Nehemiah was a great leader of God’s people because his mind and heart were filled with, and moved by, the spirit of God. He was spiritually minded because he “prayed continually and gave thanks in all circumstances” (I Thess. 17-18).
Eleven prayers of Nehemiah’s are on record in the book that bears his name. Although that book is filled with drama and action, more than a fifth of the narrative chapters, nearly two thousand words, are words of prayer.
A godly leader
Many commentators seem to think that Nehemiah was an “alpha male,” a natural or born leader. I doubt it. Natural leaders are rarely men of prayer. They think that they can do without it. Their pride and self-confidence some how get in the way, and when they do pray under duress, God neither listens nor answers (I Sam. 28:15-16).
It is far more likely that Nehemiah was a leader by conscience. That is to say, a naturally diffident and retiring individual, whose leadership qualities come from God, and who is constrained by the love of God to assume leadership reluctantly but firmly in a time of crisis. When God needs such men and women, He does not choose born leaders. He selects humble men and women of prayer and forges them as steel in the furnace of fiery trial.
It is obvious that Nehemiah needed to pray, desperately. To pray about God’s work, God’s people, his brethren, and only lastly about himself. Without prayer, he was insecure and afraid. Empowered by it, he was able to unmask intrigue, expose bogus brethren, face calumny and hostility, and “deny himself” — in the manner of the King of kings — and make himself poor that his “brethren” might have enough and be satisfied (Neh. 5:18; II Cor. 8:9).
The eleven prayers
His first prayer was a sincere confession: “I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself, have committed” (1:6). After many preliminaries, he finally dares to come to the crucial issue: “Give your servant success today by granting him favour in the presence of the man [Artaxerxes, his employed” (v.11).
The second prayer was a brief and silent cry from the heart for courage, fluency and wisdom in making a wildly audacious request for plenipotentiary powers to rebuild the Holy City of Jerusalem (2:4).
His third prayer was for boldness to cope with insults (4:4). Many of us need to pray that prayer. Prayer is the way God would have us deal with insults.
The fourth prayer was simple and to the point: “Remember me, 0 my God, in your mercy, for all I have done for these people” (5:19).
The fifth prayer was even simpler. People were trying to frighten him, and make him give up his work for God. “Now strengthen my hands,” he pleads (6:9).
His sixth prayer was uttered when he had his back against the wall — as we all have sometimes — and he was in despair. His enemies seemed to have almost won the day. He had been discredited and his good name dragged in the mud by an influential sister in the church. “Remember, 0 my God” (6:14).
Nehemiah’s seventh recorded prayer was his great confession and petition at the Water Gate Bible School. Interestingly, it follows a similar structure to our Lord’s model prayer. It begins with a magnificent expansion of “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.”
Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you (9:5-6).
(Incidentally, when a college professor I know used that passage as a theme for his college course in environmental science, a student afterwards testified that it had changed his whole outlook on the world and his own life.) Only after the humblest confession and yet more confession does Nehemiah finally come to the real issue: “But see, we are in great distress.” 0 that we, when we are in great distress, might pray as Nehemiah prayed that day!
The last four prayers are short expansions of the thematic refrain, “Remember, 0 my God.” It is said that the Hebrew expression implies pricking God’s conscience, as it were. The eighth begs God to remember — in the future day of judgment, obviously – his faithful efforts. The ninth longs for God’s mercy and love. The tenth is a prayer dealing with the misdeeds of the high priest and some of his family, obnoxious individuals who had treated Nehemiah and his crusade for godliness with contempt. Finally, the eleventh is a simple concluding prayer, perhaps a better concluding prayer than many of our wordy efforts in such circumstances: “In your mercy, remember me, 0 my God.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One