For I myself am a man under authority. - The adult Bible study I lead in my small church here in the Tampa Bay area is currently doing a study put together by the folks at RightNow.org.
The study is "The Life of Nehemiah with Marcus Goodloe. It's not a bad study and best of all it's taken some pressure off of me from having to put a study together from scratch.
As is often the case, questions tend to lead our group deeper into other aspects of the Word. Last night while we were talking, the realization came out that Nehemiah was a man to whom God gave a mission, a directive. But Nehemiah was also a man under authority.
How often in our "Western," "Me centered," culture do we or someone we know, get a directive from God in some fashion or another and then set out immediately upon that directive?
For example, like moving, changing jobs, going into the ministry, heading to a mission field, or getting married to that "special someone."
God's given us the directive after all. Shouldn't we in faith, jump to it?
This is where I was in thinking last night on Nehemiah. Here was a man clearly given a heart, desire, and purpose from God to see to the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls. He had his directive from God after prayer and fasting. He had his purpose. But he didn't cut and run to it which he could have chosen to do. Instead he recognized that he was a man under authority and he went to get the king's permission.
Sure, if he had cut and run the king might have ordered his capture and even death. The king could have taken his life just for asking to leave anyway.
But Nehemiah was a man with responsibilities and knew he had earthly obligations as well. So he went to the person in authority over him and informed the king of the what he was burdened to do. And God honored that, I believe, because the King provided Nehemiah with more than he had hoped. The king gave Nehemiah his blessing and sent him with a force of men to drive home the point to the surrounding governors and bandits that Nehemiah had his blessing.
If Nehemiah had jumped and run he would not have received the blessings of the king and the job would have been that much more difficult if not an out and out failure.
Nehemiah isn't the only Biblical figure who was a man under authority, who went to that authority before heading out on the call God gave him.
Moses was also such a man. After his discussion with God at the burning bush, Moses headed back to his father-in-law, Jethro, and sought release from Jethro before heading out to Egypt and leading millions of Israelites to the Promised Land. Jethro gave Moses his blessing and sent him on his way.
But had Moses just up and said, "I'm leaving. See you later," or just one day left, he would have dishonored the man God had placed him under and worse, probably lost a valuable adviser. You see, after Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Jethro came by to visit and saw the trouble that Moses was heading toward in having to deal with the needs of the people. His advise allowed Moses to refocus and took much of the burdens of dealing with day to day difficulties out of his hands allowing him to go to God for the people as was his calling. You can read about it in Exodus 18.
In each of our lives we have people under whom we work or move. Whether they are people we have placed ourselves under or under whom God has placed us through birth. There is a reason for those people in our lives and I believe God uses them to guide and direct us.
One of the biggest fears we have in going to those people when we feel God is leading us to do something life changing, is that we fear those people will disagree. That might be the case. But in faith we can see that God prepared the hearts of the people in the lives of these men of the Bible. And I believe that if God is directing us to do something and if that authority figure in our lives is set against it then God will remove or change the mind of that person and accomplish His purpose for our lives.
The likelihood is that God will provide a clearer vision for what He is directing you toward.
