History – Nehemiah 5-9

aquillofGod:

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Extraordinary People.

Once again, we are very pleased to have Mr Nehemiah on-air with us today for the second part of his interview. Hello, Mr Nehemiah!

Nehemiah:

Hello aquillofGod! And hello everybody! 🙂

AQOG:

It’s really good to see you again! We shall be discussing some of the other problems you faced in your work of rebuilding, shan’t we? Which would you like to start with?

NEH:

Well, let’s start with an internal problem first. There was an uproar concerning the rulers and nobles who were exacting usury from the poor people so much so that some were forced into slavery.

AQOG:

That’s terrible! How did things come to this state?

NEH:

Well, there was a famine in the land and the poorer people had to borrow money from the richer ones to buy food. The ones who borrowed money unethically used this fact to oppress the poor people, forcing them to mortgage their lands, vineyards and houses in order to buy food. Some even had to sell themselves or their sons and daughters because of these loans.

AQOG:

Wow! That’s terrible!

NEH:

Yes, I agree. Extremely horrible of them. Totally not befitting of the people of the LORD. I was furious with the rulers and nobles. Honestly, people who are blessed with much should give willingly and always be ready to help those in need. How can they make use of these adverse circumstances to make themselves even richer?

AQOG:

You gave them a good scolding, I hope?

NEH:

Yes. In front of everybody too! I told them what they were doing was wrong.

AQOG:

Did anyone protest?

NEH:

No. They must have known they were wrong for they were all silent and found nothing to say.

AQOG:

Was that all?

NEH:

Of course not. Repentance must be shown through action right? They restored everything and also a hundredth of all they had charged their brethren. Thank God this incident did not cause the work to stop.

AQOG:

Yes, and thank God they were not hard-hearted and unrepentant.

What other problems did you face?

NEH:

Well, Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that the walls had been completed, just that the doors in the gates have not been hung. They must have been really upset then. Enemies of the LORD get more irate the closer we are to finishing His work. So their schemes get more dangerous and deceptive.

AQOG:

Really? What happened?

NEH:

Sanballat and Geshem tried to get me to meet them where they can do me harm but I did not meet them even though they asked me four times. Then, the fifth time, Sanballat tried to make me meet him by claiming there were some rumours about me and that he wanted to discuss them with me.

AQOG:

I’m sure you were not tricked them these outsiders at all.

NEH:

Of course. But they even got a Jew, Shemaiah, to try and trick me into hiding in the temple and thus making me sin. There were also other Jews who tried to make me afraid.

AQOG:

Did you do anything to them?

NEH:

Well, I left it to the LORD to deal with them. I’m sure He’ll deal with it fairly.

AQOG:

Of course. That was really a lot to go through. But the work was finally completed right?

NEH:

Yes, no matter how tough things get, they’re never more than the LORD can handle. So by relying on Him and working together, we managed to finish the work.

AQOG:

What happened then?

NEH:

We all gathered and listened to Ezra read from the Book of Law, confessed our sins, then praised God. It was truly wonderful.

AQOG:

I can imagine! Once again, thank God and also thank you for being with us!

NEH:

You’re welcome!

AQOG:

With that, we’ve come to the end of our segment and our interview with Mr Nehemiah.

Thank you all for being with us!:)

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