Issue 467
May I invite you to consider how an organisation, in any field, education, trade, profession, business, finance or even community would fare if it had the following characteristics? Suppose it was hallmarked by arrogance and a refusal to take advice. It had rules but consistently broke them. If anyone pointed out the risks or warned of the dangers they were ignored or silenced. Any lessons from the history of such an organisation were forgotten and bypassed. Leadership was constantly being challenged by alternatives and corruption on an epidemic scale suffused the practices. This imaginary organisation deliberately created unjust, unfair and illegal climates, oppressing others and supressing its own sense of morality. Such is the self-description of the Israelites as they assess their own track record in Nehemiah’s ninth chapter. They deliver themselves a summary description of their state of health. In one sentence they conclude “we are in great distress”. Nehemiah describes for you a cycle of human behaviour. Pick your point of entry, for it’s a circle. But start with the word ‘humble’ and you can enter at the best or worst part. Humble, grateful, respectful attitudes combined with accurate self-assessment and a willingness to listen lead to a time of peace and rest and satisfaction. It is not easy or conflict-free but it is satisfying. Rest leads to complacency and gradual creeping corruption. Corruption leads to slavery. Slavery leads to pain and review. Review leads to humble apology. Humble apology leads to humble, grateful, respectful attitudes so now the cycle is coming full circle. Promises of change follow and the peace and rest and satisfaction return, the cycle keeps going on and on and on. Nehemiah records this cycle and, no doubt, wonders how often it has been repeated in his country’s history. I would like to suggest a few pointers which you can get from Nehemiah’s mind as he describes the cycle. First, God never stops loving you wherever you are in the cycle. Nehemiah had learned this. Even in the moments of slavery and distress, God had not stopped the flow of his compassion. Second, it was quite clear that the cycle was doomed to repeat itself, given the framework in which it operated. By the end of the chapter and into the next you see promises, commitments and good intentions. These would be broken again at another stage. Third, Nehemiah was observing that the external well-being of his people ebbed and flowed with their organisational behaviour. But there was a weak point in the system. People. People just can’t fix themselves. They can’t sustain health. They cannot stop messing up. There were limits to what could be achieved by best practice. Nehemiah did not know it, but he was noticing the old covenant play out and it was never going to deliver the lasting freedom they all wanted. In fact it was never designed to do so. What use is this to you this week? I suggest you come back to the word ‘distress’. The levels of distress in your organisation or system, whatever its nature, will go up or down depending on whether you can stand with Nehemiah and others and develop a mind-set which watches the story with wisdom. I will give you some examples. If you realise that God’s approach to you is always love and faithfulness-driven that will impact your distress levels. If you realise that His approach to everyone is always love-driven, that too will impact your distress. If you realise that human behaviour is cyclical and moves from humble gratitude through a catalogue of corruption to humble distress you will see how organisations, nations and individuals function. Nehemiah uses words like ‘blasphemies’ and ‘evils’ in his vocabulary of corruption. Combined with arrogance and a refusal to listen, you can see a toxic mix. Its end is distress. There is a great relief, however, for recognising it for what it is. How often do you hear the words “global financial crisis” as if something, somehow, accidentally happened. The global financial crisis is a phase of arrogance and greed which has left us in distress. Routes to better places will involve confession, not just re-structuring. It will involve humility, not just up-turns. Again I suggest that, within this framework, there will always be a flaw in the system. People. As long as we deceive ourselves into thinking we can fix this, we will stay distressed. There will always be limits to our re-structuring. This does not mean that aiming for justice, morality and ethical behaviour, along with an honourable treatment of others will not go a long way to improving our organisation. In behaving like that you stumble on the fabric woven into human society. It does mean that our observation and participation in the cycle should drive us to two conclusions. First (and this is coming in the next chapter) not to neglect building in an honourable way (Nehemiah quotes “the people are saying “we will not neglect the house of our God”). Second, this should drive us to realise that God’s love goes way beyond our distress. It reaches into His own distress. He knew that the only way to break this cycle was to turn it into a cross. He would take the slavery, humiliation and pain and create a new covenant. The problem was always too deep for humans to solve with their promises. God would have the bleed to fix this. He has. Don’t waste the lessons of history. Take them with you each day, only this time carrying a cross. Bible section Nehemiah Chapter 9 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. 4 Standing on the stairs of the Levites were Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani. They cried out with loud voices to the Lord their God. 5 And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God,who is from everlasting to everlasting.” “Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.6 You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. 7 “You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous. 9 “You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea.10 You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a namefor yourself, which remains to this day. 11 You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. 12 By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take. 13 “You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good.14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. 15 In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them. 16 “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies. 19 “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst.21 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen. 22 “You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan.23 You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to enter and possess. 24 Their children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you gave the Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. 25 They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness. 26 “But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. 27 So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies. 28 “But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time. 29 “You warned them in order to turn them back to your law, but they became arrogantand disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, of which you said, ‘The person who obeys them will live by them.’ Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. 30 For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you warned them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. 31 But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. 32 “Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes—the hardship that has come on us, on our kings and leaders, on our priests and prophets, on our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. 33 In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly.34 Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep. 35 Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways. 36 “But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. 37 Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.
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Geoff Shattock
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