1. Grievance time. Things seemed to be going fairly well on the outside for the Jewish community, but why is there so much worry and despair on the inside? What are some of the troubles the Jewish community is facing at this time when it seems that rebuilding prosperity should be the highest priority? How did a famine and stiff tax payments required by the Persian government affect the spirits of the Jewish people? What was “debt slavery” and how did the Jewish families handle this hardship? Do you or I ever face tough times financially? Do we ever complain that government restrictions are working against our need for a just income and pray earnestly for relief from the situation? Should we? 
2. Against the spirit of the law. How did Nehemiah show that he cared deeply for the problems faced by his fellow countrymen? Imagine living in a culture where slavery is practiced openly. Why do you think God allowed this practice? “God is on the side of the oppressed and needy,” our lesson author declares. Although paying interest wasn’t illegal, why did Nehemiah oppose it? Why was his attitude toward slavery and interest approved by God? 
3. Nehemiah acts. Why do you think Nehemiah called a huge assembly of God’s people together in one place to discuss this issue? If you had been there, do you think you would have approved of God’s disdain of slavery? What about taxes and the presence of poverty among God’s people? if you had visited the Jewish community about this time, what would you say to Nehemiah about the way God’s people were treating each other and the poor among them?
4. An oath. What is going on? How does Nehemiah decide to punish the people who did not agree to the requirements set by God Himself regarding interest? Why was an oath needed to seal the agreement for the repayment of confiscated funds? Nehemiah gathered garments of his and after putting grain or other substances in them, he shook the contents out of the cloth. What did that demonstrate? Do we take the same care in deciding what we will do as we do in determining how we will make necessary payments? Should we?
5. Nehemiah’s example. Does it surprise you at all that while Nehemiah felt the brush of wealth during the years he worked for the government on Judah, he never expected or requested payment for his efforts? Well, you might say, he had plenty of money and didn’t need to be paid by the government. That being the case, what principle guided him not to claim the funds that legally were due him?  If you had enough money to live comfortably and provide for your family as well, under those circumstances would you consider working without a salary? Why did Nehemiah make that choice? 

Amen!(0)

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Seemingly, the rebuke to the nobles and rulers — “each of you is exacting usury from his brother” (Neh. 5:7, NKJV) — didn’t bring the desired results. Thus, Nehemiah did not stop there but continued to fight for the oppressed among them. He could have just said that he had tried to teach the nobles and rulers but it didn’t work, and so he was forced to drop the issue. After all, these were the rich and powerful of the land that he would be going up against. But he was not satisfied until a solution to the problem was implemented, even if he created powerful enemies in the process.

Read Nehemiah 5:7-12. What are Nehemiah’s arguments against what is going on? What does he use to persuade the people to right the wrong?

Nehemiah Calls an Assembly

Nehemiah calls a great assembly — all of the people of Israel are brought together to deal with this matter. He is most likely counting on the possibility that when all the people are present, the leaders will be ashamed, perhaps even afraid to continue their oppression.

Nehemiah’s initial argument centers on slavery. Many of the Jews, most likely Nehemiah included, purchased freedom for other Jews in servitude to foreigners. Now, he asks the nobles and rulers whether they find it acceptable to buy and sell their own people. Does it make sense for the Israelites to buy Jews and give them freedom only to have them end up as slaves of their own people?

The leaders offer no response because they see that this argument is reasonable; therefore Nehemiah continues. He asks them, “Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?” (Neh. 5:9, ESV). Then, Nehemiah admits that he himself has been lending the people money and grain. By declaring “let us stop charging interest” (Neh. 5:10, NIV), he affirmed the law that forbade this practice with fellow Hebrews and demonstrated that under his governorship, he would like people to be solicitous towards each other. Amazingly, the response is unanimous. The leaders agree to restore everything to the people.

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Read Nehemiah 5:6-8 (see also Exod. 21:2-7). Why does Nehemiah react in anger?

However difficult for us to grasp today, slavery was a cultural norm in the ancient world. A parent could either become a slave himself/herself or sell a child. Socially and legally, the parents had the right to sell their sons and daughters.

Slavery?

However, since God is all about giving freedom, He regulated the practice in Israel by requiring creditors to release their slaves every seven years. Thus God protected people from becoming permanent slaves and demonstrated His desire for people to live freely.

Although lending was permitted by the law, charging interest was not (for biblical regulations against usury, see Exod. 22:25-27; Lev. 25:36-37; Deut. 23:19-20). And yet, the interest that the lenders charged was small compared to what the nations around them charged. They were asked to pay one percent every month. Mesopotamian texts from the 7th century show interest of 50 percent for silver and 100 percent for grain annually. Thus, the 12 percent interest per year was low compared to the practice of the countries in Mesopotamia. But overall, according to God’s Word, the only thing the creditors did wrong was to charge interest (Neh. 5:10), and interestingly, the people didn’t even mention that in their grievance. Everything else was within the social norm as well as within the provisions of the law. So why is Nehemiah “very angry”? Remarkably, he doesn’t act right away, but gives the matter some serious thought.

The fact that Nehemiah deals with the issue so decisively is very admirable. He doesn’t leave a grievance alone just because it doesn’t technically break the law or is socially acceptable, even “nice” compared to the practices of the land. It was the spirit of the law that was transgressed in this situation. Especially during a time of economic hardship, it was the duty of the people to help each other. God is on the side of the oppressed and needy, and He had to commission prophets to speak against the evils and violence committed against the poor.

Amen!(0)

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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.

Amen!(1)

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Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study: Neh. 5:1-5; Exod. 21:2-7; Micah 6:8; Neh. 5:7-12; Deut. 23:21-23; Neh. 5:14-19.

Memory Text: “Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them” (Nehemiah 5:11, NKJV).

To this day, we humans struggle with the question of wealth, poverty, and the gap between the rich and the poor and what can be done about it. Yes, Jesus said that “you have the poor with you always” (Matt. 26:11, NKJV), but that’s hardly an excuse to do nothing about helping them. On the contrary, Scripture admonishes us to do our part to help. We can barely call ourselves Christians otherwise.

How fascinating, too, that even amid the trials and tribulations of the returned exiles in rebuilding Jerusalem, this theme appears, not just that of poverty and the poor, but that of the even more problematic question of the rich oppressing the poor. This was a problem before the exile, and now, even back in their own land, it reappears.

This week we will see another manifestation of this age-old theme, and how Nehemiah worked to deal with it. As we will see, what made this oppression even worse was that it was being done within “the letter of the law”, so to speak, a powerful example of how we need to be careful not to let rules and regulations become an end in and of themselves rather than a means to an end, which is to reflect the character of Jesus.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 2.

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