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Nathan
General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, saw the prophet Nathan as a model preacher such as the Army needed.
William Booth, Salvation Soldiery, pp. 20–26
Nehemiah
These memoirs of Nehemiah reveal a man with the qualities of greatness. He was a man of action, resolute, practical, able to plan a great work, and with energy to carry it out. He was also a statesman, wise and prudent in the schemes he formulated, taking all the facts of the case into account…. And the root of every quality he possessed, the groundwork of his character, and the inspiring mainstay of his energy, was his religion, his abiding faith in the living God.
Black, According to My Gospel, p. 73
[Nehemiah 6:11] The courage which Nehemiah displayed was the courage of faith. He felt himself called to do this work, and he would do it at any cost. He believed that God was with him, and he was not going to turn tail and flee at the first sign of danger…. This true courage is rather steadfastness of mind, the calm, resolute fixity of purpose which holds to duty in the scorn of consequence.
Black, Listening to God, pp. 149–50
Duty cannot be maintained as an inviolate rule of life without moral courage; and courage cannot be maintained without consecration. Thus it is religion which preserves sacredness to human duty. It is the inspiring fount of noble endeavor. When a man is consumed with the desire to please God, he is long past the mere desire to please self. When the heart is fixed, the feet naturally take the path of God’s commandments. The new affection moves the life to new obedience.
Black, Listening to God, p. 154
We conquer, not in any brilliant fashion—we conquer by continuing.
GHM, Highways of the Heart, p. 163
[Nehemiah 2] I like to note again that for this restoration no new material was needed. In the debris of the ruined masonry lay all the material required … and it seems to me that is always so when the walls of Zion are rebuilt…. For a revived and restored Church we want nothing that is new. What we want is a new spirit, never a new material. In the old doctrines, in the ancient truths, in the old, old story of the grace of God we have all the material that is needed for the restoration of Jerusalem.
GHM, Morning Sermons, pp. 249–50
It is deeply interesting to notice also where the citizens were put to work. Each was set to labor on the bit of wall opposite his home…. I do not say that men are not called to service in far distant places…. But I do say that for the vast majority the task that God appoints is the task lying at the door. The nearest thing is God’s thing. The nearest duty is God’s duty. He who cannot find his service there is little likely to be useful anywhere.
GHM, Morning Sermons, pp. 252–53
[Nehemiah 6:17–18] A sinful love leads to a sinful league.
Matthew Henry
[Nehemiah 8:10] Holy joy will be oil to the wheels of our obedience.
Matthew Henry
Nicodemus
Nicodemus is remembered for coming to Jesus “by night” (John 3:2; 7:50; 19:39), yet he courageously stepped out into the light and identified himself with Jesus (John 19:38–42). Note John 3:19–21.
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John 3:2—“Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God”—there is a touch of flattery, and just a suggestion of patronage, in that first greeting of the Jewish doctor. He wanted a few lessons from the Master on this new kingdom which He had begun to preach. Then swiftly and sharply Jesus turns upon him: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom.” And when Nicodemus is staggered at the answer, when he gropes in the darkness not knowing what it means, Christ as it were completes his overthrow, “Art thou a master in Israel and understandest not these things?” It was severe handling, but it was infinitely kind. It arrested, penetrated, broke this Pharisee. It shattered his little code into a thousand fragments, and brought him down helpless to the feet of God.
GHM, The Unlighted Lustre, pp. 78–79
He came to Christ by night. It has become quite a habit to abuse him on this ground, and to say it was an act of cowardice. I do not so understand the story…. He came in the night for quietness and privacy. He was familiar with the messages of the past … but here was a new authentic Voice, and he desired to be alone with Him.
GCM, The Great Physician, 66
Nicodemus knew too much. That’s apparent to anybody who reads the story there in the third chapter of St. John. He was an expert. His specialty was religion, and he thought he knew all there was to know about it.
Paul Scherer, Facts That Undergird Life, p. 3
Jesus does for Nicodemus the three things which every thorough teacher must do for every scholar. He gives him new ideas, He deepens with these ideas his personal character and responsibility, and He builds for him new relations with his fellow-man: new truth, new character, new duty.
Phillips Brooks, The Influence of Jesus, pp. 262–63
Noah
[Genesis 7:1] Do not shape your course and character according to the fashion of society. If you are truly born of God, you belong to a noble race which should never stoop to such degradation as that, so be righteous before the Lord. [See Ezek. 14:14, 20.]
Brooks, The Influence of Jesus, pp. 262–63
Notice that the Lord did not say to Noah, “Go into the ark,” but “Come,” plainly implying that God was himself in the ark, waiting to receive Noah and his family into the big ship that was to be their place of refuge while all the other people on the face of the earth were drowned. The distinctive word of the Gospel is a drawing word: “Come.”
CHS, 56:225
Noah went in first, and his wife and children followed him. He had lived such a life as to give his children confidence in him. If you parents do not go into the ark yourselves, how can you expect your children to go in?
Moody, Words, Work, and Workers, pp. 144–45
Noah is the picture of one who is the Lord’s witness during evil days, and lives through them faithfully, enduring unto the end.
CHS, 36:301
The original aim of Noah was to avert the flood.
GM-RMB, 1:99
Noah was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5) who called people to repentance. Only the members of his family believed and were saved.
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