Meanwhile, Behind The Walls … Series

Meanwhile, behind the walls …

Nehemiah 5:1-19

Introduction

- Nehemiah is a great study of leadership, but also shows obedience to God

- Last week we saw Nehemiah establishing a watch while they worked

-- This put the people on guard to protect them from the enemy

-- But also let the enemy know they were being watched; which deflated them

- They then went back to work with the same vision: rebuild Jerusalem’s walls

-- I wondered while Mike was presenting this, how often is the reverse true?

-- EX: The enemy attacks, and rather than standing firm – we back down

-- Nehemiah trusted God to be faithful to do His part, so shouldn’t’ we?

- This morning we get a view of what’s also going on behind the scenes

-- IMP: The greatest wall will never stand if the society behind it is broken

-- It is in this fact that we see a tremendous lesson for us today

- Pray

∆ Point 1 – Nehemiah identifies the economic oppression

- Read Nehemiah 5:1-5

- What we see here is great lesson in how society’s work

-- The defensive measures might be in place, but the society is broken (v1)

-- The people saw Nehemiah perhaps as an advocate so they complained to him

- Note here that even women were joining in the complaining (this is unusual)

-- For this to happen, surely they had reached a desperate level in Jerusalem

-- But do you notice who they are complaining about?

- They are railing against their fellow Jews!

-- First, there are Jews who do not own any land of their own (v2)

-- They had to ask the government for grain so that they could even live

- The second group is the landowners (v3) but they too have problems

-- They are mortgaged to the hilt, and the crops have constantly failed

-- Their loans are too numerous, and to even survive they have to scrape by

-- RE: There is a tremendous famine in this time (v3) that’s affected all

- And the last group also consisted of landowners, but the issue is taxation

-- Because of the king’s taxes, they too are mortgaged to their eyeballs

-- They are facing imminent ruin if something does not change (v4)

- IMP: In v5 we see the root cause: They are doing this to one another!

-- We are the same flesh and blood, therefore considered brothers to one another

-- Yet, they’ve had to subject their own children to work and slavery

-- Even the daughters had been enslaved which in itself is disgraceful

- Something to note: the payment of debt through enslavement isn’t illegal

-- But the law has safeguards built in; even though it’s almost at its limit as well

-- Imagine these parents: defenseless and unable to help their own children

--- “We are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others”

- The economic oppression these people have has caused a crippling cycle

-- We must borrow to eat, but we must take out a loan to borrow

-- Then we must enslave ourselves in order to pay back the debt … but …

-- We still need to eat so we must borrow more to eat …. Rinse & repeat

Pastor’s observation:

- If there was ever a clear cut example of debt being silly, here you go

-- We get into debt, we borrow to get out of debt, & we get more into debt

-- Then we reach max capacity, panic, borrow … and the cycle never seems to end

-- If you’re in this cycle get some help, please! Having a budget works …

- Nehemiah has a society in a vicious cycle that he’s helping to rebuild

-- IMP: You cannot survive if you are pitted against one another

- TRANS: Read Nehemiah 5:6-11

∆ Point 2 – Nehemiah pronounces judgment

- After listening to their complaints, Nehemiah is very angry with them (v6)

-- The oppression of fellow Jews is shameful, esp. as they are rebuilding together

-- But, instead of showing it, he refrained from responding (v7)

- After careful thought (sometimes it’s better to be silent for a few …)

-- He rebuked those who were responsible for this ... look at his words:

-- (Pause) “You are charging your own people interest!”

-- RE: You are doing this to yourselves! It’s not even someone else’s doing!

- Nehemiah felt a huge moral outrage here; and so he must act (v7-8)

-- Nehemiah said that we’ve brought our people back from slavery …

-- But they are now selling one another to each other, to be sold back to us!

-- APP: Do you see the ridiculous cycle of nonsense? It must stop!