Discouragement is not far away, this time there seemed to be a stoppage of work, not because of enemies from the other side but within the Jewish people themselves, there was strife in families (v1) – the people and their wives against their brethren. They were fighting agonist each other, inner wrangling. It stopped the work being done and verses 2-5 tell us why, it was over money. Money problems affect the work.
“For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain, that we may eat and live.” There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.” There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.””
How often does this happen in our experience? In fact, it sounds extremely up to date. Money problems often create strife; one of the biggest problems leading to marriage break up is money, too little or too much. Greed is as bad as poverty.
From the earlier chapters it seemed that the King of Persia financed the work, so this was not through lack of money for the work itself. Verse 3 indicated that there had been a famine, so food was short and what there was had become more expensive and they had been working on the walls for no income, therefore, money was tight. They had had to mortgage their lands and houses and send out their children to work even selling them as slaves. The rich were exploiting the poor. Taxes were increased and they were struggling to pay, and the rich were charging high interest on loans etc. It was against the law of Moses (Leviticus 25) to charge usury (interest) against their fellow Jews.
Because of the circumstances it was affecting the work of The LORD, and many were unable to provide for their own households. God is interested in what we do with our money, He has said that he will provide all our needs, note ‘needs’ not ‘wants.’ We must be very careful what we do with it. If we don’t deal with it in God’s way we will suffer. Money can ave a detrimental effect The LORD’s work.
The Bible does not condemn money, but the love of money – ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’ (1 Timothy 6:10). One has said that If we fail to handle our money with the right heart, and make our financial decisions with an eye to eternity, we can make mistakes that will affect the work of God in our lives for years and years, whether it is how we get it, what we buy and how we use it, debt, carelessness, frittering it away, the type of job and how we value what we earn. The Bible simply says we should be good stewards of what we have. We should commit everything to The Lord and ask for His guidance.
Paul writing to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 16; 2 Corinthians 9) tells us how we should be cheerful givers. God deserves our best and the first of what we have. Tithing (one tenth) was laid down in the Old Testament for the Jews. One of the reasons was that the tribe of Levi (the priests) did not have an inheritance thus the other tribes were to support them in their priestly role. I have suggested before that I don’t believe that we are commanded to tithe today, but it is not a bad guideline. Let’s remember that God deserves our first and our best. He is no man’s debtor and what we give to Him will be a blessing, including a blessing to us. Many tele-evangelists and such like, even some churches tell us that we must tithe and the more we give (to them) the more we will get back. If that is the reason we are giving, then it is wrong.
I remember reading about lottery winners who wished they hadn’t because they reaped more trouble than it was worth.
Proverbs 30:7,8,9 Agur says, “ Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die): Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches– Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God.”
Nehemiah’s reaction was anger (v6). He was angry because of the greed of those exploiting the poor and the murmurings had stopped the work. Outside enemies had not stopped the work but internal had.
His response was to confront those who were wrong. Notice that he gave it serious thought, not hastily (v7-11).
It was one thing be angry but another to act upon that, rather, he gave it considerable thought before he spoke to the people concerned.
He evidently rebuked the nobles privately but that didn’t seem to work, so he called a great assembly. He said to them, “According to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?” Then they were silenced and found nothing to say. Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury! Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.”
Nehemiah was firm in the way he dealt with the situation. He not only told them that they should not be demanding usury (interest) for the basic necessities. He told them clearly that they had to correct the wrong they had done.
His procedure is similar to that laid down by The Lord Jesus in Matthew 18:15-17. He said that if your brother or sister sins, you should raise it between the two of you and if they listen you have won them over. However, if they will not listen, you should take one or two witnesses and if they still refuse, put the matter to the church and only if they still refuse, to put them out. It is clear that the aim is reconciliation.
Nehemiah had an amazing influence on his people. They said that they would restore what they had taken and would ask for no further interest or repayment. Therefore, he called the priests to witness the oath to do as promised. He also said that God would remove each man from his house if they failed to fulfil their promise, and all the people agreed by saying ‘Amen’ (which means ‘I agree’ or ‘so be it.’) (v12,13). They praised God together. It is suggested that Nehemiah and his brothers had loaned out money, but they had not charged interest.
Nehemiah set the people an example in that he and his brothers did not eat the provisions provided for the governor throughout the time he was governor (v14-16). Previous governors had imposed high taxes and taken their food, but they had not. It reminds me of Daniel and his three friends who would not eat the king’s provisions (Daniel 1). As I said in the introduction, this event indicates that Nehemiah was the writer in that he summarises his own actions during his time as governor. They had taken no pay from the people whereas previous governors had. There must have been several governors in addition to Zerubbabel and Ezra who are named but there had been one hundred years since the first group had returned.
He didn’t do it because he was simply not following the pattern, but because he feared God. He had a reverential fear of God, not fear in the sense of cowering from God, but because He respected God as Holy, and he wanted to please Him.
How important it is that we do what we do to please God not to please men. We live by God’s standards not the worlds. God is our judge, and we will have to answer to Him.
Nehemiah gives a further example of how he lived (v17,18). He entertained 150 Jews and rulers plus those from the nations around. He fed them on one ox and six sheep, fowl and once every ten days an abundance of wine. All this was out of his own pocket and did not claim the governor’s provisions.
Verse 19 seemed to indicate a strange prayer from Nehemiah. He asked God to remember his good deeds for the people. Jesus said that we should not parade our good deeds before men (Matthew 6:1-4), rather they should be done in secret before God who would reward us, sometimes even openly. Nehemiah is bringing it to God in secret. However, we have all read it. Some commentators suggest that he was wasn’t intending it to be public and that he was recording it privately in a diary.
It is not wrong to speak to God intimately and tell Him the thoughts of our heart. It becomes wrong when we just parade it before men. It is evident that God never forgot what Nehemiah did because we have it recorded for us in the Bible and everything there is recorded for our instruction.
