured, always together, never afraid, but it is the person who is caught off guard, unsure of himself, and as we will see, totally dependent upon the strength of God.

1. Loyalty:
The story does not make a great point of Nehemiah’s loyalty to King Artaxerxes, but Nehemiah’s whole demeanor as well as his success suggest of it.

Nehemiah genuinely seems to have had the king’s interests at heart.