“Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds which I have done for the house of my God and for his service.” (13:14)

“Remember this also in my favour, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.” (13:22)

“Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.” (13:29)

“Remember me, O my God, for good.” (13:31)

Does this indicate a spiritual decline in Nehemiah’s life? Has success gone to his head? Have the numerous confrontations with recalcitrant Israelites - some of which, famously, involving beating people and pulling out their hair (13:25) - fostered a degree of self-righteousness in this great leader?

D. A. Carson wonders about this in God’s Word, Our Story: Learning From the Book of Nehemiah. Here are his reasons, and even if he turns out to be wrong, his punchline is well worth heeding:

Why doesn’t this book end up with: “Remember, O Lord, so to work within us by your power according to your covenantal mercies, that we will again revere your name”? Why do we get this repeated refrain in this chapter: “Remember me, Lord, because I’ve done quite a lot of work. I’ve done a pretty good job. I mean, they failed, Remember them, too, for the bad things they’ve done. But remember me for the good things I’ve done”? In other words, this feels like a kind of spiritual declension, a slightly disappointing focus on self, with overtones of self-exoneration.

That might be too harsh. Doubtless God will pronounce his own verdict on the last day; he will sort this one out ...

There are some people who are used by God to bring along the church of the living God in some wonderfully powerful ways for a period of time, but who end up, late in life, destroying what they build. This may happen for a lot of reasons. Some people get cranky. They discover at 75 that they cannot do what they did at 45, and they resent the younger folk who are following them. Wittingly or otherwise, they begin to destroy what they built.

It’s a wise challenge.