Injustice on the Inside
Notes
Transcript
There was a story I heard once of a man who got into a car accident and the accident and the accident was bad
He had cuts, bruises, broken bones, in fact the doctors said this car accedent should have killed you.
But whats amazing is he survived but something scary happened where a week into his recovery he actually ended up getting an infection which caused him to be worse condition than the accident.
And He ended up recovering, but really the crazy thing is you would think the thing that would cause the most damage would be the thing on the outside (the accedent), but the thing that almost killed him was the on the inside.
But whats so crazy is when we think of the church, organizations, family’s and even societies so often the things that cause the most damage are not from the outside, but things that occur on the inside.
And if you have been with us the past few weeks we have been in this series where we have been going through the book of Nehemiah
And Nehemiah is trying to build back up the city of Jeruselum which has laid in rubble,
And if you have been with us you know this is an issue because this city reflected the spiritual condition of the people.
And so as Nehemiah has been rebuilding this city he has faced opposition from surrounding leaders who are on the outside of the city,
However what is so interesting about today is the problem moves from the outside to the inside
And really if this issue is handled poorly it has the ability to potentially cause more issues then the outside threats.
So what we are going to do today is we are going to be looking at what this internal threat is and how we should handle it.
So we are in Nehemiah 5:1-13 and as a side note I want to encourage you to read through this book while we are in this series, because it is such a rich book and we do not have enough time to talk about every single detail, so you will get so much more from reading everything.
But once again today we are in Nehemiah 5:1-13 and we will just be starting in the first verse. It says:
1 Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews.
So I want you to notice what is happening here because before we even know the situation it says their is division because people are crying out against their fellow Jews.
I mean can you believe this people who are supposed to be working together to further God’s kingdom are crying out against each other.
That never happens does it
Its almost like God wants us to get something out of here.
And I want you to notice something here because that word for “outcry” that is used here throughout the Bible is usually used whenever their is oppression and injustice occuring.
For example its used when the Israelites are slaves in Egypt they cry out against what is happening
And I know if we were to go around and ask everyone what injustice looks like we would probably come up with a million responses, because it has political ties, and we form our own picture,
But I want us to look at the verses that follow this because this gives us a good understanding of what injustice is. Look at verses 2-5 because it says:
2 Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.” 3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.” 4 Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. 5 Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”
So do you hear what is happening here?
Because at this time there is a famine and not only that but everyone is trying to rebuild the walls around this city, which means they are spending time away from their crops.
So what is happening is people are having to sell land to survive and not only that but at this time they had to pay a tax on land they owned.
So ultimately if people wanted to pay this tax and even survive they needed to borrow money.
And their were some well off Jewish people (called nobles) who were able to help them, but the issue is that the nobles actually end up taking advantage of the situation and charging a crazy amount of intrest on these loans
Its almost like if you have seen those rentacenters or some loan orginazations like Salliemae where they give you the loan, but then they charge so much interest that you will never page it off.
And thats what happening here and because of the interest the nobles are charging the Jews who own money are actually having to sell their children to slavery.
And you get to verse 5 and the oppressed Jews say: “Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs,
Basically we are the same people!
in fact I need to pause here because I hope you know this by now but every person on this planet is a child of God.
Every person regardless of race, social status, or whatever other categories their are is a child of God.
Which means if you were to look at the value of my life verse yours, or my life verse a homeless man, or my life verse someone who is loaded,
God would see us as people he values who were created in His image and who he has died for.
Which means He views that your life has value, and not just that but every life you encounter does.
I mean think about a puzzle, every piece is different isn’t it? But every piece is extreamly valuable.
And that is how your life is; extreamly valuable
And this is the issue because while all of these people in the story have value the end of verse 5 says
“yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery.”
Can I just say this is what injustice looks like in this passage.
Because although these people have the same value the nobles have viewed their lives as more important, and because of that they have taken advantage of the others.
And not just that but really they have made them sell their children to slavery to survive.
and really regardless of if this plays out through racism, talking bad about someone, or some sort of other injustice ultimately we see that it begins to divide relationships.
And look at verse 6-10 because Nehemiah handles this really well. It says:
6 When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. 7 I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them 8 and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say. 9 So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? 10 I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest!
So there are two things I want you to get here:
Because first off Nehemiah hears this and is says he gets very angry.
You know so often we view anger as a bad thing. and Anger unchecked is bad,
But the truth is we should be angry about the things that makes God angry.
We should get angry with racial injustice!
We should be angry when we here about sex trafficking happening through pornography
We should be angry when we hear about abortion
We should be angry when we hear about any human being treated differently then who God created them to be.
but Nehemiah does not just go over and throat punch the nobles does he?
But it says he reflects and probably is thinking what is the best way to handle this.
And look at the second part, because Nehemiah does not stop there, but it says he actually brings charges to the people. He confronts them and says what in the world are you doing?
And really Nehemiah takes a stand against these people.
and I just need to say this: We need more Nehemiah’s.
We need people who are willing to take a stand when there is a wrong that is done.
We need people who are willing to do this in big situations but also situations where when someone is talking bad about a person we stand up.
We need people who stand up for those who have been wronged.
But not only that gut we need to be people who are even willing to go a step further.
Because look at verses 11-12
11 Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.” 12 “We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.” Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised.
So I love what Nehemiah does because he speaks up but then he also begins to make things right.
Because Nehemiah tells the nobles you need to give back anything you have taken from them.
I mean think with me say you ordered a large order from target and spent thousands on this order and they messed up bad, because you check what they had given you and it turns out that they only gave you 10 dollars worth of what you purchased.
So naturally you decide to go up and tell them they messed up.
You show them the receipt.
You show them where the errors are,
and they say we are so sorry, but then they do nothing to fix it.
You would be angry right?
You would go well I either need the stuff I ordered or I need my money back.
But you know in our lives if we are people who have commited injustice its important to repent and say sorry, but their is also an aspect where I believe God calls us to make it right.
Because God forgives us and other Christians can forgive, but if we are in the position to make the situation right then we at least need to attempt that.
And I want you to notice how this passage ends because does everyone remember how this passage started?
Everyone is divided.
But look how it ends after all of this has taken place (verse 13):
13 I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of their house and possessions anyone who does not keep this promise. So may such a person be shaken out and emptied!” At this the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.
They all promise to make things right, and not only that but at the very end it says the whole assembly (meaning the nobells, the Jews who had sold their children, the ones that cryed out against others) all said amen (meaning we agree) and not only that but they praised God for it.
And really what you see is there is healing taking place.
Where people who they cried out against are now worshiping God next to each other.
But can I be honest the only way we can see reconciliation take place like that in our own personal lives, in our family, and even on a society level is through God softening our heart and healing those who are oppressed.
What would it look like if when we faced injustice instead of handling it on our own we handled it how God has called us too.
Standing up and making it right.
Because we may say the gap is to big and we cant fix it but our God can.
Because we may not be able to end injustice alltogether but we have a God who can, and one day he will end injustice in our lives and our world.
