WEBVTT - Nehemiah 5

0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:06.680
<v Speaker 1>Life Audio. For more resources to help you in your

0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:10.680
<v Speaker 1>walk with Christ, please visit us at Bible Study Headquarters

0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:15.360
<v Speaker 1>dot com. You're listening to the Chapter a Day Audio Bible.

0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:20.080
<v Speaker 1>I'm John Stangey, and today we're in Nehemiah chapter five,

0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:26.120
<v Speaker 1>and we'll be reading from the New Living Translation. About

0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.960
<v Speaker 1>this time, some of the men and their wives raised

0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:33.080
<v Speaker 1>a cry of protest against their fellow Jews. They were saying,

0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:37.599
<v Speaker 1>we have such large families, we need more food to survive.

0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:43.120
<v Speaker 1>Others said, we have mortgaged our fields, vineyards and homes

0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.040
<v Speaker 1>to get food during the famine, and others said we

0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:50.000
<v Speaker 1>have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards

0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.280
<v Speaker 1>to pay our taxes. We belong to the same family

0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.240
<v Speaker 1>as those who are wealthy, and our children are just

0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.960
<v Speaker 1>like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into sla

0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:03.640
<v Speaker 1>just to get enough money to live. We have already

0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:06.880
<v Speaker 1>sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to

0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.959
<v Speaker 1>do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are

0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:15.480
<v Speaker 1>already mortgaged to others. When I heard their complaints, I

0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.759
<v Speaker 1>was very angry. After thinking it over, I spoke out

0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.680
<v Speaker 1>against these nobles and officials. I told them, you are

0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:28.039
<v Speaker 1>hurting your own relatives by charging interest when they borrow money.

0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.840
<v Speaker 1>Then I called a public meeting to deal with the problem.

0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.920
<v Speaker 1>At the meeting, I said to them, we are doing

0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.959
<v Speaker 1>all we can to redeem our Jewish relatives who have

0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.680
<v Speaker 1>had to sell themselves to pagan foreigners. But you are

0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:46.720
<v Speaker 1>selling them back into slavery again. How often must we

0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:50.080
<v Speaker 1>redeem them? And they had nothing to say in their defense.

0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.600
<v Speaker 1>Then I pressed further, what you are doing is not right.

0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.720
<v Speaker 1>Should you not walk in the fear of our God

0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.880
<v Speaker 1>in order to avoid being mocked by other enemy nations?

0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.680
<v Speaker 1>I myself, as well as my brothers and my workers,

0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.480
<v Speaker 1>have been lending the people money and grain. But now

0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.919
<v Speaker 1>let us stop this business of charging interest. You must

0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:16.919
<v Speaker 1>restore their fields, vineyards, olive groves and homes to them

0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.520
<v Speaker 1>this very day, and repay the interest you charged when

0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.040
<v Speaker 1>you lent them money, grain, new wine, and olive oil.

0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:29.720
<v Speaker 1>They replied, we will give back everything and demand nothing

0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.320
<v Speaker 1>more from the people. We will do as you say.

0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.120
<v Speaker 1>Then I called the priests and made the nobles and

0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:40.360
<v Speaker 1>officials swear to do what they had promised. I shook

0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.120
<v Speaker 1>out the folds of my robe and said, if you

0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:47.040
<v Speaker 1>fail to keep your promise, may God, shake you like

0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:52.080
<v Speaker 1>this from your homes and from your property. The whole

0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:56.680
<v Speaker 1>assembly responded, Amen, and they praised the Lord, and the

0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:00.680
<v Speaker 1>people did as they had promised. For the hire twelve

0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.400
<v Speaker 1>years that I was governor of Judah. From the twentieth

0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:05.600
<v Speaker 1>year to the thirty second year of the reign of

0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.960
<v Speaker 1>King Artaxerxes, neither I nor my officials drew on our

0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:15.360
<v Speaker 1>official food allowance. The former governors, in contrast, had laid

