Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Female): Shalom! Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus Yeshua the Messiah and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: The study of Nehemiah Chapter 5. Here is the same word, a cry, *ts'akah*, *lits'ok*, to shout, to cry, because of the pain that was imposed upon someone else of these Jewish brethren. And so after the internal conflict among our Jewish people of old in the days of Nehemiah came about, here you find the complaint of one against the others. Some who complain against their brethren.

What was their complaint? Verses 2, 3, 4, and 5 we find out the complaint. Number one in verse 2, some said we needed food for our daughters and our sons. They said, "We, our sons and our daughters, are many; therefore, we take up corn," in Hebrew *dagan*, food, "for them that we may eat and live." Apparently, they didn't have a sufficient enough means to sustain themselves because there was a famine, a drought in this land at that time, and they were saying, "We need to get food for our family so we will be able to sustain ourselves."

But look what happened. The second point that we find out in verse 3 now, there were some that said, "We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, houses, that we might buy corn," in Hebrew the word *dagan*, food really, "because of the dearth or the famine." Apparently, there was a famine in the land, so food was scarce, limited, so they had to mortgage their homes, their vineyards, their houses, and their lands in order to buy some food for their families.

But who did they mortgage the land to? To their own brethren. And their own brethren should have treated these individuals who became poor because of the condition in the land, but they end up now abusing their place by oppressing their brethren.

Look at the next verse, 4, the third "some" we read: some said, "We have borrowed money." Notice that I'm reading now verse 4. "And there were those who said, 'We have borrowed money for the king's tribute and against our land and our vineyards.'" Now you see, they had to pay tribute to the king of Persia, so they borrowed money against their homes, their vineyards, their houses, so they would be able to pay, and therefore they became poor.

And now you can see how some have abused the condition that prevailed in the days when Nehemiah and the people of Judah were building the walls. The wall is almost done and so on, they were continuing on, but while they were working together, some have abused their own brethren.

And you see, here is the actual cry. The complaint itself is found in verse 5: "Our children became slaves. Notice that. And now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, and our children as their children; and lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants," in Hebrew *avadim*, slaves, "and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already; neither is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and our vineyards."

See, brothers and sisters, what really happened is simply this. Some of them who came back with Nehemiah, others who were already living in the land, they began to build the walls of the city of Yerushalayim. They were putting the walls stone upon stone upon stone upon stone, setting up the gates. There were enemies from without, they had to deal with them to protect themselves with ammunition and so on, but now we find out that as they were working, they had to mortgage their lands to others who perhaps were better off.

And those others, instead of making life easier for their brethren, they abused that. And they were charging them mortgage, and they perhaps notice use this expression here "we had to mortgage our land", to put mortgage is simply to borrow something against your property.

So imagine what happened. In no time, these people, because of the famine, because of the work that they have had, they became poor. And some of the brethren abused this situation, and instead of easing things for their brethren who were working together and building the walls of Jerusalem, they have actually begun to charge them and to lend them money against their property to the extent that these people became so poor.

Notice by the time we read verse 5, they brought even their children into bondage, into slavery. In other words, a Jewish individual made another Jewish individual a slave to the extent that they abused their position or their place or the power that they may have had.

And that was forbidden by God under law. When God gave the people of Israel instruction of how to treat the poor, the poor were never supposed to be abused and to take usury out of them, out of their own brethren. They should have never have done that.

And you see what happened, brothers and sisters, when things are not being done right, even the relationship between the brethren became from bad to worse. And the frictions and the problems among the people of God, and here is that complaint. And you know, it's very similar to what the Apostle Paul warned the believers in various local assemblies in the early days of old.

You remember in the church age there was a friction between the widows that came from outside of the land and the widows in the land. They had a friction because they did not treat each other right. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, some people were taking other brethren to court. And then in other passages in scriptures, in the book of James, the wealthy were not treating the poor in a right way. This happened also in the early days of the church age, just the same like it happened in the days of our nation Israel. And that's what was the complaint.

