Nehemiah’s Leadership Playbook: Covenant

Covenant

“And because of all this, We make a sure covenant and write it; our leaders, our Levites, and our priests seal it.” Now those who placed their seal on the document were: Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah, Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah. These were the priests. – Nehemiah 9:38, 10:1-8

The final step in the spiritual initiative that Nehemiah started was the establishment of a covenant between God and the people. And that is the focus of our meditation today as we continue to explore the unique leadership lessons that we can learn from the playbook of Nehemiah.

God is both the Creator and the Father of all humankind. The Bible also tells us that He created humans for pleasure (Revelation 4:11). However, just as it was with the first humans, Adam and Eve, it is very easy for humans to get distracted by affairs of the world and then swerve off course from the purpose for which God created them. God, however, never ceases to desire the fellowship of His favorite creatures and He earnestly craves their company (Psalm 22:3, John 4:23).

To maintain an unfettered chain of fellowship with humans, God Himself often goes out of His way to seek and enter into a covenant with those whose hearts are sincere in His sight. Patriarchs like Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, and others were examples of individuals that God had a covenanted relationship with. A covenant relationship is a higher level of relationship in that it has specific expectations which the parties in it are meant to observe to keep the terms of the friendship as well as enjoy whatever benefits are accruable to each party from the liaison. it is a binding relationship.

A covenant relationship with God is not just limited to individuals alone. The Israelites by virtue of their ancestor, Abraham, also had series of covenants with God, which was why they were known as God’s own special people. However, due to the foibles of humans, the terms of those covenants were often broken when they deviated from God and replaced Him with idols. This often led to undesirable consequences for them including death, ailments, famine, exile, enslavement, servitude and so forth. However, whenever they came to their senses, they would repent and come back to God and then renew their covenant with Him so as to be in good standing with Him.

This was the situation that played out and led to the decimation of the land, its walls and its people which made Nehemiah return home to fix. And having done that, he also did what some leaders before him had done by leading the people into a covenant with God to consummate the spiritual rebirth that started in the land. In this instance, the people themselves were signatories to the terms of the covenant and knew what were expected of them as well as what they should expect from God if they kept the conditions of their relationship.

It takes a well-grounded leader to lead the people he is presiding over from the stage of spiritual rebirth to the point of entering a covenant with God. Whoever can achieve that is a remarkable leader. The more reason Nehemiah was a class act.

You Will Succeed in Jesus Name!

Also read:

• Nehemiah’s Leadership Playbook: Repentance
• Understanding God: Self-Appraisal
• Who will Read You Today?
• I Have Come to Return all the Glory