Nehemiah Chapter 5
Please read: Nehemiah 5 –
During the time that the wall was being rebuilt there was a famine. The famine probably caused the work to stop or at least slowed the work greatly. Famine had caused a new set of problems for the Jewish people. They needed food and there were taxes to be paid. The king of Persia had financed the building of the wall and in return he taxed the landowners. The people were not upset about the taxes that had to be paid to the king, but they were upset how their fellow Jews were treating them in their hour of need. There were those who took advantage of the poor by mortgaging their land for them so they would have money for food, but they charged them interest on their payments. And when the poor could not pay their payments with interest, they required their family members to become slaves to them. This was Jews taking advantage of their fellow Jews who were poor and destitute.
Let's Reflect
1. Why weren’t the poor able to sell their land to buy the freedom of their daughters who had become slaves?
2. When Nehemiah heard about what was going on, how did he feel about the situation?
3. The Bible says that Nehemiah took a moment to think things through before he spoke to the nobles and officials. What did he remind them of that caused them to repent of their wrong behaviors?
4. In verse 9 Nehemiah asked a rhetorical question of them. What was that question?
5. What was their response to Nehemiah’s question?
6. Nehemiah went a step farther and told them exactly what they needed to do to correct the wrongs they had done to their fellow man. What did he tell them to do?
7. In verse 14 we learn for the first time that Nehemiah had been given a position under the king. What was that position?
8. In this position Nehemiah was given a food allowance by the king and had the rights to tax the people as former men in this position had, but he did not. Why did he say he had not done that?
9. Nehemiah did not keep the king’s food allowance for himself, in fact what did he do with the allowance?
10. It may sound as if Nehemiah was bragging to God about his good deeds, but he was asking God to return blessings for his efforts in doing what was right. In his position it would only be natural to seek the praise of men, but who did Nehemiah want to be pleased with his actions?
