August 12
Thoughts on Nehemiah 5:14-15 by John W. Ritenbaugh
“Moreover, from the time that I was
appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year
until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my
brothers ate the governor's provisions. But the former governors who were
before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine,
besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the
people, but I did not do so, because of the fear of God.” Nehemiah 5:14, 15.
Few of us know much about Nehemiah
or the times he lived in. Our mental picture of him is that he was austere,
harsh, and perhaps even pharisaical. From what the Bible presents of him, he
was undoubtedly serious about his responsibilities, brave, and circumspect, and
he loved and feared God. His character displays a lofty nobleness. Regardless of
our estimation, God thinks highly of him, and his life was so remarkable He
included a few vignettes of it in His Word for our instruction.
When the Persian king appointed him
governor of the Jewish exiles who had returned to Palestine from Babylon,
Nehemiah discovered that the governors before him were in the habit of
"squeezing" the people for their own gain. Nobody would have wondered
if Nehemiah had done the same. Is that not the way people in government
operate?
Everybody does it! The people would have simply shrugged their
shoulders, fully expecting it as the way things are done. It was the custom.
Nehemiah's standard, however, was exceedingly higher: His hands must be
absolutely clean.
Why did he do it? He feared God!
Nehemiah's way of living reached down into the nitty-gritty of everyday life
and may have involved considerable sacrifice. He would not operate the way the world does. Certainly, the laborer is worthy of his hire, but
sometimes sacrifices must be made, and Nehemiah determined this was one of
them. He would not conform to what everyone else did. Several other vignettes
from the same book confirm this was not a one-time occurrence. Unless we are
willing to say, "No," to what everybody else is doing, and do it
often, our Christian life will be static from its outset.
God and the world do not have the
same perspectives on how to live life. Once we have the right standards, God's
standards, saying, "No," to ourselves is of paramount importance if
we want to put on the image of God and remove the image of this world. The world, combined
with our own carnality, keeps pressuring us to conform to its attitudes and
ways, and if we are passive, it is easy for us to drift with its way of
thinking. We must make choices. Sometimes, they are very difficult because of
the sacrifice involved. In them, we will show whether we respect God and His
purpose or this world.
The fear of God must become a foundation stone to us, one of the kind of
nobility and strength of character Nehemiah possessed. It does not matter
whether the issue is losing weight because of gluttony or eliminating debt
because of covetousness. The world takes little notice of God until trouble is
already upon them. But we must learn to do all things to glorify God, and it
takes deeply respecting Him to do this. Honestly, would Jesus allow Himself
to drift from His focus on glorifying God to become obese or in debt to the
point of bankruptcy? His respect for—fear of—God would not permit Him to do
these things.
The Christian has to rip himself
from the world's way of thinking and doing. He must be a nonconformist in this
regard. He must always understand that the world, though mentioning God
frequently, does not fear Him, as its conduct shows. Romans
3:18 asserts, "There is no fear of God
before their eyes." A Christian must consciously march to the beat of a
different drummer.
Why do we not all conduct our life
the way Nehemiah did?
Partly because of laziness, to a degree because of
cowardice, and sometimes because of ignorance. At times, we are so out of touch
with God, we become swept up in sinful activity before we are aware what is
going on. Yet, at other times, we fail because of this powerful sheep
characteristic to give in to the impulse of the moment because everybody else
is doing it. There is no tyranny like the tyranny of the majority. It can be
every bit as harsh as the tyranny of a despot. Either can put us into bondage.
Unless we are willing to look at things through the eyes of God and stand on
our own two feet because we fear Him, we will be just as helplessly enslaved to
the opinions of the hour as ever.
It is a historical truism that truth on an issue often lies with the minority. The opinions and
ways of the majority are often impulsive, taking the path of least resistance
without being concerned about the long-range effects. Those in the minority
usually have the advantage of thinking things through because they know their
ideas will be unpopular and resisted, and so they prepare themselves better.
God is most concerned about how
things end, the conclusion of a matter. He wants us to understand what the
fruit of an action will be. Nehemiah was willing to be different, a
non-conformist if conforming was wrong. His respect for God and what God
thought was greater than his fear of what men would think of him or what he
would have to deny himself.
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