“God’s compassion for the poor is reflected in every part of the Bible.” The Mosaic Law protected the poor in various ways such as not charging interest on debts (Leviticus 25:36) and cancelling debts every seven years (Deuteronomy 15:1). “The Bible sees the greatest cause of poverty as others’ greed and desire for power, and it strongly denounces those who behave this way (Isaiah 3:13-15; Amos 4:1; 8:4)” (The Spiritual Growth Bible, Caring for the Poor, p. 185).
Nehemiah noticed that the Jews had a problem with oppressing the poor when they returned to Jerusalem after being held captive in Babylon for 70 years. In the midst of their effort to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, Nehemiah 5:1-5 tells us:
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.”
Nehemiah was very angry when heard how the poor were being oppressed. Nehemiah brought charges against the leaders who were guilty of charging interest on loans and told them, “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?”
Nehemiah channeled his anger into a course of action. It says in Nehemiah 5:7 that he, “took counsel with himself” before he confronted the Jewish leaders and brought charges against them. The Hebrew word that is translated counsel in this verse, malak (maw-lakˊ) means “to reign; (inceptive) to ascend the throne; (causative) to induct into royalty; hence (by implication) to take counsel” (H4427). Rather than looking to others for guidance, Nehemiah relied on his own wisdom to decide what needed to be done. The people who were charging interest were breaking God’s law, so it was right for Nehemiah to be angry and to do something about the situation. Nehemiah calculated what steps needed to be taken to bring the law breakers to justice and to free the poor from their oppression.
The first thing Nehemiah did was to confront the guilty parties. Nehemiah said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother” (Nehemiah 5:7). All Nehemiah did was tell them what they were doing wrong. Then, Nehemiah gathered together all the people and made a public announcement. Nehemiah said, “We, as far as we are able, have brought 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 5:8). Nehemiah’s accusation went straight to the heart of the matter and as a result, the guilty parties, “were silent and could not find a word to say.”
Nehemiah’s influence over the people and his pure motives in trying to correct the situation were evident in the solution that he proposed and the response that he got to it. Nehemiah stated, “’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 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 promised” (Nehemiah 5:10-13).
Nehemiah’s godly leadership brought an end to the oppression of the poor and a short while later the work of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem was finished (Nehemiah 6:15). It says in Nehemiah 6:16, “And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.” God told the people of Israel that if they gave generously to the poor and not grudgingly that he would bless them in everything they did. (Deuteronomy 15:10). Because they stopped oppressing the poor, the Jews were able to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem in just fifty-two days.