You see what happened? Look, the lesson that we learn from this is simply that. If Satan does not succeed to defeat the work of the Lord from without, he begins to work from within. If he is not successful to attack God's people as a roaring lion from without, he is successful in many ways to discourage the people of God from within, and he's appearing as an angel of light. That is exactly what's happened.

And so we find out that these individuals were so discouraged and fighting or in disagreement with each other as verse 1 began, there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren. The cry lifted up to God. And you know, this is a great lesson for us in our relationship with each other. We are to treat each other in a right way, dear brothers and sisters.

We are brethren. You know, Abraham said to Lot, when Lot and Abraham's herdsmen were fighting, Abraham said to Lot, "Lot, we are *achim*! And if we are brethren, why should we fight with each other?" And that's why it is so encouraging to see the kind of an attitude that this man by the name of Nehemiah had as a person who wanted to be a builder among the people of God.

Let me just read a verse or two. Turn to Deuteronomy, *Sefer Devarim*, in the Tanakh. Deuteronomy chapter 23. Moses instructed our people of old, the people of Israel, as they were in preparation to enter into the promised land. In verse 19, he said, "Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury." Verse 20, "Unto the stranger thou mayest lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it."

You see what happened? Especially this is in relation to the poor in the midst of the nation of Israel. If a person wants to extend his business and extend his land and he needs to borrow more money in order that he will increase his business, it's another story to take usury. But for the poor, who literally had to borrow money for the governor against their land, you have to treat them differently. God is so gracious in providing a way whereby we can deal with the people of God. And especially the poor that were in the midst of the nation of Israel, to them the treatment ought to be different.

Now one more verse, Ezekiel. Read with me that verse, it's a very important verse as well. Ezekiel chapter 22, in verse 12 says this: "In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God." In other words, when greed gets to the extent that one even abuses the poor, that is extremely offensive to the Lord.

And so the complaint we have in verses 2 to 5 of Nehemiah chapter 5. So now, look at this, brothers and sisters, in verse 6 to verse 13, Nehemiah's response to their wrongdoing. Look at this man. What an example he can be for all of us as we study about this man by the name of Nehemiah. It says now in verse 6 first of all, you find out the anger of Nehemiah: "I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words."

Now you know, brothers and sisters, if you and I want to be honest, many times we are angry at things that we should never be angry at. But at the thing that we should be angry at, we are not angry at. We are angry when we get hurt, we are angry when somebody does something wrong to me, we are angry when somebody steps on my toes, we are angry because I didn't get my own way, right?

But here we find out Nehemiah, he's not angry for himself, but here what we have is righteous indignation. He was angry because of the way that these people have treated their brethren. In Hebrew it says *vayichar li meod*, "I was very angry." It really grieved me because I see how the brethren treat each other. These are all Jewish people, we are all among our people Israel, we are all building the wall, we are all care for the welfare of the nation, what's going on?

So you see the reaction. And by the way, in Psalm 7 verse 11b it says that God is angry every day with the wicked. But this is righteous indignation. With Yeshua we read about him in the gospel that he himself was also, Gospel of Mark chapter 3 and verse 5, angry with the people in their unbelief and their rejection of his Messiahship.

In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 26 we read that we also are to be angry, "Be ye angry, and sin not; let the sun not go down upon your wrath." The believer is to be angry, but righteous anger. Does it bother you when some believers are not being treated right? When we see things that are done wrong? So easy to say, "It's not my problem." And we do so. It's not my problem, it's their problem. But here's a man who cared for the brethren.

He could not fix the whole Persian Empire, but he at least sought to be a help to the little community of these Jewish people in the land. And you know, brothers and sisters, just for encouragement for us. You know, I've been visiting various congregations and assemblies, and I see how the people of God are so discouraged. What do we do about it? "Well, it's not me. I don't care. Let them have their own problem, I have my own."

But here is a man who says, "Listen, yes, I have my own problems, but I also want to be a help to the brothers and sisters. I want to be a blessing to the people of God." Beloved brothers and sisters, if we are not going to be an encouragement to the people of God, God is going to hold us accountable. We're going to have to deal with God about this.

