Wow, what an amazing chapter! This chapter did not seem like anything special when I started reading it, but wow it is great. Praise God for that, he always delivers.
The basis of the chapter is the internal opposition that Nehemiah encounters while finishing the wall. All the opposition up to this point has been external and now it turns internal.
QUESTION: Which is more difficult to handle, internal or external problems?
QUESTION: What causes internal problems?
Well, i think the internal is more difficult to handle for many reasons. Let's take this to our lives and apply this to our situations. I know if there is a problem between Paige and I, it is much more significant and difficult than if there is a problem with someone that I don't have much of a relationship with. Internal stuggles have much more at stake than external struggles, normally.
What caused this internal struggle? Famine in the land had a lot to do with it, the King's taxes were high and they were charging each other interest when they sold things to their fellow Jew. This is where my interest peaked.
This does not sound like a bid deal in our world since we pay interest on just about everything we buy and we charge interest on most things we sell. However, Exodus 22:25 states: "If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interst." The people in Jerusalem at this time were needy and their fellow brothers were taking advantage of them, so much so that some of them were having to sell their children into slavery to get food.
The Jews at this time had forgot this mandate (Exodus 22:25) that God told his people from the very beginning. In chapter 8 we find out that they reinstituted the festival of booths, another thing they had fogotten. Chapter 8 says they had not celebrated this festival since the time of Joshua.
So my question is this: What internal struggles in our lives are a result of foundational principles that we have drifted away from?
When we have the internal struggles (either with self, wife, children, church, etc), are there some foundational principles that we need to reevalute that could answer the problem?
Do we often share things with our brothers expecting more in return or do we share without expecting? Do we give to get back?
Why did God give them this mandate in Exodus anyway?
Lend me your thoughts?
STP
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22:21-27. Various laws for the protection of the underprivileged were included because God cares for them (I am compassionate, v. 27). Foreigners were to be treated benevolently because the Israelites themselves had been aliens in Egypt (v. 21; cf. 23:9). Also they were not to take advantage of people without fathers or husbands because they were already without protection (22:22-24). Mistreatment of them would arouse God’s anger and the guilty parties would lose their lives.
Grain was to be left behind for widows and orphans during harvest (Deut. 24:19-21) including the edges of fields (Lev. 19:9-10). The helpers were to be given special hospitality at feasts (Deut. 16:11-14), to receive a special tithe every third year (Deut. 14:28-29; 16:12-13), and to be allowed to plant crops in others’ fields during the sabbatical year (Ex. 23:11-12).
Also for Israelites in financial need, loans were to be interest-free (22:25-27; cf. Lev. 25:35-38; Deut. 15:7-11; 23:19-20). If a loan was made to a poor person, some valuable possession of his, usually a cloak, was normally given to the creditor as a pledge of repayment. His cloak, however, had to be returned to him by sunset to give him comfort at night (cf. Deut. 24:10-13; Job 22:6).
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