05 Money, Power, and Fear: How Nehemiah Stayed Faithful Under Pressure (Nehemiah 5-6)

Krisan Marotta: Thank you for listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is the fifth talk in our series on the Old Testament Book of Nehemiah. Today we'll be covering Chapter 5 and Chapter 6. You can follow along with the lecture notes by going to wednesdayintheword.com slash Nehemiah 5. So glad you joined us. Alright, we are in chapter Nehemiah, chapter 5 and 6. And we're going to jump right in because it's going to be another long one. Let me just review where we are in the book. In the first chapter, we met Nehemiah, and we found that he was caught between two worlds. He was the cupbearer to the king of Persia, which who was the most powerful ruler of the day. And the cupbearer was the person who offers the king, tastes the king's wine and food before he eats. And that was a position of power, of political influence, and of access to the king. So he was probably educated, well off, living in kind of the lap of luxury for 450 BC. And here he is at the, you know, at kind of the height of his career, and his brothers from come from Jerusalem who've returned from exile, and they are living in poverty and despair and in a city that's dangerous and the walls are down. So he's caught of what do I do? I'm rich and successful, and they're living in danger and poverty. And uh, how do I should I respond? He spends four months praying, asking God what he should do, and at the end of that time he concludes that he should go to Jerusalem and help rebuild the walls. So then in chapter two, we see him in three moments where he has to rely on the Spirit of God to get him through. That's his only defense. The first is when he approaches the king and asks permission to leave to go to Jerusalem, which was kind of a political minefield, but he um he was prepared and knew what to say. The second is when he makes it to Jerusalem and he's got to motivate the people who are brokenhearted and destitute and uh in despair from the situation they're living in, and he's got to motivate them to take on this huge task of rebuilding the walls. And then the third scene in that chapter, he is facing his enemies who don't want the walls to be rebuilt, and they are ridiculing and scoffing him. And again, in all three of those situations, his defense is the Word of God and who God is. Then last week we looked at chapters three and four, and in chapter three, it's a list of the people who started work on the wall, and it paints this picture of a community working together where everyone has a part to play. They are from all different walks of life, all different nationalities and backgrounds and economic classes and jobs, and they're working side by side in groups where some people would be holding a sword and guarding and resting while others are working and then they switch. So it's this picture of a community serving together. Um one person blows a trumpet, we're in trouble, everyone else comes running. And we talked about wanting to be that kind of a community where we work together, where we when one person needs a break, we are there to help and stand guard and when and then taking on the work uh and letting them did I say that right? Vice versa, switching those around. Um and also the idea of where do you start serving in the body of Christ, start with a broken wall in front of your house. So the the people and the opportunities that God has already kind of dropped in your lap that are the most obvious. Start there and then see where he takes you. In chapter four, then we see the opposition that Nehemiah faces, where the people surrounding Jerusalem begin to get upset that they are the walls are being rebuilt and they threaten to attack. Um the people of Jerusalem hear these words and internalize them and repeat ten times over what their enemies were saying. So we saw that they are the city was broken because their hearts were broken, because their God was too small, they'd given up on trusting that God could solve that. And again, Nehemiah steps forward, and how does he motivate them and resolve the situation? He calls them back to who God is and what he has done for them. And he teaches them both to trust and to fight. So he doesn't teach them to become dependent on him, oh, I'm this great leader, you've got to follow me, but to trust in their God and equip them to do the work. Another mark of leadership. So in 4.6, the walls are described as halfway built. In 6.15, which we're gonna get to today, they are complete. And it takes um, I forgot, I can't remember, it's it's around two months. I can't remember it's a little over or under. So in chapter three and four, we saw the problems they faced from their external enemies. Today, we're gonna see they have problems within the community. They're not getting along with each other, and that's the kind of problems Nehemiah has to deal with today. So let's look at chapter five, and we're gonna start with verses one through eight. 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 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, and our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and daughters to be slaves. 