Nehemiah 5 says...

February 20, 2012

Nehemiah 5 says...

"Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. 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.' There were also those who said, 'We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses to get grain because of the famine.' And there were those who said, 'We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. 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 (italics mine), for other men have our fields and our vineyards.'

I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. 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 had a great assembly against them 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. 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? Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards and their house, and the percentage of money, grain, wine and oil that you have been exacting from them.' 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 promised. 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 YAHWEH. And the people did as they had promised.

Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the kind, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor. The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God. I also persevered in the work on this wall, and we acquired no land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work. Moreover, there were at my table 150 men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Yet for all of this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because the service was too heavy on this people. Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people."

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So you may be asking, "why did you just type out all of Nehemiah 5?!?! It's a lot to read at one time, not to mention from the Old Testament. So what's the point? What are you trying to say?"

Well... here's my answer:

I was reading Nehemiah 4-5 tonight (sadly I've been very bad at reading my Bible consistently the last few weeks and therefore am still in the early chapters of Nehemiah and Revelation... don't judge me). And as I read tonight, I could not help but notice how even though Nehemiah 5 is in the Old Testament and many people don't give the Old Testament much weight these days, the reality is that Nehemiah's words in chapter 5 ring out loud and clear today. Here's why...

Do I have your attention now? Does Nehemiah's words have your attention now? Did you notice what I had italicized in the first paragraph of chapter 5? If not... here it is again:

"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..."

SLAVERY EXISTS TODAY. Tonight, this very moment, there are people around the world who are selling their children (no matter their age) to criminals, businessmen, crooked politicians, guerrilla forces, drug dealers, pimps and who knows who else.

SLAVERY EXISTS TODAY. Tonight, this very moment, girls are being forced to sleep with men for money in the hopes that somehow their parents debt will be made smaller or forgotten one day. Or because they were tricked into this lifestyle with the promises of a good job and a safe home, but instead or beaten, abused, drugged and raped.

SLAVERY EXISTS TODAY. Tonight, this very moment, boys and girls alike are being trained on how to kill their families, friends and enemies. They are being made numb to the cruelties of war and having their childhood stripped away.

SLAVERY EXISTS TODAY. Tonight, this very moment, children are working in sweat shops or carting garbage for someone other than their parents because they have been sold or abandoned or kidnapped and see no other choice but to obey those who rule them.

SLAVERY EXISTS TODAY. Do you understand now what Nehemiah said? Do you understand now how Nehemiah 5 speaks to our world today? Do you understand now how we are no better than the Jewish people who were selling their brothers or children just to pay off their equivalent of a mortgage and the king's tax? Do you understand how our world today is no better than the world of Nehemiah and Artaxerxes?

BUT... do you also realize that we do have "the power to help it"? Do you realize that there is something you and I can do? Do you realize that there is a POWER that can set the captives free and break the chains that bind this world? These children? These women? These families? Do you realize that there are people who are committed to doing whatever they can to end the slavery that some don't want to acknowledge? Do you realize that one day slavery will be ended once and for all?

Tonight, my anger is burning through me. My hatred for evil is guiding my thoughts and my fingers as I type this. My sadness for the children who have been robbed of their childhood is the cause of my tears tonight. My faith is what is leading me to my knees and the throne room of YAHWEH in prayer for our crooked and evil world. My dreams are what is helping me hold onto the hope of a good and perfect world where no slavery exists.

I may not be boarding a plane to Cambodia or to India or to the Sudan or to Mexico City to take on the world of drug or sex trafficking, child soldiers and child slavery tonight. But I am doing the one thing I know how... I am praying and waging war on the evil that controls this world in the hopes that maybe one day the chains will snap and one child may be free. One woman is introduced to a life of love and wholeness. One family is able to live without fear of the debt collectors. One crooked politician is taken down (notice how in the last paragraph of chapter 5 Nehemiah talks about how he didn't take advantage of his position as those who had gone before him did). One drug dealer is punished for the sickness he sold to the world. One pimp is caught for the abuse he hands out on a daily basis to girls who don't deserve it. One businessman is broken for the role he played in secret. And that Satan will realize he lost one more stronghold and that his empire truly is crumbling down in the shadow of the glorious victory that Jesus Christ won.