The Bailout

Through the summer we will be looking at the story of Nehemiah. I would encourage you to read this book as we spend time thinking about how God used Nehemiah. Let me give you a little bit of background.

In 586 BC the city of Jerusalem in Israel was destroyed. Jews were deported over to Babylon which is now Iraq. They were to be kept there for 70 years. But in 537 the first group of Jews were allowed to return. In 516 the Temple was rebuilt. In 458 Ezra led the second group of Jews back to Jerusalem. Then in 445 Nehemiah asked permission from the Persian King Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem with a third group to rebuild the city walls.

Where is it happening? Jerusalem.

The Problem is that the city walls needed to be rebuilt. In those days if a city was walled and an enemy came against it, it might take 2, 4, 6 months for the enemy to break in. The walls were very important. The Jews had been taken away in captivity into another country. They finally were allowed to trickle back in. Finally they were allowed to rebuild the Temple. But the city was still in ruins, rubble. All the walls were falling down. It was just junk and they were living in a heap.

The people were defenseless. They were vulnerable to attack and harassment because they had no protection. Because they were defenseless they were also discouraged and defeated. When an army would come into a city and take it over, the first thing they would do is destroy the walls. That was a symbol that they were defeated, helpless. Basically, the walls of the city of Jerusalem torn down was a disgrace to the people of God. It said God has forsaken you.

Why were they in captivity in the first place? It was the sin of the nation. God said, If you guys don't get your act together I'm going to allow an enemy nation to come in, and He did. But now He's allowing the Jews to come back, the Temple has been rebuilt but the city is still in rubble, a big mess, and the walls are broken down. People are living in rubble, low morale, and they're defeated, discouraged, depressed. What do you do when you have that kind of situation? You need a leader.

So Nehemiah with permission returns as the governor of Judea, under the authority of the Persian empire. He shows up and the walls are in disarray, the people are in disarray. This story is interesting in light of what we are going through today. He shows up in a context where the economy is completely disorganized. The people of Jerusalem are so poor that lenders from outside their area...Gentiles, had loaned money to the people of Jerusalem at such high interest rates that they couldn't pay their loans. They had to pledge their fields, their homes and even their children, and sometimes their wives as collateral for these loans. Because of the high interest rates, the people of Jerusalem became slaves to the Gentiles outside the region because they owed so much money. Everyone was in debt to someone else. It affected every area of life in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah shows up with a vision and encourages them to rebuild the wall but they can't because they are all working to pay off their debt. Nehemiah comes and pay off all their loans. He assumes all their loans at no interest. True bailout. They get their crops back, their get their fields back, their children back, their wives back. Then he helps them refocus on rebuilding the wall.

That is just a part of the story. I want to encourage you to read Nehemiah and see how God used him in a wonderful and surprising way and see if we can't learn from Nehemiah how we too can be used by God.

Pastor John