TEXT: NEHEMIAH 5:14-19
14 Moreover, from the
twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their
governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve
years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. 15 But the earlier
governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty
shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants
also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act
like that. 16 Instead, I
devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for
the work; we did not acquire any land.
17 Furthermore, a hundred
and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us
from the surrounding nations. 18 Each
day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and
every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I
never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were
heavy on these people.
19 Remember me with
favour, my God, for all I have done for these people.
A leader is someone who influences a group
of people to achieve a goal or purpose. A leader is the one that leads by
example for others to follow him. He is the one that is committed to the goals
of an organisation or an establishment. We have different types of leadership
style, the type of the leader you are determines the type of the followers you
will have. From the definition above, it shows that leaders have influential
power on their followers; they influence their followers either positively or
negatively. If you are nice and compassionate to your followers, they will in
turn be nice and supportive for your vision to be accomplished, but if you are
cruel and wicked to them, they will also be mean and make every effort to see
to your down fall! An autocratic leader will breed rebellious and insubordinate
followers, this could lead to anarchy.
From the text, we can see that Nehemiah
showed an example of a leader that led with the fear of God. He saw how the
people were suffering, how the poor were being oppressed by the rich among
them. When the poor complained, Nehemiah took it upon himself he summoned the
usurers and rebuked them, he used his position to deliver the poor from being
oppressed.
Verse 14 talked about how Nehemiah forgoes
his lawful emoluments attached to his government, he did not eat the food
allotted to the governor, because he was a compassionate governor, he could empathise with
the poor. He does not want to burden his people with his position as the
governor. He made this known in verse 18b “I never demanded the food
allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people”.
Nehemiah was feeding one hundred and fifty
Jews and officials; as well as people from other nation, out of his own
resources. Remember as a leader you will not be there forever, is either you
leave at the expiration of your tenure, or by death (for lifetime position).
Whichever way you CANNOT be there forever, one day you will be out of the
office! The question is how do you want to be remembered? Will your exit be a
relief to your followers or will you be greatly missed? A leader that is
walking in the fear of God will not be greedy or cruel to his followers, if you
are a child of God, you won’t find it pleasant to be a problem to your fellow
brethren. Nehemiah delivered the poor and the needy from the hands of the
oppressors by calling the oppressors to order, he used his position as the
governor to minister to the needs of his people. Rather than being a burden to
them; he lifted the burden of the masses by providing them with food at his
table, he deprived himself from eating governor’s food just because he was a
compassionate leader.
Are you are compassionate leader or you are
a cruel leader? Don’t forget whatever you sow you shall reap in due season.
IMAGE: GOOGLE IMAGE
