Pioneering Leadership: 2 Exceedingly Different Leaders

Verse 1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

^{Verse 2} That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

POINT: the prophet is clearly busy serving the King,  yet politely stops when one of his brother Jews approaches.

AND Nehemiah role models GENUINE CARING, HUMAN CARING LEADER  COMPASSION

AND Nehemiah seems to be genuinely OTHER LEADER CENTERED, when in deep abiding humility, Nehemiah openly takes true INTEREST in what they are saying.

THUS  Nehemiah, who cup bears in a splendid palace and remains in  constant contact with the King, does not project either positional  superior /  religious pride but an eager down to earth, relatable, genuine human Other Centered, real caring.

^{Verse 3 :}And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.**

** the (prophetic/national/high priestly governmental)  gates are burned with fire” clearly denotes big destruction, apostolic, national, leader real devastation, and a type of natural, governmental oppression, forced over throw, which mostly never every happened to the Nation of Judah or Israel UNLESS Father God had sent repeated prophetic WARNINGS to His Own Leader People to REPENT, but who had turned to false idols instead of purely following after HIM.

While Nehemiah had been extremely busy, serving on the staff of the King and interacting with the kingdom business, the heart wrenching troubles that his own fellow brethren, fellow kinsmen, had recently endured, penetrate Nehemiah’s God centered, other centered, still human tender heart of true Godly minister compassion.

Read the following verse 4:

^{Verse 4} And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,

We take note that Nehemiah reacted in the manner in which we, as New Testament pioneering true believers are told to act, “weep with those who weep, mourn with those who mourn”

And the servant leader true prophet did not display either lack of caring, human empathy or a mentally tough, deeply insensitive, overly weary, indeed “self important” and “put upon” less than welcoming professional (spiritual) attitude.

^{Verse 5} And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:

So deeply moved, demonstrative Other Centered Caring Empathy, even deeply Sympathetic , God’s Loving big leader compassion, verse 5 teaches us that Nehemiah was

1) able to put himself in the feelings for another

2) perhaps removed himself from his busy schedule, in order to grief, intercede for the newly arrived tribal kinsmen,

3) We realize that by the prophet’s ATTITUDE and ACTIONS that  Prophet Nehemiah’s pure nature resembled that of the Heavenly Father:

It was true,  organic  (meaning that Nehemiah’s heart contained NO MIXTURE) and that the leader FRUIT that sprang forth was that of a capable, sincerely, Godly nature, which was marked by the ABSENCE Of  self righteous, achiever SELF important pride, but rather was a simple one, which   demonstrated a non-accusative, sincere, caring, non-presumptious, OTHER CENTERED Unselfish Heart.

Verse 6: The King’s Cupbearer, Prophet Nehemiah, takes his own mind off of all of his own extremely pressing,extremely important  supporting leader tasks at hand, to CRY OUT TO GOD on behalf of someone other than HIMSELF.

^{Verse 6} Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.

AND in verse 6, the writer takes not that unselfish, deeply empathetic, leader Nehemiah, also takes personal ownership and truly understands a real NEED to fully repent for the nation’s, his own people’s errors and chief national, personal, leader mistakes, chief sins.

NOTE: in the last words of verse 6: “Both I and my father’s house have (really, repeatedly) sinned.”

And this demonstrates Nehemiah’s pure hearted, direct, honest and personally accountable , mature, leader response. PLEASE TAKE NOTE that Nehemiah accepts his own personal share of the need to truly REPENT. 
WE NOTE that Nehemiah doesn’t accuse or blame shift onto all of other leaders, members of his nation, yet willingly repents, thereby acknowledging  HIS OWN many mistakes, sins, errors as unto the Lord.

SELAH: The writer believes this paints a healthy, spiritually perceptive, truly humble, pure leader, Team Player Leader, caring mature heart.

This reminds the writer of “Second Witness” Bible Verses’

(meaning: “In  the mouth of two or more witnesses, shall every word shall be established I Corinthians 13: 1b)  in  BOTH Old and New Testament Bible principles:

And the following are two more WITNESSES about what the Awesome Holy Fearsome God really expects..and truly respects: honor, true humility, realism with Holy Fear and both OLD and NEW Testament leader REPENTANCE:

OLD TESTAMENT:

“Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,  weep before the porch and the altar.” Joel 2:17

“If My people, who are called by My Name, shall humble themselves and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and heal their land.” II Chronicles 7:14

WHAT GOD’S WORD SAYS ABOUT  REPENTANCE: NEW TESTAMENT

I PETER 4:17 “For it is time for judgement to begin with God’s household. And if begins ith us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel?”. 

(SUBMITTED SELAH: Let non accusative Self Inspecting/Judging start in each House of God.) PS and WHERE do you, the writer believe Self Judging would begin inside EACH house of God? I submit to you: at the top senior leader position, and then on down to the next levels, then to the heads of homes, etc.

Please pause and truly think of what that implies.

BACK TO NEHEMIAH:

 Verses 6-7  describe Nehemiah’s yielded, truly humble, taking on his own shared community leader responsibility to RISE UP to go alone to the Throne of the Most High God, for his own many leadership sins, but also in a concert of humbling that God respects and listens to when done both corporately and privately: house to house to house, leader by leader by leader, person by person by person.

^{Verse 7} We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.

We take note that before the Throne of the Mostly Holy God, prophet Nehemiah displays personal remorse, deep humility, the dread, awesome solemn, even taking stock that it’s very SOBER, as perhaps implying that by REPENTING, unto GOD that God may stay off His impending judgment of some national time.

AND in Chapter 1:8-11, Nehemiah models being deeply CONTRITE before the Lord and actually takes a lot of personal TIME doing what has long been one of the forgotten Bible verses. 

Jeremiah 4:3, “For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘Break up your fallow ground and do not sow among thorns.”

Very sadly, many grass roots pioneering senior leaders,that you meet out in the harvest field, seem to have ZERO knowledge of the need for personal time apart for sober, repentance, for purposes of REVIVAL leader serious introspection.

And this is exactly WHY the writer feels impressed to break it way way down, as many will feel that Old Fashioned Repentance is for Old Testament ONLY and will quote up in your face “I AM THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS” (while they shack up, rob the fellow senior apostolic leader, or duck to avoid up front Bible Matthew 18:15 respecting leader confrontation. )

And by knowing how not to apply Old Testament Verses in a legalistic accusative fashion, we take note to say that when Jeremiah (Jer. 4:3) wrote to the MEN of JUDAH to “dig up their own fallow (hidden private heart ) hardened ground, that in modern day interpretation of the tribe of JUDAH it means’ PRAISE” (Judah means TO PRAISE and book of Hosea tells us that JUDAH SHALL PLOUGH” (!)

AND when Nehemiah truly modeled taking time apart to go before the Lord solemnly, in a view of national, personal, family real repentance, He evidently did NOT set his watch to carve God out a spare 10-15  Quickie Minutes to speak with the Holy Lord. as being in a big self important over doer RUSH would not demonstrate the proper RESPECT for,  and pure hearted HONOR of  the Lord. 

We read in Chapter 1:8-11 the reader may see the deep contrite heart, the need for PLOUGHING and REHEARSING periods of Faith when God both warned His People Tribes , when God actually DID cause them to go into exile,to suffer His Judgement, and also the many times, when appears that the servant true prophet, takes QUANTITY and plenty of QUALITY APART TIME to “dig up his own hearts FALLOW GROUND.”

^{Verse 8} Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:

⁹ But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

¹⁰ Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.

¹¹ O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.

In an OVERVIEW glimpse of the entire Nehemiah Chapter 1:

The flavor of the character and true spiritual fruit of the genuine, servant leader, Nehemiah, reveals a leader life  that bore true pure hearted unbiased FRUIT of leadership  humility, care for the Hebrew True Community, and was one which respected all others over SELF.

In reading the entire BOOK of NEHEMIAH we find the same thing reflected throughout. God’s set in specific place True Leader personal and leadership Life both reflected an over all desire to please God, even when it was not going to make him personally popular or his mission clearly understood.

And in light of what we too often encounter repeatedly in Real Life today, by stark contrast, Nehemiah lived his private and person life which was the complete OPPOSITE of a  “My Own4 But Never Any More” “A respecter of only SOME persons” life style.

In fact, we read that throughout the Book of Nehemiah, we notice, due to the  pioneering servant leader’s TRUE leader life style, that  Nehemiah was in New Testament revealed /modern vernacular ” a major Apostolic Team Player.”
Nehemiah sacrificed what all others thought of him, took being betrayed and undermined, like God’s Mighty Warrior and forsook the temporary comfort of serving the King in the palace, to take a giant risk by enduring repeated hardships, just so that he could rebuild the walls to restore,  rebuild and raise up again, God’s People.

  When one takes time to read through the whole Book of Nehemiah, one will notice that he had to personally withstand various mean personalities, deceivers, accusers and other spiritual warfare coming at him from  the gates of hell.

Yet, as God called Servant Leader TRUE PROPHET Nehemiah: and the PROPHET had simply yielded to God’s  Call, the feat which Nehemiah eventually performed,  could not have been made possible had not the GENUINE  PERSON Nehemiah been who he had been in the private place alone with God, in the secret places of his fearless true heart.

And as the book about leader Nehemiah paints an honest picture of a pure hearted, SENT MESSENGER pioneering senior leader, that knew paid a high Price for following the Lord, it sharply contrasts with that of the High Priest whose name was Eli in the book of I Samuel.

(C) Taveau D’Arcy All copyrights reserved under international laws.

SECOND SECTION:

WE BIBLE STUDY HIGH PRIEST ELI

As you read this article, a reprint of an OCT 29 , 2012 TD apostolic leader blog from my DR. TAVEAU D’ARCY ministry website, 

www.taveauleader.com, please SELAH CONTRAST and COMPARE with the life, leadership FRUIT produced in the first section about PROPHET NEHEMIAH. 

Blessings! Dr. T D’Arcy

Oct. 29, 2012

The Reverend Eli High Priest: I Samuel 1

“Eli’s coming…hide your hearts..” Ancient song

(C) 2012 Taveau D’Arcy All copyrights reserved under international law
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As she (Hannah) kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth.Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk  and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” I Samuel 1:12

      In the oft told Bible story in I Samuel, the weeping Hannah is pictured crying out to God on the steps of the temple. Pure hearted Hannah has been berated and repeatedly mocked, her life made unbearable by her competitor, the other wife of her husband, Elkanah, as she had been blessed with many sons and daughters. And in the middle east during that period, children were a sign of God’s blessing and big favor.

Thus when Hannah went barren, year in and year out, the competitive accusative spirit of Peninnah would assault her to make her life unbearable. Even while Elkanah would repeatedly go out of his way to try to comfort and reassure his dear wife Hannah, even giving her a double portion  of the temple sacrificial meal, while he gave the other wife and each of her children a single portion, even his act of loving support and compassion only served to remind her of her sorrowful childless state.

Year in and year out, the entire family would travel up to the temple during the yearly worship and sacrifice set times in Shiloh. And on each trip, Peninnah would provoke Godly Hannah to tears. This weeping confused and troubled Elkanah. He wondered why his kind caring was not enough to take away her tears.

Eli was the high priest during this time in Israel. He was a grown man with two evidently grown up sons, who also were priests. However, High Priest Eli had lost his cutting edge somewhere along the ministry line. In leader hindsight: he had not been either a hands on supervising father or else a very discerning,strong disciplinarian, firm one, as neither one of Eli’s big leader priests discerned the holy fear of the Lord.

First Samuel Chapter 2: 12-17 describes how base and worthless his two sons were regarded. V. 12 states, “they did not know or regard the Lord.”also describes persons who are spiritual dull, lacking in clear discernment or holy Eternal perspective ” either one was living a holy life style as unto the Lord, (which in Old Testament /New Testament rules would automatically have disqualified them from serving in such a high office in the temple).

The Bible tells us that both of Eli’s sons were ungodly associate priests. In a similar description about another section of high priesthood, the prophet Ezekiel witnessed the similar life style of regional ministry leadership and gave  the Word of from the Lord came was declared in Ezekiel 2:26,

“Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common: they teach that there is no difference between the clean and the unclean.”

And Bible history shows that the sins of the sons of Eli were big generational dysfunctional curses. High priest Eli was also compassion fatigued, spiritual dense and clearly imperceptive,used to being in leadership senior area ministry for at least a few decades.

Being on call, having to listen to all the sad stories, the repeated time taking big talkers, the hormonal complaining controlling women, and then well knowing how busy he kept his daily appointment service , counseling, presiding calendar…all of this mental pressure and over exertion, with the enormous pressures and stress, had also caused Eli to put on a lot of weight. He now was weary, and by this time in his priestly career, had seen all the “stereotypes,” and made his choice to relax and take it as easy as possible between now and his retirement.

And Eli’s great weariness, perhaps ministry, personal, battle fatigue, also perhaps was at least ONE of the reasons that his two sons were big ministry reprobates. Thus, we now see the passage where grieving,sobbing Godly Hannah is crying out to the Lord on the porch steps of the temple. Busy Eli is just sitting there, unwinding after a busy day of solving problems, settling differences and giving marriage and divorce counseling. Surely his own needs were met, but he mostly likely was weary due to his long day in the heat, but then the additional girth on his frame, might have added to the weakened condition.

The last thing Eli felt he needed was one more baggage ridden ANYBODY..much less a hormonal, weak kneed,overly emotional, worried female.BUT there she was!

Still, this was one of God’s true sent messengers, the future Mother of God’s new season in the prophetic and even governmentally. But of course, nobody really perceived that way back then..and of course, nobody really talked much in such a fashion..

Still, it really looked like the “same old, same old’ to seasoned, experienced, and all knowing,  dear Brother Eli.

So, on the front porch of the temple, there was young Godly Hannah, crying her heart out. BUT instead of curiously wondering what the real reason was for any weeping woman to be crying so deeply, and instead of the first ministry thought entering Reverend Eli’s tire ministry mind about “O, I hope she’s ok and not suffering!”

Rather, in true Modern Day Revelation 2 Church of Ephesus Lost FIrst Love Lampstand true leader form, instead of discerning GRIEF, SORROW or AGONY, the spiritual dense, over weary, “I’ve seen it all, have done it all , thus by now I know it all” victimized,self pitying, sorrow I am now being disturbed, weak SELF accused incorrectly discerned overwhelming grief and intense sorrow as “WINEBIBBING GONE WILD.” (in other terms: Eli accused Hannah of being drunk!)

APOSTOLIC LEADER LESSONS?

1. Weary  Eli, first reaction upon seeing a human (in this case a lone woman) weeping: Accusation VS Immediate Ministry Leader Compassion. Just wondering IF Eli was also in the HALT Ministry Position: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired (the HALT position is used by 12 step programs to help people discern when they are at their weakest point and thus would be more easily tempted to fall into temptation, addiction, sexual sin, mental toughness, supersensitivity,more) Luke 4 passage: Christ fasting in the desert heat, all alone, without food, but also realizing how unique his own high calling, identity was: AND that is exactly when the tempter came to trick, to tempt Jesus with a his “Leadership Fast Food.”

2. Eli had grown self content, self satisfied, lost his ministry cutting edge of being genuine, humanly kind, compassionate and accurately discerning. His fruit leads the writer to suspect that after all those years in leadership, Eli assumed that the small things were not as important as the over all business end of running the temple, to make sure it was efficient and that all the weekly paychecks were ready to hand out.

3. Eli had succumbed to the fling of the flesh (enormously obese) which was really more of a sign of the condition of his moral true leader real authority (God’s Head Leader: Moral Spiritual Point Guard, Leader Protector, Ministry Standard Barer): as his senses grew more dull, it greatly impared Eli’s leadership skills.

This moral authority lapse was evident in the fruit of Eli’s 2 sons: Evidently mantled true authority Eli preferred to lay back and either let both of his spiritually high called surely mantled, gifted sons either alone to raise themselves OR else Eli found them both to be too difficult, dominating and laid low avoiding all conflict by avoiding being up front and confrontational.

No strong evidence given to that in Scripture, but due to many life, personal mothering in family, and in ministry leader mentoring, this seems to be a valid possibility.

The GOOD NEWS is that Hannah realized the priest was accusing her of sin, for as weeping Hannah had been beseeching the Lord for a child, Eli, was sitting and observing. The priest could see her lips move but no voice was coming out. So he called to her, “Put that wine away from you!” ch. 1:13

Thankfully Hannah had high self esteem…and real respect for leader authority: Hannah could have been extremely offended and turned away. Or she might have responded back to her high priest with a sarcastic nasty retort. However, proven Godly Hannah did defend her actions by standing up for herself albeit gently and respectfully. She upfront told the priest her problem and explained to Eli she had simply been interceding.

Thankfully also (for High Priest Eli!)  he then changed his tone and respectfully, in the spirit of Godly maturity, then agreed in prayers for God to give her a long awaited child. It was very soon after that Hannah conceived the child who turned out to be the first national strength major prophet of Israel: the prophet Samuel (who later grew up to give the word of the Lord to King Saul and then prophetically anoint David to be the King) Eli the priest had weaknesses and strengths. God used Him to mentor the young Samuel for a few years.

But as he grew very old Eli’s 2 sons waxed worse and worse. Finally he could not avoid the profane acts any longer. (ch. 2:22) He finally stood up spiritually and took a firm moral approach to finally confront both his wayward lost sons, who by this time, were widely known for ripping off the local temple donations (offerings of fat and meat given at the door by the people) and also laying with the volunteer, helps temple females.

Yet, if the voice tone of the High Priest in Chapter 2: 22-25 was Eli’s strongest method of rising up to stand in his own fathering, patriarchal, as in High Priestly power and strong authority, it must have been pretty powerless and apparently non confrontational and weak, as it sounds that way (at least to this writer) but then it appears that long before, both priestly Big Boys had tested God repeatedly so that by right now it was far too late.

Verse 25 Says that Eli finally acknowledged that it was one type of sin to pay no attention to their natural father, but it was quite another to avoid, disrespect and arrogantly fail to heed, to pay attention to the Heavenly Father….for as I Samuel 1:1 tragically states, “It was now the Lord’s will to slay both of them” Which He eventually did.

And regrettably, when Eli heard the terrible news about the death of his two sons, he  fell over backwards due to his enormous over weight problem and the Bible says he broke his neck. Such was the high price the High Priest, Minister Reverend Eli paid for his own choices to remain morally weak, accepting, complacent and spiritually stereotyping and dense.

R.I.P.

(C) 2012 Taveau D’Arcy All copyrights reserved under international law.