Leadership Verses
Servant leadership as modeled by Christ — wisdom for those called to lead.
And Nehemiah, which {is} the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day {is} holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. {the Tirshatha: or, the governor}
And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as {it is} this day.
And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:
And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou {art} a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. {a God...: Heb. a God of pardons}
Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.
Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide them into corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.
So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would. {as they...: Heb. according to their will}
Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day. {trouble: Heb. weariness} {that...: Heb. that hath found us}
Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them.
For they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness that thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which thou gavest before them, neither turned they from their wicked works.
Behold, we {are} servants this day, and {for} the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we {are} servants in it:
And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we {are} in great distress.