Nehemiah 5,Study23,The Struggle From Within,
Very often and more often than not the war rages within us but the struggle is within our own
quarters and within our own family
Opposition to advances and the opposing of the continuation of Gods workings can come from
our own and the closest to us
Being within the family unit and or within the larger community of the family being the Church
Luke 8:21 Mark 3:35
Opposition can come from both quarters being outside and external forces that might move
us to "give up" or "delay" us in our rebuilding and doing "what we believe God is telling us to
do"
Or it can come from internal fighting, gossipping, struggling,
Where parts of the body cannot move on with the rest or are not yet ready to move on, being
that they have settled in and made camp and are content in their place
Moving on and change are a big factor and this struggle plays a large role in the advances of
the Kingdom
People say "God can do it" and yes He can, sometimes without us
Financial implications are another factor, not so much the purse pockets of Gods provision but
rather the purse pockets of His peoples "Will"
Either being channels of provision being used by God or being closed gates
Now we enter this study with the time, work, family and financial struggles as we look at
Nehemiah 5,Study23,The Struggle From Within,
THE DEBT IS PAID 1 Corinthians 6:20
Continuing with Nehemiah 5:1-5
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God or Me ?
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Now in those days having a large family was a blessing from God and blessed was the man with
many offspring in Psalm 127 and again we see this same verse here
Now feed on these verses and consider them , being verses 1-5 of Psalm 127
Unless the Lord builds the house its builders !.....
Unless the Lord watches over the city, ....the watchmen ! ...
Why would God build a house or walls without people his people building it ?
And why would God guard a city that has no people and is not Guarded ?
But why build a house without God being the architect ! and the master builder
And why Guard a city without God being the strength and defense
Why have a sword at your side while building...if God builds and why have a sword at your
side if God is the watchman
Again a two way thing , a two way relational, conditional aspect here
I must not sit and wait for God to do something instead I do and God does
Being that I am weak and He is strong
And so Psalm 127:3 Sons are a heritage and reward and verse 5 blessed is the man
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FAMILY
Back to Nehemiah 5 and we read.........
And so large families were a blessing here but obviously needed provision
And so families were morgaging their homes and fields and vineyards during the famine which had
come upon them to get grain to feed their familes Matthew 6:34
Why ? because their own brothers and sisters within the community were profiting from the situation !
And the poorer families had to pay the taxes and had great debts and were being opressed by these richer nobles within the very walls of this city
There was oppression and debt and bondage upon this place and upon the families thus
affecting the entire community, coming from the richer nobles and wealthy
These families had borrowed money while working on the wall from the richer nobility and
wealthy amongst them and had been forced to pay back in a way which was beyond their own
means (does this sound familiar ?)
And so these hard working people who had worked so hard to build and do Gods work came under
oppression not from outside and from external sources but form their own community
The hierarchy being the rulers and nobles began making money from the families and extorting
to the extent where families were forced to sell their children as slaves which was jewish law and
permitted in Exodus 21:7.
Here we have a bad harvest and famine , trouble coming from the samaritan quarters with
sanballat and tobiah and internal fighting caused by greed Deuteronomy 23:19
And so in this situation what actually belonged to "The One True God " came under the
ownership of the rich rulers Luke 18:18
Were even the vineyards were were owned by the nobility and Gods work was grinding to
a halt
Yes, O yes, we can stop Gods working
And so these families were in a vicious circle that they were unable to get out of
But whom would free them from this debt ?
