Page 26 - The Bible On Leadership

Honesty and Integrity 13

In recent years, we have been treated to leaders like Bill Clinton
asking interrogators to ‘‘clarify’’ the meaning of the word is, and Bill
Gates questioning the meaning of the word concerned. In the face of
obfuscations like these, it is sometimes difficult to believe these men’s
‘‘yeses’’ and ‘‘nos.’’
But let’s go back a few thousand years, to Nehemiah, whose integrity
inspired the people of Judah to rebuild the temple in less than two
months. Appointed governor by King Artaxerxes, Nehemiah could
have enriched himself and used any means at his disposal to complete
the temple. But:

Neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the
earlier governors . . . placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty
shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. But . . . I did
not act like that. Instead I devoted myself to the work on this wall . . . we
did not acquire any land . . . Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and
officials ate at my table . . . Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some
poultry were prepared for me...in spite of all this, I never demanded the
food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these
people. (Neh. 5:14–18)

Note that Nehemiah refused to appropriate more than he was enti-
tled to. He didn’t even ask for the full amount of what he was entitled
to, but shared what he had with his followers. This was for the sake of
the morale of the people and for rapid completion of the task. Compare
his philosophy to that of Russ Baumgardner, president of Apogee En-
terprises, a glass manufacturer cited as one of the one hundred best
companies to work for in America: ‘‘We pay the taxes that are due. We
don’t pay more than we owe, but we never cheat the government . . .
And as long as we’re on the subject, we never cheat our suppliers, or
our employees, or our customers.’’ 11
The prophets were the people who kept the nation of Israel ‘‘hon-
est.’’ Again and again the people lost sight of the commandments deal-
ing with honesty and integrity. Again and again, prophets arose to
remind them where ‘‘true north’’ lay on the compass when the whole
nation was taking a moral turn to the south.