Nehemiah modeled seven biblical steps leading to God-honoring confrontation that preserve unity and honor the Lord.

Confrontation. It’s the least enjoyable part of leadership, but absolutely essential for effectiveness for any husband, father, coach, or team leader in business. Today, we look into Nehemiah 5, where Nehemiah puts on a “clinic in wise confrontation” from which leaders can learn much.

Last week, in Nehemiah 4, we examined some key principles for leaders as Nehemiah had to lead his people to address an external threat to accomplishing their project of rebuilding the wall—their enemies planning to attack them. Today, as we look to Nehemiah 5, we see Nehemiah, the leader, having to address an internal threat to completing the wall—dissention within the ranks. Nehemiah 5:1-13.

Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.” There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards. Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say. So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations, our enemies? Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.” Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised. I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said “Amen” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

The Peoples’ Complaints

The dissension among the Jewish people centered around the all too familiar social problems of hunger, exploitation, debts, and taxes. We see in the text the complaints that seem representative of the steep slide into severe economic hardship that many of the Jewish exiles were experiencing. Let’s look at each one:

1. Verse 2: Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous. In order for us to eat and stay alive we must get grain. There were large families. They didn’t have enough to eat for two reasons: 1) abandoned fields during the Babylonian captivity had become overgrown, 2) there was a famine going on.
2. If a man has a lot of mouths to feed but no food, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep from starving. So, these poor farmers had to mortgage their fields, and vineyards and homes, to get the money to buy food. That was behind the second complaint. Verse 3: Others were saying we are mortgaging our fields our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.
3. The food shortage very likely led to higher food prices and a spiraling inflation. So, another reason these poor farmers were mortgaging their fields and homes was to get the money they needed to pay their taxes. Verse 4: Still others were saying we have had to borrow money and pay the King’s tax on our fields and vineyards. So, there were two groups of people that were so poor they had to borrow money against their homes and farms: 1) those that had no food to eat and 2) those that had no money to pay their taxes.
4. To make matters worse, the wealthy who had the money or grain to lend were charging exorbitant interest. This led to the poor not being able to make their payments and losing their farms and flocks. At his point the poor had no collateral left against which to borrow money to feed their family. The only asset they had left was their children themselves who they sold into slavery. Verse 5-6: Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our country and though our sons are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved but we are powerless because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.

Nehemiah’s Angry Response

When Nehemiah, this great spiritual leader, hears this report, he is furious. “I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words” (5:6). Red-hot anger erupted inside Nehemiah like a volcano spewing ash and spilling lava. Nehemiah’s response was like that of the Lord when he walked into the temple and saw the priests and money changers cheating the poor. Jesus turned over their tables and threw them out in fury. Godliness demands that at times we get angry. Although selfish anger is a work of the sinful nature (Gal 5:20), righteous anger is a virtue. But we must not let that anger lead us to sin. Paul said, “Be angry but do not sin.”

1. A. Years ago, the son of Francis Schaefer, Frankie, wrote a book entitled, A Time for Anger: The Myth of Neutrality. It begins, “There are times in which anyone with a shred of moral principle should be profoundly angry.” Frankie Schaefer is absolutely right. How could Nehemiah not be outraged at the way the nobles and landowners were exploiting the poor, forcing a poor father to sell his daughter into slavery to pay their exorbitant interest and put food on his table. Whenever we see the weak, the poor, the helpless exploited by the strong, the rich, and the powerful—a volcano of anger should erupt in us. Complacency when we are aware of injustice is evil. Proverbs 31:8-9 commands, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Isaiah 1:17 commands, “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” Psalm 82:4 instructs, “Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

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