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. I was very angry when I heard their outcry in 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 held a great assembly against them, and said to them, We, as far as we are able, have brought 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, what's going on here? What you have is building of the wall was worsening an already bad financial situation. So the wall, as they're working on the wall, it took the better about two months or a little over two months to do that. And while they're working on the wall, they couldn't be doing what they normally did to make a living. So if they were craftsmen or farmers or or worked a vineyard or whatever, they had to leave that occupation and work on the wall. So they're not making any money. It's like a two-month unpaid vacation, if you will, only they're working. And so the situation was already pretty bad financially, and building the wall has set them back. You know, you can't eat the walls, and here they're out working on these walls instead of doing what they normally did to make money. On top of that, most likely they had to contribute some of their own resources. I suspect they brought their own tools with them, for instance, or supplied their own food for during the day while they were working. And so we know from chapter one they weren't in great shape to begin with, and now they're taking all their time and effort to rebuild these walls, so it's going to make an an already difficult situation worse. And on top of that, there seems to be a local famine. They're talking about, you know, the the situation isn't isn't that good to begin with, and they also have to pay taxes to the Persian Empire because they were under, they were a vassal state of the Persians. So you have these people who are on the edge financially already, and now they're overwhelmed. And then verse 2 alludes to another problem. With our sons and daughters, we are many, so let us get grain that we may keep alive. I think what they're talking about is the younger families here. Because in that day and age there was no such thing as family planning, or there wasn't even any inclination to it. Um the larger the family, the better. And whether you were rich or poor, families tended to be about the same size. So those whose children were numerous were those who had children at home. So the younger parents, parents with younger kids, whose children were still dependent and they had all these mouths to feed, as opposed to people whose children maybe were older and grown and in the workforce and contributing would be the opposite side of that. So they're saying, look, we're starting out in life, we've got all these mouths to feed, we've got all these dependents, and we haven't built up these resources or wealth that some of the older families have. And this is hard. We don't have children who can go and help and work in the fields or work in the in the orchards or help even on the wall. They're they weren't extra, uh, they're just extra mouths to feed at this point. So they have this stress already. And I think that ought to sound familiar because that is um that situation is pretty much the same today. If you look at the families who have younger children who are just starting out, they are the ones who are more on the economic edge than families who've been uh navigated those waters for a while, who've had a chance to build up some savings or reach higher levels in their career, um, who've already maybe have got some things, some money put away for college or retirement. So it's the younger families who are trying to raise children that tend to have the most difficulty making ends meet. And now you have this economic problem of rebuilding the walls slapped on top of it, and they are really stressed. But the problem is not, oh, some are wealthy and some are not. The problem that we're going to see in chapter five is the wealthy are taking advantage of the poor. The wealthy are taking advantage of the ones who are having the hardest time, and that's what Nehemiah comes down on them about. Not only are they doing the very thing they're forbidden to do, they are not doing the positive things that they are asked to do in the law. And the two things that are come up are loaning interest or loaning money at interest and uh slavery, and by slavery there it's really indentured servitude. It's the idea of selling yourself into someone's service for a period of time to pay off a debt. So on the sheet I handed out has the verses I'm gonna be looking at. Because first I want to look at what they were supposed to do and what they were not supposed to do, and then we're gonna come back to Nehemiah and talk about what was happening. So if you look at Leviticus 25, um, these are the we're gonna start with the laws concerning uh lending and money. So in Leviticus 25, 35 through 38, if one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you. Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countrymen may continue to live among you. You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt and gave you the land of Canaan to be your God. And then Deuteronomy 15, seven through eleven. If there is a poor man among you, your your brothers in any of the towns of the land that your Lord God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight fisted toward your brother. Rather be open-handed and freely lend him whatever he needs. