Nehemiah 5: Getting Serious About Sin

Take 3

Up to this point, most of the challenges to the work have come from without

And we’ve talked about this at length.

How Satan tries to thwart the work of God through opposition

false accusation

slander

physical persecution and other things

And we’ve talked about how all of this should be expected

And while it is difficult to endure these things, we are warned in Scripture that they will come, and to NOT be surprised

But now, as we come into this chapter of Nehemiah, we see that the people are dealing with a different kind of opposition to the work

And this is an internal struggle

It is a conflict among the Jews themselves that has just as much, if not more, potential to derail the work, than the outside opposition does!

And in many ways, these struggles can be even more difficult and even more disappointing

Because you expect (or at least we are supposed to expect) opposition from the outside

But it’s really hard and confusing when internal struggles seem to hinder what God is doing

When you are facing opposition from without, it is easier as a group to stand up against those kind of things

You can see the danger. It’s obvious

But when the opposition comes from within, and we, as the people of God, find ourselves being torn apart by internal strife, this is particularly difficult, isn’t it?

So, what is the nature of the internal conflict that the Jews are having?

Well, as we are going to see, it has to do with issues of

Justice

Mercy

And these are issues that are very important to God

You remember that famous verse: Micah 6:8 “8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

The context of that verse is this

The LORD is bringing an indictment, or an accusation against the Israelites

He reminds them of His faithfulness, all that He did in saving them out of slavery and the ways in which He had showed His faithfulness

But the people are constantly straying into disobedience. And the LORD says, “How have I made you weary? What have I done to you that you are always turning away from me?”

And what follows is kind of like a conversation between the LORD and the prophet Micah

And I have to kind of chuckle at this conversation.

Sort of reminds me of being a kid

Mom comes and reminds me—hey, I told you to clean your room

You know that’s what you’re supposed to do.

Now, leave off what you are doing and go do it

My reaction: FINE!! I have to do ALL the work around here.

Mom: No, actually you don’t. You just have to do what I’ve asked you to do

Micah basically says, “Well, LORD, what do you want me to do?

Would thousands of rams make you happy?

Would rivers of oil please you?

Maybe you’d like me to sacrifice my firstborn to you

And the LORD says, “I don’t want any of that.

Because the LORD has told you what is good

That is how you treat your brothers and sisters and how you walk with God

What the LORD wants from you and from all of us is

Justice

Mercy

Humility

That’s it. Simple to state, but it can be challenging to live out, can’t it?

So, let’s read Nehemiah 5 .

PRAY

English Standard Version (Chapter 5)

5 Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. 2 For 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.” 3 There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” 4 And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards. 5 Now 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.”

So, let’s just pause and summarize the problems here

People are facing a food shortage (famine verse 3)

And when there is a food shortage, or when people are hungry, that brings up all kinds of other problems

On a petty level, we probably know that feeling of when you haven’t eaten enough and your blood sugar starts dropping

you get irritable, short-tempered, often not thinking very clearly

But on a more serious level, can you imagine the desperation of people who are facing a food shortage

I was just hearing on the news the other day that there is yet another famine approaching in Ethiopia

BTW, did you know that Ethiopia has more Mennonites than any other country in the world? Around 514,000!

So, doubtless, some of our Mennonite brothers and sisters are also facing food shortages

But, the experts are saying that if “something” isn’t done, this famine will make the famines of the 1980’s look mild in comparison

I don’t know how bad the famine is that the Jews are facing here in chapter 5, but it’s causing issues

Because it appears that Some Jews were wealthy enough to have stockpiles of grain

But they sold it instead of sharing it with their neighbors

People had to surrender their fields and their homes in order to purchase it

Verse 3--”We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain”

This is a serious situation for them. Essentially, they are taking on debt in order to just survive

Taxes: People are short on cash and having to borrow money to pay the king’s tax. verse 4

Remember, They are paying taxes to a foreign government—the Persians

Can you imagine having to do that?

We struggle enough with paying taxes to our own government

Can you imagine if, by some fluke, Germany would have managed to conquer the U.S. back in the ‘40s and we would find ourselves today paying taxes to them?

Talk about insult to injury. Especially if you are going into debt in order to pay those taxes!

