Nehemiah 5:14-19
Let’s give our attention to God’s
word. Nehemiah chapter five, beginning at verse 14. Moreover, from the time that
I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the
20th year to the 32nd year of Artaxerxes, the king, 12 years,
neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor.
The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens
on the people and took from them their daily ration, 40 shekels
of silver. Even their servants lorded it
over the people, but I did not do so because of the fear of
God. I also persevered in the work on the wall and we acquired
no land and all my servants were gathered there for the work.
Moreover, there were at my table 150 men, Jews and officials,
besides those who came to us from the nations that were around
us. Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one
ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every 10 days, all kinds
of wine in abundance. Yet for all this, I did not demand
the food allowance of the governor because the service was too heavy
on this people. Remember for my good, oh my God,
all that I have done for this people. Amen. The word of the
living God. Every once in a while, we probably
bump into one of those television shows and watch it with interest. Expose a biography or a show
on who a certain person is and what makes them tick. I know
some people are addicted to Hollywood and they want to know what what’s
going on in the life of their favorite stars. They want to
know. What they eat, what they drink, and all those sorts of
things. But I’m thinking more seriously
about people that have done something. People who have meant something.
People whose history and their heritage is a bit more lasting. We watch these. Programs about them with great
interest what makes them tick? What makes them do the things
they do what makes them or motivates them to do the things that they
did? I think it’s important to make a distinction between a
person who does things for horizontal reasons, maybe they do it for
money, maybe they do it for love or attention, maybe they do it
for altruism, they love other human beings. But it’s also important
to think about why people do things if they do things for
vertical reasons. Do they do it to please God,
to give glory to God? Do they do it because they fear
God? And they reverence God. Now,
I think we’ll see some of the reasons that Nehemiah does what
he does do for the people of God. And let’s think about it
in a couple of sections. They all start with
C’s. Let’s think about his call. His
call brings us back to the beginning of the book. We remember that
Nehemiah was in Babylon, but he’s now come to Jerusalem. And
he’s been in Babylon as the cupbearer to the king, the king of Artaxerxes. He got a report from his brothers. This is what’s going on over
in Jerusalem and Judea. This is what’s going on with
the returnees from exile. The city lies in ruins. It’s
a reproach. It needs help. And so he prayed,
he wept, he fasted, he asked Artaxerxes and he was sent. And
he comes to Jerusalem from Babylon with a long look, with a big
picture in mind. Let’s build the city of God.
And let’s get this place back in business for the glory of
God and as a witness to the nations. When you read verse 16, at the
beginning of the verse, he speaks of his calling and says, I persevered
in the work. on the wall. That’s simply what
he came to do. We’ll figure out after a time,
after a dozen years or so, he goes back to Babylon. He goes
back to being the cupbearer. But for now, this is his call
to be in Jerusalem and to do the work of the wall building
and to watch over the people and to Seek God’s face. Remember, they’ve got opposition
from outside. Sanballat, Tobiah and all the
others don’t want this wall to be built. They don’t want the
city to be built. They don’t want Jerusalem and Judea to be
a great city and a force. in their community again, and
so there’s opposition without. But remember, we’re dealing right
now with opposition within. There had become a famine in
the area, and the wealthy people were selling food to the poor
people at high prices. They were lending money out at
high interest, and they were even taking their children and
their family members in pledge. And Nehemiah, last time we were
in chapter 5, the early part, he said no to this. charged to
them with breaking God’s law. You’ve enslaved your brothers
who were just freed from Babylon. So the governor, Nehemiah, is
called to serve the living God here at Jerusalem and Judea.