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought. The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near, so that you do not show ill will toward your needy brother and give him nothing. He may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart. Then, because of this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and everything you put your hands to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open-handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land. So, what's going on here is Jews were expected to care for their own. If somebody from their family, their tribe, their countrymen fell on hard times, they were expected to help them out and not to take advantage of that. So if a family member got sick or their crops failed, or some other tragedy occurred, the it was the responsibility of the tribe to rally around them and to take care of them. And remember, family was very broadly defined. So it says if your brother, that's not just like your child your siblings, that was like your tribe, your whole clan. It was it was a lot um family was defined much more broader than just your immediate people living in your household. And they're specifically commanded to be open-handed, to lend freely, and to give generously. And they're warned to get the against the temptation of saying, well, the seventh year is near, so I won't loan them right now. Because what happened, what was supposed to happen, is that every seven years all debts were canceled. And um servants who'd indentured themselves were allowed to go free. So the temptation is to say, assume next year is the seventh year, to say, oh, you know, it's it's October, and we're almost into the next year, and so in just a few more months their debt will be cancelled anyway, and if I loan him money now, then I won't get paid back anything. So I'll just wait. You know, that's that's what's going on in the Deuteronomy passage. If and God specifically says that's sin and it's wrong, and I will find you guilty for that. So the temptation is to say, oh, my neighbor's gonna get help in a few months anyway, so I'll just wait for that for that debt to be canceled. And God says, No, that's that's tight-fisted, that is not the kind of um the attitude he wants them to have. So, in addition to giving generously when it was needed, they were not to profit from someone else's hard times. Look at Deuteronomy 23, 19 to 20. Do not charge your brother interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a brother Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess. And then Exodus 22, 25 and 26. If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a money lender, charge him no interest. If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset, because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. So they are allowed to charge foreigners interest, but not fellow Israelites. The law strictly forbids it. And I think the point of it is you're not to take your knowledge of someone else's hard times and make a profit. So if someone else has fallen into trouble, you are not to gain from that and to use your abilities in that too to profit from their tragedy. And that's exactly what's happening in Nehemiah's time. You have the younger families who are stressed by this wall building and the famine and their situation, and the wealthy are saying, Oh, let me tide you over. Here's the loan, here's the interest, mortgaging their fields, and they're taking advantage of them. Okay, let's look at the laws concerning slavery then. And it's interesting the two passages that we're going to look at follow immediately from the two passages on money. So Leviticus 25, 39 through 43. If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave. He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you. He is to work for you until the year of Jubilee. Then he and his children are to be released, and he will go back to his fathers. Because of the Because the Israelites are my servants who I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God. And then Deuteronomy 15, 12 through 15. If a fellow Hebrew, a man or woman, sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free. And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your wine press. Give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today. So the slavery he's talking about here is not the kind of racial slavery that we think of in America, but this is indentured servitude. If the Hebrews, if they fell on hard times, could sell their children or themselves into slavery and say, I'll work for you for so many years, and that will pay off the debt. So it was a kind of indentured servitude. And at the end of seven years they were supposed to go free, the debt was was cancelled. And what the point of all this, I think, is that no one is permitted to create a permanent underclass. So what everybody's running. So if you uh the idea was you had to let them go free because you're not allowed to take um, to keep people in slavery, to keep them indentured, and to create kind of this underclass system. Before we go back to Nehemiah, I want you to notice why God gives these commands. Three times he gives a reason, and it's always the same one. In Leviticus 25, 38, he says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. Leviticus 25, 42, because the Israelites