NEHEMIAH 5 - THE OUTCRY OF THE OPPRESSED
Nehemiah 5
The walls of Jerusalem continued to be built. The determined workers were at the halfway point. In one sense halfway feels great because you can see all that you have accomplished, but it can also feel discouraging, knowing how much more you have ahead of you. So is the case in the pursuit of any just cause. Now, after dealing with enemy attacks, Jerusalem was beginning to hear the outcry of its own people.
Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews (v. 1).
The people began to cry out because their own leaders were oppressing them. Families lacked the basic need of food (v. 2), so in order to obtain food they started to sell off land and property (v. 3). The lack of food and shelter led them to do the unthinkable; they subjected their own children to slavery (v. 4). And the sad thing of it all is that it was their fellow Jews who were unjustly creating this divide. By controlling power and money, leaders were oppressing their own people (v. 5).
When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry (v. 6).
Nehemiah felt a proper response to the injustice of this oppression. He was angry. As a fellow human being, and a leader of godly character, Nehemiah first pondered the outcries of the oppressed (v. 7a). It is a good thing to think deeply about societal issues before one speaks, but when the pondering was done, Nehemiah spoke and he accused the nobles and officials (v. 7b).
Nehemiah could not sit back and be silent about this oppression.
Nehemiah held a gathering of leaders to deal with this oppression. He called them out for their wrongdoings. The interest they were charging the people was usury (v. 10). The leaders were benefiting off the oppression of their fellow man. And when confronted, they kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say (v. 8). However, after Nehemiah instructed them in repentance and restitution (v. 10, 11), the leaders came to terms with what they had been doing – that it was wrong, and they needed to make it right (v. 12).
Nehemiah made the leaders take an oath that they would no longer oppress their own people. He tangibly showed them what would happen if they were to continue to make the same societal mistakes of their past (v. 13). Nehemiah continued to lead as an example. Out of reverence for God, he did not act like the past leaders who built their comfort on the backs of the oppressed (v. 15).
Nehemiah lived with high moral integrity, he worked hard with and among the people, and he didn’t take more than what he needed. He shared his life and resources to ensure that the people would no longer be oppressed (v. 18). And God remembered him for what he did for those people (v. 19).