SERIES: Nehemiah
TEXT: Nehemiah 5:1-13
MESSAGE: “Repairing Your Brothers and Sisters”
MOVEMENT 1: The Wrong
Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. 2 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.” 3 There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” 4 And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards. 5 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.” — Nehemiah 5:2-5 ESV
“Economic conditions forced even the considerable property owners to mortgage to the aggrandizement of the wealthy few. The rich got richer, the poor poorer.” — Edwin M. Yamauchi – Ezra-Nehemiah
4 And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards. 5 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. — Nehemiah 5:4-5 ESV
Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. — Nehemiah 5:5a NIV
“In short, the economic situation was more critical because the people dedicated so much labor to building the wall” — Mervin Breneman – Commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther
If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. — Exodus 22:25
You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. —– Leviticus 25:37
MOVEMENT 2: The Reaction
I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. 7 I took counsel with myself, — Nehemiah 5:6-7a ESV
A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man holds it in check. — Proverbs 29:11 HCSB
MOVEMENT 3: The Repair
…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 8 and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us! — Nehemiah 5:7b-8 ESV
I said, “Our Jewish brothers and sisters were sold to other nations. We’ve done everything we could to buy them back and bring them home. But look at what you are doing! You are actually selling your own people! Now we’ll have to buy them back too!” The people kept quiet. They couldn’t think of anything to say. — Nehemiah 5:8 NIRV
“There will always be some ready to capitalize on the misfortune of others. That is why Nehemiah was so disturbed and why we should be concerned about injustice within the Christian community. Sometimes members of the Christian community are insensitive to the needs of other members of the same community.” — Mervin Breneman – Commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther
9 So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies? 10 Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. 11 Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.” — Nehemiah 5:9-11 ESV
MOVEMENT 4: The Resolution
12b And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised. 13 I also shook out the fold[a] of my garment and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said “Amen” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised. — Nehemiah 5:12b-13 ESV
God’s People Should Act Like a Family
TAKEAWAYS
- Use Your Voice
- Don’t Take Advantage
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore yGod has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is eLord, to the glory of God the Father. — Philippians 2:4-11 ESV
- Make It Right
11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. — Proverbs 3:11-12