If we are hindering each other, if we are not building each other, maybe we can't fix everything, but at least we should seek to be a help to the people of God in some small measure. There was a man who wrote a booklet, it's called *You're Either Help or You're Hindrance*. You and I have to ask ourselves: are we a help or are we a hindrance? And we want to be a help.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 10 we could see how Paul was appealing to the Corinthians and wanted them to see that it is so important to have a spiritual ministry, a spiritual service, and God can bless the ministry of the people of God if they serve the Lord with the right attitude. Here's a man whose name is Nechemiah, the comfort of the Lord. He wanted to be a comfort to the people of God.

And so you notice in verse 6, he was angry, and it says here in verse 6: "And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words." And so in verse 7 now, notice this, you find out the steps that he took. He was a very methodical individual, he was thinking things through, he was a man of God. First of all we find out that he consulted with himself.

You see, it says in verse 7, "And I consulted with myself." He perhaps took some time to be on his knees before the Lord and he's saying, "Lord, here's the situation. What can I do? How can I be a blessing to the people of God? Here's the problem, Lord. What shall I do?" He consulted with himself, but the thought here is that he really made it his own and I'm sure as he was a man of prayer, he was praying to the Lord, to the God of Israel, the God of heavens, asking for assistance.

Secondly, notice that in verse 7b, Nechemiah rebuked the leadership. You see, he came to the leaders. Notice it says in verse 7b: "And I rebuked the nobles and the rulers." You see, that's the second thing that he does. He's coming to the leaders and he says, "Hey, you brethren, you're the leader here. Don't you think that this is not right?" Now mind you, it's so easy to be placed as a leader and they think you can fix all the problems, but you know very well perhaps the leaders were responsible in those things. Perhaps they participated in the way that they have treated their own brethren.

And then thirdly, you notice that in verse 7, that Nechemiah, after he challenged them, rebuked the nobles, the rulers, and he said unto them, "You notice exact usury, every one of his own brother." He's challenging them. The Hebrew word for usury is the word *massa*. *Massa* is a load. We use the word usury or interest, but it's much more than an interest. It became such a load on the people of Judah. You know, if you're going to make more trouble to someone, it becomes so heavy that he will cave. How much can a person take?

So Nechemiah says, "That word Hebrew is not so much you exacting interest, but the thought is it became you exacting a *massa*, a load that they cannot carry." Notice it says Nehemiah set up the congregational meeting. It says in verse 7c: "And I set a great assembly against them." So what did he do? He did the proper order. He thought about it, prayed about it, challenged the leaders who were involved in that, and then he gathered the assembly together and he set up an assembly to deal with the situation.

It reminds me of Matthew chapter 18. It had been said that Matthew chapter 18 is not practiced hardly at all among the people of God because of the fact that most of the time we don't want to deal with an issue. And we don't need to speak to anybody else, we know it's in our own heart. And Matthew chapter 18, we read in verse 15: "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone."

Secondly, "If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee," number two, "take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." And then if he will neglect to hear those two and three, then he says, "Tell it to the assembly, to the congregation, that if he neglect to hear the congregation, the assembly, the church, the *ekklesia*, then let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a publican."

Notice the order? The problem with us is simply this, that we don't practice this. If somebody did something to me, if we do one to another, instead of dealing with it and saying, "Listen brother, you have wronged me," or "Listen brother, I have wronged you," and then everything is over. We can continue on. We don't need to spread it.

But you see, we love to spread it. We use the phone calls, the internet, we use everything, all the means that we can, so everybody will know she did that, he did that, they did that. That's the way we are, instead of saying, "Listen, I gotta go to my brother, and I'm gonna tell my brother, 'Brother, please let us correct this, and let it done away with.'"

And then if it doesn't work, then call another brother, another sister, two or three witness, and then try to work it out. You know how many people, how many friendships we lost because we haven't simply gone through this procedure? How divided the people of God become because we haven't followed this procedure?

