Tuesday, July 22

Tuesday

Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.  For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.”  There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.”  And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards.  Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”  I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.  I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them.  - Nehemiah 5:1-7

There were four different groups of people who were involved in the community crisis:

People who owned no land but needed food (Neh 5:2) The population was increasing, the families were growing, there was a famine, and the people were hungry. They were working so hard on the wall that they didn’t have time to plant or take care of their crops.

Landowners who had mortgaged their property in order to buy food (Neh 5:3). Inflation was on the rise and prices were going higher and many had their homes repossessed by the moneylenders.

Another group complained that taxes were too high (Neh 5:4). Many people were forced to borrow money just to pay their tax bills.

Finally, there were those who were exploiting the other three groups (Neh 5:5). The wealthy were making loans with exorbitant interest rates and taking land and even children as collateral. Families had to choose between starvation and servitude. When the crops failed because of the famine, the creditors took away their property and sold their children into slavery.
While it was not against God’s law to loan money to one another, they were not to act like pawn shop owners or bankers who charge high interest when lending money to fellow Jews. This is clearly stated in Deut. 23:19-20, “Do not charge your brother interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a brother Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.”

Notice Nehemiah’s immediate reaction when he hears of this terrible oppression and injustice going on in the midst of God’s people - he is “very angry!  This might be the understatement of the year. Nehemiah is hot, and this situation really lit him up!  It wasn’t just that Nehemiah had a short fuse or a bad temper. 

This is what the Bible calls “righteous anger.” Moses expressed this kind of anger when he broke the stone tablets of the Law in Exodus 32 and Jesus was filled with holy rage when he saw the Pharisee’s hard hearts in Mark 43, and when he cleared out the Temple in Luke 19.

While Nehemiah was very angry, we also read that he “took counsel with himself”, this means that he did not react out of his anger, he took the time to “ponder” the charges before he accused the nobles and officials. 

The New English Bible puts it this way: “I mastered my feelings.” The Hebrew literally means, “My heart consulted within me.” Instead of just “going off” on the people in the heat of the moment, Nehemiah paused, took a deep breath and thought about it for a while. 

He did what Proverbs 16:32 challenges us to do - “Better a patient man than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.”

After thinking things over, Nehemiah decided to publicly confront the people whose selfishness had created the strife. Since it involved the whole nation it demanded public rebuke and repentance. This rebuke consisted of several different appeals.  

The first appeal Nehemiah made was to the love that should exist between brothers and sisters in God’s family. Nehemiah reminded them that they were robbing their own countrymen, and their own spiritual family members.  They were actually hurting themselves. He uses the word, “brother” four different times in his speech. Psalm 133:1 must have been echoing in his mind: “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!”

Jeff Frazier