Mike continues preaching from the book of Nehemiah.
Our faith should not be silent.
It should not sit on the sidelines and avoid difficulty.
When confronted with injustice, our faith should be prompted to act.
That is the example of Nehemiah.
Upon discovering that his fellow Jews were holding each other as slaves, he was compelled to do something about it.
Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.” Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.” Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”
When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry.
Nehemiah 5:1-6 (NIV)