Sermon Tone Analysis

Nehemiah 5:1-19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Caswell © 2000

Greed

/ /

In Hank Ketcham's comic strip "Dennis the Menace," Dennis is looking through a catalog saying, /This catalog's got a lot of toys I didn't even know I wanted./

Greed is a problem that has always plagued mankind.

Even God's people aren't immune to this insidious enemy.

Introduction

 

Last Sunday we saw four types of opposition that Israel faced.

They faced /ridicule, force, discouragement /and/ fear./

For the most part the opposition came from without.

Today we will see an even more dangerous enemy; greed.

This chapter reveals to us the depths of sin in the human heart and how each of us must learn to love our neighbors as ourselves.

This moving drama has three acts.

I.

A Great Cry            II.

A Great Assembly           III.

A Great Example

 

/Firstly    /A Great Cry

 

*Nehemiah 5:1* /And there was a *great outcry* of the people and their wives against their *Jewish brethren*./

/ /

In the midst of a */great work/* for a */great God/*, a */great cry/* was heard among the Jews.

They were not crying out against the Samaritans, the Ammonites, or the Arabs, but against their own people!

Jew was exploiting Jew, and the economic situation had become so desperate that even the wives who usually kept silent joined in the protest./

/Four different groups of people were involved in this crisis.

/ /

/a.

Starvation/

/ /

*Nehemiah 5:2* /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*./

/ /

Firstly, there were people who owned no land but needed food.

The population had increased; there was a famine; and the people were hungry.

These people could not help themselves so they cried out to Nehemiah./

/They were starving and no one cared about them.

/ /

/b.

Extortion/

/ /

*Nehemiah 5:3* /There were also some who said, We have *mortgaged* our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine./

/ /

The second group was composed of landowners who had mortgaged their property in order to buy food.

The choice was mortgage their land or starve.

/ /

/c.

Taxation/

/ /

*Nehemiah 5:4* /There were also those who said, We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards./

The third group complained because the taxes were too high, and they were forced to borrow money to pay them.

In order to borrow the money, they had to give security; and this meant eventually losing their property.

The Persian king received a fortune in annual tribute, very little of which ever benefited the local provinces.

/ /

/d.

Exploitation/

/ /

*Nehemiah 5:5* /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./

The fourth group was made up of wealthy Jews.

They were exploiting their own brothers and sisters by loaning them money and taking their lands and their children for collateral.

Jewish boys and girls had to choose between */starvation/* or */servitude!

/*It was not unlawful for Jews to loan money to one another, but they were not to act like money lenders charging interest.

The Law required them to treat one another with love even in the matter of taking security or making a brother a servant.

Both the people and the land belonged to the Lord, and He would not have anybody using either one for personal gain.

A reason for the */Year of Jubilee/* was to balance the economic system so that the rich could not get richer as the poor became poorer.

Application

 

/How do these matters apply to the Church?/

From the Church's beginning, there have been poor folk needing help.

We are to care for them.

We must never exploit them for personal gain!

The early Church was careful to minister to the poor and the widows.

We ought to follow their example.

God wants us to help the needy by giving to meet their needs.

Unfortunately many Christians can't give because they are like Dennis the Menace looking through shopping catalogues.

They spend everything on themselves.

/Are we concerned for the needy in our midst?

Do we assist the elderly, the widows and the unemployed when we are able?/

Christ calls us to.

*/How did Nehemiah respond to this situation?

/He called:/ /*

 

/Secondly / A Great Assembly

 

*Nehemiah 5:7* /After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, Each of you is exacting usury from his brother.

So I called a great assembly against them./

It is one thing to confront foreign enemies but something else to deal with your own people when they fight each other.

Nehemiah showed true leadership in his response to the problem.

/a.

Wrath/

/ /

*Nehemiah 5:6* /And I became *very angry* when I heard their outcry and these words./

/ /

Nehemiah */became angry/* at the way the rich had taken advantage of the poor.

They had no compassion for their brethren.

*Ephesians 4:26 says:* /Be angry and sin not: neither let the sun go down on your wrath.

*How can you be angry without sinning?*

/By being angry only at sin.

Nehemiah was angry at the sins of the nobles who were oppressing the poor.

Nehemiah was not a politician who asked, /What is popular?/ or a diplomat who asked, /What is safe?/ but a true leader who asked, /What is right?/

*/His was a holy anger against sin, and he knew he had the Law of God behind him./*

Moses expressed this kind of holy anger when he broke the stone tables of Law.

Jesus was angry at the money changers in the temple.

/b.

Reflection/

/ /

*Nehemiah 5:7a* /After serious thought/

 

The KJV/ says I consulted with myself/.

This literally means */my heart consulted within me/*.

A friend of mine calls this putting my heads together.

Actually, Nehemiah put his heart and his head together as he pondered the problem and sought God’s direction.

He got control of his feelings and his thoughts so that he could give constructive leadership to the people.

*Proverbs 16:32* says: /He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city/*.*

If a leader can’t control himself, he will never be successful in controlling others./

/Nehemiah decided to call a great assembly and publicly confront the people whose selfishness had created this difficult and painful situation.

Theirs was a grievous public sin, involving the whole nation.

/It demanded public *rebuke* and *repentance*/.

/ /

/c.

Rebuke/