Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Crisis Within
Introduction
Introduction
- Nehemiah is a great study of leadership, but also shows obedience to God
- Last week we saw Nehemiah establishing a watch while they worked
-- This put the people on guard to protect them from the enemy
-- But also let the enemy know they were being watched; which deflated them
- They then went back to work with the same vision: rebuild Jerusalem’s walls
-- I wondered while Mike was presenting this, how often is the reverse true?
-- EX: The enemy attacks, and rather than standing firm – we back down
-- Nehemiah trusted God to be faithful to do His part, so shouldn’t’ we?
- This evening we get a view of what’s also going on behind the scenes
-- The greatest wall will never stand if the society behind it is broken
The Berlin Wall
-- It is in this fact that we see a tremendous lesson for us today
I Internal Oppression
neh 5
In the midst of rebuilding, an ugly internal problem arose.
Food was evidently scarce and expensive.
Inflation, plus the … tax burden placed on the Jews by the king, had reduced many of them to poverty.
They were forced to borrow money from their wealthier brothers and to mortgage their property.
Some even had to sell their sons and daughters as slaves.
And since their land was owned by others, they were left without means to buy back the children.
When they told Nehemiah of their sad plight, he called the wealthy to a solemn assembly and rebuked them.[1]
- Read
- What we see here is great lesson in how society’s work
-- The defensive measures might be in place, but the society is broken (v1)
-- vs 1
The people saw Nehemiah perhaps as an advocate so they complained to him
- Note here that even women were joining in the complaining (this is unusual)
-- For this to happen, surely they had reached a desperate level in Jerusalem
-- But do you notice who they are complaining about?
- They are railing against their fellow Jews!
vs 2
-- First, there are Jews who do not own any land of their own (v2)
-- They had to ask the government for grain so that they could even live
vs 3
- The second group is the landowners (v3) but they too have problems
-- They are mortgaged to the hilt, and the crops have constantly failed
-- Their loans are too numerous, and to even survive they have to scrape by
-- RE: There is a tremendous famine in this time (v3) that’s affected all
vs 4
- And the last group also consisted of landowners, but the issue is taxation
-- Because of the king’s taxes, they too are mortgaged to their eyeballs
-- They are facing imminent ruin if something does not change (v4)
vs 5
- IMP: In v5 we see the root cause: They are doing this to one another!
-- We are the same flesh and blood, therefore considered brothers to one another
-- Yet, they’ve had to subject their own children to work and slavery
-- Even the daughters had been enslaved which in itself is disgraceful
- Something to note: the payment of debt through enslavement isn’t illegal
-- But the law has safeguards built in; even though it’s almost at its limit as well
-- Imagine these parents: defenseless and unable to help their own children
--- “We are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others”
- The economic oppression these people have has caused a crippling cycle
-- We must borrow to eat, but we must take out a loan to borrow
-- Then we must enslave ourselves in order to pay back the debt … but …
-- We still need to eat so we must borrow more to eat ….
Rinse & repeat
Pastor’s observation:
- If there was ever a clear cut example of debt being silly, here you go
-- We get into debt, we borrow to get out of debt, & we get more into debt
-- Then we reach max capacity, panic, borrow … and the cycle never seems to end
-- If you’re in this cycle get some help, please!
Having a budget works …
- Nehemiah has a society in a vicious cycle that he’s helping to rebuild
-- IMP: You cannot survive if you are pitted against one another
- TRANS: Read
II Nehemiah Pronounces Judgment
Neh 5.
vs 6
- After listening to their complaints, Nehemiah is very angry with them (v6)
-- The oppression of fellow Jews is shameful, esp.
as they are rebuilding together
vs 7
-- But, instead of showing it, he refrained from responding (v7)
- After careful thought (sometimes it’s better to be silent for a few …)
-- He rebuked those who were responsible for this ... look at his words:
-- (Pause) “You are charging your own people interest!”
-- RE: You are doing this to yourselves! It’s not even someone else’s doing!
vs 7-8
- Nehemiah felt a huge moral outrage here; and so he must act (v7-8)
-- Nehemiah said that we’ve brought our people back from slavery …
-- But they are now selling one another to each other, to be sold back to us!
-- APP: Do you see the ridiculous cycle of nonsense?
It must stop!
vs 9
- What they are doing is demeaning one another (v9)
-- Nehemiah addresses their values, rather than just reminding them of the law
-- In v9, his indictment to them is critical, and our focal point (re-read)
-- APP: A correct response to God would be to put personal ambition aside
- Walking in the fear of the Lord means that we consider Him first, not us
-- Jesus taught on this as well … turn to
Read vs 10-11
Nehemiah’s final action was intensely personal.
He referred to his own example and that of others who were already helping those in need by lending them money and grain.
He was already doing something about the problem.
So he was not asking the people to do something he was not exemplifying in his own life.
Nehemiah then asked those guilty of exploitation to return what they had taken from others.
Mortgaged fields, vineyards, olive groves (the groves are mentioned here for the first time; they were not referred to in vv.
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