Interpreting Nehemiah

Five years ago, I gave my Assistant Minister an assignment: To trace the activity of God in Nehemiah chapters 1-2. In the Christian leadership literature, Nehemiah is held up as a primary example, with the focus frequently being on “how great he was” (in the words of Ted Engstrom). Not seldom, this is to the exclusion of the role of God in the story. I thought that my Assistant's observations were astute: “While it is clear that he is a man of rank and capability, he is always pointing to God. Nehemiah could have taken the position that he would be able to pull things together through his own influence and character, but he is very deliberate about making it about what God is doing, and giving credit to God.”