9/6/13- The Poor People or the Project

Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. 2 Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”

3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”

4 Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. 5 Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children 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.”

Thoughts: There was a famine and some mortgaged everything they had in order to get food- including their own freedom.  What would make you give up your freedom and your possessions?  Some might argue if you can't eat what good is freedom?  It was a crisis, for what good was a wall if no one was free behind it?  What good was a wall with no one alive behind it?  How could people muster the energy to build if there was not enough food to eat?
    Nehemiah did not ignore the physical needs of his people.  He did not say we must pray and forget our pain.  Rather, he listened and he acted in order to bring about fairness.  In any building project, the regular pains of life will go on- heartache, hunger, heaviness of life.  Nehemiah did not ignore the problems, but he listened and responded.  We too need to remember that the people are more important than the project.  

Prayer: Lord, give me a heart of compassion for the needy.  Give me an ear that listens and a hands that respond.