0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:19.120
<v Speaker 1>heavy burdens on the people, demanding a daily ration of

0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:23.920
<v Speaker 1>food and wine besides forty pieces of silver. Even their

0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:28.040
<v Speaker 1>assistants took advantage of the people. But because I feared God,

0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:32.520
<v Speaker 1>I did not act that way. I also devoted myself

0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:36.240
<v Speaker 1>to working on the wall and refused to acquire any land,

0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:39.800
<v Speaker 1>and I required all my servants to spend time working

0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:43.200
<v Speaker 1>on the wall. I asked for nothing, even though I

0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:47.400
<v Speaker 1>regularly fed one hundred fifty Jewish officials at my table,

0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:52.080
<v Speaker 1>besides all the visitors from other lands. The provisions I

0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:56.640
<v Speaker 1>paid for each day included one ox, six choice sheep

0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:01.040
<v Speaker 1>or goats, and a large number of poultry. And every

0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.320
<v Speaker 1>ten days we needed a large supply of all kinds

0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:08.280
<v Speaker 1>of wine. Yet I refuse to claim the governor's food

0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:13.920
<v Speaker 1>allowance because the people already carried a heavy burden. Remember, oh,

0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.080
<v Speaker 1>my God, all that I have done for these people,

0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:24.960
<v Speaker 1>and bless me for it. Let's pray. Lord, we thank

0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:26.640
<v Speaker 1>you for your word, and we thank you for the

0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.120
<v Speaker 1>privilege of being able to look at it together today.

0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:31.960
<v Speaker 1>And Lord, has this chapter opened up? We could see

0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.080
<v Speaker 1>that the nobles and some of the wealthy people were

0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:39.159
<v Speaker 1>selling their brothers into slavery by virtue of charging them

0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.520
<v Speaker 1>interest on all sorts of things instead of lending freely

0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.000
<v Speaker 1>to them. And while Nehemiah and some others were trying

0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.800
<v Speaker 1>to redeem the people and restore the land, we see

0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:53.839
<v Speaker 1>that until the nobles were confronted, they appeared to be

0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:57.640
<v Speaker 1>doing the exact opposite. And as we look at this passage, Lord,

0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.159
<v Speaker 1>we're grateful that we see a remind here of the

0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:05.240
<v Speaker 1>joy of being redeemed from slavery. We know that, based

0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:08.680
<v Speaker 1>on the shed blood of your son Jesus Christ, our

0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.440
<v Speaker 1>freedom from the slavery to sin, satan, and death that

0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.640
<v Speaker 1>we were born in has been purchased. We have been redeemed,

0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.359
<v Speaker 1>we have been set free. And as men and women

0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:21.840
<v Speaker 1>who believe in Your son Jesus Christ, and have been

0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.640
<v Speaker 1>set free from our sin. You invite us to live

0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.279
<v Speaker 1>as people who are free and to no longer go

0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:30.839
<v Speaker 1>back to the chains that you've rescued us from. Lord,

0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.919
<v Speaker 1>thank you for liberating us. And we pray Lord that

0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.000
<v Speaker 1>we wouldn't go back to the kind of lives that

0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.120
<v Speaker 1>we lived before, where we idolized our sin and where

0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.120
<v Speaker 1>we idolize the things of this world. But rather we

0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.479
<v Speaker 1>pray Lord that we would rejoice in the new life

0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:46.800
<v Speaker 1>and in the freedom that we have as children of

0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.080
<v Speaker 1>God through faith in Jesus Christ. We're grateful Lord that

0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.880
<v Speaker 1>that's our reality today, and we're grateful that through faith

0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:56.919
<v Speaker 1>in Jesus that's our reality forever. Lord, we love you,

0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.039
<v Speaker 1>We thank you for all the wonderful and good things

0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:01.719
<v Speaker 1>that you do for us at your expense, but for

0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.480
<v Speaker 1>our benefit, and we commit this day to your care

0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:08.719
<v Speaker 1>and thank you for all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen.