Nigeria Needs Nehemiah

Introduction

Joseph was the saving grace of Jacob and his household members during the famine which ravaged the earth when Jacob, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, was 128 years old. Esau was Isaac’s God-sent sustainer when Isaac had become old and blind and Jacob had gone to spend twenty years in his maternal uncle, Laban’s home and business. David’s killing of Goliath made Jesse and his household to become relevant in his old age. Ruth sustained Naomi in the absence of her husband and sons, particularly, in Bethlehem. Boaz was the nebulous neighbour Naomi and Ruth needed to survive, upon their return to Bethlehem more than the closer relative who rejected Ruth like a plague because he did not think it was his duty to be the kinsman redeemer to his dead relative, Elimelech, Naomi’s husband. The Israelites needed David in the battlefield in which he killed Goliath more than all the thousands of Israelites’ warriors who gathered there for frustrating forty days and nights prior to David’s arrival. This is why the Israelite women went wild with celebration to King Saul’s disgust. When God sent Samuel to anoint David amongst Jesse’s household, he was needed more than the older seven sons who were readily available at home. In the like manner, it took several years and many governors’ regimes before Nehemiah came around to bring succour to the lives of the Jews, who had returned from captivity to Jerusalem particularly, the peasants.

Nehemiah 1:1 opens with the statement This is the account of what Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah accomplished. This is very important to all who believe in the sacredness of the Holy Bible. This statement meant that heaven agrees that while on earth, Nehemiah accomplished something worthy of note by heaven. This means that he served his generation of Jews to the pleasure of heaven. This is despite the fact that heaven helped him to so do. Put in another form, despite the heavenly help he got to achieve, heaven believed that he had done well enough, as human on earth, for this achievement or accomplishment to be recorded to his benefit. His earthly performance was pleasing to God and the hosts of heaven. Many do different things while on earth and while in position of authority which they cannot boast about. The other day, I was talking to someone about fame. He emphasized that someone was famous and I said there are different types of fame. Matthew 27:15-24 says Jesus was tried alongside a famous thief named Barabbas. It meant that just as Jesus was popular for performing miracles or working for the benefit of people, this man was popular for causing people misery as an armed robber. Therefore, being popular is not as important as to what you are popular for. Someone could be popular for the wrong reasons. Satan is quite popular but partly as the first rebel leader against God’s supremacy, right in the presence of God in heaven. And that did not make Satan the best of popular individuals. David’s son, Absalom was quite popular for being the most handsome, as well as the rebellious son who wanted his father dead so he could become his successor. There is no pride in ruling if you would be known for being a ruinous and regrettable ruler. The fact that Nehemiah accomplished to the recognition of heaven made him a good example for us to consider. David accomplished as well, because about him, I Kings 14:7-8, I Chronicles 14:1-2, Psalms 78:70-72 and Acts 13:36 say:

⁷ Go and tell Jeroboam that this is what the

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, the God of Israel, says to him: ‘I chose you from among the people and made you the ruler of my people Israel. ⁸ I took the kingdom away from David’s descendants and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David, who was completely loyal to me, obeyed my commands, and did only what I approve of.

¹ King Hiram of Tyre sent a trade mission to David; he provided him with cedar logs and with stonemasons and carpenters to build a palace. ² And so David realized that the

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had established him as king of Israel and was making his kingdom prosperous for the sake of his people.

⁷⁰ He chose his servant David; he took him from the pastures, ⁷¹ where he looked after his flocks, and he made him king of Israel, the shepherd of the people of God. ⁷² David took care of them with unselfish devotion and led them with skill.

³⁶ For David served God’s purposes in his own time, and then he died, was buried with his ancestors, and his body rotted in the grave. (TEV)

This means that David pleased God and members of his generation. This is the extent of the cross of Jesus which has two bars running across each other. The vertical longer line or bar represents man’s relationship with the Lord while the horizontal line or bar represents man’s relationship with his fellow man. Their intersection means that the individual must learn to manage both effectively and profitably. David did not please members of his generation at the expense of God like his predecessor King Saul did. Some would claim to be pleasing God to the extent that they offend God in the way they treat their fellow men. Some do not know the difference between being upright and being uncaring for the feelings of their fellow men.

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Dynamism and Pragmatism

Nehemiah 1 and 2 say he went to Jerusalem with the mission to lead the rebuilding of the walls and gates of Jerusalem. He got the support of some local Jews to rebuild just as there were some other notorious locals who found regrettable reasons to join some prominent citizens of neighbouring nations to oppose their efforts. Nehemiah sought and got God’s support throughout the project and accomplished successfully. After completing the rebuilding of the walls and gates of Jerusalem on record time of fifty-two days, he went ahead to do other things for the benefit of the people and national prestige. It is important to have a clue as to what would be the main thrust of any ruler’s reign beyond which he may do some other things. King David had what we can call God-given mandate during his forty years’ reign. His son and successor, King Solomon, had his God-given mandate. Both of them fulfilled their mandates. However, many do not have any idea of what God would like them accomplish. If you do not know what God meant for you to do during your reign, it is more likely that you would never get His support to achieve it since you would not pursue it. This is why it is very important to know what God would have you do as a ruler of people. If you do not believe in God, you are worse off because you would miss it altogether. If you believe in God but still fail to get His guidance, you would regret at end of your reign. Clarifying God’s planned purpose for your reign is crucial to successful rule and reign. Solomon enjoyed his reign after he accomplished God’s planned purpose for him as a ruler of Israel. David tried to enjoy during his reign by getting many women who bore him many children but it is on record that such enjoyment did not benefit David and Solomon. On the other hand, Nehemiah did not or was never reported to have sought such enjoyment while in office. He sacrificed everything that suggests enjoyment as ruler and only prayed that God should reward him appropriately.

