John N. N. Ng'ang'a

Marketplace Leadership

There are three different people by the name Nehemiah in the Bible. One is a clan leader who returned with Zerubabbel from captivity, in the book of Ezra 2:2 and also Nehemiah 7:7.

The second Nehemiah is seen in Nehemiah 3:16. He was the son of Azbuk, ruler of the half-district of Beth Zur. He made repairs up to a point opposite the tombs of David

The third Nehemiah was the governor of Jerusalem, who helped rebuild the wall of the city. He was the son of Hakaliah. He is the one who wrote the book of Nehemiah.

In 445 BC, this third Nehemiah learnt of the deplorable condition of those who had survived the exile and were back in Jerusalem. The wall of the city had broken down, the gates had been burned and the people were in distress (Nehemiah 1:2). Upon hearing this, Nehemiah mourned for many days, fasting, praying to God. When he got the report about the people and the city, he didn’t ignore it. He prayed about it.

Are we like that?

You hear a story and you say, that’s not me. It does not concern me.

Some time back, I was invited to speak at the launch of a campus of Nazarene University in Meru town. I was in Meru on Friday and spoke in a dinner. A friend I met there told me how he tried to go to Mombasa on a Wednesday, but when he got to Voi, he could not proceed because of traffic build-up. Nothing was moving. He had already done two thirds of the journey, but was now stuck.

What did he did do? There was very serious need for him to reach Mombasa, so he drove all the way back to Nairobi, boarded a plane and flew to Mombasa. I told him, that’s very interesting, I saw that story on TV, but because I didn’t know anybody who was stuck on that road to Mombasa, I just passed over it. I ignored it. I never prayed about it.

The news about traffic jam at Voi was just another piece of news item, to me. But imagine what it cost my friend; he spent money on fuel from Nairobi to Voi, and back to Nairobi, and then paid for an air ticket to Mombasa.

I wonder how many times God gives us information through a newspaper or through a TV item, and we don’t pray about it. That was not the case with Nehemiah. When he heard about something, he thought about the implications, and prayed about it.

“In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”

Nehemiah 1:1-4

Are you like that?

The book of Nehemiah gives us an opportunity to understand what we need to do if we are in the market place rather than in church. Nehemiah’s response to situations around him provide us with a good example of market place leadership. If you are a leader in the market place, what does God expect of you?

Nehemiah was a God-ordained leader, but not serving in a temple or a church. He was not a priest, he was not a pastor, he was a leader out there in the market place

The book of Nehemiah is divided in two sections. Chapters one to seven deal with one issue, then the rest of the chapters deal with a different issue. But all of them refer to a project that Nehemiah was leading, and how it was designed and managed.

In the first chapter, Nehemiah is told that the wall is broken. He gets to hear about it for the first time and immediately begins to intercede, seeking to find out what God wants to do about the problem at hand.

In the market place, many of us are involved in constructing real physical things. That is the task that Nehemiah undertook – reconstruction of a physical wall. He supervised the construction, as he led people.

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