Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: The Work of Satan

A. It would be easy to chalk up the problems of the wall builders in Jerusalem as the rogue actions of evil men who had political power in their sights.

After all, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem had obvious political ambitions driving their desire to keep Jerusalem weak and undefended.

However, as we look at the events of ch. 2 and in ch 4 it would be superficial to say that it is simply the actions of surrounding leaders attacking the Israelites for political game, it is instead a plot of Satan to destroy the work of God to establish a city that would stand until Christ would victoriously enter to worship, and ultimately be crucified by the leaders that are worshipping wrongly in the temple.

Satan has always attempted to destroy or delay God’s purpose to set a people apart in a place where His glory is worshipped this began with Adam and Eve, continued to Nehemiah, and continues today with his relentless attacks against the church.

Satan’s tactic of attack from the outside is often unsuccessful and, as we see in Nehemiah 4, unifies God’s true people, and purifies them together for the work.

Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?

Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived The Mother of Mankind.…

Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile

Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived

The Mother of Mankind.…

b.

Satan’s anger and malice towards the Lord, who he envies, leads him to act rebelliously and in futility because of his hatred, he acts according to God’s providence to harm God’s people by lobbing threats, violence, slander, murder, and accusations.

These are born out of the irrationality of Satan who proves to be joined with humans in his irrationality in that he envies God, and believes that he is equal to god.

These outside attacks may satiate his rage, but they are not his most effective attack.

c.

Satan, who is highly powerful and intelligent, and has been given possession of the sons of disobedience, has always adopted tactics that lead to division and quarrels within God’s people.

These tactics will not ultimately prevail, but we must be vigilant to identify them as the attacks of Satan, and to give them no fertile ground to grow and bring derision upon the Gospel of Jesus.

Ovey, M. J. (2012).

Off the Record: Sorrow at Another’s Good?

Themelios, 37(3), 442.

B. The beginning of shows us Satan shifting his tactics from outside threats to the far more dangerous use of God’s people’s sin nature and worldliness to stir up strife and destroy unity.

This type of attack is exponentially more dangerous in a context where satan has people who belong to him infiltrated among God’s people.

I. The Outcry of the People

A. The outcry is reminiscent of the outcry heard by God in which is quite an indictment on a rebuilding nation doing God’s work.

Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.

Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.

Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.

Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

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Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

i. Injustice and fighting within leads us to become factions where we define each other as something other than image bearers and brothers.

This word “Jewish” in verse 1 likely here refers to a strata of upper crust who had returned from Babylon.

ii.

It is crucial to remember within church that our standard is much higher (we treat the world as image bearers, we treat each other as close family)

A.

B. Many who owned no land were starving and could not get grain  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.”

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C. Families mortgaged their fields and property to be able to eat and were in danger of losing their lands.

There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

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Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

D. People had gone into debt to pay taxes.

And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards.

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E. Children were being sold into slavery in order to eat.

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.”

F. The poor in this

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

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Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

II.

The Validity of the Outcry

It is important to note that being poor in a Biblical sense is easily definable as an inability to eat or make life happen over the long term without a change in station or without a benefactor.

A. The Spirit of Generosity to Brothers “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.

9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.

11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land.

Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

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B. The Law of Usury “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.

38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

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Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

C. The

C. The brotherhood and distinction of God’s people “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.

26 If ever you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, 27 for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep?

And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

i.

The Hebrew word ah-im is often used in Deuteronomy for and translated “brothers”.

This implies a work for community where the individual is important, but the community is more important without regard to social status or tribal affiliation.

God is consecrating a people, not a person.

Equality in God’s context is not social, economic, or ability but instead based on our standing as family members in God’s kingdom.

ii.

There should never be tribalism in family, there have always been attempts by the enemy to introduce this both from the constant intrusion of racism beginning with the Jew/Gentile split over a false gospel all the way to today’s postmodern view of people not as individuals but instead as oppressed or privileged groups that cannot change their tribal tags because the group is based on biological and not spiritual birthright.

This viewpoint is a tool of the enemy that attempts to strip the gospel of its power to unite God’s people as a family that is one body.

11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.

12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

iii.

I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.

12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

This scripture shows us a picture of the people being bonded and blessed by the presence of God, how much more are we blessed to be called the Bride of Christ, and to be indwelt by God Himself.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

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Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

(2016).

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Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.

12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

III.

The Response of Godly Leadership

A.  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

Nehemiah gets angry and takes counsel with himself Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.