Episode notes
Sandwiched between two chapters that highlight the external opposition that Nehemiah and the people who were rebuilding Jerusalem faced, chapter 5 shows us that often the greatest hindrance to the work of the church is not those on the outside, but those within. Usury, the charging of interest, plagued these people and it ate them alive to the extend that they “were forcing their sons and daughters to be slaves”. It’s the Corinthian problem in the Old Testament; division that detract from the message of the beauty of Jesus. But it’s also in this mess that we see the loveliness of the gospel; God loves the unlovely.