From Rubble to RestorationSample

Injustice

Have you ever seen someone do something wrong to someone else?  How did that make you feel?  Angry?  

Social change starts with an injustice or a need.  Oskar Schindler helped save Jewish people from concentration camps during the Holocaust by employing them at his factory. Rosa Parks decided to not to sit in the back of a bus during the times of segregation in the United States. Nelson Mandela was jailed 27 years working to end apartheid in his native South Africa.  Each of these people saw a problem and did something about it.  

Nehemiah saw a major injustice too.  Many of his fellow Jews were being unfairly taxed by their fellow Jewish brothers.  The king and nobles had been charging their countrymen interest, and a lot of it.  It got so bad that many of these people were selling their own children into slavery just to make ends meet. 

Look what Nehemiah said when he noticed what was going on as we see in verse 6.  "When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them."

When Nehemiah heard what was going on, he went straight to the source of the problem – the nobles and officials.  He called them out on it.  So they agreed to give back what they took and kept their promise never to do it again.  

And there was someone that Nehemiah feared even more than the nobles.  That person was God.  "So I continued, `What you are doing is not right. Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?'" v9

We live in days of many injustices.  Being silent is not the answer.  We must walk with a holy fear of our God as Nehemiah did,  and not fearing the consequences of standing up to those causing the injustice. 

 Questions:

1.  Have you ever seen an injustice or need and felt compelled to do something about it?

2.  How have you handled conflict when you’ve had to confront someone in sin?

3.  Is there something God is stirring in your heart to do that you haven’t begun yet?