Nehemiah 5:6-9

⁶ When I heard their complaints, I was very angry. ⁷ After thinking it over, I spoke out against these nobles and officials. I told them, “You are hurting your own relatives by charging interest when they borrow money!” Then I called a public meeting to deal with the problem.⁸ At the meeting I said to them, “We are doing all we can to redeem our Jewish relatives who have had to sell themselves to pagan foreigners, but you are selling them back into slavery again. How often must we redeem them?” And they had nothing to say in their defense.⁹ Then I pressed further, “What you are doing is not right! Should you not walk in the fear of our God in order to avoid being mocked by enemy nations?

After seeing the rub, we now see the:

2. ReprimandVs 6-11

Not surprisingly Nehemiah’s response was anger, can you imagine how betrayed he must have felt? I’m paying for people to be freed from debt and you are going behind my back putting them back into slavery. You would be angry; the problem is that most of us have been raised to believe that anger is wrong but what I want you to understand is that anger is a protest. Nehemiah was protesting social injustice, but unlike how may protest today he didn’t let anger be destructive but constructive. It’s not wrong to get angry when we see people being violated and becoming victims, that’s righteous anger, the key becomes what we do with that anger. Because anger is a powerful emotion and we can use that energy to engage in constructive change or destructive change. Jesus was angry over Gods house being used to make money, he channeled that energy into cleaning out the temple and restoring righteousness.  The key to our anger becoming constructive instead of destructive is seen in what Nehemiah did first, he:

a. Reflected – Vs 7 “I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials.”

Instead of reacting he reflected. Anger is a blinding emotion; it can consume us and cause us to lose control. What the flesh wants to do is punch someone in the face because we think that will make us feel good. But if he had done that, he would have been a hypocrite, his actions would have mirrored what he was accusing them of, hurting people. Pondering long enough to process connects our hearts and our head. It engages our head not just our heart causing us to consult with our feelings. When Joseph was faced with the possible betrayal of Mary being pregnant instead of reacting, he reflected. He pondered his predicament and as he did an Angel of the Lord spoke to him and told him what to do. Pondering doesn’t just connect our hearts to our head, but it also provides a space for Spirit of God to speak. Instead of being ruled by our feelings and pouring fuel on the fire we become controlled by Christ and use the fire as a forge to fashion something constructive. Throughout the book of Nehemiah, you find Nehemiah bumping up against tough circumstances and pausing. He’s an incredible leader, he doesn’t react; he pauses. After pausing and pondering he:

b. Reminded them of Relationship – vs 7 “You are hurting your own relatives”

Nehemiah didn’t come at the problem from a financial perspective but a family perspective. We will always suffer from the sickness of strife when we place riches before relationship. Our greatest treasure is not the possessions we have but the people we hold.  Nehemiah publicly confront the people whose selfishness had created strife because their actions affected the whole nation. Can you imagine that moment when all the nobles, the wealth and the power brokers all gathered together, and Nehemiah confronts them and calls them out. Many of us cower in the face of conflict, because we focused on what is comfortable instead of Christ like. Sometimes people need to be called to the carpet, but notice Nehemiah appeals to their heart, calling them from callousness to compassion. He reminds them that it’s not about the riches it’s about relationship. Selfishness is shortsighted because it focuses on me not we, it always leads to strife causing relationships to be ruined. Not only did he remind them of relationship but also:

c. God’s redemptive plan – vs 8 “How often must we redeem them?”

They were focused on greed not God. While God’s people had been redeemed from Egypt and most recently from Babylon, and then Nehemiah himself had bought back some of the Jews who were in slavery, their fellow Jews were returning people into bondage just to make money. They were focused on financial success instead of spiritual success where people finding freedom. Success is not measured by finances but by freedom. Why are we dealing with the epidemic of human trafficking, why are there so many people stuck in sexual slavery, because when it comes to character, we as men have compromised. Instead of defending women and children we are degrading and dehumanizing them. You say I don’t visit prostitutes, well let’s talk about the porn problem that is not just poisoning your life its imprisoning God’s children created in His image for His worship not your worldly wants. If we as men would live right, there wouldn’t be a sex trade. But instead of being protectors we have become predators. Sexual sin is always about serving self. Sex is a gift given by God to enrich marriage not erode it. Lust always takes where love always gives, what about you are you lusting or loving. Lust always leads to slavery and will keep taking until everyone involved is bankrupt. Do you want to know why many married men don’t have a satisfying sexual relationship, it’s because they are lusters not lovers. Are you angry this morning over the violation and victimization of women and children, what are you going to do with that anger? Nehemiah was willing to pay the price for others to be freed what about you? Next Nehemiah:

d. Reminded them of Right and Wrong – Vs 9a “What you are doing is not right!”

He didn’t base it on his feelings or cultural norms he based it on the Bible. What about you are you basing what is right and wrong on the world or the Word? They were going against God’s Word by charging their own people interest. Deuteronomy 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.” Instead of trusting God to bless them they took matters into their own hands. You can’t sin and expect success, when you cut corners you compromise your character and people around you get hurt. What about you are you reacting or responding to problems?

Nehemiah 5:1-5

About this time some of the men and their wives raised a cry of protest against their fellow Jews. ² They were saying, “We have such large families. We need more food to survive.” ³ Others said, “We have mortgaged our fields, vineyards, and homes to get food during the famine.” ⁴ And others said, “We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes. ⁵ We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy, and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.”

So far in our series “Building in the Battle” Nehemiah has deal with many different and difficult challenges, in fact we will see that in every chapter Nehemiah confronted a different challenge. Today we get upset when life gets difficult, we complain about the challenges because many of us are trying to pursue a problem free life instead of the provider of life. But the Christian life is a series of challenges, things don’t get easier they get more exciting. When it comes to problems, we need a proper perspective, difficulties are actually a platform from which God’s power can be displayed. Godly leaders don’t cower to the challenges or waste their words complaining about the challenges they confront them.

• In chapter one, Nehemiah was faced with a personal challenge. When he heard about the problems and the pain of what was happening in Jerusalem, he wept and pursued God in prayer. Instead of being calloused and uncaring he confronted the problem with compassion.
• In chapter two, his challenge was political. When the King asked him what he needed, he prayed a “popcorn prayer” and boldly made his requests.
• In chapter three, he confronted an administrative challenge by positioning the right workers in the right place for the right reasons.
• In chapter four, he dealt with both the external and internal challenges of doubt and discouragement. The workers were afraid of the enemies and convinced they couldn’t work anymore but Nehemiah rallied them by reminding them to fight for their families.

Now in chapter five, Nehemiah is faced with a far more deadly and destructive disease, the sickness of strife. This same community that didn’t cower to the external enemy is now crumbling internally, starting to self-destruct because of festering grievances as a result of selfishness. This new internal enemy that the workers face is harder to conquer than the external one. And the timing could not have been worse because the workers had just regained moral and momentum. It took a lot a lot of energy to get the stone rolling again after the last set back so to stop now would have been disastrous. Remember the first attempt to rebuild years before had ended in failure. It’s not just how we start but how we finish and many times we let the challenges of life cause us to quit. It’s here that we see first the:

1. RubVs 1-5

Nehemiah had to put down his hard hat and turn his attention from the construction of the wall to the walls that were being put up between his workers. This internal conflict threatened to divide and destroy them. There’s a word in verse 1 that sets the tone for chapter 5 it’s the word, “against.” Strife was brewing, tension was mounting, and God’s people were locking horns with one another. The problem that they faced was something we have seen over and over again in this country after a natural disaster. After the storm is over, we catch a glimpse of the greed inside many people. While there are many who reached out to help, there are also those who see it as an opportunity to take advantage of those in need by price gouging and stealing. That’s really what was going on here, when Nehemiah arrived the city of Jerusalem was in ruins and people are powerless to help themselves. Taxes are high and because of a long drought there was a bad famine and Nehemiah understood that the biggest obstacle to working on the wall was debt. The same is true today money is what keeps many of us from ministry. You see money is a wonderful servant but a lousy master, either it will serve you or we will serve it. Romans 13:8 says, “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.” Nehemiah understood that in order for the people to effectively work for God they had to be free from the distraction of debt. You can’t serve two masters. Those in debt were living with the constant fear of losing their land, their homes and even their children. To confront this problem at great personal cost Nehemiah dipped into his own resources and began paying of peoples debts so they would be free to focus on God’s work and not worry. He spent an enormous amount of personal wealth to buy the people out of slavery and free them up to work on the wall. Jesus did the same thing spiritually, he bought us and brought us out of sin, so that we could serve the Father. Now while many had been working with all their hearts to build the walls there were those who chose to serve self and live for greed instead of God. The wealthy Jews in Jerusalem saw this as a business opportunity for themselves. They thought if we can get our fellow Jews indebted to us then Nehemiah will pay off the debt and we have a guarantee that our loans are going to be paid off. 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. What about you what are you living for? Are you serving the Savior with the goal of seeing people set free, or trying to take advantage of others as you serve self? Is debt making you a slave to money or are you a servant of the Master?