Nehemiah 5:4 –
And others said, “We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes.
Ironically this verse hit home since I had to pay property taxes on credit cards, second time since 2008 when our focused debt reduction started I have gone negative for the month!! This is a great chapter as so much as it mirrors today’s society here in America (to a point). Everyone is complaining about their debt, their ability to feed their families and their taxes. Nehemiah does something that would never fly in today’s world, he asks the rich to stop charging interest and to pay back the interest already paid. Could you imaging the “stimulus” that would happen if this occurred today? Also, could you imagine the cry from the banks!!
Interestingly he did not ask them to forgive the debts, just the interest. I know in my case if that happened it would be tens of thousands of dollars and would “stimulate” our personal economy. But I could never see this happening today because as a nation we do not have reverence to God’s prompts as the Israelites did then. The nobles of the day did not question it and obeyed Nehemiah, partially out of fear and I believe mostly to honor God.
Another interesting thing I took from this chapter that you will never see today is Nehemiah did not profit during his 12 years as governor of Judah. Today ask congress to do this and you would be run up on a stake and left at the entrance of the capital building. Ever ask yourself how it is these leaders leave congress as millionaires when they make $140,000 a year and have to maintain two residences? That’s something to ponder, but the thing that you need to see with Nehemiah is he was a true servant for the people and did so at HIS expense and not theirs. After reading this chapter what do you think? Are there parallels or am I stretching to find history repeating itself?