Read Nehemiah 5:14-15

From the first report that Nehemiah received about the living conditions in Jerusalem (see 1:3), the reader is longing for more information for details about the “great trouble and disgrace” that the residents of Jerusalem were living in. Nehemiah gives us more details in chapter 5 when things boil over concerning the issues the workers were facing on the home front. Last week, we see Nehemiah rebuke the leaders for taking advantage of their own people and for disregarding the principles of the Jewish law.

Once Nehemiah had settled the issues with the behavior of the leaders, he tells the reader about the example that he set for all of the people…

Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. Nehemiah 5:14-15 NIV

Nehemiah understood that it was one thing to say he was going to do something and something else altogether to actually follow through with those intentions. The people had apparently witnessed malfeasance on the part of the previous governors and Nehemiah wanted to avoid any guilt by association.

Questions to consider…
How important is it for leaders to lead by example as much as by their words? Why is this important?
Take inventory of your own life…what kind of example do you set for others?