Rev. Seth Yi
Newberry Reformed Presbyterian Church Sermons
(9/1/24) Nehemiah 5:1-13 - Overcoming Internal Strife
reading taken from Nehemiah chapter 5 beginning at verse 1. You can follow along in your pew Bibles on page 401 as well as in the large print 471. Holy Word from Nehemiah chapter 5 verses 1 through 13. 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, 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 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 in these words. I took counsel with myself and 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 and said to them, we, as far as we are able, have brought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations. But you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us. They were silent and could not find a word to say. So I said to them, the things that you are doing is not good. Aren't you not to walk in the fear of our God, to prevent the taunts of the nations of our enemies? Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. 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. Then they said, we will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do, as you say, and I called the priest and made them swear to do as they had promised. I also shook out the fold 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 he has simply said, amen and praise the Lord, and the people did as they had promised. Here in the reading of God's holy word, the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen. Well we can tell clearly from the details that Nehemiah has shared that he does not hold back in any respect to make this appear as though this was one smooth or easy project. Even though it was clearly, as we have seen, a call and a mission that the Lord had placed upon Nehemiah's heart and upon the people of God. And it reminds us of that not that just because it is the purpose of God that we fulfill or seek after a certain task, that it does not guarantee necessarily there will be full of ease and lack of trouble. And as we have seen, there has been conflicts from within, there has been plenty of challenges from without as Nehemiah has dealt with them as they have arose. And so when we come to chapter 5 here, we see that there was something even from the very people of God amongst their own that we find a very significant strife that had developed and could literally bring the whole project to its end. And it is instructive for us to see how Nehemiah dealt with these matters because as any church, and I would suspect every church will one time or another deal with maybe not the exact same concerns that are raised here, but clearly internal strife is one of the key tools that Satan will use to bring destruction and ineffectiveness ultimately in the life of the church. So we must be on guard not only from this passage of how to avoid such occasions, but more importantly, how do we, when we find ourselves in such difficulties, how do we find a biblical way forward? And we find that throughout this passage, Nehemiah is very prayerful as he always has been, of course, even though it may not be said directly, but I think the whole notion of him sort of taking time to think through himself is clearly indicative of his pause of praying and seeking the Lord's guidance, but also we find here that there are times when confrontations are necessary. I know most of us are not by nature confrontational and so we try to avoid such instances where we have to directly approach somebody about their sin as Nehemiah does here. But as we know from scripture, not only are we all sinners, but we need that sort of tough love or biblical love when we are in a position where we are strained clearly from the path of God's Word. And so though this is a historical narrative that clearly applies to something that happened in Jerusalem during a period where this project was going on, the principles and the patterns of biblical confrontation and restoration is something that the church dearly needs to learn to apply because in the end it is the gospel itself that is at question. Do we trust and believe that the grace of God that has been accomplished at the cross is sufficient for whatever struggles and whatever sins that we find ourselves as a people within a congregation? And so we see here how a great outcry of the people and of their wives was brought before Nehemiah. Now the word that Nehemiah chooses here, great outcry speaks to the emotional heartache that was ultimately at the source of them bringing forward to Nehemiah the difficulty that they were clearly facing. It wasn't something minor, it was something that finally required some outward expression of distress. You oftentimes see this word great outcry in the Psalms where either the psalmist or David himself will use this terminology to express deep heartfelt prayers that are being taken before the Lord for some conflict that is arising or even injustices that are taking place within their lives. Another unique feature that we find in verse 1 here is the mention of the wives in both Ezra and Nehemiah. Both of those, as we know it could be one book originally, but in both of those books this is the only instance where women are specifically mentioned. And this is likely the case because there were the ones who knew most personally, most directly, what was happening in the homes, the sufferings that were taking place because of the lack of food. As we all know, if mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. And momma was not happy because she saw her children suffering literally because they could not eat. They didn't have the resources, not only in terms of money, but even in terms of the actual produce that they were seeking to raise. And so this was a significant issue, not some matter of comfort or convenience that was not being met. And so we find here literal charges in a sense that are brought to Nehemiah. Nehemiah is the governor, as we know, and so he has a certain degree of authority to judge all those who are in the land. And they bring, of course, varying degrees of complaints. Now scholars differ upon how exactly we are to understand the three different groups. But you can basically sense what's happened here. People are giving themselves to the work of building the wall. And to some who, as we recall, had come from the rural areas outside of Jerusalem and have now given themselves wholly to working on the project, even to the point where they weren't even going back home. So some of these men and even, I would say, sons had very little idea of the sufferings that were taking place at home with the wives and the little children who were left to the fin for themselves, literally. And so you had situations as described in verses 2 through 4 where during a time of famine, even, or they couldn't provide for their own households money or even to put enough effort into producing out of their own fields. And also you find there, towards verse 4, a situation that was almost unthinkable. It says there, and there were those who said we had bar money for the king's taxes and our field and our vineyard. They had to take out loans from some of the more wealthy nobles for the purpose of paying the necessary taxes to the Persians. And this was clearly going on while all these men were devoting themselves to doing the project of rebuilding the wall. And you see in verse 5 in particular how they address this, they say, now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers. Our children are as their children. In other words, those who are suffering, both those who had wealth to some measure and had to lend or give as pledge to gain some money to be able to provide for them, they all knew that as they devoted themselves together to this project, they saw themselves naturally as a single family. Now the Jews of course understood that they were all, quote, children of Abraham, they all came from one father. But even here, this kinship and camaraderie is what is being appealed to because of the abuses that are taking place. Our very own brothers or sisters, the wealthier members of our family, are not treating us like family. In fact, they are treating us as bad or as worse as the Gentiles. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves. This was likely the practice of debt slavery, which is actually legislated in the law, independent Duke, where someone who found themselves in a position where, for whatever reason, could not pay a debt, could actually sell themselves as a laborer to the creditor. And that was supposed to be done for no more than six years, which afterwards they were to be set free. But it appears to be the case that that was not the practice. And as one scholar or several scholars reported out when it came to our daughters, it says, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, they take that word enslaved there to me, they have been almost taken as wives as a part of their household. And you can imagine some of the questions that may arise when that was taking place. But it is not in our power to help. For other men have our fields and our vineyards. So what you have is clearly a scenario where some who had means and who had ability were taking advantage of their very own brothers in the Lord, who were in a situation where they were being taken advantage of because of no lack of their own efforts to provide for their family. They had given themselves to the work of rebuilding the wall. And so this was a clear abuse, a position of wealth, and even of authority. And there is legitimacy to what these Jews are bringing before Nehemiah that he might settle this case in a just way. We pick up in verse 6 therefore as to how Nehemiah responds to this word. Well you read, for the first time, the motions that have been attributed primarily to Sambalat being now described of Nehemiah. I was very angry. Nehemiah has come with a very clear call from the Lord to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem to once again to make that city a place where God's name would be placed. And throughout all the difficulties that were involved both physically as well as militaristically he finds now that there is strife from within. Probably the last thing that he thought he would have to deal with, his own people. And so you can relate I hope to the righteous indignation that Nehemiah experiences. We have to be very careful when we come to situations ourselves, when we are confronted with evil, where it is unaddadly contrary to the word of God how we respond. But I think what we find in Nehemiah is biblical because Paul himself says be angry but not sin. In other words it is not at all sinful for Christians to be angry towards sin and evil in this world. In fact I would argue there has been too much of a lack of that in our culture. Christians have idly sit back quietly and have done nothing while evil has persisted and been grown. There is a time and a place even as public citizens in a society where we are given by God's grace free speech to declare evil as evil because there are plenty on the other side, on the side of Satan who are doing the opposite calling evil good and good evil. And when Christians and those who want to advance the kingdom of God simply remain silent and do nothing evil will prevail. That has been the course of human history. Some of you may know a bit about the background of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Luther and Pastor during the time when the Nazis were gaining prominence in Germany. Not to go into all the details about his motives and his even his attempt to assassinate Hitler but before it got to that level he made great strives to call the church to speak up against the atrocities that were clearly taking place with the Nazi regime and yet by and large the majority in the middle if you will remain silent and ultimately complicit with the rise of Nazism in Germany. Do we not see much of that taking place in our own nation? Where has the light of the church of Christ been over the decades now in this nation? Have we put our light under a bushel so that darkness has continued to persist and advance in the measure where we are on the brink literally? As we've seen over the past few years just a couple of years the absolute downfall of our culture to paganism to secularism and flat out hedonism that's where we are. It's not only that we pray we do pray but we also act in our prayers as Nehemiah has demonstrated time and time again. Let me ask you how much more are you angered by those acts that are committed against you on a much more superficial level than you are against when it is done against God? Where are the righteous men of God who will stand in the public square for truth? We are in desperate need of men like Nehemiah who is filled with righteous indignation and yet who acts wisely and biblically as we see. So he hears the outcry and what does he do? Verse 7 I took counsel with myself. Some translations said I mastered my heart more probably more liberal translation but it does speak to how Nehemiah didn't just act on impulse. He didn't just take his first knee jerk reaction which I suspect as we saw there was one of anger. He didn't allow it to bowl into sin but he contemplated. He prayed again and sought the Lord as the best possible resolution to this wicked act and actions that were taking place among the people of God. And so