Nehemiah 5 - Redemptive Anger in Response to Exploitation (text)

Redemptive Anger in Response to Exploitation

Please turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 5. Got a lot of ground to cover so let’s just do a quick recap of where we’ve been: Nehemiah has left his position as cupbearer to the king of Persia to travel 800 miles to rally the Jews living in Jerusalem to restore the ruined walls and gates of the city. In those days walls around a city were essential to its ability to protect itself, so broken walls and gates meant the city was in constant danger and disgrace. So Nehemiah rallies the Jews to the work and in chapter 3 we saw the Jews were working side by side – each of them working on the portion of the wall that was in front of their house. Chapter 4 we saw that the Jews had some serious enemies that wanted to stop the walls from being rebuilt at any cost. But nothing they did was able to stop the Jews from working. They tried to discourage them through ridicule. Nehemiah prays their insults back on them, and the Jews keep on working. When the surround nations conspire to attack Jerusalem by surprise and kill the workers and their families, the Jews strap on swords and keep working. Nothing the enemies of the Jews did stopped the work.

But in chapter 5 something does threaten to derail the work and that’s what we’re going to be looking at this morning. Neh. 5:1-13 (pray)

The danger from within: leaders exploiting workers – vv. 1-5

The threat that almost torpedoes the whole work of rebuilding the wall isn’t another threat coming from outside the walls, it’s a threat that’s coming from within the walls. The leaders in the city are exploiting the poorer workers for their own profit.

Here’s what’s happening: some of the workers had no land and so they needed to buy their food or they would starve. Others of the workers were farmers from nearby villages who had volunteered to help rebuild the wall, but as farmers they depended on farming the land to feed their families and to make a living. For them to take two months off was a tremendous sacrifice for them, but God is moving on their hearts and, as chapter 4 says, they had a mind to work. But this means that a lot of that work has fallen on the shoulders of their wives and children back home.

To make things worse, there was a famine that made food scarce for everyone. And, on top of that, the king of Persia exacted heavy taxes on the people that they had no choice but to pay, but a lot of them simply didn’t have the money to pay between the famine and they’re being away from the farm. So they are desperate to find the food and the money they need.

That’s where the nobles and officials come in. They offer to lend the poor farmers and workers the money they need to get food and pay their taxes, but they charged the farmers high interest rates and demanded they mortgage over to them their land and sell their children as indentured servants as collateral for these loans. They were exploiting the Jew’s misfortune for their own profit.

What was more disturbing about this was that they were exploiting their own Jewish brothers. The Jews were used to the nations exploiting and enslaving them, but this was their own leaders. Look at the cry of the people in verse 5: Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. We are of the same blood, we’re just like them, we’re family, yet our children, who are just like their children, are being sold to them into slavery.

Sadly history is full of countless examples of people exploiting people; often their own people. Exploitation, oppression, and injustice leave a wake of carnage and devastation behind it in every generation. We know some of the bigger names in history: Joseph Stalin’s regime is estimated to be responsible for more than 30 million deaths, largely through forced famines which were used to exterminate entire cities. Millions of Stalin’s own countrymen’s lives were sacrificed on the altar of his personal desire for power.

Those of you who are older might remember in the 1980’s when the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda went into exile, having embezzled billions of dollars from their poverty stricken country and hid it away in savings accounts around the world. The Philippine government is still paying interest on debt wracked up during their regime. Imelda became the poster child for abusive leaders when it was discovered that she had a collection of over 2500 shoes. I figured the math and she could have worn a different pair of shoes every day of the year for almost seven years before having to wear any pair a second time. Those shoes became a symbol of the ridiculous contrast between the staggering poverty her country suffered under and the outrageously lavish lifestyle she lived on their backs. Apparently for Imelda Marcos, knowing that hundreds of thousands of her countrymen were suffering and thousands of children were starving to death was something she could live with, but not having the perfect shoes to match her outfit wasn’t.

I have often wondered how these people could live with themselves, how they could sleep at night. How could someone take food from a starving child’s mouth so that they could 60 different food choices at their table instead of 59 choices? The heartlessness is staggering. But actually the problem isn’t heartlessness, the problem is the heart: Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That’s how they could live with themselves – their hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked – and we can see their wickedness pretty clearly. But we need to remember that this desperately wicked sin of exploitation isn’t just an issue for corrupt world leaders. The heart posture that would exploit others for selfish gain can be just as alive in the manager of the frozen food aisle at Walmart, or the guy who is a big shot at church but is abusive to his wife at home.

Jesus said that the one that has been faithful in little will be faithful in much. I think this implies that the one who has been sinful in little would be sinful in much, if given the opportunity. If the creep who treats waitresses badly at restaurants just because he can get away with it was ever given rulership over a nation – look out. The increase in power and authority would increase his propensity to exploit and abuse people, not decrease it. This is why we can never really measure or compare sin – sometimes degrees of sin is more a matter of opportunity than a matter of a better or worse heart.

