Then my God put it into my heart... (Nehemiah 7:5)

It is clear that Nehemiah was not simply a thinker. He was a doer. He planned and took action. But it is also unmistakeably clear that Nehemiah relied upon God in everything.

Thus, it is completely consistent with his character for him to here acknowledge that it was God, who prompted him in this good work of enrolling the returning exiles according to their genealogical record. It was in keeping with their family roots that God determined the inheritance of land as well as the assignment of duties in Temple worship. This is what is specified in the Law of Moses.

But someone might ask, how did Nehemiah know that it was God and not his own mind? There is no indication that Nehemiah was a prophet, and the prophets who were in Jerusalem at the time seemed unreliable, because they accepted bribes from the likes of Tobiah and Sanballat (cf. Nehemiah 6:10-15).

Jesus taught,

Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own (John 7:17).

Jesus speaks of a link between a person's commitment and their discernment, with discernment arising out of their commitment and not the other way around. In other words, in obeying they will know. This is counterintuitive. Normally, we know something for sure and then we obey, but Jesus turns the tables of understanding to suggest that faith precedes knowledge. This is consistent with what He taught in John,

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me...This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them (John 6:44-45,65).

In other words, there is a prior work of God before there can be an acknowledgement of God. The reason why choice precedes knowledge is that the choice has been drawn out, enabled and taught by God. This is to say that choice is not "free" as commonly thought but given by God (cf. Ephesians 2:8-9). To put it another way spiritual discernment can only happen after a person has first received the Spirit of God. This is why Paul writes,

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Now, the Bible says that Christians have received the Spirit, who gives discernment:

What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us (1 Corinthians 2:12).

By the Spirit, therefore, we understand the grace of God in our salvation through the blood of Christ. Paul also writes,

The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments (1 Corinthians 2:15).

Thus, as those having the Spirit of God, we have been given permission to make spiritual judgments; that is, we are given spiritual discernment. 

Now, that said, this is not a license to make any judgments that we feel without a proper basis. I believe that this judgment has to do with spiritual discernment with respect to what God has revealed in His Word. That is why Paul also writes a couple of chapters later,

Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other (1 Corinthians 4:6).

Now, if we return to Nehemiah. He says that God put it into his heart to do such and such. We know from the Law of Moses that God determined inheritance and responsibilities for worship according to the genealogical record. Thus, in effect, Nehemiah is saying that God put it into his heart to follow the commands that God gave in the Law of Moses with respect to this post-exilic community of Jews.

Can we have this kind of discernment today? Can we testify, for example, "God led me to witness to this person" or "God prompted me to give this person a word of encouragement" or "God moved me to buy this person some lunch." I believe so. It is consistent with what God desires Christians to do from His Word. Can we be 100% sure that it was God doing the prompting? No, for the Scripture gives no such guarantee of certainty. But what we are in effect doing when we give such testimonies is attributing the good work to God; that is, giving Him credit for it. This is in keeping with what Peter commands:

If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen (1 Peter 4:11).

We give God credit for good words. We give God credit for good service. Why? Because we know that every good thing comes from Him. That is why James writes,

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created (James 1:16-18).

Just as God is the source of our salvation, it is also true that every good thing is from Him. When we say that God led us to such and such good act, we are acknowledging this truth. To Him be all the glory!

I gave the responsibility of governing Jerusalem to my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah, the commander of the fortress, for he was a faithful man who feared God more than most. (Nehemiah 7:2 NLT)

This verse caught my attention this morning. I may be guessing a bit here, but Nehemiah's criteria for leadership seem to be three: (1) loyalty, (2) ability, and (3) character. With respect to the choice of Hanani, loyalty may have been in view since he was Nehemiah's brother and also the first to bring him news of the situation in Jeurusalem (see Nehemiah 1:2-3). With respect to the choice of Hananiah, we are told that he was "the commander of the fortress." I presume that he had to have some ability to attain to this position of authority. We are also told that "he was a faithful man who feared God more than most." This last description highlights Hananiah's character. He demonstrated a devotion to God greater than most of the people. 

