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In the very midst of apparent success, when the Church is building its walls and seems likely to be triumphant and secure, there may be an aggravated evil springing up and spreading to its very heart. Such was the case at Jerusalem when the walls of its defence were rising. When priests and people were repairing the defences, there was circulating a deadly mischief within the whole body. We look at -

I. THE WORST EVIL FROM WHICH THE CHURCH OF CHRIST CAN SUFFER (vers. 1-5).

1. An internal evil, always more dangerous and deadly than an external one. Better a hundred carping or even conspiring Samaritans than ten Jews inside the walls carrying a curse within their breast. Better an army of Canaanites in battle array than one Achan in the camp.

2. The evil of discord. One Jew was complaining of another, one class of another class; seeds of dissension and strife were springing up and bearing bitter fruit. Internal evil in a Christian society may take many forms - error, sloth, pride, etc. - but the worst of all is discord. The Master is never so grieved as when his first commandment is broken, and when they who are specially bound to love one another are indulging' in "bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, malice."

3. Discord springing from oppression. The richer Jews had made use of a time of want, arising from dearth (ver. 3), to compel the necessitous to (a) mortgage their children (ver. 2) and (b) their ancestral property (ver. 3) in order to save themselves and their families from starvation (vers. 2, 3), as well as to pay the tribute to the king of Persia (ver. 4). What naturally afflicted them the most was, that through the cupidity and hardness of the wealthy they had been obliged to sell into servitude their own sons and daughters; said they, in their forcible lament, "Yet our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren: our children as their children" (ver. 5). Nor were they able to redeem them (ver. 5). There is great bitterness of soul when one member of a Christian Church is heedless of the natural human affections of any of his brethren: guilt can hardly go further.

II. ITS DEPLORABLE CONSEQUENCES (vers. 1, 9).

1. Misery (ver. 1). "There was a great cry of the people and of their wives" (ver. 1). When one part of a society is sinning and the other part "sinned against," when the Church is divided into wrong-doers and wrong-sufferers, misery sinks to its depth. There is no gladness of heart so great as when harmony and love prevail; so, there is no wretchedness of soul so complete as when hatred and injury abound.

2. Reproach (ver. 9). "It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?"' It is our primary duty, and should be our most earnest desire, so to let our light shine that men may glorify Christ, to "adorn the doctrine" of our Saviour; when we so act as to cause the enemy of God to blaspheme, we are "verily guilty before God."

III. THE WAY OF ESCAPE AND RECOVERY (vers. 6-13). Happily, in this instance, it did not go too far, because it was not allowed to do its work too long. There was -

1. An appreciation of its enormity (ver. 6). Nehemiah was "very angry when he heard their cry and these words." Angry, but certainly not sinful (Ephesians 4:26); angry with a holy wrath, roused by a profound sense of the magnitude of the guilt and the danger.

2. Self-control (ver. 7). He "consulted with himself." Instead of acting with injurious haste, he waited till he had well considered the best course to take. When wrath is roused, it is well indeed to "consult with ourselves" before we speak to others or act on others.

3. Concerted action (ver. 7). "I set a great assembly against them." Nehemiah directed against the evil the full force of public sentiment - the national conscience.

4. Boldness on the part of the leader. There is a time for decided speech and action. "I rebuked the nobles" (ver. 7). "We... have redeemed our brethren; ... and will ye even sell your brethren?" (ver. 8). "Restore their lands, their vineyards," etc. (ver. 11). "I shook my lap," etc. (ver. 13). In times of great defection or oppression, when things are going ill with the cause of God, it is not honied words, but the language of reproach that is wanted. "Reprove, rebuke, exhort," though "with all long-suffering" (2 Timothy 4:2).

5. Repentance on the part of the erring. This includes -

(a) Conviction of sinfulness - having "nothing to answer" (ver. 8), under a sense of guilt.

(b) Acknowledgment and promise of reform (ver. 12). This may well be accompanied by the most solemn vows uttered before God (ver. 12).

(c) Amendment (ver. 13). And the people did according to this promise.

(1) Conviction,

(2) confession,

(3) the solemn vow,

(4) the homeward step - this is to walk in the way of recovery. - C.

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KJV: And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.

WEB: Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews.