Neh. 5:14-19, Good Government (2)

As we jump back in to Nehemiah, let me say concerning the final paragraph in the previous post.  If, in fact, the rich are doing good things for the country, thank the Lord, but don’t expect it to last.  The innate sinfulness of man won’t allow for it.  Later in Nehemiah he will establish the care for the temple service, but by the end of the book will find that he had to address the matter again.  Nehemiah also had to deal with the intermarriage of Jews with the nations (Ch. 13), something Ezra had dealt with earlier (Ezra 9-10).  “Vanity of vanities” and “there is nothing new under the sun.”  Those are still the ruling principles of this fallen world.

·       5:14-19: Nehemiah was a great illustration of what governmental leaders must be when at their best.  They are “shepherds.”  They have a flock and they must care for that flock.  He was not about making himself rich and powerful.  From the beginning (read Neh. 1) he was in this because he cared, not just for people but for the glory of God. 

o   In God’s system all leaders are “shepherds:” pastors and elders, kings, governors, bosses and supervisors, and on and on.  Read Ezek. 34:1-10 for the things a good shepherd should do, but which the wicked shepherds (leaders) of Israel were not doing.  Instead of caring for the flock they were making themselves rich and fat.  To have no king is to live in chaos (Jud. 21:25).  To have a bad king is to be oppressed. 

o   And while we are at it, there’s a lot of things being said about government workers these days, how lazy they are (large numbers are still “working” at home) and so forth.  But of course they are.  Again, this is the world in which we live.  There was a time when the rich were oppressing the workers who made them rich.  Unions helped bring an end to this oppression.  But then the same “unions,” needing a reason to continue to exist, made it their purpose to increase the wealth and decrease the workload of workers.  The workers like that, and the unions continue to exist. 

o   And if you think I’m picking on “unions,” I’m not.  This is how it is.  Insurance helped people through hard times.  But then insurance became the “law of the land” and thus it could be taken advantage of, resulting in astronomical prices for medical care, body work on your car, and so forth.  Government loans for college education became the “law of the land” which resulted in massive increases in the cost of education as well as graduates being under the oppression of debt.  And we can talk about the “bureau of Indian affairs,” “health and human services,” “affirmative action” and almost every other governmental agency.  This is what we get when we no longer hold people accountable to their conscience.  And it is what we get in a fallen world, full of people with consciences that are defective.