are my servants who I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. And then in Deuteronomy 15, 14, he uh 15, 15, remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command. So he even tells you, want to know why? Here's the reason you were slaves and I redeemed you. So that's something we ought to stop and take notice. Why is that the basis for the command? What are we supposed to learn from that? Um that ought to get our attention. The point of that is he's saying, Who gave you what you had? Remember, you were a slave, you had nothing, you were helpless, and who put you where you are, who gave you the land you lived in, who causes your crops to flourish, who gave you sons and daughters, or in our day, who gave you your bank account, who gave you your education, who gave you the chance to go to that school or to live in this neighborhood or to have these kind of house and opportunities, it all comes from the hand of God. And the point he's making is however much we have, whether it's a little slice of the pie or a big slice of the pie, it's from the hand of God. He put us where we are, he gives it to us. We were slaves to sin and he bought us back. He redeemed us. So as the New Testament says, we are not our own, we are bought with a price. And the lesson I think we're supposed to learn from that is everything we have was given to us by God to use wisely for his glory, not for our personal pleasure. So we don't want to take advantage of someone else's need because it's all from the hand of God. We are no better off because we worked hard or we got this education. Um, we are better off because God gave us this whatever resources for purpose to serve his name. He helped us when He was when we were helpless and our neighbor too. So there's a it's a level playing field. If God redeemed my neighbor, who am I to force him into slavery again? He belongs to God just like we do. Now, if you're like me, I was reading this and thinking, okay, but I don't I don't think I've loaned anybody money in ten years. It just hasn't no it hasn't even come up, it hasn't been an option, and indentured servitude is not really an issue. Although my children, my teenagers, like to think that they're indentured servants, but they're really not. I sometimes think we're the servants, you know. They're the ones that get chauffeured everywhere. Um so I was thinking, what how does this apply to us? And it occurred to me the attitudes behind it carry over into all kinds of other areas. Let me give you an example. When my kids were younger, we went through this period of cereal wars. Megan was about ten, and she wanted Captain Crunch cereal. And she was at the time was kind of a picky eater. She would go through a phase where there was like one thing she wanted to eat, and that was it. And then a couple weeks later it would change to something else. So she got in this thing where all she wanted was Captain Crunch cereal. So I bought her a box of Captain Crunch cereal, and a few days later, our my son, or son Brendan, who was about 13 at the time, said, Megan, can I have some of your cereal? Well, you have to understand he's a growing teenage boy, and he was about six feet tall at the time and still growing, and he could inhale the refrigerator. You know, just whatever was in it was like vacuum right into his mouth. It was all gone. Um, and she knew that giving him her cereal was not, you know, a little bowl of cereal, the box was gonna be empty. Um and so she was like, you could see this fear on her face of, do I have to give him my cereal? Um what if he'll finish the whole thing. And I was watching this, I have to admit, I could empathize with her because I have an older brother too, and when I was her age, we went through the exact same problem. My mom would only go to the grocery store on Saturday, she just refused to go more than that. And we got to a point where there was no way to get enough food in one cart to last for the week. And so that was like the famine years in our house. By Thursday, the food was gone. And my brother could just kind of eat everything in the house. And I used to one time I took like Cokes that I wanted to make sure I had, and I put a sign on it that said contaminated. Put it in the refrigerator. And that worked once. It didn't work again. And then I would like hide cookies or after school snacks, like in my room, under the bed or in the closet. So by the before the relief shipment came, you know, the next week I'd still have something to eat. Fortunately, my uh my stockpile began to attract bugs and I got in big trouble. But so when all this was going on with Megan and Brendan, it was like, oh, I know exactly how she feels. My first reaction was, that's hers, keep your mitts off. You know, and she's thinking, okay, I'll trade you the cereal for a week of Nintendo privileges, you know. So a little interest there. So now think about that in terms of Nehemiah and what we've just been talking about, because I think it's the same principle. The attitude of my heart at 10 and Megan's at 10 was it's mine. I asked for it. I earned it. I worked for it. I have to look out for myself. I have to take care of my own interests. You know, God's not going to provide. He might not be there, you know, to bring more Cokes and crackers at the end of the week. So the attitude