Nehemiah 5: A Social Conflict with Spiritual Roots

Introduction

"I don't know if we're dealing with the yellow vests of the day, but it could well look that way." Stéphane Guillet, pastor of the Église protestante Paris Alésia, continues his series on the book of Nehemiah with the first thirteen verses of chapter 5.

What the text describes echoes what we hear today: purchasing power (verse 2), overindebtedness (verse 3), taxes that weigh too heavily (verse 4). Some people even had to put their children into slavery just to survive. And all of this erupts while the whole people is busy rebuilding the wall.

The question the preacher asks is simple: is this only a social conflict? It is one, without a doubt. But its roots are spiritual, and Nehemiah's response has a lot to say to the Church.

Message Outline

1. A Social Crisis in the Middle of the Building Site

The people complain: "We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live." Others had to mortgage their fields, their vineyards, and their houses. Still others had borrowed money to pay the king's tax.
Putting your children to work meant, back then, making them slaves: placing them under the control of someone who lent money to the parents while profiting from the children's labor.
Nehemiah points out the inconsistency in verse 8: Jews had already been bought back from the Babylonians so they could return to the promised land, and now they were selling one another.
For many commentators, the famine of verse 2 probably did not come from a drought, but from the disruption of farming life: everyone was mobilized on the wall, with armed men besides to protect those who were working.

2. The Wall, a Project with Spiritual Roots

Rebuilding the wall is not just a matter of masonry, or aesthetics, or comfort for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The project bears witness to what God wants to do for his people. In slightly anachronistic terms, the pastor says that the people of Israel were then like the Church: they were to reflect the kingdom of God that is coming.
God had announced it through Jeremiah: "Yahweh says: Behold, I will turn again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places; and the city will be built on its own hill" (Jeremiah 30:18). And again: "Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that the city will be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner" (Jeremiah 31:38). These are two places that appear in Nehemiah's tour of the walls.
If the rebuilding does not happen, the very credibility of God's promises is at stake. Nehemiah knows it.

3. You Don't Sacrifice Families on the Altar of a Great Spiritual Project

In verse 1, it is many women who complain, probably those who kept the household going while the men were assigned to the wall.
Nehemiah sees how unacceptable their situation is within a people who are in the middle of rebuilding themselves.
"You cannot sacrifice families on the altar of a great spiritual project." Here again, this creates a credibility problem for the word of God.

4. The Root of the Problem: The Love of Money

Nehemiah is seized with great anger because he discerns the root of the evil, which comes down to one expression: the love of money among some of his fellow countrymen.
They lend at interest to those in difficulty and grow rich by impoverishing their brothers. This is exactly what God's law forbade: "You shall not charge interest to your brother: interest of money, interest of victuals, interest of anything that is lent for interest" (Deuteronomy 23:19). You find this kind of law in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.
So the problem is not only economic. It is a rejection of God's law, a problem of consistency with his word.
God had promised a new covenant through Jeremiah: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33). He promised a complete restoration: the walls, but also the hearts.
"It is a people restored by God who are called to restore the wall of the city." You can't have one without the other.

5. Nehemiah Goes Beyond the Law: He Preaches Grace

Nehemiah denounces sin forcefully, while acknowledging that he and his own people are not entirely free of it either: "The thing that you do is not good." And he shows what is at stake spiritually: should you not walk in the fear of our God, so as not to give our enemy nations the chance to cover us with shame?
He may have had Leviticus in mind: "Take no interest or increase from him, but fear your God; that your brother may live with you" (Leviticus 25:36).
The law did not forbid lending, or even taking a pledge (Exodus 22:25-27). It only forbade interest between members of the people. But Nehemiah asks for more: give back the principal and the interest, give everything back to your brothers and sisters.
He may be drawing on the law of jubilee, which invited people every fifty years to cancel debts completely so that everyone could make a fresh start, even though the Old Testament hardly shows it being put into practice.
His wording in verse 10, "let us forgive them this debt," recalls the Lord's Prayer. In Greek, "forgive us our trespasses" literally says "release us from our debts" (Matthew 6:12).
Why make a request that may seem unreasonable on the scale of a human society? Because this people must bear witness to a God who has shown them grace. If they came back from exile, it is because God forgave their sins and canceled their debts. The society Nehemiah was rebuilding in 445 BC was meant to show something of this extraordinary grace.

6. An Assembly That Changes Course

What is admirable is how quickly the leaders of the people recognize their fault. "We're not in France here," the pastor quips with humor: a radical change, "so will we do, even as you say."
Nehemiah has them take an oath before the priests, then shakes out his cloak: God will likewise shake out of his house and out of his possessions anyone who does not keep this promise.
The fear of God was indeed present in their hearts. But in some it was stifled, hidden by greed, because they saw in the situation a chance to get rich easily.

7. Three Lessons for the Church

The Church's mission is first of all spiritual. That does not rule out social action, which is part of this mission. The Church is not the kingdom of God and is not meant to establish it on earth: "every time it has tried to do so, it has generally ended rather badly." Its task is to proclaim the kingdom by its words and by its actions. When we take communion, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:26).
Spiritual mission never comes at the expense of brotherly love. Not at the expense of families, nor of the most basic love for our brothers and sisters. "What a shame when pastors or leaders get rich at the expense of the faithful." But what a testimony when Christians and leaders repent of their faults and decide to put the gospel, with all its generosity, at the heart of their relationships.
The fear of God. Fearing God does not mean being afraid of him. It means taking into account his majesty and the importance of his word in guiding all our choices. It does not require being perfect, but refusing to set aside a word that disturbs us. You make it a real subject of prayer, even if that means wrestling with it: "This word, I don't know how to live it, but I don't want to set it aside, because I fear your name and because it is your word." This is how the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10).

The text ends with these words: "All the assembly said, 'Amen,' and praised Yahweh." Stéphane Guillet concludes: this is the community we want to be, an assembly that says amen to the word of God, that sets aside neither this word nor the presence of God, even when it is hard, and that keeps praising the Lord for who he is.

Key Takeaways

The social conflict in Nehemiah 5 has spiritual roots: the love of money and the rejection of God's law.
God does not only restore walls, he restores hearts. A restored people is called to rebuild.
No spiritual project justifies sacrificing families or brotherly love.
Those who live by God's grace are called to show it in their relationships, otherwise they bring discredit on God and on his word.
Fearing God means refusing to set aside his word when it disturbs us, and making it a subject of prayer.

Personal Application

Is there a project, even a spiritual one, that you are pursuing at the expense of your family or those close to you?
In your relationships with your brothers and sisters in the faith, where is the grace you received from God visible in concrete ways?
What "debt" could you forgive someone this week, just as God forgave yours?
Which word of God do you tend to set aside because it disturbs you? Can you make it a subject of prayer rather than pushing it away?
How can your community proclaim the kingdom of God by its actions as much as by its words?

Verses Quoted

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens in Nehemiah 5?

During the rebuilding of the wall, a great outcry rises: famine, debts, crushing taxes, children forced into slavery to survive. Nehemiah discovers that some Jews are lending at interest to their own brothers. He calls an assembly, denounces this sin, and gets them to give back fields, vineyards, and houses.

Why does Stéphane Guillet speak of a spiritual problem and not only a social one?

The root of the conflict is the love of money. Lending at interest to a brother is doing what God's law forbids. Yet God promised to restore not only the walls but also the hearts. A people who rebuild the city by crushing their brothers put the credibility of God's word at stake.

What does the fear of God mean in this text?

For the preacher, fearing God does not mean being afraid of him. It means taking into account his majesty and the importance of his word in guiding all our choices. It does not require being perfect, but refusing to set aside a word that disturbs us, and making it a subject of prayer.