Nehemiah 5 | God is a God of Justice

Intro

Hey Y’all! How is everyone? Are Y’all good? Everybody recovered form DNow? I know I’m kinda wiped out still. Also, some news, we bought a house yesterday. Woohoo! We are home owners! So if any of you would like to come help us move this weekend, that would be fantastic.

Anyways thing we are going to talk about tonight is a kind of touchy subject, we are going to look at this theme of Justice and Injustice. the reason we are doing that is because when you preach straight through books you address everything in there, you don’t really get to skip things you may not want to touch. So tonight we are going to talk about Justice.

So let me ask you, we hear the word justice, and injustice, and oppression and oppressor a lot in our world? If you have any sort of social media presence you know people love to talk about it all the time. Have you ever felt like you have been treated unjustly? And most of us are going to say yes, we have been treated unjustly and talk about a time we have been treated unfairly. Which is pretty close to being treated unjustly, if you look at the dictionary definition of injustice, it states “the quality or fact of being unjust; inequity. violation of the rights of others; unjust or unfair action or treatment. an unjust or unfair act; wrong.” Which has a bunch of weird words in there. Especially if we live in a society where words don’t retain meaning and truth is relative. How do we know what wrong is, if what ever we want is right. Anyways, that’s not my point tonight.

but I want us to have this as the back drop to what we are talking about tonight in this passage in Nehemiah.

So we are in Nehemiah 5, verse 1-13. if you have a bible great, if you don’t have a bible go a head and throw a hand up and we will get you a bible. Anyone need a bible? Okay cool.

Context

So with that let’s read this whole passage here, and we will look at some of the themes present in the text, but before we do that, let’s pray for our time in the word tonight.

pray

Okay so lets read this whole section, Nehemiah 5:1-13

Nehemiah 5:1–13 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.” 6 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 8 and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say. 9 So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies? 10 Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. 11 Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.” 12 Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised. 13 I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said “Amen” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

Okay so I’m working a little bit backwards to how we normally go, I want to give you some context to what you read and then look at some of the themes here.

Remember Nehemiah was called by God to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. But i think a thing we have not talked a lot about in our study of nehemiah is what is so significant about the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem in the old testament was a city that was set apart by God, Jerusalem had the temple, where the Hebrew people made sacrifices, and worshipped and was the embodiment of the literal dwelling place of God. Jerusalem is the most important city in the bible, it is the most important city in the whole narrative of Scripture. It was where the people of God dwelled, it was where the chosen people lived and worshiped God. This is the city where sacrifices were made, and just outside the city gates is where Christ sacrificed Himself on the Cross. In Revelation it is the city that comes down out of Heaven when all things are restored and made new and the city where we will dwell, it is the New City in the New Heaven and New Earth at the end of all things.

So jerusalem is important, Nehemiah is not just tasked with rebuilding a city, he is tasked with rebuilding THE City. He is given the mission to rebuild the city and the community, to restore the people to the worship of God.

And so far we have seen only external threat, the Sanballat guy and his friends have tried to destroy the work, the king at first was skeptical of Nehemiah. But all of those things were external problems, now we are seeing some internal problems come about.

The people were turning against the people. Look at verse 1, Nehemiah 5:1

Nehemiah 5:1 ESV

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

What was going on was during the building of the wall food starting running short, because of the work on the wall, people were not making as much food, grain harvests were down. And what started to happen was people started to offer loans for food, and started dealing unfairly with people. Basically loan sharking started to happen. Do you know what I mean by loan shark?

Let’s say you wanted to borrow money. Back then they didn’t really have banks like we have today. So you went to a creditor to buy to take out a loan. Standard thing to us. But what was happening was you would go to get a loan, and the creditor knew you would not be able to pay back the money, so in the terms and conditions you would put up collateral, like today a car would be collateral. And then they would charger you an insane interest rate that they knew you couldn’t pay back. Well, in that day you could out up your land, houses, but usually you out up yourself and your family as collateral. Like if you don’t pay back the loan, they get to sell you and sell your family.

So imagine no one really has food, so in order to get food you take out a loan and put up your family as collateral.

Sounds like a foolish move but there was no regulation, except for the fact that the Law forbid interest collection and that every seven years, all debts are to be cancelled, it was called the Year of Jubilee. Crazy thing.

but basically what was happening was you had Hebrew people trapping people in debt then selling them in order to pay this debt.