we see in verse 7 how through contemplation and careful consideration how he would respond and he does that, he responds, he acts. He brought charges against the nobles and the officials, those who had taken advantage of the poor and he said to them, "You are exacting interest each from his brother." He makes a very plain what you are doing and the word there charges almost has something of a legal connotation. I don't think that's necessarily the case but it does imply that Nehemiah is speaking as an authority, as the governor. He doesn't necessarily call a true trial per se but there is a trial if you think about it that does take place here and the way he goes about it is through the whole community. Instead of individually having them go through a process of litigation he assembles a great gathering. Not just those who are being abused and who are being taken advantage of but others were not told exactly how great this assembly is, what the numbers may be, but I suspect it was a majority of the community who had come together and Nehemiah is in a sense laying and exposing these nobles and officials before all of their sins. Now the strange thing is of course those who had taken advantage of knew what was going on, they were the victims in a sense of the offense but it's now exposed to all within the community. I think this is a very wise approach that Nehemiah takes. He doesn't just simply go through the legal processes per se which could have taken some time and I'm sure that a just verdict could have been rendered even though it's likely in case some of these nobles and officials were judges themselves likely in that community. But nevertheless what he seeks to do is to use social pressure. He wants to let everybody see that this is plainly wicked and to expose these leaders before the whole community as to what they're doing. In other sense their sins are not kept secret anymore. It is brought to light before the whole community. Now you make question Nehemiah is tactic as to why would he use this measure instead of just doing the legal route? Well I think he knew that this would bring about a much speedier result. He knew that when sin is exposed to a much wider range of those who know what is right fortunately in this situation and those who know what is wrong then there will come about as we see in this passage to the Lord's grace repentance. And so as many scholars have suspected that was exactly what Nehemiah saw to do. He saw to bring social pressure by exposing these rulers of their blatant sin. Nehemiah recognized the importance of using this public gathering to engage others who may not have been necessarily taken advantage of. But they too now are in a sense a part of this. Will you remain silent? Will you allow your brother to be sinned again so publicly and to have their needs not provided to have their families exposed and so on. So there's a mobilization, if you will, of the public against these actions in a way that will likely bring about a much speedier results. Verse 8, he said to them, "We as far as we are able have brought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us." What seems to have happened as Nehemiah describes is the efforts that some of Nehemiah and his group had done when they first returned and it speaks to the fact that there were likely servant debts that had been given over to the nations, the surrounding enemies, where their debt had been paid by Nehemiah and those who had come along with them. But after their freedom, their fellow Jews now are acting in the same vein over to slavery. He exposes them openly of how wicked and unconscioner their acts are. They are acting as badly as their unbelieving Gentiles. They were silent and could not find a word to say. The mirror of truth was set before their very faces and their mouths were shut. There was no defense, no justification for their sin. So I said to them, verse 9, "The things that you're doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of God to prevent the taunts of the nations of our enemies?" Nehemiah lays out his rationale for their guilt. This is not good. This is not in accordance with how the people of God are to treat one another and to live in harmony with one another. And this kind of behavior, this sort of sin, as Nehemiah described, is an expression of a lack of fear of their God. In other words, they think that they will not be held accountable for their sins before God. As one author describes it, "To walk in fear means to live in all of and devotion to God and with kindness and integrity toward men." One of the principles that you find in Scripture and especially throughout the Old Testament is that if you are at peace, shalom with God, which is sort of this image of what it means to be a true recipient and a participant of the covenant, you are not only in a right relationship with God vertically, but ultimately that is evidence in your walk and your relationship with one another. As John says, "How can you say you love God whom you have not seen if you do not love your brother whom you have seen?" It is that simple. Your testimony of your devotion to God will be ultimately tested in your devotion and love with your brother. And so he points us out to them, and then finally he says, "What you have done has given occasion for the Gentiles to mock, not just you, but God. You have dishonored the name of God among the nations. What sort of witness has your greed and covetousness brought to you the very name of God?" Moreover, I am my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. Again, Nehemiah knew of the difficulties that these folks were under, and so he had done his part, at least, to providing some measure by which they could provide for their families. And yet these others, as it goes on to speak about, were "exacting interest." Now, there is some debate as to exactly what this word means. Some believe that they were practicing usury, which is seeking interest for a loan, which was clearly prohibited, especially among the people of God in the law, but others may think that they had taken a pledge, meaning they had taken possession of their property or home or even, as it was the case, of their children as a pledge for the loan that they had given out. So regardless of which interpretation is accurate, what we have here is Nehemiah saying, "You have not shown compassion. You have not demonstrated what it means to truly be a neighbor, to love and to care for your brother, especially those who are giving themselves to the work of building the very wall of Jerusalem." And what Nehemiah, of course, is calling for is not just justice but mercy. We can pursue justice all we want, and we may at