There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”
There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our lands and vineyards. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.”
And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. – Nehemiah 5.1-6
Of course trouble is going to come. The workers kept persisting and persisting and going and going so of course the devil is not done with them.
Out of nowhere it seems like we find the nation divided. ‘There was a great out cry among the people against their Jewish brethren. To put it simply some of the Jews were trying to profit off the others. They were charging ridiculous rates on loans. They were being forced to remortgage their properties to buy food. Some of their children were being sold into indentured servitude. The Jews who were being taken advantage of could do nothing about it.
Nehemiah was a little upset, ‘I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.’
Division is destructive. No nation divided against itself can stand for long. Destruction will come. It is good for brethren to dwell together in unity. Be of one mind. We can’t do that when there is division and it is even worse when one segment is causing the division by taking advantage of the other. Paul wrote about how the early church was wrong when it corrupted the table when the rich went and feasted while the poor went hungry.
We have enough to fight without fighting each other. Division is always sin and it ought to anger us. Love each other. Take care of each other. Be one in Christ.
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