Sunday: People’s Grievance
Read Nehemiah 5:1-5. What is happening here? What are the people crying out against?
The Jewish community seems to be united under Nehemiah’s leadership against the outside pressures. But all is not well within the nation that is standing up to persecution and defending itself from foreign assaults. Despite the outward appearance of toughness and cohesive efforts against the enemy, the community is broken inside.
People’s Grievance
The leaders and the rich have been using the poor and underprivileged for their own gain, and the situation has become so bad that the families are crying out for relief. Some families were saying that they did not have any food to feed their children; some were crying out that because of a famine they had mortgaged their property and now had nothing; other families moaned that they had to borrow money for the Persian tax and even their children were slaves.
It appears that the main culprit of the trouble was a famine and tax payments that caused the poorer families to seek help from their neighbors. The Persian government required a tax of 350 talents of silver annually from the province of Judah (see note on Neh. 5:1-5 in the Andrews Study Bible, p. 598). If a person couldn’t pay the designated portion of the mandatory tax, the family would usually mortgage their property or borrow money first. If, however, they couldn’t earn the money the next year, then they had to do something about the debt they now owed. Usually debt slavery was the next option. They had already lost their land, and now they had to send someone from the family, usually children, to be in the service of the creditor in order to work off the debt.
There are times in life when we find ourselves in trouble because of the consequences of our own actions; of course, there are also times when we end up sick or in financial straits due to no fault of our own. The story above recounts a time when government policies disadvantaged the people, leading to intensified poverty. They were caught in the spiral of deepening poverty, with no way out.
| How fascinating that then, as now, people struggle with economic oppression. What message should we take from the fact that this is a topic the Bible often addresses? |
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Politicians seem to have the same characteristics world wide. They often fail to listen to the people they are supposed to represent. And, when they finally get convinced there is a problem, think they have solved it by throwing a few million dollars at it.
Problem solving, particularly with people, requires a lot of listening and sometimes we are very short on listening skills. The problem in Nehemiah's time was atypical. People, including their wives were making a noise about it. In our time issues and problems may be vocally silent. People are feeling their needs are not being met simply move silently out the door and they go elsewhere. A Church does not exist to be successful and prosperous. It is a place to meet people's needs.
Handel's Messiah commences with a tenor solo based on Isaiah 40:
This is not just a messianic prophecy but a call to all Christians to provide comfort to those in need. And that is a lot more than just a heap of money!
Chapter five, there is no mention of working on the wall, indicating that the work had stopped.
The enemy could not stop the work of God by direct attack, but the work stopped when God’s people weren’t unified and working together.
When God’s people fight one another they certainly are neither fighting the real enemy nor getting God’s work done.
If you want to spend much time directly ministering to the needs of God’s people and in spreading the gospel, in most cases it will affect your ability to provide for your everyday needs.. Ministry takes time, and frequently, time spent on ministry is time you aren’t making money.
Christ my Anchor
Posted on September 24, 2019 by William Earnhardt
"Since I work as though I were working for the Lord and not for people, it is the Lord and not the people or the church that I hold accountable for my salary or benefits. That is not to say that God does not use the church to meet my needs. He does. But I do not trust or hold the church accountable. I trust Christ alone and I hold Christ accountable for all my needs. The church is not my anchor. The church needs an anchor. Christ is the anchor."
https://ssnet.org/blog/christ-is-my-anchor/
May God bless us as we learn to depend on him alone for all our needs.
Hi was this not the famine God had sent becsuse they settled down in their own homes n did not build the temple? The poor are always hard pressed when the rulers do notdo their job.
I have never been well off, but I have always had enough to eat and a roof over my head. I have found that living on the bread line brings me closer to the LORD because I have to depend on Him. I believe the LORD blesses some with plenty so they have the privilege of helping others.
Prayer to satisfy the human wants carries 'less' attention to God. Likewise, our prayer should be that of Solomon "wisdom first".
We tend to forget God in our bounty and invariably cry for help only when distressed.
Let God be God in all our life situations. This Christian path ain't a straight path but a crooked way. The Revelator wrote, concerning the saints, " these are they that OVERCAME..." We only overcome when we pass and defeat certain hurdles.
Fight on brother! With an onward look Christ will always be on our side dear sister.
The message we should take from the fact that the Bible often addresses economic oppression is that it was always happening and still does; also we should realize how important it is to work to keep this from happening, not throw our hands up in the air and say there is no way to fix it, or I'm only one person and those with the power needed won't listen to me. I think living in the U.S. we don't see this type of oppression as much as other countries, so we may become lackadaisical about it. Staying in the Word helps us remember these things and what we can do about them.