of it's mine, I worked for it, I need it, is the exactly the attitude that that is in these laws in Deuteronomy and Leviticus and is the problem in our passage here. The point is, your God brought you out of slavery. He redeemed you. It's all his. Whatever you have, he gave to you, and he looks after the sparrows and he will take care of you. He knows what you need, he's got a plan, and you can trust him for it. So that when someone comes to you in hard times, you can give generously and open-handedly because the same God is looking after your both. And yet it's so easy to slide into the sin of it's mine. I need it. I worked for it. I want it. And it sounds reasonable, it sounds justified. Well, I'll trade you, you know, serial for Nintendo, that works. Um and yet, would the hard attitude be give gen ought to be, give generously because it's all been given to us? And notice again, just to tie it into what we talked about last week, that kind of generosity requires both people to be open and vulnerable. Um, the person giving has to trust God enough that he's going to replenish or meet the needs if you give it away, and that can be a hard lesson to learn. Sometimes it's hard to, you know, pry your little fingers off the checkbook thinking, you know, that God will supply. And the person receiving has to be willing to say, I need help. I I'm in a position where I can't make it right now. I need a helping hand, and that requires you to be open and vulnerable. And so that's that builds community. If we're going to, as we saw last week, work together and have one person hold a sword while one person's working and then switch off, we're gonna have to we have to be open and vulnerable. If we're going to say, I need a hand here, I uh I'm asking for help and being willing to help, you've got to be again open and vulnerable. And that builds a community into a community. Um and that's I think the goal Nehemiah is working toward. To build them into a community that takes care of each other and trust God that He's taking care of all of them. Okay, let's go back to the passage then and look at how Nehemiah responds to this. He is outraged because they're abusing each other economically. Um the first thing he does is go to the nobles and the officials in private. So in verse 7 and 8, when I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. Then I got the nobles and officials together, the people who were taking advantage. So he gets this private talk first, and then after that he makes his charges public. So he accuses, and let's see. One I forgot to mention earlier, the other thing they were doing here is they were selling their indentured servants to the Gentiles who could ignore the seven-year cycle and then buying them back. So that's what's going on in seven, eight, and nine, where Nehemiah talks about you're selling them so they can be bought to us. So if the seven-year cycle would end, they'd say, Oh, well, let me sell my endangered servant to the Gentile who could ignore the seventh year, and then they would buy them back when the seventh year is open, over just keeping them in slavery. And Nehemiah said, You're selling them to the Gentiles, and we're having to buy them back again. Um so it's they're they're doing everything wrong. So first Nehemiah goes to them in private, then he makes his charges public, and notice he gets angry, but he thinks through his anger. This is a mark of good leadership. He's angry about the right thing, and I think it's anger is a proper response if you see someone abusing someone else, especially the poor and the vulnerable. It's the same thing that made our Lord angry when he was in the temple, but he doesn't act immediately on that. Verse 7, the New American Standard translates verse 7, but I thought about what was happening and then I spoke. So I became angry, but I fought through my anger. Is it reasonable? Is it justified? Am I do I have biblical reasons to become angry or to speak in this situation? It's a mark of good leadership. He also makes very specific charges. He tells the nobles and the officials exactly what they're doing wrong. He says, You're charging usury and you're abusing the laws of indentured servitude. So he doesn't go to them outraged with, oh, you're just rotten, horrible people, or blanket, you know, overarching accusations. He tells them specifically what he what their charges are. Again, a mark of leadership, I think. So look at- let's look at 9 through 13, because I think that shows what's in Nehemiah's heart. So in verse 9 of chapter 5, 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 houses, and the percentage of money, grain, and 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 had promised. I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, So my 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 praise the Lord. And the people did as they had promised. So he gets angry, but he thinks through his anger. He talks to them privately first, then he makes his charges public. He's very specific in what they're doing wrong, and then he calls them back to the fear of the Lord. He basically says, Shouldn't you fear God more than the short-term benefit of money? Shouldn't you want the rewards that come from trusting God and following him more than the rewards that come from wealth and money? And