Nehemiah 5-7: Shaken and Emptied

Imagine what it's like to return from exile in a foreign land only to become enslaved to your fellow countrymen, the nobles and officials who lorded it over them.  That was the cry of the exiles to Nehemiah.

“We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”
Still others were saying, “We have 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 countrymen and though our sons 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.”  - Neh. 5:3-5 NIV

Nehemiah confronted the officials then shook out the folds of his robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out and emptied!” (Neh. 5:13 NIV)

In God's sight, it's a serious thing to not take care of our brothers, it has always been so.  God has never been the god of the individual.  God has always been about establishing a people, a community, not a person. He does not give us gifts, talents, and position for us to lord it over others.  Everything he gives us is to build up his kingdom and not our own wealth.  I confess I often get it wrong, and then I find that I have taken on an even greater burden from my possessions.  Even today, God will shake out of his house and possessions every man who doesn't keep the promise to not profit from the misfortunes of his brother.  I want to empty myself, I don't want to be shaken and emptied by God.

2010 Post - Nehemiah 5-7:  Safe Once More