Recent KZN events: injustice and the fear of God (Nehemiah reflection #6)
What evils against you and others have especially weighed heavily on you recently?
Our newsfeeds and hearts might feel full of the troubles scarring our beautiful country and province. COVID deaths, lockdown restrictions, looting, racism, corruption, economic disparities, and the list goes on. Some of them ‘out there’; some of them much closer to home. And maybe many of them driving us to either anger and bitterness, or to despair and hopelessness:
Was it the sheer lawlessness of the looting? The grabbing of goods, and destruction of infrastructure that ended up hurting whole communities?
Was it the racial profiling roadblocks in certain areas? Did it feel like ’94 hadn’t happened, and the dompas was still needed? Or worse, the murders and beatings… what grief!
Was it the wicked power grabbing play of those who orchestrated recent events? Pushing their own agendas, stoking the right fires and conflicts and individuals, ubuntu trampled in the mud for selfish gain?
Nehemiah’s anger
We continue our reflections from Nehemiah in the Old Testament here. Previous reflections: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5. And now in part 6 we read Nehemiah’s reaction to the appalling circumstances around him:
“I became extremely angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints.” (Nehemiah 5:6)
What made Nehemiah so angry?
In short, from 5:1-13 we hear of some Jews preying on fellow Jews.
So, during deep economic difficulty (a famine?), some Jews used their countrymen’s poverty to their advantage. They charged heavy interest or took over the land of those anxious for food or who could not pay what they owed. They even stood by while needy families desperately sent family members into forced labour (bankruptcy-slavery) to pay off debt or to buy food.
Nehemiah’s verdict
Nehemiah weighs the events surrounding him and delivers his judgment:
“What you are doing isn’t right.
Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God and not invite the reproach of our foreign enemies?” (5:9)
Nehemiah’s verdict contains three parts, namely
What you are doing isn’t right!
Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God?
…and not invite the reproach of our foreign enemies?
Let me reflect briefly on the first two (and leave the third to the side), particularly related to recent KZN events.
1. The security to say: it isn’t right!
I deeply value that the One true God gives us a standard by which to know what constitutes right or wrong. Christians and those with Christian heritage often take this for granted, but we shouldn’t.
If no god exists, and we are a product of mere processes, then why are any of these recent events ‘wrong’? By what definition, and what standard?
If a god exists, but he has not revealed the equal value of all people or his concrete definition of goodness, then again, how do you know any of these things are wrong? A general vibe, a people’s consensus is not enough – especially as our definitions and values change all the time!
The God of the Bible or more precisely the Father of Jesus, reveals as clear as day our creation in his image to love him and to love others.
Held against that standard… the looting, the racism, the power grabbing and much more, are judged as sinful and wrong. And that includes of course much of the Colonial and Apartheid history of our dear country. Unveiled as immoral, against God, and a stamping on fellow image bearers - devoid of love and overflowing in greed and selfishness.
The damage, and our sin, runs deep.
But at the same time, knowing the one True God revealed in Jesus and testified in the Scriptures, grants us simple security to label a spade a spade. With our own sin - start there! And with the sins of others. Whether by Whites or Blacks or Indians or… whoever! For, among Adam’s descendants: all have turned away; all alike have become corrupt (Psalm 53:3) – bonke baphambukile, bonke bakhohlakele.
What we are doing isn’t right!
(For more related to this subject read: Biblical justice with application to land redistribution)
2. Fearing God: against sin, for love
A. No fear of God: reason for sin
Why did someone loot? Why did someone discriminate, or murder? Why did someone seek power at the expense of others?
We cannot deny the complexity and grief of many social and economic and historical elements, both from our past and clinging into our future. Ones with a bearing on the situation we find ourselves in! So, do mark that.
But… at a foundational level, the heart of our malaise is a fear of God issue. When we do not fear God, we sin. We sin in so many ways. How so?
Well, we live in God’s world. We live as his creation. And when we reject or ignore or minimise or mute the right rule of the One who created all this, we sin. We sin against God. We sin against others. So we steal, we dehumanise, we injure, we plot, we hate. We stain the history of South Africa, and our present. And the responsible agents are you, and me!
South Africa, as recent and past events have shown, has a sin problem. But why do we sin? Because ultimately, we do not fear God.
Fearing God: your best life yet
While fearing God involves right trembling at times – after all, God is God - at the heart of fearing the Lord comes simply recognising that God is God. And we are not.
But, what kind of God is he to rightly recognise?
Well, to live under his rule runs with the grain of the universe (cf. Prov 1:7). And he drips goodness (cf. Genesis 1:31) and overflows with blessing (Eph 1:3). He is good, and life with him is good (although, not always easy). And related to that then: to live with him as God pushes us to not sin. In other words, fearing God will help us to turn away from sin.
B. Fear of God: reason for love
One more point to mention related to fearing God. And it comes from noting Nehemiah’s actions as a massive contrast within the same chapter.
Remember the economic hardships and the sin of Jews against their fellow Jews?
Well, Nehemiah negatively reveals the problem as not walking in the fear of God (5:9). And it’s clear that this also shapes his personal actions. So, 5:15: ‘because of the fear of the God, I didn’t do this [i.e. charge interest etc]’
But he goes one step further. In other words, while not explicit, he reveals positively what walking in the fear of God looks like. Namely, loving others.
So, in 5:10 we read of Nehemiah’s practice of giving people money to buy food and grain, and not charging interest. Or in 5:14-19 we read of him not using the situation and his political position to advance his own interests or property. Instead, he desired to lift the burden of the people, even at personal cost. Not to add to it. Oh to have leaders like that. Oh for us to be people like that!
Fearing God does turn you away from evil. But the space that is left is also then filled (or should be filled) with sacrificial love of neighbour!
And so with Nehemiah we can note that his understanding of God overflows into economic care for the people around him. In other words, his knowing God leads to physical and costly love, especially in hardships and pain, for people. Again, what model of life with and under God.
In conclusion: what does South Africa need?
There are complexities at play, and there is more to say. So, I do not want to be overly simplistic in the face of our deep historical and present issues. There are structures to rebuild, and inequalities to alleviate, and leadership to ameliorate. And these can and must be part of how we love – note that point please.
But God’s Word also reveals here that one of our deepest needs (and related to implementing the above) is to fear him.
It is a fear of God that both rebukes our sin, and restores our love - a love of God, and of our neighbours, whether they reflect beautifully Black or White or Indian skin tones. Indeed, we miss God’s mark and love, as well as resemble Apartheid SA, when we shrink the humanity of our neighbours to those who only look like us! Or only pick up on the sins of ‘others’.
Instead, fearing God opens us up to the opportunity and new life to flee sin and to pursue righteousness. Besides honouring God, this is good for us and good for others.
Knowing the fear of God, I want the fear of God to reign! But for that, we need the good news of Jesus Christ, preached and responded to with repentance and faith. Because in Jesus, as we trust in his perfect fleeing from sin and perfect pursuit of love, we have the opportunity to re-live rightly with God as our God. Indeed, with God as our Father, because of God’s Son.
“Let the whole earth fear the Lord;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.”
~ Psalm 33:8
Lord, teach us to fear you. Hamba Vangeli, hamba!