He made the controllers of their nation’s economy to forgive the debt of their poor Jews. He had set an example in this respect, which he used to force the rich to forgive the debt of the poor. He ensured that his lieutenants did not oppress the peasants like his predecessors had done. This means that he was a compassionate ruler. He focused on ameliorating the sufferings of the peasants. A pastor friend would say that part of the integral responsibility of the pastor is to guide the rich members of the church to alleviate the sufferings of the poor members of the church. And this is truer with the national leaders or political class. One of the integral responsibility of the ruler of a nation or region or state or geographical expression is to use the position and the resources available to reduce the sufferings and hardships of the poor as much as possible. The ruler should be able to guide the controllers of the economy (organised private sector and various chambers of commerce and industries as we refer to them in contemporary times) to help the poor while making more profit. This is where the payment of living wage and other comforting or commendable or conducive working conditions (CWC) come in. On the other hand, there are curious or crushing working conditions. God commands the payment of living wages and its prompt payment as well. Leviticus 19:13, Deuteronomy 24:14-15, Job 31:13-16, Proverbs 31:1-9, Jeremiah 22:13, Malachi 3:5 and James 5:4 say:

¹³ ‘You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning.

¹⁴ "You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns. ¹⁵ "You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; so that he will not cry against you to the

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and it become sin in you.

¹³ "If I have despised the claim of my male or female slaves when they filed a complaint against me, ¹⁴ what then could I do when God arises? And when He calls me to account, what will I answer Him? ¹⁵ "Did not He who made me in the womb make him, and the same one fashion us in the womb? ¹⁶ "If I have kept the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, (NASU)

¹ These are the solemn words which King Lemuel’s mother said to him: ² "You are my own dear son, the answer to my prayers. What shall I tell you? ³ Don’t spend all your energy on sex and all your money on women; they have destroyed kings. ⁴ Listen, Lemuel. Kings should not drink wine or have a craving for alcohol. ⁵ When they drink, they forget the laws and ignore the rights of people in need. ⁶ Alcohol is for people who are dying, for those who are in misery. ⁷ Let them drink and forget their poverty and unhappiness. ⁸ "Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all who are helpless. ⁹ Speak for them and be a righteous judge. Protect the rights of the poor and needy."

¹³ Doomed is the man who builds his house by injustice and enlarges it by dishonesty; who makes his countrymen work for nothing and does not pay their wages. (TEV)

¹³ "Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor’s service without wages and gives him nothing for his work,

⁵ And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien—because they do not fear Me," Says the

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of hosts.

⁴ Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. (NKJV)

These are some of the areas the ruler should enforce employers as powerful members of the society to be fair to the employees and weaker citizens. Since it is God’s commandment if the ruler sets out to enforce them, God would support him to succeed and any powerful that would not listen to him would suffer. When it is certain you are bent on enforcing His will, He will help you to prevail over your detractors.

Nehemiah prohibited the entry of merchants into Jerusalem on the sacred day and cleansed the Temple, of unrighteous men. This meant that he righted the wrong that had been condoned by his predecessors. This is replacing the wrong with the right. In the same way, it is the duty of rulers to ensure that the wrong practices are replaced with the right ones. This is one reason I strongly believe it is easy for the ruler to impress the subjects. Even if you do not have your personal agenda just pursue the correction of the mistakes of the previous regime or those of all your former predecessors as much as possible. If there are uncompleted or abandoned projects by the previous regimes, just pursue their completion and you would have achieved and written your name in the hearts of the populace. It was the projects that previous governors of Judah failed to do that Nehemiah focussed on and achieved. Take for instance, when II Chronicles 14:1-8, 15:1-19 and 17:1-19 say:

¹ King Abijah died and was buried in the royal tombs in David’s City. His son Asa succeeded him as king, and under Asa the land enjoyed peace for ten years. ² Asa pleased the

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, his God, by doing what was right and good. ³ He removed the foreign altars and the pagan places of worship, broke down the sacred stone columns, and cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah. ⁴ He commanded the people of Judah to do the will of the

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, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his teachings and commands. ⁵ Because he abolished the pagan places of worship and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, the kingdom was at peace under his rule. ⁶ He built fortifications for the cities of Judah during this time, and for several years there was no war, because the

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gave him peace. ⁷ He told the people of Judah, "Let us fortify the cities by building walls and towers, and gates that can be shut and barred. We have control of the land because we have done the will of the

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our God. He has protected us and given us security on every side." And so they built and prospered. ⁸ King Asa had an army of ³⁰⁰,⁰⁰⁰ men from Judah, armed with shields and spears, and ²⁸⁰,⁰⁰⁰ men from Benjamin, armed with shields and bows. All of them were brave, well-trained men.

¹ The spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded, ² and he went to meet King Asa. He called out, "Listen to me, King Asa, and all you people of Judah and Benjamin! The

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is with you as long as you are with him. If you look for him, he will let you find him, but if you turn away, he will abandon you. ³ For a long time Israel lived without the true God, without priests to teach