The Cost of Redemption - Nehemiah 5:1-19

Welcome to God's Word for You, from Ministry of Sharon Arby Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word, as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. Nehemiah chapter 5, you can find that on page 431 of your Pew Bibles. Nehemiah chapter 5. beginning at verse 1.

And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren. For there were those who said, We, our sons and our daughters are many. Therefore, let us get grain that we may eat and live. There were also some who said, we have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses that we might buy grain because of the famine. There were also those who said, we have borrowed money for the king's tax on our lands and vineyards, yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children. And indeed, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves. And some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them. For other men have our lands and vineyards."

And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers and I said to them, each of you is extracting usury from his brother. So I called a great assembly against them. And I said to them, according to our ability, we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold into the nations.

Now indeed, will you sell your brethren into, or will you sell your brethren, or should they be sold to us? Then they were silenced and found nothing to say. Then I said, what you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury.

Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain and the new wine and the oil that you have charged them. So they said, we will restore it and will require nothing from them. We will do as you say.

Then I called the priest and required an oath from them that they would do according to the promise. Then I shook out the fold of my garment and said, so may God shake out each man from his house and from his property who does not perform this promise. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied. And all the assembly said, amen. and praised the Lord. Then the people did according to this promise.

Moreover, from that time I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah from the 20th year until the 32nd year of King Artaxerxes. Twelve years neither I nor my brothers ate the governor's provisions. but the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides 40 shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over them, but I did not do so because of the fear of God.

Indeed, I also continued to work on this wall and we did not buy any land. All my servants were gathered there for the work, and at my table were 150 Jews and rulers besides those who came to us from other nations around us. Now that which was prepared daily was one ox and six choice sheep, also fowl. were prepared for me. And once every 10 days, an abundance of all kinds of wine.

Yet in spite of this, I did not demand the governor's provisions, because the bondage was heavily on the people. Remember me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

I was watching a documentary not too terribly long ago, and it was talking about Vietnam vets, and a Vietnam vet had been conscripted to go into the army, and as he was going into the army, he realized he might die. And so he had a Mustang that he loved, but it wasn't going to be any good to him in Nam, so he sold that Mustang, and it went out of his possession.

It was someone else's. When he came back from Nam, he was surprised that he was alive, and he tried to buy it back. But it wasn't there anymore. It had gone on into other hands. Some other people owned it, and for decades and decades, other people owned this man's Mustang. Until one day, he was finally able to trace down the VIN and find that Mustang that he had had, and that his father had given him, and he bought that Mustang back. He redeemed that Mustang, He brought it back to Himself, and He restored it back to its original glory. Back to the way things should have been.

That's redemption. And that's what we find happening here in Nehemiah chapter 5, is God is redeeming His people, even from themselves. And so I want to work through this story of redemption in Nehemiah chapter 5 with you, and first look at what happens in the first four verses. In the first couple verses, we find that there is a great cry of the people to God. And that cry reaches Nehemiah's ears.

See, they have three big problems. Big problem number one, they got big families. Anybody with big families know it costs a lot of money to feed those kids. And they don't know how they're going to do it. Remember, God or Nehemiah has told them all they need to come and stay in Jerusalem as they're building the wall.

And if they're building the wall and they're not out in their hometowns around Jerusalem, guess what they're not doing? They're not tilling the fields. They're not picking the olives. They're not working in the vineyards. Their fields are going away because they're worried about God's work. So they've got a big problem. These people are laborers and they don't have food. Big problem number one, how are we gonna feed our kids? Big problem number two, what money they did have, they've ran out, and now they have to sell everything they have to be able to just feed themselves.

This is not a, this is an agricultural society, it's sustenance farming, it's not like the farming we have, it's hand to mouth. Each year, what you grow, you don't have much extra, that's it. And they're hand-to-mouth, and they're out of money, they're out of food. Worse than that, there's a famine that we find out here in these verses. And so they've mortgaged away their land. Big problem number two, they have big debt. So they have big families and they have big debt. And there's a third problem that we find out, they also have a big tax bill to pay.

How are we going to feed our families? We've worn out every line of credit that we have. We have kids that an hour after, if you have boys, we've just started to find this out with our kids, you feed them and it's like an hour and a half later, he comes to you and he's like, I'm hungry. And you go, whoa, whoa, whoa, we just ate dinner, man. What do you mean you're hungry?

But the line of credit is gone. The credit card is maxed out. They can't borrow anything else. They don't have any more collateral that they can get grain with, that they can get food with. And right in the midst of all of that, tax day. Oh, the IRS doesn't care how much debt you have. They're going to get their money. And this is where they find themselves.

They've come down that downward spiral of financial collapse where they've worn out everything that they have. They don't have any more in their savings accounts. There is no retirement fund to pull from the 401k. There is no more credit card applications that they make. They can't go sell their car to the loan shark down the road for a title loan because their car's already gone. And the tax bill is there and they're crying out to Nehemiah, they're saying, we're ruined. We're ruined. It's so bad we're having to sell our children into slavery.

And this was a common practice during the time. Children, how would you like if your parents couldn't pay their credit card bills, you had to go work for the credit card company? Sound good? You can be their parent's collateral. You can work off their debt. You can go clean the dishes. You can go mow other people's yards. You can go work for the millionaires.

This is called debt slavery, and this is common in the time, but it's so bad that they don't even have... the only collateral they have left is their own children. But think about the dark place that that leaves them at. They don't have land. They don't have food. They don't have kids to help them on the farm. How are they ever going to pay back this debt that they have? It's insurmountable. They're looking into the pit of darkness where they see their family eroding beneath their feet and their children in other homes, in places of servitude.

And Nehemiah looks at this and he's angry. Nehemiah looks at this, look with me at verse six. Chapter five, verse six. And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. See, Nehemiah really had three options here. Nehemiah is a rich man. Nehemiah is a ruling class. Nehemiah could have said, oh boy, Here's an opportunity for me to get in on it.

I can get rich from this. Option number one, he could join in on the usury. Option number two, he could just say, not my problem, go build the wall. You made the contracts, you signed the application, you knew the downfall of the collateral system, and you still did it. Sure problem. Those are the first two options he could have done. And indeed, that's what a lot of bankers do do. Hold on, you signed this. You need to do it.

See, there's no bankruptcy laws. We live in a land where if you find yourself at this place, you can say, I can't do it and everything's going to be ruined. You can take all my stuff, but at least I can still have my family and start over. That's not an option here. There's no place for them to go.

And Nehemiah is angry at this. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in this man's heart that he becomes angry at this. He's not in this position. But he looks down on those who are poor and are being oppressed and he has compassion and mercy on them. And he's angry. But notice in verse 7, he's not just going to fly out in all of his anger. It's not like he storms out of the governor's palace having a hissy fit or a temper tantrum at this. What does he say? First three words of verse 7.

After serious thought, Nehemiah, as we've been looking, is a calculating man. He thinks about what needs to be done, how things need to happen. And Nehemiah decides the best thing to do here after consideration, the Hebrew is the idea that he's chewing this over in his mind. And as he realizes the best thing that's going to happen to get the biggest point across, he's going to gather a great assembly. Everyone. All the men, all the women, all the children, everyone is going to come together to get this point.

I remember when I was in the ship, our captain really wanted to make a point, people were stealing a bunch of stuff on the ship, and he wanted to get the point across that this wasn't going to fly. And so he said, the next person who comes to me because they were stealing, I'm going to make an example out of you. No sooner did he get off the TV to tell us that, than some silly sailor went down to the ship's door and stole a can of Pringles. And he called a great assembly, all 5,000 sailors on the aircraft carrier, from the most senior officers down to the lowest of the boatsman's mates.

Everyone, all 5,000 of us, in our dress blues, full uniforms, standing in ranks, department by department by department, as this man was walked by the master at arms from the back of the ship in front of all of us, to the very front. Because in that great assembly, the captain could make a statement, I'm not joking. And that's what Nehemiah does here. I'm not joking. What you're doing is usury. He points out, like Nathan to David with his sin, here's your sin. This has got to change. This is not okay. See, what was Nehemiah's practice?

As they were going through the land, as he was taking that five-month travel from Susa across the north and down through Levant, he was coming and he was buying back Jews. He was redeeming people. He was bringing them out of slavery to other nations and bringing them back into Jerusalem. And as they were in Jerusalem, God was redeeming his people. God had scattered them because of their sin. That was bringing them back, gathering back together. And now what was happening as God was doing this great work of redemption for his people, buying them back, they were buying and selling each other into slavery.

Tell me that sounds like loving your neighbor as yourself. But see, Nehemiah points out something here that's pretty remarkable. Look with me at verse 10. He doesn't just point out their sins. The Holy Spirit shoots an arrow at his own heart, verse 10. I also. with my brethren and my servants, and lending them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury." Nehemiah says, I'm guilty. Nehemiah, like David, says, I have sinned. Nehemiah is saying, I have done wrong here. So let all of us repent from this sin.

