The Cost of Generosity

Nehemiah 5:14-19 · 2026-01-25 · Jason Wolin · Nehemiah | From Rubble to Revival

Nehemiah 5:14-19 · Giving. The Cost of Generosity — sermon from Cypress Bible Church on BibleSlides.

The Cost of Generosity Nehemiah 5:14-19 (The Cost of Generosity) Review So we are in Nehemiah and we have been tracing the story of the return of the Jewish people from exile to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And we’ve tried to envision what this would have been like for Nehemiah and the people in terms of their experience. We talked about how in large part, this task to rebuild the city walls would have been a very unknown task. Most of these Jews who had been taken into captivity would have never seen Jerusalem and would have had no idea what they were even getting into. It would have been a very difficult task. To start off with it was a 900 mile journey, the equivalent of walking from here to Mexico City. Piles of burnt rubble. There was opposition from Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the men of Ashdod, these surrounding regions that did not want to see the Jewish people rebuild. Now it’s one thing to be oppressed by your enemies. But it’s another thing entirely to be oppressed by your friends. And what we looked at last week was exactly this. There was this exploitation of these returning exiles by the wealthy established Jews who most likely had never been deported and were living in the area. This oppression by the wealthy Jews came in the form of forcing them to take out loans to EAT and pay the kings TAXES. And Nehemiah was very angry at this and confronted them. And it was a good a gracious mercy of God that these Jews who had been exploiting their fellow brother repented and agreed to return what they had taken extracted. What was interesting about the dynamic that we observed was that these noble Jews, these wealthy Jews weren’t doing anything technically wrong. It wasn’t technically wrong to charge interest according to the Mosaic Law. It wasn’t technically wrong to benefit as a wealthy person from this indentured servitude system. It wasn’t technically wrong to benefit from someone who couldn’t pay their bills and needed to mortgage their land. None of that was technically wrong. They were within the BOUNDS of the LAW But it was wrong because they weren’t considering the LAW above the LAW. They were stuck on the LETTER of the law and intentionally ignoring the SPIRIT of the Law. Any person who makes Laws realizes that Law can never be enough. Why? Because LAW can never anticipate the complexity of human interaction. So let me give you an example. In my home growing up, we had rules that everyone needed to chip in to and do dishes and we rotated through who did the dishes. And if you didn’t do the dishes on your day, there was consequences. Well, one day I remember my brother Andy got in a really serious bike accident. His handle bar broke off and he fell face first into the asph…

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