So this is where we see this theme of Justice and injustice come about.

Nehemiah hears the cry of the people, out to Nehemiah but ultimately out to God.

Then we get to see Nehemiah’s reaction, which is straight up anger. I know in church today, we tend to not want to talk about anger, or when we do we talk about it in the context of sinning. And yes anger can be sinful, but the anger we see here and felt by Nehemiah is not the sinful sort of anger, but a righteous anger. This is an anger that is felt by God. Righteous Anger is an anger that you feel when you see injustice in the world, real injustice. The sort of injustice that was going on in Nehemiah’s day, when people are being taken advantage of. What was going on was the ruling class was using their power to oppress and profit off of the misery of the poor.

So the emotion felt by nehemiah is righteous anger. Look at verse 6, Nehemiah 5:6-7

Nehemiah 5:6–7 ESV

6 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

He was angry and then took action against the people doing the oppressing, the people acting unjustly.

God hates Injustice

So what should this tell us? This should tell us a few things.

The first thing that this should tell us is that God Hates Injustice. if you are writing things down, write that down, God Hates Injustice.

All the time when we describe God, and when scripture describes God, he is described as a Just God. He is perfectly Just which means by default he hates Injustice. God is the perfect Judge.

TO really understand that, we need to understand what Justice is. Justice is getting what you deserve.

If you were to steal a million dollars, you deserve to go to jail. If you murder someone you deserve life in prison if not death. We understand how our justice system works. The judicial branch of government is called the justice system, they are responsible for bringing about Justice. We call it the Justice System. In a perfect Justice system, ever one who acts unjustly is given justice. Now we know our Justice System is not perfect, exhibit A, OJ Simpson is a free man. If you aren’t familiar with OJ, he most definitely murdered his ex wife and her boyfriend with a knife. The prosecutors had DNA evidence, eyewitnesses, footprints, motive, and just about everything a prosecutor would want in a court case, and somehow, they lost that case, and the dude walked free. OJ is just out free right now. It was probably one of the best cases in recent history of the justice system failing, of injustice not being rectified.

What happened in this text? Did the nobles and the officials get away with it? No, Nehemiah basically took them to court. And the nobles and the officials had no answer as to why they did this. They knew they were in the wrong.

Look at what Nehemiah said to them in verse 9, Neh. 5:9

Nehemiah 5:9 ESV

9 So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?

What you have done is wrong! It is not good!! walk in the fear of the Lord!

Nehemiah then makes them pay back everything they took and wiped out all the debits. Children that were sold were reclaimed, families were restored.

The Church Should Hate Injustice

As we learned earlier in this study, The Church is the chosen instrument of God to carry out His will. So the next thing that we should see in this text is, The Church Should hate Injustice. if you’re writing things down, write that down, the church should hate injustice.

If the church is chosen by God to carry out the mission of God, then we need to be for and against the things God is against. If God hates injustice, then so should the church. The church should not be a haven for abuse. That is essentially what is happening in the text here in Nehemiah is an abuse by people in power against the people who have no power, who are poor and defenseless. The Church should be actively against injustice, against abuse. another name for injustice and abuse is sin, so if you are thinking that this sounds a little bit political, think of it as, the church should hate sin. The church should be actively against sin. This comes trickles down in of the daily lives of the believers.

Christians should be against injustice, it should hurt us to see abuse and injustice, it should hurt us to see sin. And the way we start that is by activity working against out own sin.

I have a quote on the backside of my office door, just a little yellow post-it note about eye level so that I see it when i leave my office, but I wrote on it a quote by a puritan theologian named John Owen, it reads, “Be killing Sin, or Sin will be killing you.”

We should all be vigilant in killing our own sin. You know yourself, you know what sins you have the propensity for, if you can be prideful, kill that pride. If gossip is a sin you struggle with, kill it. If your sin is anger, kill it. if you struggle with lust, kill it.

and when I say kill it, I mean bring it before the Lord. Cry out to God for forgiveness, God is faithful to forgive. Confession and repentance should be a daily thing for Christians. That is what it means to die daily and follow after Christ. Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.

The Church should not be a haven for sin to fester, it should not be a place where abuse is allowed to go on. The Church should hate injustice.