aren't you concerned for the reputation of our God among our neighbors and our enemies and the people? So his again, his call to them is come back to what you know is true, come back to the fear of the Lord. And yet he knows how seductive money can be. He doesn't just leave it as, well, we promise we'll do it. He makes them swear in public because money is this siren song that that it's easy to get sucked into. And he wants this kind of public act to help hold them accountable to their promises. So that's I think what the swearing of the oath is and the taking off his coat and shaking it out. It's kind of a public, let's hold account everyone accountable and make sure it's visually represented. So it's kind of like, you know, sign on the dotted line. It's it's a way to hold them accountable. All right, we've got to move on. 14 through 19. Another mark of leadership, not only does he call them to do the right thing, he's an example of it. So he's leading by example. So look at 514. Moreover, from the time I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, 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 rations 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 work. Moreover, there were at my table a hundred and fifty 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, oh my God, all that I have done for this people. So what he's saying is, as governor, he had the right to a salary, basically, in acting as the governor of Jerusalem, he had a right to exact a tax that would have paid for the support of his government, basically his servants and his people, and he refused to take that payment for twelve years. And then not only that, the part about we acquired no land is he didn't speculate. So as people came on hard times, you know you could buy this land really cheap because someone was on hard times and acquire it, and uh he didn't do that. He didn't profit from someone else's loss. So that's what he's saying. He didn't acquire a land, he didn't speculate, he didn't take a salary, and on top of that, he fed a hundred and people a day out of his own, 150 people a day out of his own pocket. Um then he goes on to tell us how many, you know, oxen and sheep and so on that was required. So he he's charging, he's accusing the unrighteous nobles and officials of making loans and making a profit on someone else's uh troubled times. He calls them back to that and he can say, in my own life, I have not done that. He's leading by example. So he was generous, he went beyond what was required of him. And again, notice how many times fear the Lord shows up in this passage. That's his reason for doing so. And he concludes this section with another short prayer: Remember me with favor, O my God, for all I have done for these people. Where is he looking for his reward? He's not looking for the appraise of men, he's not looking for, you know, a big statue in the square, Nehemiah built this wall. He wants the reward from God. So he did what he advocated for others, and that I think is another mark of good leadership. It's interesting if you contrast that with our leaders today. I mean, the the classic example is ex-president Clinton, you know, who said, Oh, it doesn't matter what you do in your private lives as long as you can do your job. So you can be immoral, you can lie, shouldn't matter, it doesn't affect your public job performance. I think we would do well to reject that kind of thinking. Truly good leaders ought to be examples and exemplars, and if they call their people to honesty, ought to act honestly themselves. It's another thing to think about as parents. Um you want to lead by example, or Sunday school teachers, or people in positions of responsibility at work. If you're calling your people to act a certain way or want you expect a certain level of work or commitment, you ought to be an example of that yourselves. It's hard, but it's it's the right thing to do. Okay, let's move on to chapter six, because the same principles are gonna come up in chapter six, only in a different arena. In this, Nehemiah is tested, his character is tested three times. So we're talking about what kind of leader is he. Is he the kind of leader who fears God or the kind of leader who thinks too highly of himself? And what we're gonna see in each of these tests is basically someone appealing to his pride or his fears, and he he responds with, No, I fear the God, fear the Lord. So let me look at that. Six, one through four. Now when Senbalat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and there was no breach left in it, although up to that time I had not set up the doors and the gates, Senbalat and Geshem sent to me saying, Come and let us meet together at whatever this place is in the plain of Ono. I can't pronounce all these names. But they intended to do me harm, and I sent messengers to them saying, I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. So I think what they're appealing to here is his pride. The job is almost done, the walls are built, but the gates aren't hung yet, and the enemy says, Come on down, we're gonna have a party for you. We're gonna celebrate all you've done, but they really intend to ambush him and kill him. In verse 2, it says, Let us meet together. That the phrase there can either be a political meeting or a feast and a celebration. And I