Let us stop selling the grain. Let us stop giving loans for the grain and start being generous to the people. God's doing a great work in their midst and this is not a time for lending, it's a time for giving. And something remarkable happens. Look with me at verse 8. According to our ability, we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren, or should they be sold to us?" And that space there between the quotation marks and the T for then is the work of the Holy Spirit.

This doesn't happen by itself. Then, they were silenced and found nothing to say. They have nothing to say. And after Nehemiah rebukes them, they make a great promise, verse 12. So they said, we will restore it and will require nothing from them. We will do as you say.

This is not the normal way people operate. This is not the normal way. If you doubt me, okay, that's fine. You might doubt me. You might say, well, people are really altruistic, Pastor. I mean, maybe you just have a dark view of people. Well, that's fine. Okay. Okay, so I want you to do an experiment.

If you have any debt with any bank in the local area, I want you to walk into the local bank and I want you to tell them, I don't want to make my bill this month. Actually, can you just cancel my debt altogether? And I want my stuff back, too. I don't want to give you my collateral. Let me ask you, would you do... Can you find a banker who would do it? Good luck! Good luck!

This is not what normally happens, but it is what God is doing in their midst, that God convicts His people that this is not righteousness. That oppressing people into poverty and taking their sons and daughters is against the redemption that God is happening.

See, oil or redemption and oppression are like oil and water. They don't go together. Let me say that again. Redemption and oppression are like oil and water. They do not go together. It's never happened in the past, and it will never happen now. You cannot mix them. Even here in the church, redemption and oppression will not go hand in hand. They can't mix. One has to go, or one has to stay.

And they do this work, but Nehemiah gets really serious. He gets really serious. He knows that this is something people might back away from, because this is a big commitment. So what does he do in the second half of verse 12? Look at second half of verse 12 with me.

Then I called the priests and required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. So okay, great, you've said you've done it, let's up the ante. Let's bring in, let's bring the notarizer here. Let's bring in the religious witnesses here. Let's gather together the priests so that way before God you can be held accountable for your entire life that you have promised to put this sin behind you. He makes them swear an oath before the priests to seal this.

How do the people respond? Verse 13, And all the assembly said, Amen, so let it be. And then what do they do right after that? They praise the Lord. And all the assembly said, Amen, and praise the Lord. Then the people did according to this promise. They had made a promise, and they actually went through with it. And Nehemiah had given them a warning.

He had gone, and at that time, they had pockets in their garments, and he gave them an illustration, and he said, if you don't do this, and he took out his pocket, and he shook his pocket out so that everything fell out of it, and he said, so be it like you if you don't do it.

In modern times, that would be like somebody taking their wallet and saying, if you don't do this, all your money, I'm going to do that to all of you. Everything you have is going to be gone. Your land, your vineyards that you love, I'm going to take it away from you. If you keep oppressing my people, I'm going to take everything away from you. This is what God's going to do to you.

And the people take this seriously. They repent of their sin. They put it behind them, and they do according to the promise. And it's not just them, Nehemiah does it too. See, they didn't just have the big problem of debt, they had a big problem. They had a big problem of taxes. And Nehemiah is the governor of the region. Nehemiah, by this time, has the authority to be able to tax the people.

There's a multi-tier tax level. You're used to this in some sense. You pay your federal taxes, you pay your state taxes, and then you pay your real estate tax, and then you pay your farm tax, and then you have to pay your gas tax on top of that. Well, here it's the same thing. You have to pay the king's tax to Artaxerxes, you have to pay the satrapy's tax, you have to pay the local governor's tax, and you have to pay the temple tax.

And Nehemiah sees this and he says, no more. I won't take my share. I'll give it up. More than just that, it's gonna cost him to give it up because he still has obligations. See, he has to keep hosting 150 Jewish people every night at his residence, including all the foreign dignitaries who would come in. Imagine, okay. We try to figure out how to keep our grocery bill down. And we only have four kids. Could you imagine the grocery bill for a hundred and fifty people? Antonio Maia is doing this and he tells us how much it costs.

He chooses one of the best sheep, right? You don't go to the White House and get a chintzy meal. You go to the White House and you get a good meal. He has to show honor to the people who are there. And he gets a fattened calf. The choice of sheep. And then he goes and he has fowl and he has new wine every ten days. And how does he pay for all of this? He fronts the bill himself. He's not going to pass on that burden to God's people.

And it's in this way that we see that redemption happens at the price of someone. See, to get the relief that they need, it's going to cost someone something. It costs the nobles their money. And here, when God was going to redeem the people, it was going to cost Nehemiah.

