A Crisis in a Crisis

Nehemiah 4-6

            The old phrase, “It never rains but it pours,” aptly applied to poor Nehemiah. His building project was ambitious and it was opposed by powerful interests. Sanballat was the governor of Samaria, a relatively minor post in view of the huge holdings of the Persian Empire, but still a position of local influence; Tobiah may have held a similar position in what we call today Jordan. If we speculate about their opposition to a strong Jerusalem, it may well be that they simply feared the loss of power and income that a new player would inflict on them.

            Then, in the midst of all of that, Nehemiah was confronted with widespread reports of economic disparity: the landless were starving, landowners were mortgaged to their necks, and the king’s taxes were too high. The problem had several causes, most of them relating to the influence of men like Sanballat and Tobiah. First, the nobles of Jerusalem were charging interest of their countrymen, a thing forbidden in the law of Moses (Exodus 22; Leviticus 25). Second, given the geography of Jerusalem, it is entirely likely that most of the grain they didn’t have was due to having to import it from the territories of Sanballat and Tobiah. Nehemiah’s solution to the third problem, high taxes, was to forego the rights and privileges he should have had as governor and to pay his expenses out of his own pocket.

            Already facing military and economic pressure, Sanballat increased the pressure. He tried repeatedly to lure Nehemiah into traps where he could capture or assassinate Nehemiah. He spread outright lies about him. He arranged false prophets to prophesy against Nehemiah. He had a spy network to learn about Nehemiah’s progress.

            The opposition was fierce and the challenges great, yet Nehemiah finished the wall in 52 days. The Lord blesses the faithful!