So I said, “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? Moreover, 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 restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I called the priest and made them swear to do as they had promised.
– Nehemiah 5:9–12
What’s happening here, is as the walls of Jerusalem are being rebuilt and the people of God are reorganizing, there are some among God’s people who are oppressing their brothers and sisters among God’s people. Nehemiah finds out about it and says, “No, don’t do this. Don’t take advantage of each other in this way. Do justice and show mercy to each other.” So, even if it’s all this opposition from outside, here’s part of the opposition from inside, they’re not caring for one another as the people of God. And Nehemiah says, “No, let’s change that immediately. Let’s do justice and love mercy for one another.”
Nehemiah 5:9–12 teaches us to honor God through our relationships with other Christians.
There’s a lot we could talk about here when it comes to application of this picture in our own lives. I just want to encourage you to think about your relationships with other brothers and sisters in Christ, with other Christians, and are there ways that you are treating them that do not honor God as your Father, not just your Father, but their Father?
Are there ways you are taking advantage of others? Ways you are speaking about others and ways that don’t build them up in Christ? Are there ways in which you are not serving others selflessly? And to pray, in light of Nehemiah 5:9–12, for God to help you, to help me, to help us love each other, specifically in light of this text, to love each other amidst the people of God, in a way that shows the love of God to the world around us.
Nehemiah 5:9–12 encourages us to build each other up in Christ.
That’s part of what Nehemiah is saying, “Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God, to prevent the taunts of the nations of our enemies?” Nehemiah is saying, “No, don’t treat each other like this in a way that doesn’t show the glory of our God to the people around us.” So let’s just pray, “God, help us to love other Christians today in our lives, the people right around us, and well, any follower of Jesus, to love them in a way that shows your love to a watching world around us.”
God, we pray for that. Help us today, just in very practical ways, to be sensitive to opportunities we have to build up other brothers and sisters in Christ, to speak to each other and about each other in ways that build each other up according to our needs in Christ, in ways that edify one another and encourage one another. And God to serve, to look for opportunities to serve one another in ways that encourage and build each other up.
Prayer for the Queyu People
God, may it be so. And in the process, help us to show a kind of love that comes from you, that is otherworldly, that is selfless, that reflects Jesus in a way that draws people to Jesus. Lord, we pray for the Queyu people of China, the small minority people group, Buddhist people group in China. God, we pray that they would see in Chinese brothers and sisters in Christ and their love for one another, a picture of your love and be drawn to the gospel through it. When, at present, there are no Queyu believers, God, we pray that that would change because of the love of your church.
Oh God, we pray all this according to your Word. The picture of your people being called to care for each other in Nehemiah 5:9–12. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
