Untitled Sermon (5)

The first thing we learn is that we need to…

1. Expose Sin In The Body

This chapter opens with a major problem going on within the Jews…

There are those who are sinfully taking advantage of their own people…their own body!

But the oppressed people rise up and expose their sin.

Nehemiah 5:1–5 ESV

1 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.”

EXPLAIN

Nehemiah had cast a vision for everyone to join him in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem,

and everyone followed him sacrificially.

Their own farms, vineyards, businesses suffered,

because all their energy was going to the rebuilding of the wall,

which may have contributed to a famine that was going on.

The situation was desperate,

and their own people began to take advantage of them.

Verse 2 reveals some were being denied food BY THEIR OWN PEOPLE…

Maybe because they didn’t have money to buy it.

Verse 3 reveals some were selling fields, vineyards, and houses TO THEIR OWN PEOPLE to buy grain.

They had no choice…

sell it or starve to death!

Verse 4 reveals some were borrowing money FROM THEIR OWN PEOPLE for the king’s tax…

And were being charged high interest rates!

Verse 5 reveals they were selling their children to be slaves TO THEIR OWN PEOPLE in order to get food…

And the end of verse 5 sums it all up…

“It is not in our power to help it…”

There was nothing they could do to stop it!

They needed food to survive,

so they sold what they had,

and still owed money,

so they and their children had to become slaves.

All of these people were helpless,

but rather than remain silent,

they exposed those who were exploiting them.

The reason they were willing to speak up,

was because they were disobeying God!

He had commanded them in…

Leviticus 25:35–37 ESV

35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. 36 Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. 37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.

God wanted His people to act as one body,

taking care of one another.

But the Israelites, rather than being concerned about the body as a whole,

were motivated by selfish greed,

and took advantage of their own people for personal gain.

Summary

So… those who were oppressed EXPOSED THE SIN IN THE BODY!

They realized that if they allowed the sin to go on,

it had the potential to not only to stop the progress on the wall,

but completely destroy them as a nation!