times find it, and at times not. But what he is calling upon his own people as they look across the faces of their brothers and sisters and in the Lord, do you have compassion for the needy? Do you love these people and are willing to demonstrate mercy, not merely justice? And so he says, "Return to them this very day their feel, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money and grain, wine and oil that you have been exacting from them." In other words, Nehemiah is saying, "There's only one recourse at this time. Provide and return to them what they need for life so that they do not find themselves starving to death and physically unable to continue the work." They need minimally to be able to support themselves and their family, whether it's through the money or their children or even the fields that they can work for themselves. Nehemiah has been very clear. He has revealed to them their sins, exposed them for what they are, and says, "This is how you are to respond if you are genuinely repentant of your sins." Verse 12, then they said, "We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do, as you say, this is not only the work of a brave man, a godly leader who confronts sin, but ultimately this is the work of God's Spirit. Repentance is what we are at least told being confessed by these men. And God's Spirit has moved upon them through Nehemiah to expose them and to show them the path that they must take. And when the Spirit of God moved upon their hearts, they all confessed, repented, and acknowledged that they would obey." This is a beautiful picture of gospel repentance and restoration. This is what is necessary in the life of the church. This is where we find the only possible means by which sinners can not only acknowledge that they have sinned but find grace, a forgiveness in the Lord, so that they can once again be restored and made anew in those relationships. Well, as they make this public profession, Nehemiah is very astute. He knows that there are those who may make a quick profession of faith, but he wants to hold them to account publicly. And so he called the priest and made them swear to do as they had promised. This is not uncommon. This is a practice that we find just prescribed in the law. And so he's going to make sure that what they have professed in terms of returning back to those, what they need that they will in fact fulfill. But Nehemiah goes even once that further. Verse 13, "I also shook out the fold 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 empty.' Throughout the prophets, every now and then you see sort of these acted parables that emphasize a word of the Lord. It's demonstrated multiple times in Jeremiah, where he physically displays what God is in fact going to do after he has declared a word. And even after these nobles had taken an oath, Nehemiah once again symbolizes the judgment that would come upon them if they did not fulfill their vows. Three times he emphasizes this visible display of what God would do, literally shake them. This word is also used back in Exodus describing how the Lord had thrown the chariots of the Egyptian armies into the sea. And so Nehemiah is in fact calling upon God himself to turn these people not literally but metaphorically upside down and to remove all their possessions if they are not faithful to their words. Nehemiah is giving them a stern warning here that if they're not genuine and if they do not keep their vows publicly but also before God, they will be held accountable by God himself. This is the level of accountability that we so oftentimes see not being practiced in our culture today. People take vows ceremonially and they are quick to break or to ignore them. But just as Nehemiah described here, any vow before God will ultimately be by his standard and by his authority that those individuals will be judged, whether in this life but for certainty on the day of judgment. And we see the value of all the assembly that were gathered. They all shouted, hey men, in a sense affirming not just the vows that these nobles had taken but what Nehemiah had acted out, that they were witnesses and they affirm that indeed God will testify to these acts and will uphold them by his own hand. Fortunately, this was a time not only of repentance but it's also a time of celebration and they praised the Lord because clearly what took place here, as I've already described, was a work of God's gracious hand or those who had taken advantage of the poor and needy have been brought to a place of repentance. And it didn't happen accidentally. It happened because Nehemiah responded biblically, prayerfully and with righteous indignation and the people did as they had promised. They fulfilled their vows. What we find here, my friends, is the reality of what the visible church not only experiences on a regular basis that is conflict but more importantly how conflict must be resolved. We see here a clear path of confronting sin for what it is. It's right because these were public sins. What was taking place was open and visible to all. These were not private matters, per se. Where clearly we find in Matthew 18, if a person sins against you individually, we ought to do it as much as possible with the individual. But of course, if that doesn't resolve it, then we do take another with us even to the point where if it's not resolved brought before the whole congregation. But here, these nobles and rulers were publicly abusing those who were in need. And so Nehemiah addresses this so that the whole community may also come alongside and testify to its wrong. And in a sense, stand as witnesses to hold these people accountable if they do not uphold their very vows. These are not common in the church today because too many people want to avoid dealing with sin, not only in our own lives but even in our brother's lives. But if the Church of Jesus Christ, as I've already said, is going to deal with the power of the gospel, which we alone possess, to deal with sin and to restore broken relationship, it must be dealt with. Sin that is unresolved is like a cancer. It will eventually bring sickness and even death when it is not brought under the gospel. May we, as a people of God, grow to love one another in such a way where we deal with one another, lovingly and yet biblically, so that the world might see and long to delight in the power that the gospel has to restore sinners and to bring relationship to wholeness that the world knows nothing of and yet desperately seeks. May we cherish the power of the gospel that is ours uniquely as the people of God and hold it out to the world that they might likewise experience what only God and Christ can offer. Let us pray.