Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. Nehemiah 5:1 – At the core of this chapter we are seeing disunity in the people of Israel over money. Due to famine, due to the king’s taxes, due to high interest rates, and due to working so much on the wall that they weren’t able to do their normal jobs, money was tight. So tight that they couldn’t pay for their basic necessities. What we see in this chapter is how Nehemiah handled the mishandling of money between the people of Israel to get things back to the spot of health it needed to be at. Yet do you also see what is not talked about at all in this chapter? The rebuilding of the wall. While everything so far in the book had been about the rebuild, suddenly in chapter 5 there is no talk at all about it. Why? Because their fighting amongst each other put a pause on the work of the rebuild. Here we see a valuable lesson for the church today. Disunity and fighting puts a pause on God’s people completing God’s work. When we don’t handle each other and things such as money as God calls us to, infighting can take place leading to disunity in the body. Instead of moving forward together after God’s work, all we are focused on is our bitterness directed at each other. This is why scripture speaks so heavily on forgiving one another, showing grace, and demonstrating brotherly love. When forgiveness, grace, and love is present in our relationships, its far easier to work with one another on the tasks the Lord has given us. Yet when bitterness, grudges, and hate festers, all work for the Lord together stops. Fight for unity in the body so we can complete the good work the Lord has for us to do together. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3402
Question To Ponder: What can be a root cause of disunity within a church body?
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