Perseverance
Nehemiah, A Case Example

Nehemiah lived in the period after God's people were taken captive and reallocated to Babylon. The first wave of captives returned to Jerusalem in 537 B.C. The temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. and Ezra came on the scene in 456 B.C. Then, in 445 B.C., Nehemiah came to Jerusalem as part of the second wave of exiles returning to their homeland. The name Nehemiah means "God has comforted."

Nehemiah hears about the situation in Jerusalem [Neh 1:2], repents for the sins of his people and asks the king for permission to start rebuilding the wall around the city. God gives Nehemiah a vision of what he should do and in Neh 2:17-18 he shares that vision with the people and they get excited. But he realizes that it will take courage and perseverance.

What is perseverance? Note the frog holding on the bird's neck! Now that is perseverance!

Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President, said this: "Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance is omnipotent."

Nehemiah challenged his people. The wall was something like what folks have been facing at "ground zero" in New York City --the site of the former World Trade Center.

In Neh 2:19 the opposition that wanted to hinder the work of God enters the story. But we see in the next verse that Nehemiah's response is to focus on God and not the opposition. Jumping ahead to Neh 4:1-3 we see the opposition becoming more fierce as more of the work is completed.

Nehemiah's response is not to lash out as we might be tempted to do. Instead he prays and perseveres. He asks God to deal with the opposition and then leaves it up to him. After praying he keeps on task because the work of God must go forward.

The critics try to demoralize the people who are doing the work.
The leaders energize their people, build them up and motivate them.

Winston Churchill was the kind of leader who persevered. Remember his famous words? "Never, never, never give up!"

Christians battle spiritual battles. How do we persevere? We get the the help of God. Romans 15:5 talks about this gift. Our challenge is to walk in it. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit," says the Lord.

Here are some scriptures on overcoming and persevering:

The goal is not to win the race but to finish it. Note that up to this point the opposition has been external. There are three kinds of opposition we face; two are external and one is internal.

The World - External
The Flesh - Internal
The Devil - External

The world includes the pressures from the society around us.

"God's ways are old-fashioned"
"Be your own person"
"Do it your own way"

":Compromise and do what seems right to you and don't be strict in your religion" is what the world would say to us.

The Devil tries to put a guilt trip on us.

"If you were living a Christian life then you wouldn't be doing all the things you are doing. How are you going to justify doing the things you do to God?"

The Flesh includes doubts, inner fears, insecurities, a sense of being unworthy, which is exactly how we are without Christ. It is this kind of internal attack that runs the old tapes that try to bring us down.
[Skip poem below on "The Race."
Go to the rest of the story.]

As the story continues... they worked from dawn to dusk, ever vigilant and always on guard (Neh 4:21-23). Then came the attack from within their own ranks (Neh 5:1-4). The work stopped because they did not have food to eat, they had mortgaged their property to get money to pay the taxes, inflation was on an ever-increasing upward spiral and their own people were doing part of this to them -- charging high interest rates to their fellow countrymen and foreclosing on their properties. Some even sold their children as slaves to their countrymen in order to get food to eat.

What happens when leaders face a crisis? In Neh 5:6 we see that Nehemiah got angry. Anger is not wrong as long as we process it appropriately. Eph 4 tells us not to turn it into bitterness. I want you to see several life principles in Nehemiah's response to this crisis so it may help you when you face the next crisis in your life.

Clear Thinking: We see in Neh 5:6-7 that Nehemiah stops and thinks about the situation. He "consults" with himself. In the presence of God he stops [that's self- ontrol] and analyzes [that's evaluates] the consequences of what he is going to do. He turns to God first and seeks his wisdom on what should be done in this situation. [Paul gives the same advice in the New Testament telling us to think on things above.] Nehemiah uses the ban on usury and slavery [found in Deut 19 and Lev 25] to address the wrongs of some of his countrymen. By using clear thinking, Nehemiah is avoiding the danger of reacting to his emotions in the middle of this crisis. Instead, he is using wisdom to turn the crisis into an opportunity. Next he...

Takes Action: He confronts the problem head on. In Neh 6:7-8 he asks the bankers what they are doing and tells them to give back what they have taken. He does this in a convincing and not condemning way. He moves with purpose in the shadow of God, not minimizing the problem but instead, hitting it head on. Finally he establishes...

Godly Accountability: Nehemiah needed to follow through. He called in the priests to hear the vows of the bankers and expected the priests to hold them accountable to the promises they made. It is important to be accountable to others.