He’s called to encourage the people, to lead the people and
to get them on their way as they rebuild the city. The second
C, I suppose, a second point we want to think about, not just
Nehemiah’s call, but I think really importantly, we want to
look at his convictions. Convictions are firmly held beliefs. Things that we believe and hold
very dearly and we guide our lives by them. I think of the
great chapter in Hebrews 11 by faith. And it says, by faith,
Noah believed God was going to send a flood. And so what did
Noah spend a hundred years doing? Well, he spent a hundred years
building an ark on dry land. He spent a hundred years building
a big boat when there was not a drop of rain in sight, but
he believed that God was going to send a flood. He believed
that God was going to save his family through this arc. And
so by faith or by convictions, Noah did that, and it was all
the while the unrighteous generation around him ridiculed and made
fun of him, did not listen to the gospel of grace. He would
have invited them in the ark, I’m sure, and they would have
been saved with their families as well. But Noah had these firmly
held beliefs. How about Abraham? By faith,
Abraham, Hebrews 11 tells us, was in the act of offering up
his only son, Isaac. Because he believed that even
if he put his own son to death on that altar at Mount Moriah,
he believed that God could raise the child of promise back from
the dead. And so he went all the way. These
were two men of great convictions. Well, what does it mean for us
to have convictions? We believe there is a God. We
believe there’s a righteous standard. We believe that he has revealed
himself to us in his word. We believe that he sees all things,
he weighs all things, and he judges all things. We understand
that he is to be obeyed and reverenced and loved and imitated. And so
this awareness of who God is, this awareness of what God has
done, this awareness of what God requires of us, is a controlling
awareness, a controlling set of convictions in our lives.
I think during the last 50 or so years, R.C. Sproul made the
little Latin statement popular in our American Christian culture. He said, all of life is to be
lived, Coram Deo, Latin for before the face of God. And we ought
to, instill in ourselves, ask the Holy Spirit to instill in
us an awareness of the weightiness, the heaviness, the presence,
the demands of Almighty God so that we live out of convictions.
Think of Ecclesiastes, 12 chapters written by Solomon. And he’s
written all these things about all these things. And at the
end, he says, here’s the end of the matter. After everything’s
been heard, this is it. So I’ve just written you 12 chapters,
but this is all you need to know. Fear God and keep his commandments.
Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of
man. For God will bring every deed into judgment. God. will bring about to reveal every
secret thing, whether good or evil. So Solomon, after he’s
searched the world, after he’s found wisdom, he says, this is
it, fear God and keep his commandments. And I think those are the convictions
of Nehemiah, and they ought to be ours as well. We fear God
and keep his commandments. In verse 15 of chapter five,
he speaks of the reason for why he did not take the governor’s
rations. I mean, he could have had a car,
he could have had security, he could have had a chef and food
and all the rest. And in verse 15, the second part,
It says of Nehemiah, or Nehemiah says, former governors before me laid
heavy burdens. They took from them their daily
rations. And he says, I didn’t do so because
of the fear of God. He reverenced God. He saw the
situation and remembered that God sees and judges and weighs
everything. And I wonder about our own ethics.
I wonder if we do things rooted in the fear of God. Um, you know,
sometimes we can do things because we don’t want to get in trouble.
Sometimes we can do things because we don’t want people to think
poorly of us, but how much better is it to do things because we
fear God and we must because his eyes on us, he is, he is
watching. Well, these are Nehemiah’s convictions
and they’re a great blessing. to the church in Jerusalem that
has returned from Babylon. I wonder about our fear of God. Sometimes we can fear God like
we fear a parent. You know, parents will threaten
you. Don’t you do this or else. Or do we fear God because he’s
our father? Do we fear God because he’s brought us to himself through
his son? Do we fear God because He is to be feared. Remember
little Lucy and the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. She asked
about Aslan, is he good? And the answer she got was, yes,
he’s good, but he is not safe. And I think one of the important
things we ought to note from Nehemiah’s fear of God is that
it’s an important aspect of Christian leadership. It ought to be in
every minister, it ought to be in every elder, it ought to be
really in every Christian, and it really ought to be on display
in our vocations out in the world. God-fearing people do God-fearing
things, and when we live in a world that doesn’t fear God, it sure
stands out. Would somebody say, if they looked
in on your life, oh, they fear God, Those are God fearing people. So we looked at Nehemiah’s call.
He’s there at Jerusalem to rebuild the city, to be their governor.
We looked at his convictions. He fears God and keeps his commandments.
How about his compassion? The people of God at Jerusalem
are in a really bad way. There’s a famine. They’ve worked
really hard on building the wall. They’ve neglected some of their
duties at home. And so they’re in a bad spot
because of these circumstances. And Nehemiah recognizes that
and has compassion. He could have pulled his rights
as the governor. You owe me these rations. You
need to feed me and my people at my table, my way. We see this
with governors. We see this with presidents.
