Greed is a mouth out of which flows all kinds of evil. Greed is the mother of inflation, the fire that consumes the living of the poorer classes. It is the taskmaster that keeps the poor in want and the homeless impoverished, with no hope of a better life. Greed is the law or the unseen force that morphs the wealthy class into a better, more ‘law-abiding’ class than the class of poorer folk. It isn’t true, but it appears true! Consider for a moment the times of Nehemiah’s first tenure in Jerusalem, the twelve years prior to when he was recalled by the king to return to Babylon (Nehemiah 13:6). At that time the Jews’ enemies had put them in danger, because of the building project going on in Jerusalem. The wealthy were the beneficiaries of all that was taking place. The poor cried out, because the wealthy had consumed their lands and their living, and presently the poor were indebted to the nobility to serve them until all debts were paid. Yet, the poor were expected to defend the lives and the wealth of the wealthy, risking their own lives and the lives of their children to save the very folk who stole away the living and the hope of the poor (Nehemiah 5:1-5).
What I find interesting is, not only was Nehemiah successful in turning things around and making life fairer for the poorer classes, but his method of doing so was to shame the nobility into doing what was right. In other words, the only impetus of doing the right thing was to shame the abuser. Throughout the whole time this took place, there was no mention of the Mosaic Law and how the nobility were abusing the law in order to enrich themselves. While there may have been a general understanding that the Law of Moses was supposed to provide for the poor, breaking the Law or rebellion against the Lord wasn’t the accusation against them, or at least the Law of Moses isn’t mentioned in the text, as the modus operandi to get the nobility to do the right thing. Instead, Nehemiah used his own good example and the threat of a bad name (a public relations’ tool) to get the wealthy to do what they should have been doing all along (cp. Nehemiah 5:7-8, 12). So, once again, although there may have been a general knowledge of a Mosaic tradition, everyone in Jerusalem seems to have been ignorant of the particulars in the Law that required the rulers and the wealthy to show mercy toward and to take care of the poor.
Similarly, after Nehemiah understood the evil that had been practiced in support of Tobiah, the Ammonite, he perceived that the greed of the wealthy had taken away the living of the Levites and those who served the Temple of God, because these folks had to remain in their fields in order to feed their families and, generally, to survive (Nehemiah 13:10). Therefore, the service in the Temple of God and at the gates of the city was lacking. Nehemiah, then, contended with the rulers (Nehemiah 13:11), because they had not governed well. The context implies that the governors took bribes from the nobility to favor their interests against the rights and hopes of the poorer classes (cp. Psalm 82:1-4).
Therefore, Nehemiah ordered that the tithe should be brought in and stored in its proper chambers in the Temple to serve the needs of the priests and the Levites and all who served in the Temple of God and the needs of the city. Moreover, officers were put in place to ensure that this was done (Nehemiah 13:12-13). It also may be noteworthy to mention that the tithe couldn’t have been brought in until the time of the harvest, and harvest time in the land of Judah occurred about the time of the seventh month of the calendar year. Thus, Nehemiah’s reforms during his second tenure in Jerusalem occurred near the occasion of Ezra’s reading of the Law (Nehemiah 13:1, cp. 8:1-2). So, instead of shame as a modus operandi to do the right thing, it was the Law of Moses that was clearly read before the Jews, and it was that reading that pricked the hearts of all the people, whether rulers, nobles or the common folk.
Finally, it seems that it is this very thing that pricked the heart of Nehemiah. He feared that his previous methods of governing the Jews, which don’t seem to have used the Law of Moses to move the people to obey the Lord, were, in effect, insufficient in the sight of God. Therefore, he wondered, if his former good works would be acceptable at all by the very Lord, whom he thought to serve (Nehemiah 13:14).
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