So I continued, "What you are doing is not right. Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our foreign enemies? Sermons
I. THE POOR. 1. Numbers tend to poverty. "We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live" (ver. 2). 2. Borrowing tends to poverty. "We have mortgaged our lands" (ver. 3). 3. Taxation tends to poverty. "We have borrowed money for the king's tribute" (ver. 4). 4. Poverty may sometimes have cause for protest against injustice. 5. Poverty is experienced by the people of God who are engaged in holy toils. II. THE RICH. 1. The rich must not take undue advantage of calamitous circumstances. "Because of the dearth" (ver. 3). 2. The rich must not be inconsiderate. "Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren" (ver. 5). 3. The rich must not be cruel. "Our daughters are brought unto bondage" (ver. 5). 4. The rich must not violate the law of God. "Ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God?" (ver. 9). III. THE REBUKE. 1. Angry. "And I was very angry." 2. Reflective. "I consulted with myself" (ver. 7). 3. Impartial. "The nobles and the rulers." 4. Sustained. "And I set a great assembly against them." 5. Argumentative (ver. 8). 6. Unanswerable. "They held their peace, and found nothing to answer." 7. Successful. "We will restore." - E.
Ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies? There was much good sense and Christian wisdom in the reply which was once given to a dignitary of our Church by a simple rural pastor. The latter had said to the former, "If you act so, what will the people say?" The reply was, "Do you care what the people say?" The rejoinder of the plain man was, "I care as little as any man what the people say; but I care a great deal what the people have a right to say." How just the distinction! Human opinion ought to have no weight with us when it contravenes duty; but it ought to weigh much with us when we incur its censure by the violation of duty. The ungodly will judge chiefly of Christianity by those who profess it, and be largely won or scandalised by the manner in which it is adorned or disgraced by them.(Hugh Stowell, M. A.) People ArtaxerxesPlaces JerusalemTopics Avoid, Enemies, Fear, Gentile, Heathen, Nations, Necessary, Ought, Prevent, Reproach, Shame, Shouldn't, Taunts, WalkOutline 1. The Jews complain of their debt, mortgage, and bondage6. Nehemiah rebukes the usurers, and causes them to make a covenant of restitution 14. He forbears his own allowance, and keeps hospitality Dictionary of Bible Themes Nehemiah 5:1-12Library An Ancient Nonconformist'... So did not I, because of the fear of God.'--Neh. v. 15. I do not suppose that the ordinary Bible-reader knows very much about Nehemiah. He is one of the neglected great men of Scripture. He was no prophet, he had no glowing words, he had no lofty visions, he had no special commission, he did not live in the heroic age. There was a certain harshness and dryness; a tendency towards what, when it was more fully developed, became Pharisaism, in the man, which somewhat covers the essential nobleness … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Youthful Confessors The Last Days of the Old Eastern World Influences that Gave Rise to the Priestly Laws and Histories Ezra-Nehemiah Links Nehemiah 5:9 NIVNehemiah 5:9 NLT Nehemiah 5:9 ESV Nehemiah 5:9 NASB Nehemiah 5:9 KJV Nehemiah 5:9 Bible Apps Nehemiah 5:9 Parallel Nehemiah 5:9 Biblia Paralela Nehemiah 5:9 Chinese Bible Nehemiah 5:9 French Bible Nehemiah 5:9 German Bible Nehemiah 5:9 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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