The book of Nehemiah is the story of the return of Jews from captivity in Babylon to Jerusalem. It is one of the greatest leadership lessons/examples in the Bible. The book of Nehemiah brings God into the everyday affairs of life.
It’s important to remember that Nehemiah was an ordinary Jewish man……a layperson with a secular job. He was not a priest like Ezra, not a big shot in the Jewish bureaucracy, he had no credentials, no special training. He was an ordinary citizen, called and gifted by God to do a one-time special work; similar to John the Baptist’s calling.
But he held a cabinet-level position under Kong Artaxerxes, and he became the governor of Judah later.
The purpose of God was that His people, the Jews, should return to His Law until their Messiah would come. The building of the wall was secondary in importance to the restoration of the nation Israel and the reconciliation of the Jewish people to their God after the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity.
Doctor Mike's Bible Studies and Devotionals for the Common Personpor 