Nehemiah gave up his position in the capital city as the king's right-hand man, his cupbearer, to go to a backwater little capital called Judea, to go to Jerusalem and to build up a torn down, wrecked out city. He gives up that title. He gives up that prestige and that position to go to Jerusalem. And here as he's working to redeem God's people, he gives up of his finances. He gives up of his time.

But brothers and sisters, I want to move you past Just what this story is saying here and show you that Nehemiah is a type of someone far greater than himself. Why does this apply to your life? Why does Nehemiah chapter five exist in the Bible? Because it shows us that a righteous leader, a redeemer of God's people has come.

Nehemiah gave up of his position. Have you thought of what Jesus Christ did? The second person of the Trinity gave up his high position at the very right hand of God and submitted himself to be born of a virgin and to live under the law. He had taken and derobed himself of his glory to live as a poor person. Jesus Christ, through whom and by whom all things were made, was left without anything in this world, was poor and destitute, did not have a home or a pillow where he could lay his head to sleep. It was Jesus Christ who gave up not just his finances, but I want you to turn over to 1 Peter 1 with me and see what it cost Jesus to redeem his people. 1 Peter 1, you can find that on page 1076 of your Pew Bibles. 1 Peter 1. Verse 6, sorry, 1075.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold, that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you searching what or what manner of time the spirit of christ who is in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of christ and the glories that would follow to them it was revealed that not to themselves but to us They were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look at.

Therefore, gird up your loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, so also you must be holy in all your conduct, for it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on your Father, who without partiality judges according to one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, knowing all of this is pointing to you, I don't want you to get lost here. It's saying, Nehemiah, all the prophets, everything was written so that you might have the hope of redemption, and that you might live holy lives, and here... knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but how were you redeemed, Christian? How were you brought back to the family of God?

How were you purchased? but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. See, Jesus Christ did not redeem you with silver or with gold or anything perishable. Jesus Christ redeems His people from bondage to slavery to sin with His very own blood. Christian, I need you to get this into the DNA of your heart You are not a slave to sin. Let me say that again. You, Christian, are not a slave to sin.

You have been purchased by the very blood price of Jesus Christ. So when that old master of sin comes to you, and trust me, he's there, you're still in the flesh, And he whispers in your ear, that old slave master, hey, wouldn't you like to just gossip a little bit about that person you don't really like? You can say no and only speak encouraging words. You can put away your lust. Christian, you are not, you are not a slave to any website.

But you have been bought at the blood of Jesus Christ. Christian, you are not a slave to covetousness. God has freed you from the thorns of this world with its deceitfulness of wealth that would choke out your faith. You are freed from that old master of materialism. You are freed from slander. You are freed from envy. You are freed from drunkenness.

If you are one of those who struggle with what you would think is an addiction, Christian in Jesus Christ, you can put away that sin because you have a new master, Jesus Christ. This world is going to tell you, you look inside yourself, and that's how you'll be able to put away the things that bother you, the things that addict you.

Brothers and sisters, we find freedom and hope and joy in Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ who will bring you out of the hardships in your marriage. It is Jesus Christ who will be there when you're pulling out your hair with frustration at your children. It is Jesus Christ who is your master and who cares for you even though your boss might think he's your master.

It is Jesus Christ who has redeemed you. Christians, we must live as those knowing the freedom that Jesus Christ has paid for. We must be those, if there are sins in our life of usury, to put it away. Will we respond to the work of the Holy Spirit the same way we saw here in Nehemiah chapter 5? God redeems. His people live holy lives.

Now, you're still gonna sin. Luther is famous for his Latin phrase, simul justus et peccator. There's your big five, that's why you guys pay me the big bucks. Five letter, $5 word there. Simul justus et peccator. Simultaneously, just and sinner. You're always gonna sin.

But there's gonna come a day, Christian, where that bondage will finally be cut. It started already. We get to start living with just a taste of that freedom now. But there will come a day when you will go into that graveyard and you will be fully glorified. And those bondages of sin that that old man still wants to drag you down to, you will finally stand before the mercy seat of Jesus Christ and you will know your freedom perfectly. Start living in that freedom now. You have a great Redeemer.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Lord, you are a wonderful and good God. Lord, thank you for redeeming us. Thank you for caring for us. Thank you for loving us. Lord, we pray now that as we walk out of here today, that you would indeed work in our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit. It is only you who can do this. Let us be holy as you are holy, because you have paid us at a great price. Thank you for Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray, amen.

Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.