Three Tests Of Injustice
Notes
Transcript
Lord’s Supper
Lord’s Supper
Ask the men to come and have a seat at the front.
Reminder: when the men bring the plate around, if you wish to participate, you’ll need to take from the plate.
Read Matthew 26:26
Pray and thank the Lord for giving His body and shedding His blood for us.
Serve the bread
Read Matthew 26:27-28
Partake
Serve the grape juice
Partake
Pray
Review
Review
Turn to Nehemiah 5.
Sanballat, Nehemiah’s primary antagonist, formed an alliance to attack Jerusalem from all sides. When the Jews heard this, fear and anxiety gripped their hearts. This alliance threatened their very existence.
We acknowledged that fear is a common problem in America. In our culture, we have been taught that the default way to cope with fear and anxiety is medication, but medication is not a cure-all.
Read slowly:
Medication that alters the state of your mind should be a last resort, not a first resort. Instead, when a Christian is anxious, they should pray, they should prepare, and they should meditate on Scripture about their Heavenly Father.
Introduction
Introduction
Read Nehemiah 5:1-6.
Up to this point Nehemiah’s challenges as a spiritual leader…[were] primarily… outside of Judah. But before the walls were finally rebuilt, he encountered the most difficult and intense kind of problem almost every spiritual leader has to face sometime—problems within.
The problem was one of great injustice. Jews were taking advantage of Jews. It became so bad that both Jewish men and their wives began to protest and bring accusation against the Jews that were the perpetrators of this.
The accusation was threefold:
Verse 2 - “we are having to buy food to feed our families.” Their supplies depleted and their own crops were neglected, therefore, they were having to buy grain like Jacob and his sons did when going down to Egypt. Farmers having to buy food to feed themselves!
Verse 3 - “We have taken loans against our properties to buy food because of the drought.” You have to eat to survive, but anyone knows that taking out a mortgage just to buy food is never a good situation. That’s what some landowners were having to do. They were having to use their properties as collateral just to get the funds to buy food.
Verse 4 - “We have taken loans with other Jews on our properties to pay our taxes. We have sold our children to be servants and we can’t buy them back.” They were having to resort to the most extreme of measures to survive. Their properties were mortgaged off and their children had been sold for money. They had no means to get out of the financial hole that they were in.
The icing on the cake was that this downward spiral was not facilitated by Gentiles, it was facilitated by other Jews!
people were hurting and suffering, and those who should have been the most compassionate (the nobles and officials) were most guilty of exploitation.
The wealthy Jews that were serving as the creditors behind this were breaking just about every law in the book. God clearly prohibited this injustice in the law!
Read Exodus 22:25, Leviticus 25:35-38
For further reference: Deuteronomy 23:19-20.
Jews were allowed to lend to other Jews, but not at exorbitant rates.
Read Nehemiah 5:11.
100th part = 12% a year
There was no way that the poorer Jews, who were working on the walls of Jerusalem, would ever be able to get out of this. Their children would be kept as servants, their fields would remain mortgaged, and they themselves would work to bring others profit, but there would be no repaying the debts.
I think we would all agree, this was a horrible injustice.
There is a lot that is called injustice in our country today. It’s a label that gets thrown around and applied to all kinds of things. For example, you’ll hear some people talk about things such as:
Social injustice - racial injustice is a big one
Economic injustice
Educational injustice
Environmental injustice
Are there instances of injustice in 2025? I have no doubt that there are because all human beings are sinners in need of a Savior. But there is so much that is called injustice now that it can be difficult to sort between what truly is, and what isn’t. Some so-called injustice is so abstract, it’s hard to figure out what the injustice really is.
Since this term strikes a nerve in our country, perhaps we should ask the question, “what is injustice?”
I’m not going to claim that I am an expert on the subject. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last two years of pastoring, it is that I cannot be an expert on everything. So although I’m not an expert on everything that is called injustice in our day, I can’t avoid the subject either especially when I see it so plainly in our text.
We don’t have the time in today’s message to take all of those apparent types of injustice that I just mentioned and weigh them against Scripture, but what we can do this morning is ask this question:
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What made this an act of injustice?
In Nehemiah 5:1-5, there are Three Tests of Injustice that we need to consider. When a person or a group of people in our culture claims that they are a victim of an injustice, there are three tests that we should apply:
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There was a measurable pain - Nehemiah 5:2-4
The actions of the Jewish creditors lead to a clear negative impact.
It sounds as though farmers were having to buy food to feed their families because inflation and the economy were so bad.
Property owners were mortgaging off their livelihoods just to buy food.
Some were taking loans to pay their taxes.
Worst of all, some were selling their children into servitude.
These Jews weren’t claiming emotional or psychological distress. You could objectively see the negative consequences that was being wrecked on their families thanks to these rich Jewish creditors.
Anytime you hear of a big lawsuit on the news, it seems that invariably one of the grievances claimed is emotional and psychological distress. We saw last week that those are real things, but it seems as though lawyers always tack it on to the lawsuit just to squeeze the defendant for a few more dollars.
Read slowly:
People today will say they have emotional and psychological distress because of this or that injustice, when in reality they are simply looking for a way to claim victim status.
They’ll say, “I am the oppressed! And you are the oppressor!”
And you know what’s interesting, it seems that Christians are always the ones accused of being the oppressors.
“Pastor Tim, are you saying that all injustice today is fake? It’s not real?”
No, I’m not saying that, but I am saying that when someone on the TV or in your neighborhood claims that they are the victims of injustice, the first test you should consider is whether or not there is a measurable pain.
