| This is a sad chapter. It tells about trouble between the people who were supposed to be building the walls of the city. Instead of building, they were quarrelling with each other and taking advantage of each other. The first group said they didn't have enough food. The second group said they had to give away their land in order to get food. The third group said they had to borrow money to buy food and were paying too high a rate of interest for it. It was all between members of the Jewish Community-the' people of God and that is what hurt Nehemiah the most. Trouble inside a church always hurts the whole church and gives a poor witness to those outside. What other result was, there? The work on the walls stopped. There could be no progress, no co-operation while this trouble was going on. Nehemiah was angry inside, over what some of the rich people were doing to the poorer people: What did he do? He sat down and thought about the problem. There were some things he couldn't do much about, but there were some things that he could. There were men who were breaking God's laws for his people and that was what Nehemiah could speak against. Nehemiah said bluntly, 'It's got to stop' (v.10-11). The men concerned knew they were wrong. They had no answer for Nehemiah. But they did make a great response. It cost them something, but they were obedient to God's word through Nehemiah. How could Nehemiah speak like this? One reason was his own integrity. He was not involved in any way with what the others were doing. One of the most important things we can do when problems arise is to make sure that we ourselves are right before God-that we are living as he would have us live. That kind of example is hard to speak against. Nehemiah said 'No' to sin because he said 'Yes' to God. Can we do anything less? | 
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