Rebuilding Home: 13 Days in NehemiahIsampula

How do you manage wealth, whether you are rich or poor?

People around Jesus constantly lied about, attacked, and threatened Him. In a shocking plot twist, they were unable to murder Jesus until someone in His inner circle aligned with critics and betrayed Christ. Judas opened himself to Satan, and because he was very close to Jesus, he was very deadly to Jesus.

Strangers online, politicians we have never met, and critics of Christianity are real and potentially a real problem. Our greatest threat, however, is usually the people who say they are believers that we allow to be close to us. Paul said to the church at Ephesus during his farewell meeting before sailing away in Acts 20:29-30 (NLT), “I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following.” We tend to trust the people we know more than the people we do not know, especially if they profess to believe in our God and are part of our believing community.

The crisis in Nehemiah 5 is internal and financial. God’s people were starving, selling their children into slavery during a massive economic crisis caused by famine, high taxation from the godless government, combined with extortion and fellow “believers” taking advantage of impoverished people by robbing them of their land and possessions with the heart of Judas.

Since we either worship our wealth as our God or worship God with our wealth, the Bible has a lot to say about finances and stewardship in over 800 Scriptures. Roughly 25% of Jesus’ teaching was regarding money, including that money is a revelation of our heart’s priorities and that someone cannot worship both God and money.

Greed is a grievous sin against God and a painful sin against Christian unity and love. God’s people do not just have spiritually connected lives but also financially connected lives as they transact business and exchange goods and services. Those with wealth and power must be careful not to take advantage of fellow believers because it hurts God’s people and is a terrible witness to unbelievers. Christians are to love people and use money rather than loving money and using people.

The problem in western culture is that our thinking about wealth is driven more by atheistic Marxism than the Bible. We are wrongly told there are two kinds of people – rich and poor – and that rich people are bad because they take advantage of poor people who are good. The Bible, however, gives us four kinds of people, not two, as we see in Nehemiah 5.

Category #1

Godly Rich: God blesses them, they work hard, tithe to God, invest smart, and are generous to others. (e.g., Abraham, Joseph of Arimathea, Nehemiah)

Category #2

Godly Poor: Hard-working and integrous people who are good stewards (e.g., Jesus, the widow who gave her mite, orphaned children, and the poor in Nehemiah 5)

Category #3

Ungodly Rich: Gain and spend wealth sinfully (e.g., Pharaoh, Judas, the rich young ruler, overtaxing government and people charging excessive interest in Nehemiah 5)

Category #4

Ungodly Poor: Do not work, spend wisely, tithe generously, or invest smartly (e.g., the sluggards and poor in Proverbs)

Sadly, our culture has tended to look only at issues of poverty and wealth rather than godliness and ungodliness, as Scripture does. In Nehemiah 5, the crisis is between the ungodly rich and the godly poor, with Nehemiah, who was godly and rich, leading the resolution.

In Nehemiah’s day, it was not unlawful for Jews to loan money to one another, but they were not to act like money lenders and charge interest. They were to treat one another with love, even in the matter of taking security or making a brother a servant. Both the people and the land belonged to the Lord, and He would not have anybody using either one for personal gain in a sinful manner. Furthermore, the “Year of Jubilee” required that all debts were forgiven every 50th year, all land restored to its original owners, and all servants set free as God’s way of caring for the poor.

The unrighteous rich in Nehemiah’s day did not share God’s heart for their poor brothers and sisters. Dire economic hardship compelled normally silent wives to speak out in protest on four accounts. First, believers were facing starvation. Second, desperate believers had leveraged all their possessions (fields, vineyards, houses) and risked losing everything. Third, unable to pay their taxes, some were in great legal peril. Fourth, to stave off financial ruin, some families sold their children into slavery. Some of God’s people were bankrupting and enslaving fellow church members while they were all working together to rebuild the city and their church as a witness of God’s love!

Upon hearing of the great injustice, Nehemiah was angry. Some commentators have wrongly criticized Nehemiah for his anger. God has righteous anger, as did Jesus during His earthly life. Indeed, much anger is not righteous, but righteous anger compels us to action, which is precisely what happened with Nehemiah. Rather than lashing out in anger, Nehemiah prayerfully prepared his response. Boldly, Nehemiah confronted the most rich and powerful. While they were not technically breaking their nation's laws, they were acting sinfully according to God’s laws.

Nehemiah also demanded restitution. Had those who had taken advantage of their brothers and sisters merely repented, the practice would have stopped, but apart from restitution, they would have still remained in dire poverty with devastated lives.

Nehemiah led through his own example. It was customary for political leaders, like Nehemiah, to collect additional taxes for themselves for justifiable things like salary, living expenses, personal staff, and operational budget. It was also customary for a man in Nehemiah’s position to purchase land, knowing it would increase in value. Nonetheless, he did not raise any taxes for himself or purchase any land. Nehemiah willingly denied many of his own personal interests for the mission to build the city and the church as a city within that city. Nehemiah paid for his personal, political, and ministry expenses out of his pocket. He hosted lavish dinners for 150 people and ministered to his city's richest and poorest members. Nehemiah proved to be a godly and rich man. Lastly, Nehemiah fully devoted 12 years of his life to this project because real change takes time, as there are no shortcuts to success.

Question:

If you are honest, which of the four categories most accurately describes your stewardship?