In order to repay those loans that they are incurring just to stay alive and to stay out of jail, they are being forced into slave labor

Their children are even being enslaved in order to pay off loans (verse 5)

Slavery in those days was typically a result of debt

This is still a problem today

Pakistan

Bottom line—people are being exploited

This was not supposed to happen among the Jews

In fact, by exploiting and mistreating their neighbors, they were ignoring the very covenant that they had made with God many years earlier

Deuteronomy 23:19–20 “19 “You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. 20 You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest,

WHY should you not charge interest?

that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

Be a blessing! Don’t try to kick your brother or take advantage of your brother when he is down

No! Look out for him. Take care of him!

Do you want to be blessed in the land that I have given you? Then follow my law! Don’t mistreat your neighbor!

The thing is, we just talked last Sunday about the danger that the people were in…being threatened by the people in the land

And doubtless, they are praying for protection

The blessing of God

But, I believe that they are in danger, because the problem is, there is sin in the land

They are praying for blessing, but there is something desperately wrong among them

And this is a problem over and over again in the lives of the people of Israel

I don’t know if any of you have read the book of Malachi recently, but you see this dynamic there

The people crying out for God’s blessing, but God says, “But you aren’t addressing the sin in your midst

The priests are offering polluted offerings on the alter

Apparently divorce is a huge problem, men going through wives, divorcing them on a whim

Or in chapter 3 of Malachi, they just simply are saying, “Oh, God loves everybody. Doesn’t matter if they have sin in their lives or not”

Wow, this doesn’t sound too far off from today, does it?

You know, I have no doubt that we in church desire the blessing of God

In fact, I have not much doubt that most people in America desire the blessing of God, whether they believe in Him or not, there is something that is pretty appealing about having God bless us

In fact, the POTUS ends his speeches with “God bless America”.

But the question that God would have for us is, “Ok, so are you ready to deal with sin?”

And I’m not sure that Believers in general are ready to deal with sin

I listen to the popular Christian music of our day, and there are a lot of songs about desiring God’s blessing

And every other song, it seems like, has something in it about “chains breaking” or “God winning every battle” and things like that

But how many songs of confession to you hear?

Songs desiring the cleansing of God, the refining work that the Holy Spirit does?

If you read on in the book of Malachi in chapter 3, the Lord’s messenger is foretold. And he asks the question: “Who can endure the day of His coming?”

He is like a refiner’s fire

Like a fuller’s soap (a fuller was one who would clean or whiten clothes)

He will refine and purify the priests

Refining is the work of removing sin

You know too often the response of the Jews to their revealed sin was complacency…apathy

And too often that is our response as well

Well....it’s not that bad, is it? I mean, it’s not really hurting anyone

The Psalmist, David said this in Psalm 66:17–19 “17 I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue. 18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. 19 But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.”

That word, “cherished” is the key to this passage. It means “to see, to understand, to examine”. It has the idea of knowing that it is there, yet, not wanting to let it go. I love it too much to let it go

We think, “No, I don’t love sin”.

I mean, that’s what we say. It wouldn’t be very cool, as good church people, to say, “Man, I sure love to sin!”

Well, maybe not. But too often, we feel justified in sinning.

Especially when in our pride we have hurt someone

Well, I was right in what I said and it needed to be said!

Or, when we are angry at someone

I have a right to be angry with that guy! you know what he did to me?

I think God would remind us, that this is cherishing sin, and God will not respond to the prayers of those who do

You know, if we are serious about desiring restoration and renewal, I believe that we need to also be serious about preparing to deal with sin

All that is in our hearts and lives that is against the character of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit

Are we serious? Are we as serious as Nehemiah was in this chapter?

Nehemiah’s response

What is Nehemiah’s response to what is going on?

6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. 7 I 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 8 and 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. 9 So 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? 10 Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. 11 Return 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.” 12 Then 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. 13 I also shook out the fold 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.

Nehemiah’s response—

When he finds out what is going on, He was very angry.

How much does sin anger you?

You know, I’m not recommending that we walk around with a scowl on our faces or anger in our hearts

But, you know, anger is a very powerful motivating force

And when we identify sin in our lives, and in the life of the body, maybe it needs to make us angry sometimes

in order to motivate us to do something about it

He took counsel with himself-vs. 7

He took some time to examine his own heart and life

He knows that something has to be done, but not before he takes some time to examine his own life

This reminds me of the teaching of Jesus when He said, “Hey, if you want to bring to light a fault in your brother or sister, take some time to examine your own life”

Before you point out that speck in their eye, you better take out the beam in your own eye

So, I believe that what Nehemiah was doing was taking some time to examine his own life

“Am I guilty of the same sin? If so, then Lord forgive me! Purify me!”

