MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(This is the sixth of a Leadership series featuring Nehemiah. Some ideas & illustrations in these messages were based on or benefited greatly from, to varying extents, the book “Hand Me Another Brick” by Charles Swindoll.)
INTRO: Anytime you think that the Bible is out of date & doesn’t deal with contemporary problems just go back & read the book of Nehemiah. The problems that Nehemiah & the people faced are some of the same problems people sometimes face today.
A. As we turn to the 5th chapter of Nehemiah, we discover that a strike has occurred among the laborers who are rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. They probably weren’t on a picket line, carrying signs & blocking traffic. But they had stopped working & were loudly complaining about their living conditions.
Vs. 1 says, “Now the men & their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers.” The people were unhappy, & they stopped working to voice their grievances.
B. Like a good leader, Nehemiah listened to them, & found that their problems were very real.
Vs’s 1-5 tell us that while the nobles & officials among the Jews were rich & had plenty, the common people were on the verge of starvation.
PROP: It was terrible situation for many of the families. And as we read about it we wonder why? How could this possibly have come to pass?
I. THE CAUSES OF THEIR PROBLEMS
Well, as we look carefully at the Scriptures, we discover 3 reasons for what was happening.
A. First of all, it was a time of famine & food was scarce & very expensive. In Vs. 3 the people tell Nehemiah, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards & our homes to get grain during the famine.”
Food was in short supply, & greedy merchants were taking advantage of the shortage by raising prices higher & higher. More & more of the laborers’ resources were being used just to secure food for themselves & their families.
B. Their taxes were too high, too. Vs. 4 reads, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields & vineyards.”
Israel was a conquered nation in the Persian Empire. But King Artaxerxes was more than 800 miles away. How could he collect taxes in Israel? It was simple. He delegated that task to some of the Jews who lived in Jerusalem. It was their job to collect the taxes from their own countrymen & send a set amount of money to the King’s treasury back in Persia.
The sweet part of the deal was that the King really didn’t care how or how much these tax collectors collected from the people. All he was concerned about was that they sent in to the treasury the amount that he expected.
Anything above that amount the tax collectors could keep for themselves as their pay. So the tax collectors were getting rich while the people were getting deeper & deeper in debt.
C. Then in vs. 5 we discover yet another problem – they were having to pay high interest rates. “Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our countrymen and though our sons are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery.”
The price of food, their taxes, & the interest rates on the money they borrowed were so high that people were not only having to mortgage their homes & fields, but some were even selling their sons & daughters into slavery just to survive.
APPL: Is the Bible outdated? Does it sound like a book that is irrelevant? It speaks here of famine, high prices, & high taxes. Interest rates were also high, with no hope of relief. The rich were getting richer, & the poor were getting poorer. And the people were crying out at the injustice of it all!
So what happened? How did Nehemiah react to the outcry of the people?
II. THEY WERE VIOLATING GOD’S LAW
A. Vs. 6 tells us how Nehemiah reacted: “When I heard their outcry & these charges, I was very angry.” There are times when a leader must be a diplomat. But there are other times when the best response is a justified anger. Nehemiah was angry because the officials were ignoring God’s Law. They were not obeying the Law that God had given them.
God had chosen His people & made a covenant with them. God’s people were to live lives differently than others around them. They were to be a living testimony to the world of God’s love & care for His people. He had brought them out of slavery & into the promised land. He had given them laws & standards to live by. He had watched over & cared for them & blessed them.
B. But they had ignored God’s instructions, & now the whole nation was in trouble. But some of you may be wondering, “Just what laws or instructions of God were they ignoring?”
1. Well, for example, in Exodus 22:25 God had told them, “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest.”
Notice that God says that this has to do with "My people." God says, "If a fellow Jew is in need it’s all right to loan him money but don’t act as a moneylender. When you lend to him, don’t charge him interest."
2. Deuteronomy 23:19 20 says, “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…”
Now why did God give those explicit instructions to His people? Listen to the rest of vs. 20, ”…so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.”
God was saying that he wanted His people to be unique.
In effect, He was saying, "I will bless you so richly that you won’t have to charge interest to your own brothers. Your lives will be so different that foreigners will ask, ’How in the world can a nation exist like that?’ And you can answer, ’God is blessing us, & He provides for our needs.’ And this will be a living testimony to the power & guidance of Almighty God."
3. There is another scripture in Leviticus that may also have been in Nehemiah’s mind. Leviticus 25:38 40 says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan & to be your God. If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you & sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave. He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you…”
No Jew was ever to enslave another Jew. Making a slave of a fellow Jew was evidence of an absence of love & concern for his brother. Their love for each other as God’s people was to supersede love of money. This, too, was to be a testimony to the pagan world.
C. So when Nehemiah hears the outcry of the laborers, & investigates, he becomes very angry because the officials had deliberately violated the Law of God, & His people were suffering.
III. NEHEMIAH’S REACTION
A. So what did Nehemiah do? In vs. 7 Nehemiah says, “I pondered them in my mind…”
Aren’t you glad that’s there? Yes, he got angry, but he thought before he spoke. So God was able to speak to Nehemiah about what to say next. Self control is a virtue that a leader cannot afford to be without. He regained his composure & now he was ready to take the situation in hand.
B. Then it says that he “…accused the nobles & officials.” Nehemiah didn’t go behind anyone’s back to deal with the situation. He went straight to the nobles & officials & confronted them with their violations of God’s law.
Vs. 9 says, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?”
What is he saying? He is saying, "The pagan world is looking at us & saying, ’You’re just like everybody else no different at all.’"
