Sermon Tone Analysis

As we begin this morning, go ahead and turn in your copies of God’s Word to Nehemiah chapter 5. We will be reading the first 13 verses shortly.

If you are using the Pew Bibles, you will find this passage on page 506.

In last weeks message, Winning the Battle With Discouragement, we looked at the reality that:

Our Enemy Doesn’t Give Up Easily, in fact he Never Gives Up.

And we saw that as a result,

Nehemiah was recruiting Prayer Warriors.

To join in his continuing battle against the attacks of the enemy.

We also discussed that truth that:

Discouragement, Fear & Depression Can Be Present Even During Times of Victory.

As you may recall I shared the painful story of Pam’s struggle with Discouragement, Fear and Depression in the months leading up to our moving here to step into the leadership at Liberty Chapel.

There was one thing I failed to mention last week that is very key.

Even in the midst of Pam’s struggles, there was never a point in time that she was not completely surrendered to God.

Her relationship with Him never swayed and she and I were never anywhere outside the center of His will.

Despite that being the case the pain and darkness were a daily reality.

We also discussed last Sunday how what we were experiencing with all that God was doing on our behalf, the many victories we were watching God accomplish through us, yet still having to battle deep discouragement, depression and fear was very similar to wha was taking place in Jerusalem in chapter 3 & 4 of Nehemiah.

In chapter 3 we saw that in a very short period of time they had the wall half finished, God had really done a great work through them despite the attacks of the enemy, yet even in the midst of those victories, discouragement, depression and fear had set in amongst those rebuilding the wall.

To combat the discouragement, Nehemiah developed 5 specific steps to deal with discouragement.

These are good lessons for us when we deal with the discouragement that often take place in our life.

The steps are:

1. Unify Our Efforts Toward A Goal.

On this step Nehemiah began to group the families together in units enabling them to work together.

2. Direct Our Attention to The Lord.

On this step he directed their attention to all that God had accomplished through them and off of their own discouragement.

3. Maintain Balance in Our Thoughts and Actions.

The first 2 steps lifted their spirits and they returned to their rebuilding efforts, but they were also prepared for battle should the need arise, but the battle was not to be done for selfish reasons, but to defend the Lord’s work.

4. Determine a Rallying Point.

This was big for them as it is big for us as well, and that is we need to realize that we are not in this battle alone.

We need each other and we need to surround ourselves with other committed believers who we can rally to and who will rally around us when we are faced with our own battles with discouragement.

And lastly;

5. Develop a “Serving Others” Ministry.

In some ways this is similar to #2 (Directing out attention to the Lord), in that our focus is placed on serving and we are not dwelling on our own struggles.

This morning as we move into chapter 5, we see a whole different attack take place, and this attack was far more dangerous and effective that any of the attacks we have looked at so far.

Let’s go ahead and read through the first 13 verses of chapter 5, please stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

Nehemiah 5:1-13; “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.”

Up until chapter 5, the enemies that Nehemiah and the Nation of Judah faced, were predominantly their surrounding enemies; Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, Ashdodites & Ammonites.

To a very large degree the effect of their attacks didn’t do much more than cause a great deal of discouragement, and while the discouragement did temporarily stop the building of the wall, mid-way through the chapter, Nehemiah is able to encourage the builders with the 5 steps we looked at last week and they went right back to their rebuilding efforts.

But now, as we enter chapter 5, we see the construction come to a complete halt.

In fact no construction takes place at all in the entire chapter.

So what was different about this attack, why was this attack more effective than any we have seen thus far?

The difference here is huge because this attack comes from within.

Nehemiah lays this out for us in the very first verse of chapter 5:

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

In his commentary on Nehemiah, Louis Goldberg writes “Fighting enemies from without is one thing, but to face problems from within the believing community is far worse.

If Satan can bring distress and division from within, the cohesiveness of the community will be torn apart and its effectiveness to function as a unit will be destroyed.”

(Nehemiah.

In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol.

3, p. 316).

Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.)

What we are seeing in these first few verses is a conflict arise between 2 different groups of Jewish people.

The rich and the poor, and the reason is laid out for us in the first 5 verses where we see: Next Slides

The Morality of the Selfish:

The Destructive Power of Greed.

Vs. 1-5

Let’s look at these verses to get an understanding of what is taking place.

To begin with we see the poor:

Which are broken up into 3 different categories.

1.

In verse 2 we see Jews with families so large they are not able to put enough food on the table; “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.’”

2. In verse 3 we see Jews that had mortgaged their land and houses to buy food; “3 There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.’”

and:

3.

In verse 4 & 5 we see a group that had literally sold their son’s and daughters into slavery in order provide for their families.

“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.'”

Now let me draw a verbal picture of what appears to be taking place here.

Based on what we read in verse 3, there was a famine in the land.

We do not know a lot about what caused the famine, but it was likely caused by a few different factors.

One is that a good number of people had returned or relocated to Jerusalem to assist in the rebuilding efforts of the Walls of Jerusalem.

Some of those same individuals had given up work on their family farms because of this rebuilding effort.

This meant that no one was farming their land.

Another contributing factor was that they were surrounded by enemies.

Now in some ways they had been able to, in the past, live in relative harmony with those enemies, but once they started rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, that relative harmony disappeared because those surrounding enemies now saw the Jews as a threat to their way of living.

The next thing we see taking place is that many of these poor Jews were having a hard time paying taxes to the Persian Empires.

The Persian Empire wasn’t known for being patient with people that didn’t pay their taxes, this put the poor Jewish people on a dangerous footing.

Then along came the wealthy Jews to the rescue, and by rescue I mean they tossed their drowning brothers life preservers loaded with fish hooks.

In other words their intent was not to help but to enslave!

We don’t know for sure who approached whom, but what we do know is that the poor Jews had now become indebted to the wealthy Jews.

The problem wasn’t that they were assisting their fellow Jews, the problem was they had been overcome with the Destructive Power of Greed in the way they “helped”.

In 2012 Pam and I had a house fire.

The damage was mostly smoke damage but it did force us to live in a furnished apartment for 4 1/2 months.