Nehemiah 5:15 But the former governors that had been before me were chargeable to the people, and had taken of them bread and wine… I. THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE OF NEHEMIAH'S CONDUCT — THE FEAR OF GOD. 1. The fear of God, as a principle of action, is at once simple and potent. Look at the machinery in some of your mills. You have there a forest of shafts, an army of wheels, a perfect maze of cunningly invented instruments requisite for carrying out the various processes of manufacture. But how simple and how mighty the power which moves and controls the whole machinery — the power of steam! How immensely superior to any other motive power as yet brought into general use! What steam is in this relation, so is the fear of God to morals. The religious principle in its influence on this complicate mechanism termed man, and on these intricate and bewildering human affairs, has a simple efficacy not only unsurpassed, but with which no other principle can vie. 2. The superiority of this principle appears also in its wide-reaching sphere of action. This sphere comprises every thing great and small that relates to human conduct. It embraces life in all its aspects. We cannot thus speak of other principles of action which men acknowledge. Take public opinion, for instance. If it be this which influences us in the course we pursue our morality may prove a very precarious thing. A life regulated by the opinion of one's fellow-creatures is likely to be well-ordered only so far, and for so long, as it shall be under the public eye; whereas the fear of God affects us as truly in the gloom of night as in the brightness of meridian day; affects us as really when remote from the city's hum and the crowded mart as it would in the midst of them; affects us as powerfully in mountain solitudes and on watery wastes as when the gaze of assembled thousands is upon us. "The morality," says a writer previously quoted, "the morality that is based upon self interest or the opinion of men, will not endure the severest tests. For what if a man should be beset by a temptation so great as to buy over his supposed self interest, and render it in his view more profitable to defraud than to be honest? II. THE OPERATION OF THIS PRINCIPLE AS SEEN IN THE CHAPTER BEFORE US. It impelled Nehemiah to rectify abuses. Nehemiah discharged a disagreeable duty with all fidelity. "I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them," etc. Hitherto the fear of God has acted on Nehemiah as an impelling principle. We come now to the incident with which the text stands immediately connected, and we see the operation of this principle as a restraining force. "So did not I, because of the fear of God." It held Nehemiah in check. (T. Robson.) Parallel Verses KJV: But the former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God. |
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