A Good Shepherd Lays Down His Life for the Sheep
The Poor Are Oppressed
Nehemiah’s whole time as governor of this region has been filled with conflict and crises. And chapter five includes another crisis. However, this crisis is different because Nehemiah is partly responsible for it.
Remember that as they were working to build the wall in Nehemiah 4, Nehemiah had everybody stay in Jerusalem night and day in order to protect the work from being destroyed by Sanballat and Tobiah. You see Nehemiah’s command in 4:22.
Let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night, and may labor by day.
This kept the work safe, but it didn’t allow Israelites to effectively plant crops to feed themselves. Very likely, that is why the people are facing a famine when chapter five begins. A famine is not what you want to be facing as an agrarian society while you’re being attacked by your enemies and trying to rebuild your capital. The issue is that when there is less food, the price of food increases (the law of supply and demand). The poor and working-class people are unable to afford food, and so they’re likely to lose everything. As it relates to the wall, people can’t leave their families to come and work on the wall if their families don’t have anything to eat. The work on the wall won’t continue, and the people will suffer greatly. And politically, if you’re in charge while the people are starving, you’re probably not going to stay in charge.
A famine brings a great opportunity for the rich to share their wealth and food with others so that the whole community can make it through together. But what we find out is that the rich are instead taking advantage of the poor. Look with me at verses 1–5. How are the poor oppressed? As the people face this famine, there are three groups:
- Those who can buy grain for themselves (v. 2).
- Those who need to mortgage their fields in order to buy grain (v. 3).
- Those who have already mortgaged their fields to pay taxes. They couldn’t keep up on the debts, and their fields and vineyards have been seized. So their only way to buy food is to sell their sons and daughters into slavery (vv. 4–5).
It’s especially this third group of people that is being oppressed. Taxes forced them to ask for a loan. So they gave their land as a pledge. Remember, their land is their only means to feed themselves and make money. When they were unable to pay their debts, their lenders seized their land which was given in pledge. Now the only way they have to buy grain to survive is to sell their children into slavery. Since they don’t have any means of making money, they probably won’t ever be able to get ahead enough to redeem their land or their children. That’s why they say,
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. (Neh 5:5)
Consider how heinous this oppression is. They say, “Our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers…” They aren’t selling their children to foreigners as slaves. They weren’t borrowing money from foreigners to survive. They were borrowing money and selling their children to other Jews. The loan sharks who seized their land were Jewish nobles. Rather than help the poor among them, they enrich themselves off their poverty. Rather than relieve the crisis, they add to it. This is one of the most extreme examples I can think of to picture putting your own interests above another. They’ve returned to try to rebuild Jerusalem together, and now they are seizing the land they just got back? I’ll tell you what isn’t being a team player in the effort to rebuild the wall: seizing the property of your brother and buying their kids so that they can eat dinner.
But it actually gets even worse. When Nehemiah accuses the Jewish nobles in verse 7, he says that he has been trying to buy back Jewish brothers who have been sold to foreigners. But other Jewish nobles have been selling their brothers, and then Nehemiah and other good Jewish nobles buy them back again. And in between, the evil nobles make a pretty profit.
A few other translations make this last part clearer.
We are doing all we can to redeem our Jewish relatives who have had to sell themselves to pagan foreigners, but you are selling them back into slavery again. How often must we redeem them? (NLT)
We have done our best to buy back our Jewish countrymen who were sold to foreigners, but now you sell your own countrymen, and we have to buy them back. (CSB)
It might be easier to understand what’s going on from the perspective of one of the Jewish nobles. One of your poor neighbors asks for a loan. They were away building the walls, and so their fields have not produced enough food to support them. You accept their land as a pledge. Your poor neighbor buys grain (which is really expensive because there’s a shortage this year), hoping that their land will produce late. It doesn’t. So they don’t have any way to pay you. So you seize their land. Now they don’t have a way to grow any food for themselves or make any money to buy grain. So they come back offering to sell themselves to you. Some of the Jewish nobles accept and take them as their slaves. Others have them sold to pay their debts, so that they become the slaves of foreigners, and Nehemiah redeems them.
This is exactly what God was protecting his people from when he forbade usury.