Debt can come on a person swiftly and quickly either being allowed by God as in external
factors (as in the case here where the rich and wealthy were profiting from the poor)
Or from the society that lives for today and forgets about tomorrow, there are many factors
in play here to develop and grow debt
Todays spiritual society can be said to live in the temporal and material world, being pushed
and shoved around by others who see profit as a key factor to life
And success is seen as "share holding" and monetary return on investment
The wealthy being poorly in living with the wealth invested in land and property and the ready
cash being spent on a "style of living"
So as we look at Nehemiah 5 we see how closely the "bible" (Gods Word) relates to our lifes
today in the here and now, as does the entire bible
What most annoys me is how people only seem to relate the bible to "Church and Church life"
As in eg: "that 1-2 hours on a sunday"
And how disorderly a family can be while trying to "get to Church on time"
Then once at Church listening and agreeing with a preach entitled "1 Corinthians 14:26-40"
"Order in the Church"
Once out of the sunday morning service chaos once more descends
A little boy was walking down the hallway of the church building on their way to the Sunday
morning worship service. As they walked, the dad called his son’s attention to a wall display
with the names of soldiers who had grown up in their church and who had given their lives in
service of their country. The little boy asked his dad, “What are those names for?” The Dad
replied, “Those are the names of men in our church who died in the service.” The boy looked
startled and said, “I didn’t know that it was so dangerous to go to our church service!”
And so we continue with Nehemiah 5 where people were morgaging their homes and vineyards
and selling their children to live
And this scripture comes to mind here Luke 7:41 (forgiveness) and Matthew 20:1
Which is the Kingdom of heaven NOW and how it relates to us now - today
And so we finish this portion of study with the emphasis on scripture being relevant to us
today and now
Having been sold over to babylon and to the very gods that they worshipped, Father Gods
People now were held and bound by their brothers in their own community
Everything they had of monetary or temporal value was owned by others
They only thing they had which no one could take was their own selves , that is "who they were"
This having eternal value as they invested their time in seeking out "God and His ways"
Matthew 16:26
And so the people complained and Nehemiah was angry at the injustice he saw
www.christianfaithwalk.com/home/christia...-16the-restorer#5227
NIV Ephesians 4:26 IN your anger do not sin, I read again "IN your anger do not sin" got it ?
Or better still read the NLT
And "don't sin by letting anger control you." Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry,
Now whats that commandment in Exodus 20:17 NKJV Colossians 3:5-6
So others had taken that which belonged to God !
This again reflects on NKJV Matthew 19:16-22
So we continue in Nehemiah 5:6-13
Psalm 34:17 Exodus 3:9
Yes God placed His heart in Nehemiah and God heard the prayers of Nehemiah
Thus Nehemiah was "righteous" before God and in this way God uses people (although He
does not have too)
The world may not like the reflection it see's within the Church of "God" using people to
serve Him in monetary ways
The world might point to this and see it as "copying"
And we looked at this boomerang judgement before where I might see something and not
like it because that which I see is the very same thing that is in me and so in judging, I
judge myself
But this "giving or tithing" is not the same and God chooses to use people in which the same
people He chooses to use He also provides for
We see this exampleand principle in action in Matthew 14:13-21 with the feeding of the five
thousand
And also the feeding of the four thousand in Matthew 15:29-39
But back to Nehemiah 5:6-13 which is the opposite of the above
You could say "It was an "abomination" to God that the nobles and officials were exacting usury
from their own countrymen
And I know we like to use that word "Abomination" in "other ways"
Buit don't forget that the very word described also has the breakdown of "nation" and can apply to a nation as well
Now theres several things that came to mind while typing out the previous posts
1. "The Father and Son relationship" (I was considering the relational aspect here concerning
the nobles and officials and this "abominational practice of usury thus taking that which belonged to
others or even should I say "from God" and the name Judas iscariot came to me
2. "The Practice of using snakes" and the danger thereof
And so as we go on in this (short study ) concerning Psalm 107
We are going to deviate slightly from the path and concentrate and stop for a short time at
this particular point as we look at 1. "this brood of vipers" and 2. The poisonous snakes
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TASK = Read Nehemiah 5
Questions
1. Can I count the number of times I have been angry ?
2. Did I sin in this anger ?
3. Did I "judge" the difference between if it was "my anger" or "Gods" ?
4. How did it make me feel when I threw off this anger as being of God ?
did throwing off this thing to a higher power make me feel better ?
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