Wisdom From Nehemiah
A man heard his daughter and some of her friends arguing loudly in the back garden. He went out and told her off. ‘But Daddy,’ she protested, ‘we were just playing church.’
J Vernon McGee writes: ‘In the history of the church, we have seen that when the devil could not destroy the church by persecution, the next thing he did was join it.’ There’s apparently even a book with the title ‘Great Church Fights.’
Read: Nehemiah chapter 5. In chapter 4 Nehemiah and his fellow-builders were being attacked by outsiders. But in chapter 5 the attack is from inside: the builders are unhappy, they are disunited.
We will look at the issues and see how Nehemiah dealt with them. We will find a pattern for our own moments of friction, in our family, in our secular groups, in our marriage - and even in our church, if trouble arises.
1) The PROBLEMS (5: 1-5) stemmed from the complaints of the poorer Jews against the wealthy Jews who were either ignoring their desperate needs or were actually making them worse through exploiting them. On top of that, there was a famine. Some were even forced to sell their children into slavery to their fellow Jews in order to pay bills - disregarding a Mosaic law that forbade a Jew from lending money at interest to a fellow Jew in need (Exodus 22:25).
Nehemiah saw these problems as serious enough to stop the building work on the wall long enough to get them resolved.
2) How Nehemiah dealt with the problems. Someone has said: ‘Friction/ conflict is like a smoke alarm - when you hear it, you look for the cause.’
i) The people aired their complaints in the proper place. Chapter 5 verse 7 ‘I called together a large meeting to deal with the issues.’ There was plenty of potential for gossip and malice, but Nehemiah removed that likelihood.
ii) The people were willing to submit. Ch. 5, v. 12 The wealthy people replied, ‘We will give back everything . . . we will do as you say.’ And the whole assembly responded ‘Amen’ and they praised the Lord. And they did as they had promised Ch, 5, v.13.
3) Observe the man himself: Nehemiah
a) shows righteous anger v. 6 Are you surprised that this godly man
actually got angry? Doesn’t the Bible teach that anger is wrong? e.g. Eph. 4: 31 . On the other hand, Mark 3:5 Jesus looked at (the Pharisees) with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart.
TIME with the BIBLE - 10
It would have been wrong for Nehemiah not to be angry - he was dealing with wrong practices. In the same way, we need to get angry about sinful practices in our society, such as child abuse, pornography, racism, the mistreatment of women.
b) shows self-control v. 7 ‘I pondered in my mind’ or ‘I consulted with myself’ or ‘After serious thought’ (literally ‘My heart ruled within myself.’) Chuck Swindoll calls this ‘getting your heads together.’ Nehemiah doesn’t go off in a rage to blast those who are wrong; he stops, cools off, thinks and prays through, and only then takes action. Read Proverbs 16:32
c) cares enough to confront v. 9 ‘What you are doing is not right.’
Take a moment now to examine your own approach to problems. You may be a hedgehog, curling up out of danger; or you may be a rhinoceros, charging headlong into the conflict. (This can be a distressing situation in marriages.) Joyce Huggett writes: Our aim in confronting others should not be to spark off conflict but to promote peace. If this aim is to be achieved, the tone of voice, the facial expression, the gesticulations, the words and the time chosen are all important.
d) sets a personal example of godliness vv. 14, 15
e) cares about the people v. 18
f) works for God’s approval v.19, 13:14, 13:31 We say, with the Apostle Paul, ‘For me, to live is Christ’ Philippians 1:21
Like Nehemiah, we are called to build bridges of understanding and forgiveness and love. Lord, forgive us when we fail to build in line with your instructions.
Read John 17: 20, 21 and Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the bond of peace, each individual working together to make the whole successful (Amplified Bible)
Bind us together, Lord, bind us together with cords that cannot be broken. Amen.
Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash
