Nehemiah faces his toughest challenge so far in chapter 5 of his memoir. So far all of his enemies have been external. Now he finds that the enemy is also within. The people who are sacrificing everthing to do the work of rebuilding the wall are in financial ruin. There was a famine in the land (most likely before Nehemiah arrived) and in order to survive the famine, the common people had to borrow money from the wealthy. There's nothing wrong with that. Nehemiah himself admits that a few people had borrowed money from him. The wealthy were providing a much needed service to the poor in allowing them to borrow money. The problem was in the lending practices of the wealthy. They were charging the poor as much as 60 and 70 percent interest on the loans.
To put this in perspective that would mean that if you bought a house today for $100,000 (a very modest house in Richardson, Texas) and you were charged 60% interest -- you would pay $5000 per month for the rest of your life and you would still owe the original $100,000. The poor would never be able to pay it back. And the wealthy knew it -- in fact, that's the way they wanted it. A general populace that owed them. Nehemiah discovers this and is very angry.
Nehemiah is working with the common people to rebuild Jerusalem and he discovers that the wealthy Jerusalemites are cheating their own people. They are taxing their dreams. They are abusing their hopes. They are charging them for their desperation. And it is all threatening to destroy the work of God in a way that even the external enemies could not accomplish. Nehemiah comes unglued.
At the heart of the matter is a set of mixed up priorities. It is power without principle. It is old-fashioned, unadulterated greed. It is the most base of human instict gone wild. The power of self-preservation taken to the nth degree. Nehemiah calls it what it is and offers the wealthy Jerusalemites another path. He gives them an alternate vision and a nobler dream.
In the movie Emperor's Club Kevin Cline portrays an instructor of Western civilization in a prestigious private school. It is the first day of class, and about 30 high school boys, dressed in matching red jackets, settle into a room adorned with maps and busts of Caesar, Plato, and Socrates.
The professor asks one student to read a plaque above the door. The student is clearly nervous as he leaves his seat and walks to the door. The plaque itself appears to be an ancient artifact.
The student delivers an uncertain reading of an inscription that makes little sense to him:
I am Shutruk Nahunte, King of Ashand and Susa, Sovereign of the Land of Elam. By the Command of Inshushinak, I destroyed Sippar, took the Stele of Nirah-Sin, and brought it back to Elam, where I erected it as an offering to my God, Inshushinak. Shutruk Nahunte 1158 B.C.
The teacher then asks the class, "Is anyone familiar with this fellow? Texts are permissible, but you won't find him there. Shutruk Nahunte. King. Sovereign of Elam. Destroyer of Sippar. But behold his accomplishments cannot be found in any history book. Why? Because great ambition and conquest without contribution are without significance." He ends by posing this question: "What will your contribution be?"
Good question.
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