1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:06,680 Speaker 1: Life Audio. For more resources to help you in your 2 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:10,680 Speaker 1: walk with Christ, please visit us at Bible Study Headquarters 3 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 1: dot com. You're listening to the Chapter a Day Audio Bible. 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:20,080 Speaker 1: I'm John Stangey, and today we're in Nehemiah chapter five, 5 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:26,120 Speaker 1: and we'll be reading from the New Living Translation. About 6 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:28,960 Speaker 1: this time, some of the men and their wives raised 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:33,080 Speaker 1: a cry of protest against their fellow Jews. They were saying, 8 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:37,599 Speaker 1: we have such large families, we need more food to survive. 9 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: Others said, we have mortgaged our fields, vineyards and homes 10 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:47,040 Speaker 1: to get food during the famine, and others said we 11 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 1: have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards 12 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:53,280 Speaker 1: to pay our taxes. We belong to the same family 13 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,240 Speaker 1: as those who are wealthy, and our children are just 14 00:00:56,520 --> 00:00:59,960 Speaker 1: like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into sla 15 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:03,640 Speaker 1: just to get enough money to live. We have already 16 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:06,880 Speaker 1: sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to 17 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:09,959 Speaker 1: do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are 18 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:15,480 Speaker 1: already mortgaged to others. When I heard their complaints, I 19 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:19,759 Speaker 1: was very angry. After thinking it over, I spoke out 20 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:23,680 Speaker 1: against these nobles and officials. I told them, you are 21 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:28,039 Speaker 1: hurting your own relatives by charging interest when they borrow money. 22 00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:31,840 Speaker 1: Then I called a public meeting to deal with the problem. 23 00:01:32,959 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: At the meeting, I said to them, we are doing 24 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:38,959 Speaker 1: all we can to redeem our Jewish relatives who have 25 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:42,680 Speaker 1: had to sell themselves to pagan foreigners. But you are 26 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:46,720 Speaker 1: selling them back into slavery again. How often must we 27 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:50,080 Speaker 1: redeem them? And they had nothing to say in their defense. 28 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:54,600 Speaker 1: Then I pressed further, what you are doing is not right. 29 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 1: Should you not walk in the fear of our God 30 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:00,880 Speaker 1: in order to avoid being mocked by other enemy nations? 31 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 1: I myself, as well as my brothers and my workers, 32 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: have been lending the people money and grain. But now 33 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:12,919 Speaker 1: let us stop this business of charging interest. You must 34 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:16,919 Speaker 1: restore their fields, vineyards, olive groves and homes to them 35 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:20,520 Speaker 1: this very day, and repay the interest you charged when 36 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:24,040 Speaker 1: you lent them money, grain, new wine, and olive oil. 37 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 1: They replied, we will give back everything and demand nothing 38 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:32,320 Speaker 1: more from the people. We will do as you say. 39 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:36,120 Speaker 1: Then I called the priests and made the nobles and 40 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:40,360 Speaker 1: officials swear to do what they had promised. I shook 41 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:43,120 Speaker 1: out the folds of my robe and said, if you 42 00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:47,040 Speaker 1: fail to keep your promise, may God, shake you like 43 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:52,080 Speaker 1: this from your homes and from your property. The whole 44 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:56,680 Speaker 1: assembly responded, Amen, and they praised the Lord, and the 45 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:00,680 Speaker 1: people did as they had promised. For the hire twelve 46 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:03,400 Speaker 1: years that I was governor of Judah. From the twentieth 47 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:05,600 Speaker 1: year to the thirty second year of the reign of 48 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:09,960 Speaker 1: King Artaxerxes, neither I nor my officials drew on our 49 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:15,360 Speaker 1: official food allowance. The former governors, in contrast, had laid 50 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 1: heavy burdens on the people, demanding a daily ration of 51 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:23,920 Speaker 1: food and wine besides forty pieces of silver. Even their 52 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:28,040 Speaker 1: assistants took advantage of the people. But because I feared God, 53 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:32,520 Speaker 1: I did not act that way. I also devoted myself 54 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:36,240 Speaker 1: to working on the wall and refused to acquire any land, 55 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:39,800 Speaker 1: and I required all my servants to spend time working 56 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,200 Speaker 1: on the wall. I asked for nothing, even though I 57 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:47,400 Speaker 1: regularly fed one hundred fifty Jewish officials at my table, 58 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:52,080 Speaker 1: besides all the visitors from other lands. The provisions I 59 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:56,640 Speaker 1: paid for each day included one ox, six choice sheep 60 00:03:56,840 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: or goats, and a large number of poultry. And every 61 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:04,320 Speaker 1: ten days we needed a large supply of all kinds 62 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:08,280 Speaker 1: of wine. Yet I refuse to claim the governor's food 63 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:13,920 Speaker 1: allowance because the people already carried a heavy burden. Remember, oh, 64 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:17,080 Speaker 1: my God, all that I have done for these people, 65 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:24,960 Speaker 1: and bless me for it. Let's pray. Lord, we thank 66 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:26,640 Speaker 1: you for your word, and we thank you for the 67 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:29,120 Speaker 1: privilege of being able to look at it together today. 68 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: And Lord, has this chapter opened up? We could see 69 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:35,080 Speaker 1: that the nobles and some of the wealthy people were 70 00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:39,159 Speaker 1: selling their brothers into slavery by virtue of charging them 71 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:43,520 Speaker 1: interest on all sorts of things instead of lending freely 72 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:47,000 Speaker 1: to them. And while Nehemiah and some others were trying 73 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:50,800 Speaker 1: to redeem the people and restore the land, we see 74 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:53,839 Speaker 1: that until the nobles were confronted, they appeared to be 75 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:57,640 Speaker 1: doing the exact opposite. And as we look at this passage, Lord, 76 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:01,159 Speaker 1: we're grateful that we see a remind here of the 77 00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:05,240 Speaker 1: joy of being redeemed from slavery. We know that, based 78 00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:08,680 Speaker 1: on the shed blood of your son Jesus Christ, our 79 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: freedom from the slavery to sin, satan, and death that 80 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:16,640 Speaker 1: we were born in has been purchased. We have been redeemed, 81 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:19,359 Speaker 1: we have been set free. And as men and women 82 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:21,840 Speaker 1: who believe in Your son Jesus Christ, and have been 83 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:24,640 Speaker 1: set free from our sin. You invite us to live 84 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:27,279 Speaker 1: as people who are free and to no longer go 85 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:30,839 Speaker 1: back to the chains that you've rescued us from. Lord, 86 00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:33,919 Speaker 1: thank you for liberating us. And we pray Lord that 87 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 1: we wouldn't go back to the kind of lives that 88 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:39,120 Speaker 1: we lived before, where we idolized our sin and where 89 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:42,120 Speaker 1: we idolize the things of this world. But rather we 90 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:44,479 Speaker 1: pray Lord that we would rejoice in the new life 91 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:46,800 Speaker 1: and in the freedom that we have as children of 92 00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:50,080 Speaker 1: God through faith in Jesus Christ. We're grateful Lord that 93 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:52,880 Speaker 1: that's our reality today, and we're grateful that through faith 94 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:56,919 Speaker 1: in Jesus that's our reality forever. Lord, we love you, 95 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,039 Speaker 1: We thank you for all the wonderful and good things 96 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:01,719 Speaker 1: that you do for us at your expense, but for 97 00:06:01,839 --> 00:06:04,480 Speaker 1: our benefit, and we commit this day to your care 98 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:08,719 Speaker 1: and thank you for all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen.