Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Nehemiah: Republican or Democrat? | The Writings | Nehemiah 5-6

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

Does the Bible agree with a particular political party? Does Scripture always promote specific policy positions? Was Nehemiah a Republican or a Democrat? In today's episode, Patrick shares how Nehemiah 5-6 shows us that the kingdom of God does not fit neatly into our political categories - it transcends them. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Nehemiah 5-6

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. I love when the Bible jumbles our categories. For example, we take it for granted that lowering taxes is a right-wing sort of thing to do. And on the other side, we assume that paying off debt like college loans is a left-wing sort of thing to do. And we tend to assume that God basically follows our division of policy issues. In other words, a lot of Christians assume that that God falls mostly on the right or mostly on the left. And they'd say that's why I fall on the left or I fall on the right. So I have a serious question to ask you,

do you think that the transcendent kingdom of God Almighty and all that he stands for falls neatly within either human constructs of the right or the left? Can we squish God into a donkey? Can we squish God into an elephant? Does his agenda track well with one, way of thinking? Let's get back to my first example. Should we lower taxes or practice loan forgiveness? That's a great question. And now let's read Nehemiah 5. The story picks up with a group of people who have

been saddled by tremendous debt because of heavy taxation. And they come before Nehemiah, who's a governmental figure who acts on behalf of the Persian government, and they explain that they've had to sell their families into slavery to pay back their loans. Let's pick up in Nehemiah Chapter 5, 1. Now, the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. Some were saying, We and our sons and daughters are numerous. In order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain. Others were saying, we are mortgaging our fields and vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine. Still others were saying, we had to borrow money to pay the king's tax on our fields and vineyards, although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews, and though our children are

are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless because our fields and our vineyards belong to others. So you see what happened? There was a famine. In other words, there was a food shortage. And so people couldn't make enough money to make a living. And as a result, they also didn't have any money to buy additional food.

And so they began to mortgage their land, take loans out on their land, to have enough to make ends meat. But once they took these mortgages out, they not only had to pay the money back, they had to pay it back with interest. And so now they're in a real hole because they need to pay back their lenders. And to do that, some of them even sell their children into slavery. This is how desperate the people were. And so what do you think Nehemiah does? Does he say, God's a Republican, so he would lower taxes to help? Or does he say, God's a Democrat, so he would forgive debts? Well, let's see. Verse 6. When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. I pondered them in my mind,

and then accused the nobles and officials. These are government officials. I told them, you are charging your own people interest. So I called them together in a large meeting to deal with them and said, as far as possible, we have brought back our fellow Jews

who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us. They kept quiet because they could find nothing to say. So I continued, what you are doing is not right. Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemy?

I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain, but let us stop charging them interest. Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses, and also the interest you are charging them, 1% of the money, grain, new wine, and olive oil. We will give it back, they said, and we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say. So that's it, right? Nehemiah falls neatly into the categories of the left. Well, let's Let's keep reading. Verse 14. Moreover, from the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, that's a Persian king, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah until his 32nd year, 12 years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the earlier governors,

those preceding me, placed a heavy burden on the people and took 40 shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistance also lorded it over the people, but I have reverend for God, I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for their work, and we did not acquire any land. So you see what he's saying. Not only was Nehemiah refusing to practice predatory loaning practices, what he's saying in this passage is that he lowered their taxes. Previously, the tax was 40 shekels plus food. And now he says, I'm not going to do that. We're going to lower the taxes. And later he makes it clear that the way he does this is by lowering his own food allowance and lowering his own salary. In other words, he says, me and all my officials,

we are going to take less so that the people have enough to live on. We're going to lower taxes, and that's the means by which we're going to do it. So, is that it? Does this mean that Nehemiah is actually a Republican? Well, by now I hope you're getting to see the point. God doesn't neatly fit into our boxes. He's too big for the donkey, and he is too big for the elephant, and he's too glorious to bend his knee before either. God has his own kingdom. God has his own party. God has his own politic. He has his own way of doing things for the common good for the whole of his creation. What about you? Do you quietly assume that God fits into one party or the other? Do you find yourself thinking that good Christians must support your candidate or your party? Do you realize

that God's called you to serve something greater than the donkey? and the elephant. He's called you to serve the lamb. Sure, we may give our vote to one side or the other, but we never give them our hearts or our minds. We give those only to Jesus, and Jesus does things differently. You see, political parties seek power. They, like Nehemiah said, lord it over others. They seek wealth. They seek taxes. They seek to make their group strong. But I hope you see what unifies everything Nehemiah does. It's an ethic of self-sacrificial love. You can see the cross in Nehemiah's plans. You see, it took a lot of self-sacrificial love for the lenders to forgive the debts that they were owed. They were losing money not only on interest payments, but also not

being paid back for the land that they'd given people money for. I mean, can you imagine loaning someone $10,000, expecting to get paid back and only receiving a small portion? The only thing that could compel you to cancel such a large debt is obvious. Sacrificial love. You would need to love the person you loan that money to so much that you wouldn't demand a return. Instead, you would willingly take a loss. But that theme of self-sacrificial love is not only present in the debt relief. It's also present with the taxes. Nehemiah cuts the taxes by sacrificing his own salary and food resources. Can you imagine a CEO taking an 80% pay cut to keep his employees on payroll? The only reason he would do that is if he cared more for their interests than his own.

Do you know who canceled your debts at the cost of his life? Jesus on the cross. Do you know who gave up his heavenly comfort to die in your place? Jesus on the cross. Do you know who cares more about your interest than his own? Jesus on the cross. There's much to be said about Christian. policy on this or that issue, but whatever is said can never be less than this. As we have been

sacrificially loved, so shall we love others. The core of our politic is the cross. It can't be expressed in a single party. It can't be expressed by a single government's actions, because the cross is bigger than all those things, because the cross is the core of our very lives.