God cares about the exploited. He cares about the helpless, the weak, the defenseless, the poor. Micah 6:8 has this simple but beautiful verse: He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? God cares about how the church responds to exploitation. Nehemiah is an exceptional leader and his response to the evil of exploitation gives us an outstanding example to follow. In the following verses we have a description of his response, but at the end I think he also gives us an insightful window into the motivation of his responses – why he does what he does. So let’s begin with his response found in vv. 6-13.

Nehemiah’s response: redemptive anger in response to exploitation – vv. 6-13

When Nehemiah heard about what was going on, he was very angry. There is a time when it’s right to get angry – in fact, it would be wrong not to get angry. Anger isn’t in and of itself a sin. God gets angry, Jesus got angry at the Pharisees when he saw them pushing people down with their interpretation of the law so they could elevate themselves. Paul said, “Be angry and sin not.”

So anger when someone disagrees with your opinion about something, or when a family member loses the remote isn’t righteous anger (though it may feel like it at the time). But anger in the face of injustice and the exploitation and oppression of other people is righteous – it’s the right response. It’s how God would respond. Nehemiah got very angry! But look at what Nehemiah does with his anger (vs. 7):

I took counsel with myself…

He thought about it, he pondered what he should do, and in the end he tempered his anger with his goal of being a redemptive agent for change. He didn’t want to take a bad situation and blow it up, he wanted to redeem it.

Here’s the thing about anger – even righteous anger. If we’re looking to take a wrong and make it right, anger doesn’t necessarily make the best scope to aim by. When we act out of anger, we often do things we later regret. Things that only make things worse.

When you get angry, and most of the time, like me, it isn’t righteous anger – not even close – but take time to think about it. It’s good to think about what’s pulling on your heart to make you angry. Consider how you could respond in a way that is a redemptive agent for change and not just make matters worse with an angry blow up. As Nehemiah heard the cries and saw the plight of his own people who were being taken advantage of because of their sacrificial service on the wall, he was right to get angry. But he was wise enough to not go off half-cocked on anger alone. He took counsel with himself. He thought over what his response should be.

Nehemiah brings strong charges against the leaders

Nehemiah calls a great assembly, and charges the leaders with their wrong in front of everyone. He appeals to their conscience in a way that leaves them with nothing to say.

• Appeals to their national pride by reminding them that they have tried to buy back the Jewish slaves from other nations, and here they are turning around and selling them to slavery to their own people.
• Appeals to their conscience by telling them what they’re doing is wrong. Appeals to their religious duty by asking them if they shouldn’t walk in the fear of the Lord.
• Appeals to his own personal practice. He and his brothers have been lending but not exacting interest. He isn’t being hypocritical – calls them to follow his own example.
• Finally he appeals to them to do the right thing.

“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.” – vs. 11

This is a very important component to his redemptive anger. He’s angry, but he’s giving them a way back. It’s not hopeless. He’s telling them to do the right thing, by returning everything they had taken from them in their greed. It is a strong speech in front of the entire city, but it has a degree of appeal and dignity that, rather than pushing the offenders farther away, draws them in and convicts their consciences. We see their reaction in vs. 12:

Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.”

They repent of their sinful exploitation of God’s people – they make restitution and they promise never to do it again. Nehemiah proclaims a curse that God would shake them out of their own home and work if they ever did break their promise. It’s a strong call out of the sin of exploiting their own people, and a strong call to stay out of that sin, and the leaders are probably pretty shaken up, and humbled, but the people love it – they respond with a loud “amen” and praise the Lord. And the leaders kept their promise. Nehemiah’s anger didn’t burn bridges unnecessarily or heap insults on the leaders heads that may have alienated them from him and turned this into a civil war. It was anger, but it was anger leading to a redemptive end.

Nehemiah’s motivation: the fear of the Lord (vv.14-19)

The crisis is over, now Nehemiah recounts another aspect of how far he went to not exploit his people in any way. Nehemiah is no hypocrite – he is walking the talk. Governors were allowed and expected to add their own tax on their people in order to provide their lavish rations of food and drink. Nehemiah doesn’t want to add another burden on his already pressed workers and families. Nehemiah also insists that he and his men work side by side with the Jews. He doesn’t give himself special privileges because of his position.

And then Nehemiah goes even further. Not only does he pay for his own table to be set, but he feeds about 150 Jews as well as any visiting dignitaries out of his own pocket. Nehemiah is a generous man. He walks in the opposite spirit of exploitation: rather than abusively taking from others to make his life richer, he gives to others to make their lives richer.

