A Wartime Lifestyle On A Millionaire’s Budget?

If our contemporaries who are called to repent about their financial dealings do not know God and do not participate in the new covenant, they will not feel the force of the moral appeal and will only comply with the moral directive if they have some other reason for doing so. It will not ultimately please God. Whatever is not from faith is sin (Rom 14:23).

If our contemporaries who do the calling to repentance do not know God and participate in the new covenant, their basis for moral indignation will be clouded with self-righteousness and self-interest, and so their only moral authority will be what they can create for themselves. It will not ultimately please God. Whatever is not from faith is sin (Rom 14:23).

130Those who know God and participate in the new covenant will want to honor God in their financial practices, will want to do unto others as they would have done to themselves, and will want to use what they have to promote the knowledge of Christ and the advance of the church.

Nehemiah 5:12 shows us that those Nehemiah called to repentance felt the fear of God, for they repented:

Nehemiah knows that a promise to repent is one thing, but following through on the promise to repent is another. So he calls the priests to have the people swear in verse 12, and in verse 13 he calls down a curse on those who do not follow through on their promises.

Do you know God? Are you trusting in Christ?

Do you feel moral indignation? On what basis? Because you have been wronged financially? Because God and His Word have been disregarded such that people have been hurt?

If you do not know God, and if you do not participate in the new covenant by faith in Jesus and the salvation He accomplished by His death and resurrection, what is the basis for your moral indignation, moral appeal, or moral direction? Shared belief?

The Aztecs apparently shared the belief that it was right to rip the heart out of the chest of a living human being (Wilson, Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, 14). Do you want shared belief to be the basis of right and wrong? Won’t that leave you with nothing more than evolving standards of decency, and doesn’t that leave you with no basis for moral indignation, moral appeal, or moral direction?

The one true and living God determines right and wrong, good and evil. Do you want to know an absolute standard and be on the good side of that absolute standard? You need to know God by faith in Jesus. I would invite you to believe in the real God and to trust in the only Savior.

Nehemiah 5:14-19

From what Nehemiah tells us about himself in Nehemiah 5:14-15, we know that he trusted God:

There is a remarkable balance between what we see here in verses 14-15 and what we will see about Nehemiah in verses 17-18. What we see here is that Nehemiah was free to forgo privileges that belonged to him. Nehemiah steps into a situation where, as we see in verse 15, there is an established practice of the governor of the land of Judah having economic and culinary privileges. Nehemiah breaks the pattern. He not only ceases to take advantage of his people (v. 15), he ceases enjoying the advantage of the “food allotted to the governor” (v. 14).

Do you know what enables people to let go of privileges of their own choice? No one has forced Nehemiah to do this. What freed him from the enjoyment of those privileges? I’ll tell you what: his experience of something better than those privileges. Nehemiah knows something better than money and food: love for people and faith in God. Nehemiah cares more about the people who would bear the burden of taxation to provide the governor’s allowance than he cares about his own ease. Nehemiah also believes that there is something higher and better and more enjoyable than indulging oneself in this world, and we will see that from what he prays in verse 19.

We see the devotion to the work and the people modeled by Nehemiah and his men in verse 16:

Bigger to him than his prestige as governor, better to him than the privileges the governor would enjoy, was the good that would come to the people as the kingdom of God was advanced through the building of the walls. Nehemiah wanted God’s name exalted and God’s weak and vulnerable people protected. He trusted God, and he loved God’s people.

A moment ago I said there was a balance between the way Nehemiah willingly surrendered privileges in verses 14-15 and what we see in verses 17-18. I said that because what we see in verses 17-18 shows us that Nehemiah was phenomenally wealthy:

Can you imagine slaughtering an ox a day? I don’t know how big Nehemiah’s herd of oxen was, but he referred to a 12-year period of time in verse 14. Twelve years multiplied by 365 days is 4, 380 oxen. He either had a herd big enough to sustain that or he had the money to buy that many oxen. He also slaughtered six sheep per day, and in 12 years that’s 26, 280 sheep.

This is enormous wealth! Nehemiah trusted God and loved God’s people, so he did not take advantage of the privileges of his office, but I see no indication at all here that he feels the slightest bit guilty about having the means to sacrifice an ox and six sheep every day and have “an abundance of all kinds of wine” every 10 days (Neh 5:18). There are poor people in the land. Nehemiah does not give any indication that he feels badly about being extravagantly wealthy while others are poor.

Would you feel guilty if you were a millionaire? I don’t think Nehemiah would share that sense of guilt. If you say, okay, so he’s a millionaire, but he’s using his money to benefit others not living the high life himself. I would point you back to the big feast of oxen and sheep and that enjoyment of all kinds of wine every 10 days. There were probably more economical ways to feed 150 people than an ox and six sheep every day, and “an abundance of all kinds of wine” sounds luxurious. Apparently Nehemiah felt no guilt about enjoying the way that God had blessed him.

If we recognize that God makes poor and rich, we will see wealth and all it enables as blessings from God, not sins about which we should feel guilty. If God makes poor and rich, then we have as little control over how much we have as we have control over who our parents are. Were you blessed with great parents? If so, do you feel guilty about that? You shouldn’t feel guilty. You should praise God. I think you should praise God if He has made you wealthy. What about this: would you feel guilty for having a great time with your great parents? If not, then I suggest that if you love God and serve Him, if you worship God not money, if you steward your wealth as a blessing from Him, if you are doing unto others in your financial dealings as you would have them do unto you, and if you are using your wealth to advance the gospel133 through the church, you should not feel guilty about the blessings of God that become available to you through the wealth with which He has blessed you.

Nehemiah is as generous as he is wealthy. He feeds 150 people at his table. Apparently he believes that God has sovereignly given him plenty, believes it his responsibility to steward what he has been given rather than divest himself of it, and believes that he can use the excess at his disposal to advance God’s kingdom.

Nehemiah is a man of prayer, and he closes this account of financial dealings with the prayer we find in verse 19 (my trans.),

Why would Nehemiah ask God to remember for his good what he has done? It seems that he wants the good that he has done for God’s people to be remembered because he is looking to the reward. He is looking to the great accounting, when breathtaking pleasures and heart-filling joys will be known by those who lived for God rather than for themselves. Here we see the source of Nehemiah’s selflessness. Nehemiah wants to serve God and God’s people because he believes that living by faith in what he cannot see will be more rewarding than living for what he can see in this life.

If you worship money, you are a sinner and you should repent and trust Christ, not money. If you use your money to abuse others to benefit yourself, you are not treating them as you would have them treat you. You need to repent of your sin and trust Christ. If you do not love God and His people, if you do not seek to use your money to advance the cause of the gospel through the church, you must repent of your self-centeredness and trust in Jesus.

If God is your God, not mammon, if you are wisely seeking to steward what God has sovereignly given you, acting out the golden rule, seeking to advance the gospel, experiencing the blessings of God, then don’t let anyone take you captive to feelings of guilt for enjoying God’s blessings. There are all kinds of disparities in this world. The gospel is the great leveler.

Tall people who trust in Christ should not feel guilty for being tall. People who trust in Christ and have great marriages should not feel guilty for having a believing, faithful spouse. Those who trust in Christ 134and whom God has made rich should not feel guilty because God did not make someone else rich also. God is God. We will give account to Him for the way that we stewarded what He gave us. Refusing to enjoy the way that He has blessed our bank accounts is along the lines of refusing to enjoy the blessing of a sunset or a spouse, a flower or a forest. If He has lavished largesse upon you, praise Him.