Fussin' and feudin', continued

Did ya have a chance to read chapter five?
Let's dive in!
We need a thorough understanding of the problem, first:

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.” (v 1-5)

Wow! There's a lot going on, here!
It looks like the poorer Jews were complaining against the wealthier ones: these people were either ignoring their needs (which were desperate) or they were actually making the situation worse. It appears that some were actually exploiting the poorer Jews.
In addition to participating in the building at Jerusalem, people needed to care for their families, right? That meant constructing and maintaining a home, and planting and cultivating to provide for their food. Things were being made worse by a famine; some of those who owned property were finding it necessary to mortgage their vineyards, fields, and houses -- just to get food for their families. Others said they were having to borrow in order to pay their taxes. And some had even been forced to sell their children into slavery in order to pay their bills.

Now, let's look at what the Law said about situations like this (bills, loans, and interest).

 “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest. 26 If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, 27 because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate."(Exodus 22:25-27)

We can see that they were forbidden to loan money and charge interest to a fellow Jew who was in need. But these peeps were not only charging interest, they were taking Jewish children as slaves for collateral on the loans! They were operating as ruthless, heartless businessmen (we'd call 'em loan sharks!) and they were only interested in piling up wealth for themselves. They didn't care about how it hurt their poorer brethren and their families.  Nehemiah saw the problem and recognized that it was serious -- serious enough to stop the work and get the attention of all the people!
The way that he dealt with things will give us some principles for a godly approach to conflict resolution.

First of all, the people with complaints or problems must bring them to the proper authorities. Now, we have no clue from the Word whether or not the people who were being wronged had talked first to those who were making them suffer. (That's always the first step!)

 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother." (Matthew 18:15)

Jesus tells us when we think someone has wronged us, we should start with that person. Go to that brother or sister and talk directly to them; try to get things resolved. At this point, whether they had used that "Step One" or not, they were bringing their complaint to Nehemiah. One thing to remember in a congregation -- a leader can't deal with a problem if he/she doesn't know about it!

All of us have seen situations where people air their complaints to everybody EXCEPT the people who can really do something to help, right? They circulate through their group of friends, and then perhaps move out to a larger circle of folks, airing their issues. The leaders may not even know there is a problem yet, but these peeps are stirring up gossip, dissension, and disunity! They may use excuses like, "I wanted to let you know about this," "I need to talk to someone about it," or even "I know the pastor (leader, etc) is busy, so I thought we could talk," but in reality, they are not addressing the problem in a biblical manner.

What happens? People are spending time talking about issues instead of working for the Lord. Some are getting hurt feelings and there's a really good possibility that the seeds of disunity are finding some fertile ground. No one wants to see resentment or bitterness, but that is certainly what can happen . . .

To resolve problems biblically, first go to the person responsible. Talk it over. If someone in our church group or congregation comes to us with a complaint, the best thing to do is to ask them if they have talked to one of the leaders about this issue. If not, we should suggest that they do! Many times a misunderstanding can be resolved at this level without causing larger problems in the church or faith community.