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*Nehemiah 5:1-19*
*“An Inside Job”*
I’m sure many, if not all of us have seen a business or organization weaken itself from the inside out.
I remember a former place of employment where there was a lot of bickering about management, gossip against one another, exploitation of some for the benefit of others.
The result was lowered morale and decreased productivity.
All the while the manager poked his head in the ground and pretended all was fine.
I was in seminary at the time in the middle of a leadership class.
So I saw the red flags waving all over the place!
I cried out for vision, communication, influence and unity!
This happened in a place you would expect those things to happen – a secular environment.
It doesn’t and shouldn’t surprise us to see these things manifest themselves in such settings.
When it emerges among God’s people, however, it is even more discouraging and frustrating.
And that is what we are looking at as we come to chapter 5 of Nehemiah.
What we will see is that unlike the opposition Nehemiah faced in chapter 4, he now faces an even greater opposition.
And I’ve entitled my message this morning, *“An Inside Job”* because the opposition came from within.
To get us back up to speed, remember that Nehemiah was in a prominent and trustworthy position to King Artaxerxes of the Persian Empire.
And Nehemiah was greatly moved by an unfavorable report from his brother, Hanani, regarding the state of affairs in Jerusalem.
After fasting and praying before the God of heaven, he takes it upon himself to return to Jerusalem and to lead the rebuilding of the walls.
The king grants his request and even offers to help supply materials.
Nehemiah then arrives in Jerusalem, takes a few days and assesses the situation, and communicates this grand vision to the people.
In chapter 3, the Jews get to work on the wall and Nehemiah records the list of people involved in the work and so indicates that all had a part to play.
In chapter 4, Nehemiah id faced with opposition from the surrounding regions.
He and the Jews are objects of taunting by Sanballat and Tobiah.
And these guys rally up support in order to discourage the builders so that they would not be a threat to them.
Nehemiah drops to his knees in prayer and lays the matter before the Lord.
And then he returns to the work.
And the Lord blesses their efforts!
So much so that their buddies Sanballat and Tobiah turn up the heat - both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Now the Arabs and Ammonites and Ashdodites all threaten violence and a surprise attack.
What does Nehemiah do?
Again, he leaves it in the Lord’s hands knowing that his pursuit is for God’s glory.
And it’s ultimately his battle.
Nehemiah gets back to work.
He positions the people by their families and encourages them by saying “Our God will fight for us!” From that time on, they continued at the work with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other.
And now we can to chapter 5.
Please turn their in your Bibles with me – Nehemiah chapter 5.
And stand as I read the chapter.
*READ.*
My first point I want to look at is the *Poor are Exploited.
*At the outset, I just want to be clear in saying that money itself is neutral.
I know there are some that misquote Scripture and say that money is the root of all evil.
But I know that all of you know your Bibles better than that.
WHAT is the root of all evil?? Right, it is the love of money, not money itself.
There are those who are wealthy and righteous as well as wealthy and unrighteous.
There are those who are poor and righteous as well as those who are poor and unrighteous.
The material does not *make* them either.
It’s how they view it and what they do with it.
God doesn’t need our money.
He wants our hearts.
And where our treasure is, there is our heart – Matt.
6:21
Truth be told, everything that we possess (including our money) belongs to God.
And we all nod in agreement and say ‘amen’.
But do we practice what we’ve just agreed to?
Do we seek God with our purchases?
We should spend as though our credit cards read Jonathan~/Jesus Christ.
Our bank accounts Jonathan~/Jesus Christ.
Our investments, Jonathan~/Jesus Christ.
We are called to be good stewards of that which he has given us.
How we handle it reveals our hearts.
And how the Jewish people handled their wealth revealed their hearts.
Verse 1 tells us there was this great outcry from the people (SLOW) /against their own people./
And we see in the next few verses that there were different levels of poverty expressed by the words ‘there were those who said’.
The first group (in verse 2) owned no land and were thus likely the first to feel the effects of the famine mentioned in verse 3. The second group owned properties and began mortgaging them in order to purchase grain.
The third group not only mortgaged their fields, but were already tapped out there and were sending their sons and daughters into slavery.
To whom?? to their own people.
Herein lies the major problem.
Let’s think about this for a minute, shall we? We’ve already recounted what has taken place up to this point.
We get caught up in the excitement of the grand vision of seeing the walls of Jerusalem rebuilt so that the people can gather and worship.
The people have overcome the taunts and threats from the outside, dropped to their knees in prayer.
And then we hear that the rich are disenfranchising their own people?? How disheartening is that??
We must remember, however, that slavery was permitted in the Old Testament.
What is also true was that its purpose was to protect the longer-term interests of the poor.
Deuteronomy 15 tells us that those who are able, are to freely give to their poorer brethren.
Beyond that, every seven years there is a release of debt – both of money, possessions and slaves.
And when they freed the slaves, they supplied them liberally from their flocks, threshing floors and winepresses.
It was not an oppressive occasion, but rather a providing for one another.
But this was not what the wealthy Jews were doing in this case because they were exacting interest /for their own gain/.
Nehemiah points that out in verse 7.
They were exploiting them, not assisting them.
And we read in Exodus 22:25, “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.”
And Leviticus 25:35-37 reads, “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.
Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you.
You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.”
They failed to recognize a couple of things here.
First, the very words of Scripture speak against what they were doing.
And Nehemiah will address that in a few verses.
Second, they were on the same team!
They were part of this rebuilding project, working shoulder to shoulder in their families, to see God glorified among the nations.
What do you think foreigners thought as they looked in to see the Israelites, God chosen people, debilitating their own?
“I thought God was on their side!
I thought they were supposed to show unity!!” Their greed got in the way of their task.
Their opposition was “*An Inside Job.”*
And we too, as the church of Jesus Christ, are on the same team to put God on display for all the world to see.
Do we demonstrate unity?
Can people look in and say, “Surely God is on their side!
For they are working shoulder to shoulder for a common task with a common vision.
They have a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other.”?
Or do they look in and say, “what are they doing?
They’re supposed to be on the same team?
They gossip about each other.
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