Famine

Nehemiah 5:3-6 - 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.

Haggai 1:6 - You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

Deuteronomy 15:11 - There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.

Mark 11:17 - And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

Ephesians 4:26-27 - “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Application:

· Have I experienced futility in my activities, legitimate or illegitimate
· Do I extend generosity and kindness to the poor?
· Do I express indignation against social injustice?
· Do I do things that rob the church of it's sanctity?
· Have my emotions been purified? Is my anger sinful? Does my anger outlast the day?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV