1Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. 2For 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.” 3There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” 4And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards. 5Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are 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.”
6I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. 7I took counsel with myself, and I 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 8and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought 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. 9So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies? 10Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. 11Return 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.” 12Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised. 13I also shook out the folda 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 the assembly said “Amen” and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.
14Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor. 15The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily rationb forty shekelsc of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God. 16I also persevered in the work on this wall, and we acquired no land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work. 17Moreover, there were at my table 150 men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. 18Now what was prepared at my expensed for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Yet for all this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because the service was too heavy on this people. 19Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.
How did Nehemiah deal with the internal strife? What prevents us to live accordingly to God’s Word?
Share with your friends what do you think from the reading today.
In chapter 5, the Unseen Enemy tries yet another approach. Nehemiah has successfully handled the threatened attack from without, but now he runs into a problem from within his own ranks. You may experience that too in your struggle to recover some area of your life. You may run into family problems, pressures, and problems with those who work with you, perhaps even from other brothers and sisters in the Lord. In this case it was a clash between the workers and the officials, the laborers and the overseers who were working on this project.
To a great degree these were justified complaints. Nehemiah deals with them earnestly and forthrightly. He could not change the conditions, but he reveals the real problem–usury. Usury is charging interest for money that has been loaned–a common practice in our day. The Jews were allowed to do this with other races, but Moses said that when Jews lent money to other Jews, they were not to charge any interest. Nehemiah is upset by this usury and demands that they stop. This was more than a demand to end the practice of usury. He was insisting on restitution as well. They must give back their unjust gains. Their reaction was surprising. They were stricken by conscience because they knew from the Scriptures that what they were doing was wrong.
Believers ought to be very careful about taking advantage of others, especially other Christians, and getting rich at their expense. Scripture condemns this practice as uncaring and heedless of the poor testimony it presents to others.
Nehemiah is encouraged by their promise that they will not do this. He has first uncovered the real cause. He shows that it is simple greed that is the problem. He confronts the overseers with it, rebuking them and showing them it is wrong. There is a place and time for forthright, blunt confrontation in our relationships with others. Sometimes we need to point out to people that what they are doing is wrong and help them to see what needs to be done. That is what Nehemiah does.
Are we honestly confronting greed in all areas of our lives? Are we able to honestly, even bluntly, confront those we are in relationship with to help them?
Nehemiah addresses the problem head on! He does not shy away from confrontation. Sometimes out of fear of ruining a relationship I will just swallow what I want to say as supposed to identifying the importance of helping the other person by pointing out my observation!
Someone in Hoa’s group shared how Nehemiah confronts the sin out of the care for that person and I totally agree! What is amazing is how Nehemiah recognizes the sin and addresses it. He was honest by telling them what they were doing was bad. He was also caring in how he helps them to recognize how they were hurting their own people. And through all this confrontation you can tell God was with him because he brought up God numerous times and also towards the end the whole assembly praised the LORD and did what they had promised. God worked in them and through the conversation and I found it miraculous how quickly their heart changed. There was definitely some sort of divine intervention present during this time. I also found this passage to be convicting because it helped me to address my own greed. Whether it be with my money, my valuables, or even my time and energy. I hope I continue to be honest with myself and with others and bring this up to God. Like how Nehemiah with his own brothers and sisters.
Nehemiah dealt with the internal strife by doing the opposite of what the noble were doing. Instead of being greedy like them, he made them to return what they have taken from the people back. He also obeyed the Words of God by continue to live in a righteous way by not exploiting the people more. I think 1 thing that can prevent us from living accordingly to God’s Word is ourselves. We can be too arrogant, too greedy for our own success that we’re willing to do anything for it, even if it can hurt the people around us. We love the attentions that we can get from being successful, and it makes us to think that we don’t need Jesus in our life. When in reality, like Nehemiah, we do need God every day and we have to rely in his strength.
From brother Brian
Day 17: How did Nehemiah deal with the internal strife? What prevents us to live accordingly to God’s Word?
Nehemiah essentially checked the higher ups by calling a meeting. He reminded them about God and to no longer exploit the Jews. He kinda cursed them (the priests) too if they broke their promise.
Sin (Greed) is what prevents us from living according to God’s words. I think don mentioned it before about the flesh being weak… we always want our fair share. Like for example, if I was the governor, i for sure will take my salary and all the benefits that may come from it. Whether it be free food, haircuts, idk whatever benefits or perks that may come with being in the position of power. But guess who Nehemiah tried to emulate? Yep, you guessed it… Jesus. To live and (die) for His people selflessly and sacrificially in obedience to God.
I pray for this all the time but fail miserably. Of all the sins, I think i struggle with greed the most. I may think that I’m content but then why am I always doing things to attain more? SMH ??♂️
The way Nehemiah dealt with the situation was that he spoke to the people and gathered their thoughts. When he came to see what was going on, he then began to change things around as the Judah’s new governor. He continued to encourage those of Judah to remain faithful as he cries out to the lord to also reign down and help those who are suffering. Nehemiah remained fair and faithful to God in this process. I believe part of what may separate some of us from God is that we begin to get greedy or even deceiving when it comes to even a whiff of having to turn on survival mode. We then fend off for ourselves and start to obtain a careless mindset of our actions. I pray that we can remain selfless like Nehemiah even through troubled times and remain faithful to our one true king, God.
I feel for Nehemiah!!! He did not have smooth sailing trying to rebuild the walls, he had to face with opposition from without and now he had to deal with conflict from within. Nehemiah is such a godly leader. Instead of telling ppl I am busy building this wall, come back and we will talk later. But Nehemiah realized the problems were significant so he diverted his attention to his people to listen and help resolve the conflict. In a church quarrel, Satan often likes to divide God’s people by getting them to wrong one another and then not to deal biblically with problems. We must be committed to resolve conflicts God’s way then His work will go forward.