Page 83 - Principles of Leadership - Nehemiah

Notice that God is referred to as the one who has no beginning and no end, the everlasting God. This is significant
because Your glorious name is to be exalted above all blessing and praise. Praise is to speak well of something.
However, in the following verses, Nehemiah is going to retell the Old Testament story and tell us why God’s
glorious name is to be exalted above all blessing and praise. Don’t miss this! What Nehemiah is saying is that
our absolute best praise is insufficient. Nehemiah is saying that the sovereign story of God is so worthy of our
praise that He is to be exalted above all blessing and praise. I believe that the writings of John Piper catch the
expression of this verse best when he says, “God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.” 206

Spiritual leaders have made much of the posture and manner of prayer. I mean by this statement that if you are
from a charismatic circle, you will see an emphasis upon lifting your hands to God as found in Nehemiah 8:6 and
I Timothy 2:8. I will, therefore, encourage men to pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands. In these prayer
meetings, everyone will pray at one time, much like they did in Nehemiah 9:3. Then, for three more hours, they
confessed their sins and worshiped the LORD their God… 5 Then they prayed: What we see in this passage is
something much like an altar call given at the end of a service. People collectively confess their sins. However, if
you come from more of a Baptist tradition, you will be taught that the scriptures teach us to pray one at a time,
and if tongues are used, there must be an interpreter. (See I Corinthians 14 with an emphasis upon verse 26)
Today, I see a collision of traditions and practices in churches and cultures that have become very divisive. These
divisions often divide us into camps that are not crossable. In my practice, I prefer to have one person at a time
pray, so I can pray with them as taught in I Corinthians 14. However, if an altar call is given and people are
confessing their sins at the altar collectively, much as we see in Nehemiah 9:1-5, I would not view it as an
unscriptural practice. In preference to the standards of the college, you need to observe those guidelines while
at the university.

2. God proclaims His uniqueness and displays His power (9:6)
6 You alone are the LORD. You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their host, the earth and all
that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the heavenly host worships You.

God’s Greatness is seen in the fact that He receives our worship. You alone are the LORD. You created
the heavens, the highest heavens. He is not one among many of the best among the candidates, but He is
sovereign – the one and only who created the heavens. Stop and think about creating something out of
nothing. The power of creation is beyond our praise. The complexity of creation is beyond our praise. No
wonder Nehemiah said Your glorious name is to be exalted above all blessing and praise.

The Bible speaks of three heavens. Our atmosphere, as described in Ephesians 2:2, the solar system as described
in Psalm 8, and inhabited heaven, which is the dwelling place of God, 2 Corinthians 12. He alone is the giver and
sustainer of life. Therefore, if He is the giver of life, is He not also the only one who can help us in our time of
need? The God of the scriptures is not someone who creates and then abandons what He has created. His nature
proclaims in Psalm 55:22 cast your burden on the LORD, and He will support you; He will never allow the righteous
to be shaken.

However, repeatedly, we will find that the Israelites turned to substitutes. God would then send judgment, and
they would again turn back to Him. But this cycle went on and on, which brings us to this point in their history.
Looking at past failures compared to contemporary society, we are not much different. We see society worshiping
money, sex, and power in one form, which seems universal and generational. The tone of the prayer we are about
to look at underscores the people’s persistent unfaithfulness while at the same time exalting Yahweh’s persistent
faithfulness. In the end, it is Yahweh who gets the glory as His character is revealed.

3. God keeps His promise with Abraham (9:7-8)
7 You are the LORD God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and changed his name
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to Abraham. You found his heart faithful in Your sight and made a covenant with him to give the land

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