Anything Goes

Anything Goes

Some sports organizations can never get on the winning track. They have moments in the spotlight, but they don’t have the leadership to make continued play-off runs, year in and year out. What their owners must realize is that everything rises and falls on the leadership that they put in place.

When Nehemiah arrived on the scene in Jerusalem, he found the city of his fathers with the walls torn down. The people of Jerusalem were oppressed and ruled by another nation. Nehemiah, a Jew, went with the favor and permission of Cyrus, the king of the Medo-Persian Empire, to rebuild the walls of this city and become its new governor.

Nehemiah found the people oppressed, not only by the outside nation that was ruling them, but also by their wealthier kinsmen. These upper-class Israelites were exacting usury on their brothers in a time of crisis, a practice forbidden in the law of Moses.

Listen to their cries from Nehemiah 5:4-5: “We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes. We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy, and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.”

The point of the matter is clear. When things are a mess, the oppressed are even more oppressed. And when God’s purposes are being reestablished in a place, sin must be confronted, and systems must change. It takes a leader to make this happen. Without leadership, you will find yourself in a land where anything goes.

We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes. We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy, and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.

Nehemiah 5:4-5