We see this with all sorts of folks who seem to be entitled
to what is provided for them. And he looks around. He looks
around and sees what’s taking place in Jerusalem and Judea
among the people. And then he thinks of his relationship
with God. He thinks about the horizontal
and the vertical relationships that are important. And he says,
these people are poor and they’re hungry and they’re broke. A lot
of these families have been wall widows. They’ve been missing
their men because of the wall. They’ve been missing their men
because of security issues. They’ve been missing the men
of the home because of the need to protect the whole city from
the enemies around. Remember, they spent night and
day at the wall. Remember, they came out from
the cities and helped build. And if they came and helped them
build, they stayed for the night. And so it’s important for Nehemiah
to recognize their situation and say, you know what? I’m not
going to eat at your expense. I’m not going to eat at your
expense. hurt or your injury. Paul does
this in a couple of the cities where he’s a missionary. Remember
Paul’s a tent maker by trade. And a couple of times, maybe
in Corinthians and Thessalonians and in other places, he says
to the people, look, when I was among you, I could have exercised
my right. as a minister of God’s word,
I could have demanded that you pay my way while I ministered
among you. But he says, I worked night and day. I worked in the
day as a tent maker and I worked at night preaching the word to
you. And I didn’t charge you a cent. I didn’t eat from your tables
or cause you harm. We remember the story of the
good Samaritan where he stumbled on the priest. or he stumbled
on the man that was injured by the robbers, and the priest had
walked by, the Levite had walked by, but the good Samaritan picked
him up, bound his wounds, put him on his own beast, and took
him to the inn, and at his own expense said, take care of the
man, and when I return, I’ll settle up with you. That’s the
compassion here of Nehemiah. That’s the compassion that we
ought to have as Christians. What can I do to relieve your
burdens? What can I do, even at my own expense, even at my
own cost, to help? Do we identify with people? Do
we empathize with people? Do we see and meet their needs? Y’all have heard me say a number
of times, very often you go out to eat, just say you’re at the
Cracker Barrel and you’re eating your $14 meal, I guess it is
now, and the person who’s serving your table, they got a kid in
daycare, You know, they’re making, what, two, three bucks an hour
before tips, and we leave them a buck or two. Uh, that’s not
the spirit of Nehemiah, is it? Um, we, we look at someone who’s
maybe fallen on hard times and say, well, that’s their fault.
Uh, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve been keeping my nose clean. Perhaps they haven’t.
And that’s why they’re in trouble. And so we can, as the old Testament
says, close our hearts to the needy. Uh, we can close our hands
to the needy. And as we thought of this morning
from, Galatians 2.10, we ought to especially give our attention
to those in the household of faith. Now, Nehemiah could have
said, you know what? These people are in a bad way,
but it’s their fault. They’ve been lazy. Uh, these
people are in a bad way and I can rule them with an iron fist.
I’ll eat the food that’s allotted to me. I’ll tax them further. Uh, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll get
what’s coming. You know, after all, I’m their
governor, I’m doing good things for them. And he could have gone
on and on enlisted, but he restrains his servants. No, we’re not going
to eat on these people’s backs. He restrains the tax collector.
We’re, we’re, we’re not going to collect what we could collect. He fed his men, he fed his guests
at his own expense. And he lists the bull and the
birds and the choice sheep and all the rest. This is a man,
instead of mastering a people, is going to minister to them. He’s going to, in the moment,
do the right thing. And our passage tells us he does
this for 12 years. The entire 12 years he’s the
governor, of the city of God at Jerusalem. This is his compassion. This is his method. This is his
way. Well, another C, we’ve looked
at his call. We’ve looked at his compassion. We’ve looked at his convictions. We want to think now of a comparison. Several years ago, we had a governor
in North Carolina who after, I think, I should say his or
her, I think it was a her, after her very brief first term, they
began to expose all that she had done while in government.