APPL. That is a problem that Christianity faces today, too. Who wins when a church argues & fights & splits? Nobody but Satan. The world points its finger & says, "See, they aren’t any better than we are."
ILL. All we have to do is mention the names of Jim Bakker & Tammy Faye & Jimmy Swaggart even today, & the world smiles. The world makes quite a thing over such stories as theirs. Why? Because they can smirk & say, "See, the church is full of hypocrites." And the church loses because they say, "Christian people are just as bad as we are!"
That was the trouble with the people of Israel. Their life style was no different than the pagans around them. And the name of God was shamed.
C. After Nehemiah rebuked the ruling elite, notice their response. The last part of vs. 8 says, “They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.”
APPL. That is good way to respond when the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin to be silent before the Lord & accept the fact that you have sinned.
SUM. A good leader, however, does not stop with rebuke. Nehemiah took steps to correct the problem. He helped them to deal with their sins. And we, too, can learn from his actions.
IV. STEPS TO CORRECT THEIR SIN
A. First of all, in vs. 10 he says, “Let the exacting of usury stop!” What is he saying? He is saying, "You know what your sin is so do something about it stop it!"
Vs. 11 says, “Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves & houses; & also the usury you are charging them…”
When? “Immediately!” “Not next month not next year but right now, with the help of almighty God, stop the sin that you are committing."
B. How did they respond? Vs. 12 says, “’We will give it back,’ they said. ‘And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.’”
C. Next, Nehemiah tells us, “Then I summoned the priests & made the nobles & officials take an oath to do what they had promised.” Nehemiah told the priests, "I want you to hear their pledge to God that they will not do this anymore."
Then Nehemiah impresses upon them the importance of the oath they have just taken. Listen to vs. 13, “I also shook out the folds of my robe & said, ‘In this way may God shake out of his house & possessions every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out & emptied!’ At this the whole assembly said, ‘Amen!’”
APPL: Folks, I’m not sure that we realize how important it is for us to keep our promises. When we make promises to God when we make promises to other people as Christians we are to keep those promises.
Do you realize what becoming a Christian is? It is a promising to God that we will live for, love & serve the Lord as long as God gives us life. So keep your promise to God, & He will keep His promises to you.
No one really falls away from God overnight. It is a gradual thing as Satan eats away & erodes the faith upon which we build our lives.
ILL. A few years ago a small Pennsylvania community built a red brick building to be their city hall, police department & fire department building.
When it was dedicated practically the whole town showed up. They were so proud of it. They cut the ribbon & had the dedicatory address & all of the community took pride in the building that they had erected together.
But within a few weeks cracks started to develop in the walls. They thought at first that the building was just settling & they weren’t too concerned. But soon the windows wouldn’t open, & they couldn’t close the doors. Large cracks appeared in the floor, & the roof began to leak.
Finally the building had to be evacuated, much to the embarrassment of the builder & the disgust of the taxpayers.
They brought in experts who found that blasts from a nearby mining area were slowly but effectively destroying the building. Imperceptibly, down beneath the foundation, there were small shifts & changes taking place that caused the whole foundation to crack.
They couldn’t feel it or hear it on the surface, but quietly & down deep there was a weakening. Finally, the city had to post a sign, "Condemned. Not fit for public use." And then the building was demolished.
APPL: Sin is like that. It slips in. Oftentimes we don’t even notice it. Then little cracks show up in the walls of our lives little holes or flaws in the foundation begin to develop. And the first thing you know a life is destroyed by sin.
There is a better way. It is the way of faith, & a refusal to ignore or excuse our sins any longer. It means to be sensitive to the invitation of Jesus Christ, & to be obedient to His will in our lives. It means to keep our promises to God, even as we expect Him to keep His promises to us.
ILL. A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home church in MI.
"While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every 2 weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to the nearest large city for supplies. This was a journey of 2 days & required camping overnight at the halfway point in the jungle.
“On one of these trips, just as I arrived in the city I saw 2 men fighting, one of whom had been injured. As a missionary doctor I intervened & treated his injuries. And at the same time I talked to him about the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Afterwards I went about my planned tasks – collecting money from a bank, purchasing medicine & supplies, & then began my 2-day journey back to the field hospital. Halfway back, I camped overnight as usual, & then arrived home without incident.
“Two weeks later I repeated my trip. Upon arriving in the city, I was met by the young man I had treated. He told me that it was known that I regularly carried money & medicines.
He said, ‘Two weeks ago several of us followed you back into the jungle, knowing that you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you & take everything. But just as we were about to come into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards. So we left.’
“At this I laughed to myself & said that I was certainly all alone out in that jungle campsite. The young man wouldn’t accept my word, though. He said, ‘No sir. I was not the only one to see the guards. There were 6 of us who saw them, & we all counted them. It was because of those 26 guards that we were afraid & left you alone.’
As the missionary was telling this story in his home church in Michigan, one of the men of the congregation jumped to his feet & asked if the missionary could tell him the exact date this had happened. The missionary told him, & the man then told him this story:
“On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here & I was preparing to go play golf. But for some reason I felt a very strong urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging was so strong that I called men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day please stand up?”
The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. As the missionary looked around the room at those who were standing, he wasn’t so concerned with who they were – he was too busy counting how many they were. There were 26 men standing!
CONCL. Folks, I don’t know if any of us will ever experience something as dramatic as that. But I do know that God loves us, & that He is preparing a place for us that where He is we may be also. Do you believe that? Do you believe in Jesus? Will you come to Him?