But here Nechemiah did that, and it seems to me that it's working here because notice that if you go back to Nechemiah in chapter 5, you notice that after he did that, in verse 8 and 9, he is now explaining the wrongdoings to the rest of the congregation and to those that have done wrong. And he's explaining what happened here, he said, notice verses 8 and 9: "And I said unto them, 'We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? Or shall they be sold unto us?'"

See, he was explaining the problem. He said, "Look, we helped our brethren who had a need, we redeemed them, we gave something in order to deliver them from the condition they have been, and now are we going to sell our brothers and sisters? Is that the right thing?"

And so look what it says here, and thank God the way the response was because it said in verse 8b: "Then they held their peace," their *shalom*, "and they found no answer, nothing to answer." They knew they were wrong. It says in verse 9: "And I also said, 'It is not good that ye what ye are doing: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?'"

You see, brothers and sisters, listen. When God's people don't behave right to each other, what you think the unbeliever says outside? They say, "You want me to follow your Yeshua, your Jesus, right? You want me to follow your God when you yourself don't even follow your own God whom you claim to follow? Don't give me this," they may say. How many times people say to us because the way we behave, "And you call yourself a believer in Yeshua the Messiah? Just keep him for yourself, I don't need him."

And you know, sometimes our behavior brings a reproach by the heathen who are the enemies of God. And it is to our own shame. It's not only Israel our people historically, but also the body of Messiah present day also, to our own shame, our own behavior brings about a *cherpah*, a reproach by those who oppose the things of God.

Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 2. It says in verse 1 and 2: "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." And notice what it says in verse 2: "And many shall follow their pernicious ways; and by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of."

You see, the unbelieving world does not understand what the believers know from the word of God. They see it by the behavior of the believers. And so because false teaching, false practices, false things coming among the people of God, what's happening? The people are following in this direction, many follow, and then there are many reasons the things are going from bad to worse, and the way of the truth shall be spoken against.

You see, that's what happened. It would happen historically among our nation Israel, and it's the very same thing happening among the professing church, the assembly, those who claim at least to belong to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. You remember when sin comes to our life, we end up hurting the Lord and hurting the people of the Lord.

And we often fail. And you can read in 2 Samuel chapter 12 when David committed this sin, the prophet said to him the reproach the nations are looking at that. And then when we read in Romans chapter 2 about the privilege that the Jewish people have had, but when the Jewish people, the people of God do not submit to the word of God, it brings a reproach upon the name of the Lord.

And when the body of Messiah, when you and I today do not follow the Lord and fight among the people of God, it brings a reproach by the unbelieving world and they say, "Who needs it? You keep it for yourself, I don't want your Yeshua, your Jesus, if that's the way it is that you behave."

And so in verse 10 of Nechemiah chapter 5, Nechemiah points to the fact that he could charge interest to others but he didn't, to the poor that is. We read in verse 10, he says, "I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave of this usury." He said, "I could have done it myself, but I didn't. I didn't abuse the poor." Again, we have to distinguish between the poor and those who wanted to extend, they were well, but the poor were the ones that he was concerned about and those who at least became poor here now.

And so in verse 11, Nechemiah called for the wrongdoers to restore that which was taken from those individuals of their brethren who became poor. You notice it says in verse 11: "Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, their houses, their monies, their corn, their wine, and their oil, that ye exact from them." He says, "Return this back to them," and notice he uses the word "even this day", today, no delay.

The story of Nechemiah. Nechemiah points to the fact that we can fix things and correct them. May God bless you and let us correct whatever needs to be corrected in our relationship one with another.

Guest (Female): You've been listening to the Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levytam. Gideon teaches God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry, write the Holy Scriptures and Israel, Box 1411, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, L0S 1J0, or visit our website at holyscripturesandisrael.com. You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM and Saturdays at 1:00 PM at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall, 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program, visit holyscripturesandisrael.com. God bless you. Shalom, shalom.