You know, it seems to be a common theme of the day. You scratch
my back, I’ll scratch yours. And we don’t care what country
or what place or what cost this back scratching comes from. It
seems that that seems to be the way. Let’s not minister to people
in government. Let’s master them and let’s get
out of them everything we can. Well, it exposed the debts and
it exposed the deals and it exposed the favors that this former governor
of our state realized. And you compare that with our
last president who wouldn’t take a paycheck. He donated it each
quarter to some federal government entity that had need of it. And,
you know, that’s kind of the picture here. You’ve got a comparison
of Nehemiah over the former governors. You’ve got a comparison of Nehemiah
over and against the others. Just how good is Nehemiah? What
kind of guy is he? What kind of governor gets tax
breaks? What kind of governor works nights
and weekends? What kind of governor is not
being whisked away to his weekend house? I think we had one of
those too, didn’t we? The state helicopter flew off
to the coast every weekend, something like that. Well, this is good
for us to think of here, a comparison. Verse 15 tells us he could have
demanded his rights. He could have been greedy. He
could have been Lord and domineering over the people. He could have
taken. but it would have been ungodly. It would have shown
no fear of God. It would have been abusive. It
probably would have crushed the people even more so than they
already were crushed. And remember, these are the people
of God who lived under Pharaoh. These are the people of God whose
fathers lived under the crushing weight of Pharaoh who feathered
his nest at the expense of the Israelites. I think of Ezra 34. Ezra 34 speaks of the watchman,
the pastors of the day. They were supposed to watch over
the people. And Ezekiel gives a very scathing rebuke of them.
You’re no watchman at all. You’re living for your own gain.
I think of the papacy and the wealth of the Vatican and all
that is there. I think of maybe in comparison,
one of our presidents who after the terror attacks and the war
we entered into, he stopped playing golf. How can I play golf if
I put soldiers on foreign soil and in dangerous territory? Think of the comparisons today,
it’s gotten worse, hasn’t it? And that leads us to another
C, and that’s a challenge. We ought to examine our lives.
What’s our calling? What’s our convictions? Are we
compassionate towards others? Examine our lives. Do we fear
God? Do we work under hardship even
if it costs us something? There’s a Psalm, Psalm 15, we
read every time a man in the church becomes an elder. And
it’s Psalm 15 who says, a man will swear to his own hurt. He
will do the right thing even if it costs him everything. And
we remember that God uses us to accomplish all His holy ends. And so if we take the challenge
to examine our lives and live a holy, God-fearing life, live
a life that’s in touch with reality, and we do the right things, 100%
in service to the others, how Christ-like we are, how Christ-like
we become. Nehemiah ends this passage with
a prayer. And verse 19 is that prayer,
remember, For my good, oh my God, all that I have done for
this people, all that he’s done for God, all that he’s done for
Israel, all that he’s done for the gospel. These people were
in bondage. They were under a heavy yoke
and he came and served them and relieved them. And in a sense,
Nehemiah is a figure, a glimpse of Christ who would come and
relieve the people, redeem the people, rescue the people, lead
the people, build up their city and give them a good and prosperous
way. And it’s good for us, I think,
to remember God does not overlook our service to the saints. And it could be giving people
rides. It could be setting things up, being a deacon, serving as
an elder. It could be rocking the babies
in the nursery. Whatever it is that you do for
God, he does not overlook these things. And we remember, don’t
we, in Revelation, one of the Beatitudes of Revelation, blessed
are the dead who die in the Lord, for their deeds follow them.
and they shall rest from their labors. So perhaps someday they’ll
do a TV show about you. What made so-and-so tick? Well,
they had their horizontal relationships. They were compassionate. They
had those horizontal relationships correct. They understood people
in the times, but they had their vertical relationship, their
relationship with God. They feared him and they kept
his commandments. And to encounter this person
was to encounter The Lord Jesus, what you’ve done to the least
of these you’ve done unto the Lord Jesus Christ who left this. He left the riches of heaven,
gave up all those things and came and gave costly service
in order that we might rise again to a new life. He died serving
us. And he’s freed us so that we
can serve him and serve others. So may that be true of us. Let’s
do pray. Lord bless us as we go from here
tonight to remember Nehemiah’s convictions and his compassion,
his call. And we pray that we would fear
you keep your commandments. and that we’d remember Jesus
and his sacrifice for others. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being
a great high priest who sympathizes with us in our hardships and
helps us to endure in this life. Give us your grace, we pray now.
In Jesus’ name, amen.