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.

How Christian love and compassion crosses boundaries

Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

I’m a Baby Boomer. Saying that gives you some idea of my age and, supposedly, my attitude and view on life.

Boomers were known as the most selfish generation ever. Then Gen Xers came along and now they may hold the title—they’re “too selfish and self-absorbed to commit to marriage, children, saving money or a permanent job,” says Rebecca Huntley (The World According to Y).

Most students are Generation Y. Bernard Salt (The Big Picture) thinks they were lazily named Y because they came after X. He would prefer them to be named Generation R for random—which is a positive if you happen to be Y.

There’s a problem when we label by identifying differences between the generations because we can assume the caricature is reality (I can’t think of any Gen Xers who are selfish) and that’s all there is. That the categorisation limits individuals to the shape of the pigeon hole we’ve created.

In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Shylock the Jew (neatly pigeon holed as the villain with the expected traits of an evil Jew) speaks about how Jews are human. Just like Christians, Jews have eyes and hands; they’re hurt by the same things; catch the same diseases.

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?”

Shylock’s point has a sinister edge, though. He argues that—Christian or Jew—both seek revenge if wronged. He, the villain, will insist on his pound of flesh (literally).

Many things unite us. We all bleed when pricked, and blood transfusions cross ethnic and generational lines. We experience love and loss; joy and sorrow; hunger and thirst. Our approaches to them may differ, but the basics are the same.

Jesus crossed boundaries with love and compassion. And his followers aren’t limited to any ethnic, geographic or generational boundaries. He can make us more together than we dare think possible.