Nehemiah says in a very simple no fan-fare way, "So we built the wall."  He follows that up with the statement, "...for the people had a mind to work."  What he doesn't say is how he got them revved up to get going.  He must have had fabulous leadership qualities.

I can just picture him peeling off his t-shirt, picking up a shovel and asking, "Who needs another hand."  Or saying, "Bill, Bob, George, you're in charge of getting some guys to start organizing all those broken stones into piles so we can see what we've got.  Scott, Bret, David, get some of those men who have carpentry skills and let's start cutting timber to rebuild all of these gates."

Then, fifty-two days later, when it was all done, he faded into the background.  We wouldn't even know about all this but for the fact that he kept a diary about what happened. (The book of Nehemiah)  His book reads so differently from the book that Ezra the priest wrote.  Can't you just picture him sitting down at the end of each day, sweat dripping off his body, and writing about it all.

When the wall was finished,  "...now the city was large and great: but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded.  And my God put into my heart to gather together the nobles and the rulers and the people that they might be reckoned...and I found a register of the genealogy of those which came up at the first, and found written therein..."

Now he went to work on "what family went where".  He went back to the temple's record books.  And when things were settled, he faded into the background.  His work was done.  Then Ezra steps up on a platform that they had built for him, and he begins to read from the law of Moses.  He preached for hours, and the diary of Nehemiah says that the people rededicated themselves to God and his laws.

I love Nehemiah.  He's my kind of guy.