Nehemiah’s Leadership Playbook: Spiritual Cleansing

Spiritual Cleansing

…because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites. Thus I cleansed them of everything pagan. I also assigned duties to the priests and the Levites, each to his service. – Nehemiah 13:29-30

The focus of our penultimate instalment today on the leadership lessons we can learn from the example of Nehemiah shall be spiritual cleansing. We have seen how passionate Nehemiah was about the land of his origin, and more so about the affairs of God.

Inasmuch as he loved his people and wanted what was good for them, and even risked his own life and spent his personal resources to improve their lot, Nehemiah knew when to draw the line when his love for his people conflicts with the commands of God. He was uncompromising in his devotion to the Almighty and in observing His dictates. This was evidenced in the fact all the fights he picked with his people were because of their deviation from the tenets of God and flagrant violation of His injunctions.

We have also seen how Nehemiah was fearless in confronting the rulers, the clergies, and the nobles among his people when they were complicit in the people’s errors. Nehemiah also proved that he was not just about pursuing social justice and the spiritual restoration of his people, but he was also going to back that with action too; hence, his leading the Levites who were the intermediaries between the people and God through an exercise in spiritual cleansing.

Having returned the Levites to their ordained duty posts at the temple, he also ensured that they performed the necessary religious rites to be cleansed of the paganism they had been tainted with. In his words, he “cleansed them of everything pagan” because they had defiled the priesthood and the covenant that bound both the priesthood and the Levites.

This is another show of commitment from Nehemiah. With his action, he demonstrated that he was not just a talking or shouting leader, but one who was willing to get involved in fixing whatever needs fixing. He was a crusader who led from the front and did not matter whose ox was gored so far he was restoring order and sanity in the land. We can all learn from such disposition.

You Will Succeed in Jesus Name!

Also read:

• Nehemiah’s Leadership Playbook: Godly Company
• Understanding God: God of Sustenance
• The Escape Plan
• Feeling Asthma Leave