Nehemiah 5 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study
Nehemiah 5 Short Summary:
In Nehemiah 5, the people of Judah were suffering through a famine, and their hardship was made harder by the rich nobles of their land taking advantage of their struggle. Nehemiah rebuked the nobles for charging interest to their countrymen, something that was forbidden in God’s law, and ordered them to give back what they had taken. The nobles, unable to defend their actions, agreed to do as Nehemiah ordered.
Nehemiah 5 Summary
WHEN:
538-537 BC – Cyrus the Great of Persia frees the Jews from their Babylonian captivity.
516 BC – The rebuilding of the Temple is completed in Jerusalem.
457 BC – Ezra arrives in Jerusalem.
445-444 BC – Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem.
KEY CHARACTERS:
Jews – They joined Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Nehemiah – The former Jewish cupbearer to the king of Persia. He motivated the Jews to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He was appointed governor of Judah.
The Nobles of Judah – They were taking advantage of their countrymen to make a profit.
WHERE:
Jerusalem – The capital of the Kingdom of Judah and the location of God’s Temple.
OUTLINE:
THE NOBLES TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE POOR (5:1-13):
There was a famine in the land of Judah (5:3).
The people came to Nehemiah in their hardship and told him that many of them were out of food, had borrowed money to pay their taxes, and had been forced to mortgage their fields to pay their bills.
Nehemiah was informed that much of the people’s hardship was on account of the advantageous nobles, who were charging interest to the poor, something that was forbidden in the law of God (Ex 22:25).
Nehemia was really angry, and he called the nobles to a meeting and accused them.
The Jews were finally breaking free from their slavery to the foreign nations (like Babylon), only to be enslaved by the rich men of Judah when they returned to the Promised Land.
When confronted, the nobles “were silent and could not find a word to say” (5:8).
Nehemiah ordered them to return everything they had taken unjustly including food, money, and property.
To their credit, all the nobles agreed to do as Nehemiah ordered.
NEHEMIAH, A MAN NOT GIVEN TO EXCESS (5:14-19):
Nehemiah was governor of Judah for many years.
He was not like the governors who came before him who took an excessive amount from the people.
As governor, he had been given a food allowance, but he never took it all.
He didn’t acquire land for himself, and he didn’t take any luxuries that would burden his people.
APPLICATION
There is a mindset in the business world that leadership should always be accompanied by financial rewards.
Sometimes those leadership luxuries are expensed even though the company employees aren’t getting what they deserve.
It isn’t uncommon to see business executives take a multimillion dollar pay raise in the same year they lay off low level employees for “financial difficulties.”
In Nehemiah 5, we see Nehemiah setting another standard for leadership.
In the New Testament, in a passage about the qualifications for leaders, Paul writes that an elder of the Church cannot be a man who loves money (1 Timothy 3:3).
If the leadership at your church is overly concerned with making money, being rewarded for their leadership, or demanding perks that not everyone receives, not only are they not following Nehemiah’s example, but they are also disqualifying themselves based on the leadership qualifications in the New Testament.
A man who wants the church to compensate him like a CEO has a horribly warped concept of Biblical leadership.
