Fussin' and feudin', part IV

Are you like me?
I bet you are.
I REALLY dislike confrontation.
You, too?
Come on, now, be honest!
Not many of us are comfortable with conflict and confrontation.
It's not fun. It can get downright messy.
The fallout can be pretty horrific.
It's really easy to get angry about something (justified, I mean), to think and pray over it, and then to cool off and not do anything about it.
Am I singing a familiar song, here? (Grin)

I'm with you here, and I understand. It is difficult and uncomfortable to confront someone (or several someones) who is (are) causing a problem. It gets even more difficult when the someones are actually part of the community of faith. And it adds a whole 'nother dimension when the someones are rich and powerful, as these Jews were. Nehemiah was treading in a minefield, wasn't he? What if they got mad? What if they got defensive? They could split away from the other Jews. They could withdraw their support for the building project. What if they got so angry that they viewed Nehemiah as an enemy; they could even join the opposition outside the walls, and cause no end of trouble!

Oy vey.
Other alternatives?
Well, I guess Nehemiah could have written them an email in his best managerial style. Or he could have formed a committee to investigate, and hope that the news would spur them to change their ways.
Nope.
First, he privately confronted those who had been accused of mistreating the poor. Let's look at the rest of verse 7:

I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them (v 7)

The Bible doesn't tell us if this was a single meeting, or if perhaps it was a series of meetings. It doesn't tell us if he went alone, either. But Nehemiah seems to have followed the biblical pattern for confrontation. Remember the passage in Matthew?

 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; (Matthew 18:15-17a)

It appears that Nehemiah did choose to have a private conversation before he escalated it to a public confrontation. The fact that he needed a public confrontation makes me think that he didn't get a response from the private talks!

So, Nehemiah called a "great assembly" and spelled out the problem. Here is the passage:

So I called together a large meeting to deal with them 8 and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.
9 So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? 10 I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest! 11 Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.” (Nehemiah 5:7b-11)

Wow, pretty powerful stuff here, right? He rebukes the leaders and they can't find a word to answer. They are "guilty as charged." He tells them that not only are they disobeying God in this greedy behavior, but they will also allow their enemies to mock them - they mistreat their own people. Notice he is using his people skills as he tells them "let us stop" charging interest.....personally, I don't think this man of God charged interest. I think he is doing the same thing he did in previous chapters -- including himself with the people, in order to promote unity. "We are all in this together." He is appealing to the wealthy Jews to join him in loaning without interest charges. And he urges them to give back to the poor all the things they had confiscated.
It's easy to be scared of confronting others. Especially when they are the rich and powerful. Even Christian leaders are loathe sometimes to rebuke sinners for their sin, whether it's in private or in public.
But we need to follow Nehemiah's example of confronting sin. If we pray before we do anything, the Spirit will guide us. We can do as Nehemiah did: have proper, righteous anger, but exercise self control. We will have the courage then, with the Spirit's help, to confront those who are wrong.