The Rebuilder’s Temptations

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, there was a tremendous outpouring of concern and compassion for the families of those who were lost at the World Trade Center. People, not only in the United States, but around the world opened both their hearts and their wallets to try to help.

At the very center of this groundswell of charity was the American Red Cross, the most highly visible of all the charitable aid organizations. In a matter of just a few weeks, the Red Cross became the recipient of over 500 million dollars in donations to its Liberty Disaster Fund.

But it wasn’t long before a bitter controversy broke out over how that money was to be used. Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former president of the organization, announced that 200 million dollars of that fund was going to be channeled into a reserve fund, set aside for possible future needs.

The public reacted with outrage. They had not given their hard earned dollars in order to fatten the Red Cross’s war chest; they had given that money with the understanding that ALL of it would go to the families of the victims. There was a backlash of resentment that led to angry Congressional hearings. For the Red Cross, it was a public relations disaster. Years of carefully cultivated trust and public confidence went up in smoke. Dr. Healy was forced to resign. The Red Cross was forced to reverse its plans, publicly apologize, and promise to send all of the money to the families of the victims.

This is a perfect example of how, in the midst of a national crisis, people can become divided over money. And exactly the same thing happened in Nehemiah 5. There was a great rebuidling program going on in the city of Jerusalem; the Jewish people were surrounded by enemies who were threatening to stop that project. Yet in the very middle of that national emergency, the people started squabbling over money.

We saw last week, in chapter 4, that Satan wanted to stop the people from rebuilding with God. And he used several strategies to try to disrupt them:

• Threats of the wicked – Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem

• Tiredness of the workers – strength is small; rubble is great

• Testimony of the worldly – other Jews who were living near the enemy

Now, in chapter 5, he’s going to use another approach – the temptation of wealth. If Satan can get us preoccupied and hung up in this area of our material resources; if he can get us to stop trusting God to meet our needs, then he can nullify our effectiveness as rebuilders for God.

Let’s look at the economic situation in Nehemiah chapter 5.

Neh. 5:1-5

Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers. Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”

Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”

Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. 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. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”

1. Complaint

The rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem put all kinds of economic pressure on the Jewish people. It was a time of national emergency. The rebuilding project disrupted the normal routines of life and commerce.

1. Trade with their neighboring territories was cut off because the neighbors were against what the Jews were trying to do.

2. Normal farming activity ceased, because the Jewish farmers had come into Jerusalem to help rebuild the walls.

3. Other craftsmen and business owners—indeed whole families of them—were no longer out in the marketplace selling their wares; they were working on the wall.

4. Due to the threats of their enemies, all the people had to stay in Jerusalem, as Nehemiah commanded at the end of chapter 4.

5. This economic disruption led to a food shortage; there was a famine because there wasn’t enough food in the city.

So you see, it wasn’t “business as usual” for the Jews! They were feeling the economic crunch. And in these first few verses of chapter 5, their frustrations boil over into an angry complaint. They bring up four “bones of contention” here…

1. many of them had large families and were running out of food

   1. “we and our sons and daughters are numerous” – v. 2

   2. “we need grain; we need groceries to stay alive”

   3. notice that the women were also involved in this complaint

      1. “the men and their wives raised a great outcry” – v. 1 – extraordinary!

      2. “When Momma ain’t happy; ain’t nobody happy.”

2. many of them were landowners who had had to mortgage their fields, their vineyards, even their homes to get grain during the famine. – v. 3

3. the king’s taxes were too high – v. 4

   1. some of them had to borrow money to pay them

4. some of them had had to sell their sons and daughters into slavery in order to pay off their debts – v. 5

Now all of that was bad, but what made it even worse was that it was not just an economic crisis; it was a crisis of brotherhood, it was a crisis of trust and kinship and unity. It was a crisis that struck at the very roots of their sense of community and oneness as the people of God.

Look at what the people are saying in these verses. They are not crying out against their foreign neighbors. And they are not crying out against Nehemiah for putting them into this situation. No, they are crying out (v. 1) against their Jewish brothers. The word “brother” is used five times in this passage, because that’s what this crisis is really all about – it is a crisis of brotherhood. The economic issues were just the tip of the iceberg; they were just a symptom of the real problem.

What was happening here was that some of the Jews – the wealthier ones; the nobles, the officials – were taking advantage of the economic crisis in order to make a profit at the expense of the poorer Jews—the common people who were working on the wall.

They were lending money at high interest rates – as much as 1% per month, or 12% per year. They were accepting as collateral on these loans the property – the houses, fields, and vineyards – of the borrowers. If the borrower couldn’t pay – the lender would foreclose, and the borrower would be left without the independent means to make a living. He would be left “powerless” as it says in v. 5 – disabled economically.

Even worse, in some cases, the wealthy lenders were taking into slavery the sons and daughters of the borrowers who couldn’t pay off their loans.

And the result was that a huge wedge of bitterness and bad feelings was driven into the heart of the community. There was inequity and injustice between people who were supposed to be brothers. And it all rose up because some of them became so preoccupied with making money, feathering their nest, getting ahead financially. Their greed became the cause for much grief.

Make no mistake: Our attitude toward things can powerfully affect our relationship with people.

God knew that – that’s why he wrote into the Law of Moses some very clear instructions spelling out how the Jews were to act when it came to the priority of resources or the priority of relationships. Listen to some of these laws…

Leviticus 25:35-37 If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you. Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you. You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit.

Deuteronomy 15:7-8 If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.

Leviticus 25:39-42 If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and 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; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. Then he and his children are to be released, and he will go back to his own clan and to the property of his forefathers. Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves.

The Year of Jubilee was supposed to happen every 50^(th) year. During that year, all slaves were to be released, all debts were to be cancelled, and all property was to be returned to its ancestral owners. The same, with the exception of the return of property, was to be true of the Sabbath year, which was to be held every seventh year. The land was to lie fallow in the Sabbath year, and whatever it produced was to be given to the poor.

These economic laws, which had the effect of redistributing wealth, were God’s way of ensuring that Israel remain an economically equitable society—that property and wealth could not find its way into the hands of just a few – a wealthy “upper class”. Because relationships are affected by resources. And God wanted Israel to:

1. Be a nation of brothers

2. Recognized that all wealth, all property, belonged to Him.

Now these were the principles that were being violated here in Nehemiah chapter 5. A few people were getting rich at the expense of many people who were getting poor. And that is why the people cried out.

2. Confrontation

Nehemiah heard their complaint - v. 6.

When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry.

This was a righteous anger; a righteous indignation over a wrong that was being done. The Bible says “Be angry and don’t sin”. There is a place for righteous anger – look at Jesus when he cleared the Temple.

v. 6-11

I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are exacting usury from your own countrymen!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your brothers, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.

So I continued, “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? I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let the exacting of usury stop! Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the usury you are charging them — the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine and oil.”

One of the characteristics of a good leader is that he is not afraid to take the bull by the horns. And this was certainly true of Nehemiah here. He tackled this problem head on by confronting his officials and nobles with the wrong they were doing.

Now think about the ramifications of what Nehemiah was doing:

1. he wasn’t just talking to anybody; he was talking to his officials and nobles – the “movers and shakers” of Jerusalem

2. he wasn’t just talking about any subject – he was talking about money – a very sensitive subject

3. he wasn’t just talking about anybody’s money – he was talking about their money, their vested interests, their financial affairs, their bank accounts

4. he wasn’t just talking to them in private – he called a public assembly to talk about this – v. 7

5. he wasn’t just talking to them about this in secular terms, he was talking in spiritual terms – v. 9 – “Don’t you fear God? Don’t you care about your testimony in front of unbelievers?”

   1. make no mistake – unbelievers watch what we do with our money and they draw conclusions about how real our faith in God is, because nothing reveals our spirituality as much as what we do with our stuff.

6. he was a newcomer on the scene; he hadn’t been around very long to earn the right to say these hard things

It took tremendous courage for Nehemiah to do what he did, but it was the right thing to do. And the nobles and the officials (v. 8) couldn’t find a thing to say in their own defence because what they were doing was wrong and they knew it.

Q. How do you react when God confronts you with something in your life that is wrong? Do you put up an argument? Do you rationalize about it? (Rationalize = telling yourself rational lies) How about when God challenges you in the area of your possessions, your material resources; your finances, and what you’re doing with them? How do you handle that?

Every now and then, we need to be confronted by God on the issue of our possessions. Because we start to think about them as though they really are “our possessions”. And they’re not. They’re God’s possessions.

• my money is not my money; it’s God’s money

• my house is not my house; it’s God’s house

• my car is not my car; it’s God’s car

Because everything that we have belongs to him. That is God’s truth. How are we going to respond to it?

3. Confession

Look at the response of the nobles and officials in v. 12…

“We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”

Obedience. But in order to help these folks follow through on their good intentions, Nehemiah set up some accountability:

Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out and emptied!”

This was serious stuff! But look at the results at the end of v. 13…

At this the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.

The brotherhood that was damaged was healed; the relationships that had been broken were restored, the unity that was fragmented was made whole again. And the joy that had been lost in serving the Lord was recovered, because the people praised the Lord together. They were a team again. Because they had learned the lesson that people are more important than things. Do you believe that? Have you learned that lesson?

4. Constraint

The last several verses of this chapter prove that Nehemiah had learned that lesson.

1. Unlike previous governors, he didn’t demand the food allowance that would have been rightfully his – v. 14-15

2. He didn’t want to put a heavy burden on the people to support him and his assistants.

3. He didn’t use his position of influence to become rich, by acquiring any land – v. 16

4. On the contrary, he was generous and hospitable – every day, he hosted 150 people at his table – v. 17

5. He devoted himself to working on the wall – this was the mission that God had called him to, and this was the mission that he was determined to see through.

Nehemiah is an example of integrity in leadership. He avoided the temptations of wealth. And why did he do this? The answer is in verse 15…

Out of reverence for God I did not act like that

Nehemiah was living for God’s approval, and God’s alone.

There are some very interesting parallels between this passage and the New Testament church…

No sooner had the church gotten started in the book of Acts when they ran smack into the temptations of wealth – Acts 5 – Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property, ostensibly to give the proceeds to the church. But they kept back a portion for themselves and they lied to the church about it. Greed brings grief. How you handle your possessions reveals how you’re walking with God.

No sooner had the apostles gotten that problem sorted out when they ran into another controversy in Acts 6 that threatened the unity of the church as a body of believers – it was a controversy over resources: fairness in the distribution of food – some of the Grecian Jews complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were getting overlooked in the daily distribution of food. How we deal with resources can affect relationships.

In James 2, we have the same principles that God gave the Israelites in the Mosaic Law when it came to how to treat your brother…

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

The Apostle Paul, like Nehemiah, is a good example of servant leadership. In 1 Corinthians 9 and 2 Thessalonians 3 he says that there are a lot of privileges he had a right to as an apostle, but he didn’t demand those things – he supported himself in his ministry, so as not to be a burden on the people he was serving.

So you see, there are great parallels in the principles that are given to us in Nehemiah, and the principles we have in the NT.

“We will either serve God and use money;

or we will serve money and use God”