This makes me think of Jesus, who emptied himself of his place and privileges as the Son of God and became a servant, and humbled himself even to the point of death – a criminal’s death on the cross, so that we might receive the riches of eternal life. He lowered his status so that he could elevate our status. All of this not at our cost, but at his cost. Jesus emptied his coffers – he emptied his life! – so that we could enjoy the free gift of eternal life through faith in him. Jesus could not be more opposite from the leader who exploits his people – Jesus is a leader, a ruler, a king who loves his people, even to death.

Nehemiah’s motivation (vs. 19)

Verse 19 at first might seem to sound a little selfish – basically, repay me God for all the good I’m doing for this people. But that gives us a window into Nehemiah’s deepest motivation for all he is doing. It’s not that he’s a great guy. It’s not that he has this soft spot for the Jews. It’s not that he’s an incredibly sympathetic person. That’s not what really motivates him.

What motivates Nehemiah to do the right and hate the wrong is the fear of God. Verse 15 says, But I did not do so, because of the fear of God. Nehemiah lives life aware that God is watching. The fear of God keeps him from doing wrong to his people and motivates him to do what’s right.

There is no greater motivation for doing what’s right and hating what’s wrong, than the fear of the Lord. To know that God is watching and that one day we will answer to God for our actions. It is the fear of the Lord that convicts us of sin and drives us to Jesus for forgiveness. It’s the fear of the Lord that presses us as Christians to grow in our faith and obedience to God’s word. Not because we’re afraid of hell anymore (although if someone professes a faith in Christ but it doesn’t affect how they live, they should be afraid that their profession isn’t genuine and they are still in their sins), but because we want to please our heavenly Father.

Imelda’s shoes

Remember I mentioned Imelda’s 2500 shoes earlier? At the time it was a symbol of the lavish lifestyle that she lived at the cruel expense of her suffering, impoverished people. But now it’s become a different symbol. I discovered that most of those shoes have been irreparably damaged by termites and flood waters and neglect. I saw pictures of them piled high and it looked like moldy garbage ready to be taken out to the trash.

That’s what Jesus said would happen to all our earthly treasures – moth and rust would corrupt and thieves (including the thief of time) would steal. When people abuse other eternal souls in order to collect fading junk like shoes and money and power and position, they are making a bad exchange. They are trading jewels for junk, treasure for trinkets. They are trashing the precious, and holding as precious their trash.

And one day this short life will come to an end. The worst tyrants come to a day when they breath their last, when their hold on power and material goods is loosened forever, and everything they got by evil measures decays. So it will be with us too.

In the fear of God, if any of us here have a heart posture to exploit or treat others badly we need to repent. I don’t know what everyone here’s position in life is, and I don’t know how you treat others, so I’m just going to go for it.

• If you’re an employer, God calls you to treat your employees fairly and with respect.
• Husbands and fathers, we need to be careful to lead our families with love and selfless humility. If you have a tendency to run rough shod over your wife or kids when they get in the way of your agenda, or disagree with you, or do something you don’t like, if you fear God you need to repent of that. You need to ask God to give you Jesus’ heart for your family before irreparable damage is done. Repentance is a change of direction and when we’re going in the wrong direction, turning around is the happiest thing we can do.
• Wives – there’s a way this can look that might be a little more subtle. Maybe early on in your marriage you realized that your husband is a kinda laid back guy. He’s mellow. He’s okay letting you have your way most of the time, doesn’t want an argument. Ok, so maybe he needs to lead more, but when you began to see this, did your heart begin to lean towards taking advantage of it? Did you start to like getting your way, manipulating him to do what you wanted? Did you exploit his gentle character for your own agenda? God sees the heart. Your heart posture of respect for his leadership shouldn’t be based solely on how forcefully he presses that leadership, but on the fear of God.
• Pastors aren’t exempt from this. Pastors who exploit the congregations they serve for their own gain can wreak terrible pain and damage in the lives of God’s people. Some of you may have experienced that first hand. Honestly I think this is one of the worse sins a pastor can commit. At the end of my life when I stand before God, I can live with not being the perfect pastor. I can live with having made mistakes and let people down. I never want to hear God say that I exploited anyone or took advantage of them. It is such a wicked sin.
• Any situation where people are involved, we should ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and reveal to us if there is any way that we exploit weakness, take advantage of others for our own gain. If the Spirit reveals some area, repentance is the right response.

Let’s also be on the lookout for others being exploited and care enough to get angry and get involved. If someone at work or school is getting bullied, stand up for them. If someone is being oppressed by an authority in their life, pray for them, and if there is an opportunity, help them. The repentance and restoration that the Jews experience all begins because the people cry and Nehemiah hears them! Let’s listen for the cries of oppression and exploitation and, when it’s in our power to do something about it, let’s do something about it.

Let’s pray.