Nehemiah 5 – Nehemiah Fights Injustice Against the Poor
1 And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren. 2 For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”
3 There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”
We start chapter 5 with the people complaining to Nehemiah that they are starving. They have recently come back to their homeland to rebuild the temple of the Lord, but are surrounded by enemies and have not yet developed the infrastructure to support themselves in Israel.
They have mortgaged off their lands to buy food, seed corn and to pay property taxes owed to King Artaxerxes, the ruler of Persia.
Nehemiah lived at a time where the Jewish people had lost much of their power and prestige. This was a far cry from Solomon’s time.
Also the king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedars as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland. – 2 Chronicles 1:5
And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the Lord, twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. – 1 Kings 8:63
From the construction of Solomon’s temple in 950BC to the reconstruction of the temple in 450BC, a period of roughly 500 years, the Jewish people went from a state of extreme wealth and prosperity to dire poverty and dependency, to the point where they feared for their lives on a daily basis.
Of course, this was exactly what God promised when the blessings and curses of the law were given.
Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth – Deuteronomy 28:1
But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you- Deuteronomy 28:15
4 There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards. 5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.”
The people had become so desperate that they sold their children into slavery, and they lacked the funds to buy them back because they had become sharecroppers on what was formerly their land.
6 And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. 7 After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, “Each of you is exacting usury from his brother.” So I called a great assembly against them. 8 And I said to them, “According to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?”
Then they were silenced and found nothing to say. 9 Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? 10 I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury! 11 Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.”
Nehemiah’s response to their complaints was a righteous anger, but this anger was moderated by careful deliberate and prayer to determine the right course of action.
I am always amazed by how much of the Bible concerns taking care of the vulnerable, who in Biblical times were persons without male protection, namely windows and orphans. In modern terms, this coverage extends to the disabled, the unborn and the elderly.
Most of the ministry of Jesus Christ was targeted to helping the poor, but this is not a New Testament doctrine. There are hundreds of verses in the Old Testament concerning welfare for the vulnerable. Here are a few.
He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, And He will pay back what he has given. – Proverbs 19:17
If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday. -Isaiah 58:10
Open your mouth, judge righteously, And plead the cause of the poor and needy. -Proverbs 31:9
The worst part of the situation in Nehemiah’s time is that the poor were not oppressed by their conquerors but their own people. Nehemiah doesn’t just rest on his laurels when he sees injustice. He directly confronts it.
Nehemiah assembles the people together and tells them what the law says. He commands the rich to restore what they have taken, including part of the usury they have charged.
God opposes usury in all forms. Usury is the charging of interest on money to anyone for any reason. A Christian cannot be engaged in any sort of money lending practice, either indirectly or directly, or he sins against God.
If he has exacted usury Or taken increase— Shall he then live? He shall not live! If he has done any of these abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be upon him. – Ezekiel 18:13
You shall not charge interest to your brother—interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest. To a foreigner you may charge interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess. –Deuteronomy 23:19-20
But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.-Luke 6:35
Usury is prohibited strongly in the Bible, because it creates permanent classes in society. This division causes a civilization to become stagnant and impotent, creating imbalances that slowly strangle the society.
12 So they said, “We will restore it, and will require nothing from them; we will do as you say.”
Then I called the priests, and required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. 13 Then I shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out each man from his house, and from his property, who does not perform this promise. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.”
And all the assembly said, “Amen!” and praised the Lord. Then the people did according to this promise.
When Nehemiah confronted the wealthy who had taken advantage of the people, their heart was one of repentance. They agreed to return their dishonest gains and confirmed their change of heart with an oath, a sacred promise before God.
He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. –Proverbs 28:13
If you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice…the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. Deuteronomy 30:1-4
God has an unlimited amount of mercy and compassion for everyone who turns their heart towards him, no matter what they wrong they have done in their life, but we must have a repentant heart towards of our sin.
Repentance means feeling sorry for what we have done and making amends. In spiritual terms, we must confess our sins to God and ask for forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ.
14 Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the governor’s provisions. 15 But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but I did not do so, because of the fear of God. 16 Indeed, I also continued the work on this wall, and we did not buy any land. All my servants were gathered there for the work.
As the leader of the Jewish people and a deputy of King Artaxerxes, Nehemiah was entitled to a daily allowance for ruling the province. Since Nehemiah knew these provisions would come predominately from the poor of the region, he did not do as previous governors had done.
Instead, he provided for himself, but not through purchasing land and tending to it. He trusted that if the work he was doing was for the Lord and pleased Him, then God would provide for his daily needs.
17 And at my table were one hundred and fifty Jews and rulers, besides those who came to us from the nations around us. 18 Now that which was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep. Also fowl were prepared for me, and once every ten days an abundance of all kinds of wine. Yet in spite of this I did not demand the governor’s provisions, because the bondage was heavy on this people.
19 Remember me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.
Nehemiah understood the mantle of leadership. Christ set the perfect example of leadership by asking nothing in return but offering everything he had for us, including his Life. A leader is he who serves the most.
But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44 And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:42-45
Nehemiah trusted that the reward that God would provide for him through his steadfast obedience to God’s laws would be greater than any worldly return.