Nehemiah 7:1-5: in context

With the wall of Jerusalem finally built, Nehemiah appoints those who will oversee the city, and his reason for choosing one of them is worth noting. I put my brother Hanani, he says, and Hananiah the governor of the fortress, in charge of Jerusalem, for he was a faithful man and feared God above many. Of all the qualifications Nehemiah might have named, ability, experience, connections, he singles out these two: faithfulness, and the fear of God. On this basis he entrusted the care of the city.

The criterion Nehemiah used to entrust responsibility is instructive: not chiefly ability or status, but faithfulness and the fear of God. He chose Hananiah because he was a faithful man and feared God above many. Faithfulness meant he could be trusted to do what he was given to do, reliably and with integrity. The fear of God meant his life was governed by reverence for God, that he would act rightly because he answered to God. These, more than talent or position, made him fit to be trusted with responsibility. Nehemiah looked for the person of faithful character and reverent heart, and entrusted the city to him. This reflects what truly qualifies a person for trust. We often weigh people for responsibility by their abilities, their achievements, their impressiveness, their connections. And ability matters. But Nehemiah's criterion points deeper: faithfulness and the fear of God. A person may be able but unfaithful, gifted but without reverence for God; and such a person, however capable, is not truly trustworthy. The one to be trusted with responsibility is the one who is faithful, reliable in what is given them, and who fears God, governed by reverence for him. It is required of stewards, Paul says, that they be found faithful. Faithfulness is the essential qualification for trust. This searches both how we choose those we entrust with responsibility and what kind of person we ourselves are becoming. In choosing others, do we weigh chiefly ability and impressiveness, or do we look, as Nehemiah did, for faithfulness and the fear of God? And in ourselves, are we becoming the kind of person who can be trusted, faithful and God-fearing, reliable in what we are given and governed by reverence for God? He who is faithful in a very little, Jesus says, is faithful also in much. The qualification for greater trust is faithfulness in what we already have. Nehemiah entrusted Jerusalem to Hananiah because he was faithful and feared God; and these remain the marks of the person fit to be trusted, and the character we ourselves are called to cultivate, that we might be faithful stewards of whatever God gives into our care.

When I weigh others for responsibility, do I look chiefly at ability and impressiveness, and am I myself becoming the kind of person who can be trusted, and can Nehemiah's choice of Hananiah because he was a faithful man and feared God above many teach me that faithfulness and the fear of God, more than talent or status, qualify a person for trust, so that I look for these in others and cultivate them in myself, becoming a faithful steward of what God gives into my care?