“How did this injustice affect them?”
“What losses have they sustained?”
These Jews had suffered tangible loss. The effect it had on their wallets, on their bellies, and on their futures was real. There was no mistaking - they were hurting because of this injustice.
Application: Today, if someone claims to be a victim of injustice but cannot show a measurable pain, it might not be injustice. It might just be that they want to play the victim.
Christian, don’t be guilty of that. Your identity is in Christ. God has not called you to be a victim; He has called you to be a servant of the king. That’s a high honor.
The first test of injustice is that there was a measurable pain. The second test is that…
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There was a traceable cause and effect - Nehemiah 5:1, 6-7
Nehemiah indicates that the economic situation was bad already. Verse three says that there was a dearth - a famine. A famine was a deathblow to an agrarian society like Israel’s. No rain meant no food, so it was a severe problem. If that wasn’t bad enough, wealthy Jewish creditors were profiting off of it and making it worse for the poorer Jewish folks. The actions of the nobles and rulers had a clear negative impact on the poorer class.
When I lived in NC, there was a state senator that I got to know and he was a big proponent of being able to trace cause and effect. I think that he had studied quantitative analysis for his undergrad degree and maybe even masters. He liked using statistics and numbers. At any rate, when he considered public policy of any kind, he wanted to know what effect any changes to the law would have on his constituents.
Read slowly:
Today there is much that is called injustice that has no traceable cause and effect from the accused to the victim. People will claim that they are the victim of injustice without ever identifying a specific perpetrator or showing a clear cause and effect! People will claim to be victims and everyone else is supposed to show them empathy without ever asking any questions.
I love a clean environment. I love clean rivers to go fly fishing in and I believe in being good stewards of the planet that God has made. However, just because some rich American chooses to drive an SUV does not mean that they are committing environmental injustice against some child living in the Ivory Coast. Just because I live as a citizen of a first world country does not make me guilty of injustice against the citizens of third world countries. Why? Because there is no traceable cause and effect!
But there are plenty of people running around with microphones who want you to live with a burden of guilt that is not yours to bear!
Why was Nehemiah angry with the nobles and rulers? Because their actions were having a clear effect on the poorer class and it wasn’t good.
Application: When someone claims that they are the victim of an injustice, ask yourself this question: “is there a traceable cause and effect? Can the victim clearly identify the perpetrator? Or are they accusing entire groups of people based on their skin color, financial status, or religious persuasion?”
If there’s no clear line from the victim to the accused, there’s probably no injustice.
The third test we see from our text is that…
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There was an impossible situation - Nehemiah 5:5
Read Nehemiah 5:5
What is evident from verse five is that the poorer Jews could not reverse the cycle. Their sons and daughters were sold. Their lands and livelihoods had been auctioned off. They didn’t have a means to even make a living on their own. Their Jewish creditors - the nobles and rulers - had facilitated turning this into an impossible situation.
Sometimes the circumstances of life aren’t fair. Sometimes people aren’t either. That’s not God’s fault, that’s just how it is living in a fallen, sin-cursed world. Just because you’re in an unfair situation doesn’t mean it’s injustice. This situation was unfair, but I submit to you that it was more than that because there was no getting out of it either. The people had no long term means of working out of it. In a very real sense, they were farmers who had mortgaged the farm and even the farming implements. They had to sell the very means whereby they might be able to work their way out of this mess. It was an impossible situation.
That’s one point of distinction between a situation that is unfair and a situation that is unjust. It must be an impossible situation that cannot be worked out of.
For these Jewish people, living in famine conditions was unfair. But what made them victims of injustice was when the nobles and rulers profited off their poverty.
I said last week that we Americans are becoming more and more emotionally and mentally fragile. In my opinion, one consequence of that trend is that it is becoming more and more popular to claim victim status. People like to be the victim so that they can demand empathy from others. But all they are doing is stealing empathy from those who are truly victims.
Application: Just because a situation is unfair doesn’t mean it is unjust. Just because a person is born into unfair circumstances doesn’t mean they are the victim of injustice. Just because you are facing some unfair circumstances in life doesn’t mean that you are the victim of injustice by the hand of those around you.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Injustice.
It’s a buzzword in our day. It’s used in many ways and is given a variety of meanings in our culture.
Christian, use Biblical discernment. God often uses ancient stories like Nehemiah’s to bring clarity to modern questions. So equip yourself via the Scriptures, submit yourself to the Spirit’s leading in your opinions and ideas, show the love of Christ towards all, and apply these Three Tests Of Injustice.
Invitation
Invitation
Are you living life as a victim? Do you think that God and everyone else is the source of your life’s problems? It’s time to reject the victim status. It’s time to realize that the God of Heaven owes you nothing. You owe Him everything. It’s time to repent of your pride and selfishness. It’s time to realize that God is not the problem, your sin is the problem. Bow before the God of Heaven during this invitation and confess your sin and you will find mercy.
Christian, are you living with a burden of guilt because you’ve been told that you are an oppressor? Are you living with a burden of guilt because you’ve been made to believe that you have committed injustice against others even though you have no idea how you’ve done that?
God doesn’t want you living under the burden of man’s rules. The pharisees tried to guilt-trip the Jews into living by their rules and many people still try to do that today. God wants you to enjoy the freedom you have in Christ where you live by His rules. Focus on pleasing Him! Know His commandments and keep them! Guilt should weigh on your conscience when you sin against God! Repent! Turn from your sin! Obey God’s commandments and focus on pleasing Him, not man.