Usury in the Law
Usury refers to Old Testament regulations that forbid Israelites from charging one another interest. These prohibitions are paired with other regulations about taking pledges and the treatment of the poor in general.
Giving and taking loans has become so normal in our society, it’s hard to imagine interest-free loans. But that’s because credit has become so easy to get. Our society buys cars and homes and groceries and entertainment and business investments—basically everything—in credit. But the loans pictured by the Mosaic law are about helping the poor out of a tight spot. They aren’t envisioning one wealthy person borrowing from another even more wealthy person to start their business.
Let me show you the Old Testament regulations, and how clear they were, so that we have a sense for how godless and high-handed the Jewish nobles who did this were.
Exodus 22:25–27 says,
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. If ever you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
God specifically prohibits charging interest, which the Jewish nobles did. Also, he forbids exacting unreasonable pledges. If you’re not supposed to keep your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, do you think you’re supposed to keep their children or their land?
Leviticus 25:35–37 says,
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.
Here God tells us the goal of dealing with the poor and those who cannot maintain themselves. The goal is to support him so that he can keep living as a member of the covenant community. Out of the fear of God, the rich were to lend him money so that he could live with them instead of being forced to leave the covenant community to survive. If you’re supposed to try to keep them with you, you certainly are not supposed to sell them into slavery outside the covenant community.
God’s expectation for his people is that those with the means to do so will take care of the poor and needy. After all, they were all slaves in Egypt when God redeemed them at no cost to them.
But God’s people did not obey. Ezekiel 22:12 tells us that usury was one of the reasons that God sent the people into exile in the first place. There he lists all kinds of heinous sins:
- Political violence
- Abusing orphans and widows
- Profaning the Sabbath
- All kinds of sexual immorality, including incest
- Taking bribes
And then God says,
You take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD. … I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you, and you shall be profaned by your own doing in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord. (Ezek 22:12, 15–16)
This abuse of the poor is so serious in God’s sight that he says it in Psalm 15, and we sing it.
Who shall abide in your temple, Lord? And who shall reside in your holy hill? … He won’t charge interest, nor will he take bribes. He who does this shall never be moved.
In other words, the one who cares for the poor the way God commands (by lending without charging interest) is the one who is allowed in God’s sight. And if you reason it out, the one who does charge interest better not climb God’s holy hill, because God is furious with him. In fact, God says that he’ll make sure he doesn’t get to keep his profit. Proverbs 28:8 says,
Whoever multiplies his wealth by interest and profit gathers it for him who is generous to the poor.
Beware the Love of Money
The problem with these Jewish nobles is that they aren’t putting the interests of others above themselves. They are profiting in the pain of the household of God. After all God has done for his people, his people should be willing to generously give to all in need.
Recall Jesus’ parable in Matthew 18:23–35, the parable of the unforgiving servant. A king brings a man before him with a massive debt. He cannot pay, so he orders him sold, with his wife and children, into slavery to pay the debt. (You’d almost think Jesus had been meditating on Nehemiah 5 in the morning before he told this parable.) The man begs the king to be patient with him, and from pity the king forgives the debt entirely. But this servant leaves the presence of the king and begins to choke his fellow servant over a debt owed to him. When he can’t pay, the servant whose debts were forgiven throws his fellow servant in prison. The king summons his servant back and throws him in jail because he did not give the same kind of mercy he had been given.
The very fact that the Jewish nobles are in the land at all is outstanding mercy. God sent them into exile for refusing to fear him and walk in his ways. But in his lovingkindness he has called them back according to his promise. He’s forgiven their iniquity rather than hold it against them. They should be slaves to foreigners themselves. And how do they respond? By exacting interest from their brothers, seizing their fields and vineyards, and forcing them into slavery.
Beware, church. This is what the love of money will do to you. Jesus told us,
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Guard your heart from the love of money. If it takes root, you’ll find yourself doing the same thing these wicked rulers did. You’ll prioritize your selfish profit over the people God calls you to love and care for.
