Page 43 - Principles of Leadership - Nehemiah

2. Prayer is crucial (4:4-9)
4 Listen, our God, for we are despised. Make their insults return on their own heads and let them be taken as
plunder to a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover their guilt or let their sin be erased from Your sight, because
they have provoked the builders. 6 So we rebuilt the wall until the entire wall was joined together up to half
its ⌊height⌋, for the people had the will to keep working. 7 When Sanballat, Tobiah, and the Arabs,
Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the repair to the walls of Jerusalem was progressing and that the
gaps were being closed, they became furious. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem
and throw it into confusion. 9 So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard because of them day and night.

Nehemiah falls to his knees and begins to pray. However, this prayer is what theologians call an imprecatory
prayer. An imprecatory prayer asks God to kill, maim, curse, send into eternal damnation, or otherwise harm an
enemy. Perhaps the most well-known imprecatory prayer is found in Psalm 109. (Psalm 69, 83, 137, 139)
Theologians seem to be divided on this kind of praying. In the Holman Christian Standard Bible, the writer of
the footnotes writes this. “Such a prayer seems out of place in light of Jesus’ teaching (Matthew 5:43-47); it
must be remembered that Nehemiah was writing before the cross in the context of the old covenant. While we
cannot pray a prayer like Nehemiah's, we can emulate his passion for God to bring justice to an unjust
world." 145 However, the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology takes a very different stand. “Imprecatory Psalms
compel the question of whether they can have any place in Christian Scripture. Two background remarks are in
place. First, imprecations are found in the New Testament also, not least the maledictions of the Lord himself.
Matthew 23:13-32 and the apostolate anathemas Galatians 1:8-9; Revelation 6:10; 18:20. Second, the notable
imprecatory Psalms 69 is used by the Lord Jesus in John 15:25… Therefore, it is impossible to dismiss the
imprecatory Psalms as Old Testament morality, especially when we recall that the Old Testament itself forbids
vengeance and grudge-bearing, Leviticus 19:17 – 18.” 146

You will have to study the Scriptures on your own to resolve for yourself whether or not you can pray
imprecatory prayers. The Holman Old Testament Commentary says this. "Nehemiah turned to God: Listen, our
God, for we are despised. From the start, he was concerned with the honor of God and his people... Many
interpreters have trouble with Nehemiah's prayer and his request for retribution on his enemies. The modern
Christian often views his prayer as unforgiving and harsh, lacking the love Christ calls us. However, Scripture
reminds us that vengeance belongs to God, who will exercise it, and judgment belongs to Christ, who will
execute it. There are, in fact, enemies of the cross, of God, and that of his people… He prayed, Make their
insults return on their own heads. He asked that God allow the biblical principle – you reap what you sow – to
take its course… Nehemiah left his request and their outcomes to God." 147 “Nehemiah appealed here for
vindication based upon the justice of Yahweh and His law and reliance upon the Lord to adjudicate on their
behalf. (For a parallel, see I Samuel 25:39, Ezekiel 21:28).” 148

Another expositor says, “It is not loving to want someone to continue in their evil and avoid God’s judgment. It
is loving to desire that God would deliver someone from his or her evil by means of the revelation of His justice
against them… Nehemiah prays that they would not continue unpunished in their unrepentant sin… Rather
than reply to Sanballat and Tobiah by speaking to them, Nehemiah speaks to God about them, and the people
keep right on working… If you are God’s enemy, if you have made yourself your own God and try to rival Him as
the Lord of the world, it is righteous for the people of God to pray for God to triumph over you.” 149

After this prayer, Nehemiah was quick to give credit where credit was due. He realized that the walls were
being rebuilt because of lay involvement. 6 So we rebuilt the wall until the entire wall was joined together up
to half its ⌊height⌋, for the people had the will to keep working. Notice how Nehemiah also speaks using
another plural pronoun in verse 9, so we prayed. Nehemiah and this team of builders began to realize that
their partnership was being threatened. Therefore, they also realized that the partnership of praying together
was essential. “Like their building work, their praying was a further cooperative activity in which they could help
one another.” 150

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