Also, I believe that what Nehemiah would have been doing in this case is considering carefully his plan of action and his words

He didn’t want to just come out swinging. Again, He knew there was obvious sin that needed to be dealt with, but he didn’t just want to come out throwing punches and accusations.

This needed to be a redemptive confrontation

And then he took counsel with those who were sinning

He outlines their sin: You are charging interest from your brothers!

A clear violation of their covenant with God

And the response of the Jewish officials—they have nothing to say

Which indicates guilt.

usually, if you wrongfully accuse someone, you would expect them to immediately defend their own innocence.

But these guys have nothing to say in their own defense

They’ve been caught red-handed.

I mean, what is there to say, right? They have no excuse, and they know it. There is nothing that they can fall back on and say, “Well, yeah, but Nehemiah, you don’t understand.

I mean, at least they don’t try to excuse themselves

But neither do they admit guilt. I wonder how much they really saw the wrong in what they had done.

I wonder how much they were excusing themselves in their heart, maybe not out loud

But Nehemiah is not satisfied to let their silence be their answer

He says to them, in my words, “You guys have sinned terribly, and this is what you are going to do about it. You are going to make things right.”

And they said, “Well, Ok. If you say so. We’ll do what you say”

And the reason that I question their sincerity a bit is because of what Nehemiah does next:

He shakes out the folds of his garment and says, (vs. 13) “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.”

What is he saying? I mean, we don’t go around shaking out our robes today.

Well, this act of shaking things out in the Bible is a message or a warning of rejection

Basically he is saying, “May God reject everyone who does not keep this promise that you have made.”

Which helps us this verse: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not hear me.”

in other words, get serious about sin. Get serious about desiring the convicting work that the Holy Spirit does

Get serious about receiving the sacrifice that Jesus made for you and living in it each day!

You know, as I read this interaction between Nehemiah and the Jewish officials, it makes me wonder about a few things.

How do we deal with sin in the Body of Christ. I think we would all agree (at least I hope we would) that sin is something that we do need to deal with

But I wonder about a couple of things

Can we be as direct with each other in regard to sin as Nehemiah was?

Could we be this direct and forthright with each other

Brother, you gotta stop doing this! It’s sin! How is God going to bless you, or His Church, if you keep on doing this?”

Can we be this direct with each other?

In my heart, have I given permission for my brother or my sister, any of you all here, to come to me at any time and say, “brother, there is something that I’m concerned about in your life.”

I mean, this is a hard thing to do, and a hard thing to receive. It’s scary to be this direct with someone, and it’s hard to receive someone being this direct with me

to have someone clearly point out something in my life that is sin

But, as we know, Jesus was pretty direct.

Calling our hypocrisy in the religious leaders

He even scolded His disciples occasionally

Apostle Paul was very direct in his letters

Calling out lack of unity

sexual immorality

He rebuked Peter at one point—Peter, that’s no way to act!

Are we allowed to do this here at Fairview?

Another question along this line: Are there things in the church that we are allowed to talk about, and other things that we aren’t allowed to talk about when it comes to sin?

Example: If you knew someone who, every time they opened their mouth, it seemed like they are just cutting people down, slandering them.

I think most of us would agree that maybe something should be said to this brother. “hey that’s sin! You really need to stop that!”

But if you found out that someone was not tithing and not honoring God with his money

Would you be allowed to say anything to him about that?

Hey, it’s my money. Mind your own business

Something to think about

And the third question is: when someone does approach me about a sin in my life, what is my response?

Do I just sit in silence like the Jews did?

Do I just sit and wait for you to tell me what I need to do and then I can decide what I’m going to do about it?

Maybe I’ll grudgingly go out and do what you say, or I’ll just ignore you all together.

Or do I get defensive and angry?

Or, do I say, “Thank you for telling me.”

It’s going to be a hard pill to swallow, but you thank your brother or sister. You may not even think that you did anything wrong, but you take it before the Lord, and you ask the Holy Spirit to shine His light on it