How Nehemiah shows us how to combat injustice
Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
Injustice comes in many forms. Sometime it is difficult to combat, sometimes it is difficult to stomach. Often it isn’t easy to know how to combat it.
Nehemiah, the rebuilder of Jerusalem, discovered injustice in Palestine. His response (found in Nehemiah 5) is instructive.
The injustice? Greed. Rich Jews are making money by oppressing fellow Jews. Children are being sold into slavery and land mortgaged to pay off debt. Money is borrowed to pay taxes. The interest rate charged is sucking the life out of many.
Nehemiah’s response? A six-step approach.
1. He’s angry. As both a Jew and a governor of Palestine, his people are suffering. He should be angry.
2. He thinks before responding. Action without thought can be wasted energy. Action against injustice without thought can be damaging.
3. He clearly identifies the problem. “After thinking it over . . . .” “You are hurting your own relatives by charging interest when they borrow money!”
4. He creates awareness. He calls a “public meeting to deal with the problem.”
5. He tells it straight. He argues while they’re doing all they can to redeem Jewish slaves from pagan foreigners, the interest rates mean others are being made slaves. “How often do we have to redeem them?” he asks (sense the frustration). “What you are doing is not right!”
6. He’s specific about what has to happen. Stop charging interest, he tells them. More than this, pay back the interest you’ve already charged. And give back the people their lands.
And there’s a response. The people agree to do what he asks. Nehemiah calls the priests and has the leaders swear to keep their promise before God. The meeting ends with an “Amen” and praises to God.
But there’s more. The promise turns to action as “the people did as they promised.” Justice has returned to the land. The wrong is righted.
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