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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.”
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.”
William Garrison, who wrote the anti-slavery paper called, “The Abolitionist,” and was probably the leader in that cause, was so hot about the injustice of American slavery that he provoked many people. One of his friends, Samuel May, one day said to him, “My friend, do try to moderate your indignation and keep more cool. Why, you're all on fire,” to which Garrison replied, “My friend, “I have need to be all on fire for I have mountains of ice around me to melt.” The hard-hearted indifference of apparent Bible-believing Christians to the plight of slaves was a very black mark on Christianity in America.
Nehemiah’s anger about the exploitation of the poor, the weak, and the marginalized challenges all of us to ask, “Have be become calloused to such suffering?” Anger is a response to pain. A heart invaded by the Holy Spirit becomes more sensitive to the suffering of the weak, the marginalized, the poor, the exploited. We need to ask ourselves,
- After the Supreme Court returned the legality of abortion to the states, have we left the battlefield of fighting for the rights of the unborn? More unborn children have died at the hands of abortionists than all the soldiers who have died in all the wars the US has ever fought.
- Is our voice being heard objecting to the hundreds of prepubescent girls being persuaded by online trans coaches that they are in the wrong body and that testosterone is the wonder drug they need?
- Is there anything we can do about fatherlessness in our cities that is at the root of generational gang violence, teen pregnancy and poverty?
No doubt Nehemiah was angry because he felt the pain of parents victimized by the wealthy into having to not only sell their family’s land, but their children—to put food on the table and pay their taxes.
B. But I believe, Nehemiah was angry for a second reason. In charging interest for loans to fellow Jews, the people were exhibiting a wholesale disregard for God’s Covenant Law. Think of the irony. The whole reason that Nehemiah and the people were busting their gut to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem was because it had been torn town by Nebuchadnezzar’s troops several generations earlier as punishment for disobeying God’s Covenant Law. Why bother rebuilding the wall if the Jews were going to keep breaking God's covenant requirements; God would just knock it down again! Listen to the words God had spelled out about how the wealthy land-owning Jews were to treat their impoverished fellow countrymen.
Leviticus 25:35-41. If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner.
Forty years later, when Moses repeated the covenant obligations of Israel, compassion towards their countrymen was again spelled out.
You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it (Dt. 23:19-20).
Nehemiah has been leading a group of people who have been busting their chops to get this wall built around Jerusalem but if the people aren't going to keep the covenant they might as well be building the wall on sand. It was only a matter of time before God would knock it down again. No wonder Nehemiah was so angry! So, Nehemiah has in front of him a leadership chore that no leaders like doing: confrontation.
LEARNING FROM NEHEMIAH’S CONFRONTATION
When We Need to Confront
Situation # 1: Another’s behavior has hurt us. Most of the time love forgives an offense without saying anything. “Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Like the nurse who covers our private parts during an undignified procedure, it is the nature of love to cover another’s shame, not lay it bare in front of others. If you continue to be hurt, the offender may have a blind spot, not realizing how deeply he is wounding you. So, we follow Jesus’s instruction, If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone (Matt 18:15).
Situation # 2: Another’s behavior is hurting the organization. Fred Smith, the former CEO of UPS, writes, “Whenever I am tempted not to act in a difficult personnel situation, I ask myself, ‘Am I holding back for my personal comfort or for the good of the organization?’ If I am doing what makes me comfortable, I am embezzling. If doing what is good for the organization also happens to make me comfortable, that's wonderful. But if I am treating irresponsibility irresponsibly, I must remember that two wrongs do not make a right.”
Situation #3: Another’s behavior is hurting himself. We must confront when a person's behavior is harming himself, he is not facing his self-harm, and we have demonstrated enough love for him to have won the right to be heard. Christian author, Eugene Habecker says, “As Christians we confront not to embarrass, belittle, tear down, or humiliate. We confront because of our commitment to help others reach their potential, including full-fledged stature in Christ.”
Seven Steps to Effective Confrontation
A. Thoughtful preparation. Vs 7a: I took counsel with myself. Nehemiah put into practice the wisdom of Proverbs.
- The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things (15:28).
- The tongue of the wise makes knowledge pleasant, but the mouth of fools spouts foolishness (15:2).
- The wise of heart is called discerning, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness (16:21).
B. Private confrontation. Vs 7b continues, “and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them.” Nehemiah did what Jesus would later teach his church members to do when a brother or sister wounded them, Go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. Nehemiah did not go to the poor in Jerusalem and play on class envy as the destructive ideologues of Cultural Marxism do in our culture. He went directly to those causing the problem.
C. He based his words upon Scripture. Vs 7c. “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” “You are clearly violating Scripture.” He was referring to the texts we just read, Leviticus 25, Deuteronomy 23, and others like Exodus 22. We all have different backgrounds, different personal convictions, different values. The only basis for challenging another is Scripture.
D. He pled with them. Vs 8-9: 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!” Nehemiah did not just say, “You are guilty.” He pled with them, entreated them, sought to persuade them. Notice his logic, “I brought back to Jerusalem with me from Susa, fellow countrymen redeemed from slavery by the Gentile King, Artaxerxes, only to discovery that you are now selling our fellow Jews back into slavery again!
Nehemiah continues his persuasive case, appealing to their national identity, the honor of their God, Yahweh, and seeking to awaken the fear of the Lord in them: Verse 9: 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?
E. He modeled the generosity God requires. Vs 10: Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. Nehemiah was already doing what he challenged them to do. He led from his life.
F. He offered a pathway to correct the problem. Nehemiah doesn't just issue a rebuke to the nobles and officials and then walk away. He offers a plan to correct the problem. “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.” The nobles and officials repented and agreed to the plan. Vs. 12: Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.”
G. He put accountability in place. Vs. 12-13. 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 final step, when having to confront another, is recognizing the power of accountability to help the one being confronted to follow through on his commitment. There is a saying for business and life, that leaders who believe in human depravity recognize as rooted in truth: people do not do what we expect, but what we inspect. Accountability is a powerful tool to sustain repentance.
Consider this principle when it comes to the common masculine battle with lust. Steve Gallagher in his book, At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry, writes,
“Being brutally honest with oneself is crucial, but it is only the beginning. One man who had been convicted for attempted rape but later struggled his way out of sexual addiction said, “If you don't want to get rid of the problem confess it only to God. If you do want to get rid of the problem, confess it to another person. And if you really want to get rid of the problem, keep yourself accountable. Another man who is now living in victory said, “I confessed my sin to God for years. I mean I poured my heart out begging for his forgiveness. But it was within weeks of starting to confess to another brother that I obtained victory.”
This is the power of accountability, power that Nehemiah understood.
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- Why did Nehemiah get angry? Why don’t Christians get angrier at the exploitation of the weak, poor, and marginalized in our culture?
- What stood out to you about the way Nehemiah confronted the nobles and leaders about exploiting the poor? Why do you think it was successful?
- What is your emotional reaction to the word, accountability? What have you learned about when accountability works and when it fails? Why don’t men take better advantage of the power of accountability to overcome sin in their own lives?