interpret it as the feast because I don't see why Nehemiah would have been tempted to meet with them politically. He's already stood up to them twice that we've seen in this book. So I don't think he fears their political power. So I don't know why that would tempt him. But um, and if he didn't want to meet with them or negotiate with them with them when the walls are down, now that they're almost up, why would he want to meet with them? So I think what they're doing is saying, hey, okay, Nehemiah, you've done a great job. We see the walls are going up. Let's celebrate with you, let's let's show what a good leader you are and and what you've done for Jerusalem, and we'll we'll throw you this big party, and you can come join us. And um, they intend to kill him. And I think the temptation for him there is to seek the praise of men because everyone wants to know, am I doing a good job? You know, did I have I you you know, every time you finish a class or a conference or a project, you know, you turn in a report to your teacher or something, you want to know, am I doing it right? Did I do a good job? And that's something we all face. And I think that's the temptation for Nehemiah, to have someone validate him and say, yes, all this hard work, all the time and effort you put in, the giving up of your own money and the salary and all of that, yes, let's celebrate. You did a good job. And that's the temptation for Nehemiah. And I don't think he would have been immune to that. And it the temptation then is to take himself too seriously and seek the praise of men, and yet, that's exactly what he doesn't do. He says, I'm doing a great work, I cannot come down. Why should I let the work stop and come down to you? He basically says, I'm doing what I'm called to do, and your accolades aren't going to contribute anything to me. So he avoids that temptation. The second one, then, in five through seven, I think appeals to his ambition or his desire for power. So look at this one. In this this is six, verse five. In the same way, Sembalat for the fifth time sent his servants to me with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel. That is why you're building the wall. And according to these reports, you wish to become their king, and you have also set up the prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem. There is a king in Judah. And now the king will hear these reports, so now come and let us take counsel together. So what they're saying here with this open letter is, okay, Nehemiah, we really know that you have political aspirations, and you're not just building the walls for Jerusalem, you're building it so you can be king. So we'll throw our military might in with you and recognize your kingship, and then we can all rebel against uh Arta Xerxes in Persia, and you know, we'll it we'll have this big political uh takeover. So come on and talk to us, and we'll, you know, otherwise we're gonna let your old buddy the king know what you've got planned, and you'll be, you know, executed. So I think if Nehemiah were ambitious, this would tempt him. Um I'm sure as a as a Jew and as a believer of Yahweh, he did not want to be under the state of Persia, but he trusted his God to take care of that and not him. So he really wasn't planning to overthrow the army. Again, he's doing what God calls him to. So look how he answers in eight and nine. Then I sent to him, saying, No such things as you say have been done, for you were inventing them out of your own mind. For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, their hands will drop from the work and it will not be done. But now, oh my God, strengthen my hands. So he's saying, Let us remain firm, we've come this far. Keep us focused on the task. I suspect Sembalat wanted to kill him again when he called him down. He didn't really want to help him become king, but wanted to kill him. But if Nehemiah had really been planning to raise an army and try to become king and make Jerusalem independent again, I think it would have this would have been a temptation for him. He would have wanted the help of his political allies. And yet he says, No, I fear my God. God's in control, God will do it. Okay, so look at the third test. This I think appears to his fears again. Now I went into the house of Shemiah, the son of Delilah, son of whoever that is, who was confined to his home. And he said, Let us meet together in the house of God within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night. So what's going on here is he goes to someone who turns out to be a false prophet, and he says, Oh, they're coming to kill you, come run and hide with me in the temple. And Nehemiah's response in eleven through twelve is, No, it's up to the hand of God, basically. Let's read that. But I said, Should such a man as I run away, and what man such as I could go into the temple and live, I will not go in. And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sendbalat had hired him. For this purpose he was hired that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, so that they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. I think the temptation here is to believe that you're more important than you are. The temptation is to say, Nehemiah, you're the one. You're the one that's building this wall, and it can't go on without