Brothers and sisters, may this selfish attitude never infect our church. In a world awash in progressive ideas that look to steal the wealth of some to redistribute it to others (and pad the pockets of those in charge), it would be easy for us to clench our fists around our wealth. Our animosity toward stupid political policy could become animosity toward the poor and needy. Right now those politically set against God’s good design for the household would love nothing more than for us to become a grumpy set of miserly complainers. They want to characterize us as selfish, greedy capitalists who can only think about the bottom dollar. Protect your heart from falling for their trap. Let’s be a church community that proves their caricature wrong. A community that proves that conservatives are charitable. Let’s give with the heart of God, who gave us life, and breath, and fed us, and let us enjoy sunrises and cool breezes for years before we ever knew who he was. The God who forgave us while we were still sinners, dead set against him.
There are some of you who are on the poorer side of things. Your budget feels tight, and necessities don’t always feel secure. But this doesn’t mean you can opt out of giving generously. After all, you’re called to imitate God, who went so far as to give his only Son for you. Don’t allow yourself to make excuses and push off living generously.
For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. (Matthew 25:29)
There are some of you who are on the richer side of things. God has blessed you, and you have nothing to be ashamed of. Don’t apologize for your wealth. And don’t hoard it like a dragon unwilling to share. Paul commands you,
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1 Tim 6:17–19)
God has forgiven all of us a debt we could never have repaid. So let us be generous, loving even as he loved us first.
Nehemiah Risks His Place
Now that Nehemiah knows about this problem, all eyes are on him. What will he do? It sure would be tempting to turn a blind eye to this, wouldn’t it? After all, it will mean he has to stand up to the very Jewish nobles whose support he needs to keep. He’s dealt with pressure from the leaders of foreign peoples. He’s dealt with pressure from the ranks of Israel. But how is he supposed to keep the project going if the leaders of the people turn against him?
Rather than fear the consequences of angering the Jewish nobles, Nehemiah does what is right. He risks his position and spends a lot of money to save the people from their wicked rulers.
A Public Confrontation
Nehemiah risks his position to save the people from wicked rulers by confronting them publicly. Taking this case against the nobles was risky. He needs their support to continue to have men to build the wall and resources to keep the community going. It would have been easy to compromise here. This pressure means it is all the more to Nehemiah’s credit that he does what is right. He puts himself on the line to do what’s right and take care of the people under his care. God has made him the governor of these people, and he plans to take care of them the best that he can, no matter what it costs him. And we’ll see by the end that it costs him dearly.
Oh, for more political leaders like Nehemiah. Leaders who will stand up for what is right, no matter the cost to themselves personally.
Wise man that he is, Nehemiah doesn’t rush into anything. The fact that it’s the right thing for him to do doesn’t mean that he dives rashly into it. He considers carefully how to retain political power and set this injustice to rights. Nehemiah 5:7 says that he considers the matter carefully. That’s what it means to “take counsel with yourself.” His plan is to bring some kind of formal charges against the Jewish nobles, call them into a public trial, and deal with the issue for good there. Nehemiah 5:7 suggests that he tries to settle this issue out of court first. And when that doesn’t work, he calls a great assembly. It’s not clear exactly who is invited to the “great assembly” (Neh 5:7), but it’s certainly not just Nehemiah and the nobles. Nehemiah takes care of this public issue in public.
At the great assembly, he makes his case against the nobles. There’s no record of any counterargument. It seems that the community accepted it as obviously wrong and in need of a remedy.
Perhaps some of you are thinking about Matthew 18 right now, and Jesus’ command to go first to your brother and confront him about his sin, and only then to bring more witnesses. Should Nehemiah have confronted them one-on-one first?
Nehemiah doesn’t confront the nobles one-on-one, and then with a witness, like Matthew 18 would tell him. He calls a great assembly. The nobles have sinned in public, and so they’re going to have their sin dealt with in public. Matthew 18 is about what to do when you are individually sinned against, but that’s not what happened here. So Nehemiah does what Paul later commands in Ephesians 5, and exposes the unfruitful works of darkness by shedding light on them. Nehemiah 5:7 suggests that he tried to settle it out of court first, and when that didn’t work, he called the assembly.
What the Money Cost
Nehemiah spends a lot of money to save the people from wicked rulers by forgiving all the loans he gave. He is calling for a year of Jubilee, that all the loans would be forgiven, that people would receive their land back, and that they would even receive back the interest they’ve paid. That’s going to cost him a lot, and he stands up and sacrifices it first.
Does Nehemiah 5:10 say that Nehemiah was part of the problem and is also repenting? No. Nehemiah had given fair loans, and he’s recognizing that even fair loans won’t work right now. They need a year of Jubilee. Nehemiah can’t be including himself in this practice of usury, because otherwise he would have known that it was happening, since he would have been part of seizing people’s lands.
He sacrifices a lot of wealth to help them. All of the loans that he gave. Money spent to buy back Jews from slavery. Not exacting food allowances, and still setting a rich table. Employing his own servants in the work of building the wall. And all this is after having left Susa and the cushy cupbearer job.
Nehemiah is a good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. This is what “my life for yours” looks like. He considers the interests of others before himself. He lays down what he deserves. So he uses his authority to serve instead of for selfish gain. That’s real servant leadership. When leaders fail to take responsibility, it’s not because they are servant leaders. It’s because they’ve decided not to be leaders.
The Good Shepherd lays his life down for his sheep. “Servant leadership” has been an overused term that mostly means getting rid of authority. Nehemiah doesn’t get rid of his authority. He serves with his authority. In chapter 5, he’s laying down his life for the sheep. He’s in a highly vulnerable place, attacking the nobles, but he does what is right anyway. He uses his power to serve. He doesn’t divest himself of his power.
The principle here is that we ought to be willing to lay down our rights from love, not to insist on getting everything that we “deserve.” When we don’t lay down our lives, we’re acting like the servant who was forgiven much but won’t forgive his neighbor a little (Matthew 18:21–35).
Nehemiah is the opposite of the wicked rulers who put their interests first. He doesn’t consider his own interests before the welfare of the people. He sacrifices reputation, political power, and wealth in order to help them.
If you’re going to imitate Nehemiah, who laid down his life, you’ll need to imitate Nehemiah’s motivations—not just his actions. So why did Nehemiah sacrifice so much on behalf of the people?
He Feared God, Not Man
Not Pride
Is this defense a little bit self-serving? Nehemiah tells us what his motives are, and we shouldn’t assign them to him or try to read into them. Nehemiah is presented as consistently a good example for us, and so, just as we didn’t assume the imprecatory prayer from chapter 4 was wrong, we should not assume that this self-defense is wrong. If you were Nehemiah, you’d want to prove that you hadn’t mistreated the people too, and you’d bring the receipts to prove it. That’s all Nehemiah is doing here. For example, if you were a politician in Minnesota, you might work to prove that you actually had nothing to do with the significant fraud that has been discovered here. It wouldn’t be inappropriately defensive. It would just be prudent.
Nehemiah is motivated by fearing God, not fearing man. Nehemiah is not motivated by a humanitarian “I want good for everybody” impulse. Plenty of unbelievers want to dig wells where there is no clean water. That’s not the kind of motivation Nehemiah has. He sacrifices because he fears God (Nehemiah 5:19).
Sword, Shield, and Fuel
The fear of God makes us good shepherds because it is a sword against our sin, a shield against compromise, and fuel for sacrifice.
A Sword Against Sin
The fear of God is a sword against our sin. The fear of God is the motivation that Nehemiah appeals to when he charges the wicked rulers with mistreating God’s people. He says that they should have feared God (Neh 5:9).
A Shield Against Compromise
The fear of God is a shield against compromise. Fear of God protects Nehemiah from being steered by his friends and his enemies. In chapter 1, he goes to the king despite the danger. In chapter 2, Sanballat and his guys don’t dissuade or discourage him. In chapter 4, the fellow Jews trying to stop the progress don’t stop him. In chapter 5, the powerful Jewish nobles don’t scare him. It’s quite dangerous for Nehemiah to take on the nobles like this.
Pastor Andy was a good example of this in his prayer for ICE and his subsequent interview with Joe Rigney. There he said that he is not afraid of the judgment of progressive liberals. He will not stand in their judgment. He will stand in judgment for Jesus, and his life is about pleasing him.
Do you fear God, or your brash co-worker? Do you fear God, or your overly forward family member? Do you fear God, or is the discomfort of being politically incorrect around people you don’t even know enough to push you into compromise and living by lies?
Fuel for Sacrifice
The fear of God is fuel for sacrifice. The fear of God is what allows us to sing something like, “Take the world, but give me Jesus.” The fear of God is what allows us to sing, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.”