The Church Should Seek Restoration

Okay, so look with me at verses 12 and 13, Neh. 5:12-13

Nehemiah 5:12–13 ESV

12 Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised. 13 I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said “Amen” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

This is the result of Nehemiah confronting the sin of the people, he brought them to court, made them pay back what they took, made them give back family members. Nehemiah brought about restoration of the community.

If we read the last bit of the passage and just gloss over it feels like the nobles and the officials got off easy. They paid back the stuff, which makes it right, but we feel like there should be some vengeance involved. but that is not true, all through out scripture vengeance is not our but the Lord’s. At the end of all things, everyone of us will have to give an account as to what we have done in this life.

What Nehemiah has done is restore the community, but he has given them a warning, he made them enter in to a covenant, basically a contract, that if they do this again, the the Lord will drive them out from the city. They will be shaken out and emptied

This tells us that the church should seek restoration, if you’re writing things down write that down, the church should seek restoration.

Don’t miss hear me, I’m not saying that if someone is abusing someone in the church, the should just be here and everyone get along. That was not what was going on in Nehemiah’s day and does not need to happen in our day. What I am saying is that when there are internal conflicts in the church, we do not need to seek vengeance toward one another but seek restoration and reconciliation. If we are going to go and be the church, we have to be the church in here for it to happen out there.

Christ

But one last thing that I want you to think about is while we have talked about this theme of justice and injustice, we need to look at ourselves. Think about this, if God is the perfect judge, the sin will be dealt with perfectly. If justice is getting what we deserve, I want you to think about what you deserve? if you were to stand before God, and he were to ask you why he should let you in to his kingdom, what do you say? Because if you are asking god for justice you are not getting in to the kingdom, if you think you deserve to come in to the kingdom because you were a good person here, I have some news for you. That is not going to be justice. You are not going to be able to come in, only the righteous can come. And Romans tells us plainly, no one is righteous by their own account, we have all fallen short. Let me describe to you what will await you if you are relying on your own good deeds and asking God to give you justice, thinking that you deserve the Kingdom without knowing the King, this is from another old theologian,

Imagine yourself to be cast into a fiery oven, or into a great furnace, where your pain would be as much greater than that occasioned by accidentally touching a coal of fire, as the heat is greater.  Imagine also that your body were to lie there for a quarter of an hour, all the while full of quick sense. What horror would you feel at the entrance of such a furnace!

And how long would that quarter of an hour seem to you! And after you had endured it for one minute, how overbearing would it be to you to think that you had it to endure the other fourteen minutes!

And how much greater would be the effect, if you knew you must endure it for a whole year!

And how vastly greater still, if you knew you must endure it for a thousand years!

O then, how would your heart sink, if you thought, if you knew, that you must bear it forever and ever! That there would be no end!

That after millions of millions of ages, your torment would be no nearer to an end, than ever it was; and that you never, never would be delivered!

If you are not a true Christian, your torment in hell will be immensely greater

Now think about this, this is justice, for sin, this is justice for those in sin. The wrath of god is real.

BUT there is good news, the gospel is that Christ died on our place, and took our sins upon Himself, taking on the wrath of God, in doing so, Christ died so that we might live. The good news of the Gospel is that Christ has made a way fro us to come in to the kingdom. The Grace and mercy of God is that he took on our sins and the full wrath of god so that we could dwell with Him forever in eternity. That God will dwell with us.Our lives are not our own because Christ took our place and died the death we should have died and live the life we could never live.

So think about this if you are a christian, this text is calling you to join God in coming against injustice, to go and be the church. If you are a follower of Christ this text is calling you kill your own sin confess and repeant, pick up your cross and follow Christ.

If you are not a follower of Christ, or do not know what you believe, this texts asks a question for you. If you are to stand before God, would you want what you deserve, what all of deserve apart from the grace and mercy fo God? If you want Justice, then you are choosing an eternity apart for God, an eternity outside of the kingdom. The good news is that God made away on the cross. he took on what you deserve so that you could come in to the kingdom, to do so, you have to submit to the Lordship of Christ. The only way we can love God fully is because He first loved us. This text is calling us to submit our lives to the call of Christ. Come to know Him as Lord and know Him as King.

Pray with me