These criteria, I imagine, would make for a great chapter in any book on leadership. And I can think of numerous examples of where great leaders have used these criteria to choose the leaders that would follow them. But my interest here is not to write the next chapter on choosing good leaders, but to consider what interests God. While loyalty is commendable, even in the eyes of God (see Jeremiah 35), it is loyalty to God that interests Him. While ability is commendable (Proverbs 22:29), it is the acknowledgement of God's ability that interests Him. Now, we know that character does interest God. In fact, when all is said and done, this is the only thing that really matters:

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. (Ecclesiastes 12:13 NIV)

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8 NIV)

I love to read books on leadership success and biographies of great people just as much as the next person; however, I know that when I take an eternal perspective and have a laser-like focus on what's most important, then I understand that matters of character trumps all other considerations. So the Lord Jesus also teaches,

What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Matthew 16:26 NIV)

Great leaders come and go and great leadership in itself has no impact on our eternal destiny. That is because "this world in its present form is passing away" (1 Corinthians 7:31). Therefore, the only thing that matters is to seek God's kingdom and His righteousness with all our hearts (Matthew 6:33).

I write this for us because it is easy to use the Bible as a proof-text for all sorts of interests, like leadership principles, managing finances, health and fitness, etc. These are all fine to talk about, but they must not distract our focus from the main thing, which is godly character, the absolute priority of trusting in God and obeying His Word. Let us not forget or neglect this. 

 Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in obedience to him. (Psalm 128:1)

I find it odd that census are forbidden, but "registrations" are ok, especially since they accomplish one in the same goals.� While registrations are potentially done for historial/genealogical reasons, they still give an accounting of the people, right?

It is interesting how everyone who is not God tries to imitate God. The devil with his rebellion and man with his rebellion, coveting what we are not and don't have. Reading on Tobiah and sanballat, and their need to build a replica of the temple simply reinforces the greatness of God by their covetousness. Even goin as far as stealing from Aron's lineage to have 'proper' priests in the replica temple.

Also find it interestimg that the replica, 1500 years later teaches us further on God's hand in the past.
Praise God!

Do we know who Sanballat and Tobias were?

Yujin responds...Nehemiah 2:10 says that Sanballat was a Horonite and Tobiah was an Ammonite. They were among the Samaritans and Ammonites, who lived in the region around Jerusalem. They opposed Nehemia and the people when they tried to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  Here's some information I discovered on the web on Sanballat.

In 1982 archaeological excavations were begun on Mount Gerizim and have continued uninterrupted for twenty two years. The excavations at Mount Gerizim have turned up new scientific data that provided answers to numerous longstanding historical and archaeological questions since the beginning of the twentieth century.

At the crux of the dispute is Josephus’ contention that the temple on Mount Gerizim was built by Sanballat, who lived at the time of Alexander the Great, and was constructed to resemble the temple in Jerusalem.
    
Today we can state with certainty that the first phase of the temple on Mount Gerizim was erected in the middle of the fifth century BCE by Sanballat the Horonite, a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, who lived more than one hundred years before the Sanballat that is mentioned by Josephus. Sanballat from the time of Nehemiah was probably a resident of  Hawara (Horon), located at the foot of Mount Gerizim, and was a descendant of the last Israelites who remained in Samaria after the destruction of the city by the Assyrians.

Although Sanballat was the sworn enemy of Nehemiah, who returned to Judah from exile in 445 BCE, and wanted to kill him, he maintained good relations with the people in Judah and the high priesthood that served in the temple in Jerusalem.

The daughter of Sanballat married the grandson of the high priest Eliashib. This angered Nehemiah and he expelled the grandson from Jerusalem: “And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite therefore I chased him from me” (Nehemiah 13:28).
Sanballat the Horonite who was a pahat – governor of Samaria on behalf of the Persian Empire – decided to build a temple to a supreme god on Mount Gerizim, which was sacred to both the people of Samaria and the people of Judah, and thus sever all ties with Jerusalem and its temple.

He decided to wed his daughter to a scion of the high priesthood in Jerusalem thereby making all his descendants priests from the sect of the Jerusalem priesthood. It seems that along with the grandson of Eliashib the Priest other Judean priests came to Mount Gerizim where they built and sanctified the temple as a replica of the Jerusalem temple.
    
It should be mentioned that the state of the priesthood and the temple in Jerusalem at this time was at its nadir as attested to by Nehemiah “I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them; so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. So I remonstrated with the officials and said, ‘Why is the house of God forsaken’” (Nehemiah 13:10-11). The prophet Malachi, who is thought to have lived at the same time, also had harsh words about the temple and the running of it: “O priests, who despise my name….oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire upon my altar in vain” (Malachi 1:6-10). He later accuses them of even respecting their pahat more than the Lord. Due to the difficult conditions that prevailed in the temple it was therefore not hard for Sanballat to assemble unemployed Jewish priests in the temple on Mount Gerizim. Josephus adds that Sanballat gave them land and built homes for them. In our opinion this was the historical setting against which the temple was built on Mount Gerizim. (See full article here)

And here's some informaton on Tobiah: Check here