you. If something happens to you, the whole project will fall apart. So you have to take care of yourself. Come run and hide in the temple so they can't kill you, and you'll be safe in there. And Nehemiah is saying, No, God's the one who's building this wall. If I get killed, he will continue the work. I'm not irrespe irreplaceable. I'm not the only one. Um and his hand is basically, his reply is basically, what man such as I could go into the temple and live but will not go in. It's I think the force of that is either God will save me or he won't. And it's up to God. And I think all leaders are tempted to think that. You know, if I don't head up this project, it's gonna fail. If if I don't teach Wednesday in the Word, it's gonna fall apart. If I don't uh if I'm not the CEO, if I'm not the head of the project, it just can't go on without me. I'm I'm the important one, I'm the one on the mission from God. It's necessary. You know, God can't work without me. And that's the temptation Nehemiah is facing, and he rejects that. It's not our weaknesses that hinder God, it's our delusions of strength. You know. He can work fine with us when we know we're inadequate and we know we need him. It's when we get, you know, on our high horse and think, oh, watch this, God, watch what I can do without you, that we're in trouble. So I think the temptation for Nehemiah is to take himself too seriously or to put more importance on himself than he deserved. Um he says, No, I'm not that kind of person. I'm not going to run and hide in the temple to save my life when everybody else's life is just as threatened. If the assassins come to our city and they start killing people, I'm going to stay with them. God will protect me or he won't. So in each of these cases, Nehemiah faced the temptation to trust in himself as opposed to trusting in God. And each time he c he stands on what he knows to be true. God is in control, God is fighting for him. And that is the same thing he calls the people to. So it's an example. He himself in his own life is an example of what he's trying to get the people to do. So he basically says, God is in control and I'm not. God is God and I'm not, and success depends on God keeping his promises, not my leadership skills. And that's what we've seen all through the book. When he goes before the king to ask permission to leave, he knows that success will turn on God fighting for them. When he rallies the people in chapter two and says, rebuild the wall, his rallying cry is, look what God has already done and look what he's promised to do. And now we see in his own life when he's tempted to save himself and to start trusting in himself, he says, No, God is the God who's in control. So just to wrap this up, let me tie the chapter five and six together because I think the issues are the same. In chapter five, he was talking about giving generously and lending freely because God is God and you're not. Because God gave you what you had, he redeemed you out of slavery, and it's not the result of your own handiwork. Any financial success or wealth or bl is a blessing from God, and we are not to look at it as the result of our spectacular economic skills, but as a blessing from God. In the same way in chapter 6, Nehemiah's life was saved because he knew that God was God and he was not. God was in control, and the wall would be rebuilt because God was fighting for them. His life would be saved because God decided to save it. And that success was not dependent on his being, you know, eloquent or politically savvy or getting all the people to think what a charismatic leader he is. Instead, it depended on keeping them, trusting their God and fearing him, and knowing that he will keep their promises. He will keep his promises. That is what we want to look for in leaders. People who turn to God when the going gets tough, encourage us to turn to God when the going gets tough, and try to live the very things that they are encouraging us to do. How are we doing on time? All right. Well, let's stop there. Next week we're going to cover both chapter seven and eight. This is another one of my favorite sections of the book. Chapter eight is, I love the prayer in chapter one. Chapters eight and nine are like my next two favorites. And um especially chapter eight, I think what we're gonna see there is some of the conventional wisdom of our day. The things that we just accept as gospel truth, we're gonna see from chapter eight are not so true. And um I think I hope you'll I hope that's as exciting for you as it was for me. So you don't want to miss those. Okay, let me just pray and then I'll give you some time to ask some questions. Father, thank you that you are a God who loves us and cares for us. Help us to trust you and know that all that we have is a gift from you and from your hand, and that we would trust that you know what you're doing, that we can be um open-handed and lend generously when needed, that we could be support to those who are having hard times, and we would be vulnerable and ask uh for help when we are in a position of need. We just pray that you would be working all these words into our hearts and into our our uh lives, making us people who trust you more, who turn to you more, and who can then turn that love outward um to our friends and our neighbors in Jesus' name. Amen.