Page 39 - Principles of Leadership - Nehemiah

dedication carries a sense of making it holy. The priest wanted the people to realize that this was a holy city,
and they wanted His glory to be magnified. Or, to word it another way, they were saying, “We endorse this
project; we think God is in it.”

A careful study of scriptures will reveal that God loves for us to celebrate His successes. Israel was to set up
standing stones to celebrate the victories God gave them as they moved into the Promised Land. (Joshua 4:20-
24) Israel was to celebrate several feast days that all pointed to the greatness and goodness of God. Realizing
that God was once again bringing His hand of blessing back onto Jerusalem, Nehemiah and the priest
celebrated by dedicating the Sheep Gate. Nehemiah and the priest realized that momentum is the leaders’ best
friend. They also realized that what gets celebrated gets done. The priest wanted to keep the momentum and
unity flowing. Therefore, they called for a dedication celebration of completing the Tower of the Hundred and
the Tower of Hananel.

2. Their unity
The priest had created momentum upon the completion of the Sheep Gate. But momentum without unity
would be useless. Therefore, Nehemiah looked for ways to unify the workers. Notice that he allowed workers
to build across from his house (10) after them, Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs opposite their house.
Beside them, Azariah, son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah, made repairs beside his house. (23)

Notice the difference in the language used in verse one, which began rebuilding, from the language used in
verse ten, which made repairs. Linguistic commentaries point out this difference and tell us that most of the
city's gates were destroyed and needed to be rebuilt. In contrast, certain parts of the wall only needed to be
repaired. Most of the damage seemed to surround the temple area as the Babylonians burned the temple to
the ground in 586 BC.

Notice again that Nehemiah allowed people to build near their homes, which allowed unity and momentum to
develop. Nehemiah realized that people would take a vested interest in building the walls close to their homes.
They soon realized that Nehemiah had their best interests in mind by organizing the people this way. John
MacArthur says that “essential to unity is diversity. Unity of spirit and purpose can be maintained only through
diversity of ministry. But unity is not uniformity. A football team whose players all want to play quarterback (or,
in Africa, football center forward/striker) would have uniformity but not unity. It could not function as a team if
everyone played the same position.” 126

From the above, we see the law of coordination in place that helped with unity. We also see the law of
cooperation involved in this chapter. The law of cooperation says, “Either we pull together, or we’ll pull
apart.” 127 This chapter shows that the vision team organized Jerusalem’s residents and residents from eight
different regions surrounding Jerusalem. (Jericho, (2) Tekoa, (5) Gibeon, (7) Mizpha, (7, 15, 19) Zonah, (13) Beth
Hakkerem, (16) Beth Zur, (16) Keliah, (17, 19). These were cities that surrounded Jerusalem that were anywhere
from 15 to 25 miles away. (24-40 Kilometers) You can also see that men and women (12 mentioned) people
from all different occupations, (1, 8, 12-19, 32) are getting involved in the rebuilding process. Again, all these
people demonstrated the law of cooperation: either we pull together or pull apart. People in the West need to
realize that “in tribal societies then and now, nothing gets done without the consent and participation of the
tribal leaders.” 128 Bringing all of these tribal leaders together was no less than a miracle.

James Montgomery Boice calls this “an every-member ministry.” 129 (See Ephesians 4:11-13) He divided the task
into manageable units and then assigned the right people to each part and fit the whole together so there were
no gaps, and so each picked up where the other ones left off. We see this in such frequently repeated phrases
as “the adjoining section,” “the next section,” and “next to them.” (Repeated 28 times) If the church ever
catches the importance of every-member ministry, it would change the world. Or, as the Holman commentary
says, “In the work of God, the greatest accomplishments come from a unity of purpose when people of diverse
backgrounds, interests, and abilities join together under a compelling vision. Success is achieved not because
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