Ep.63 - When the President Cancels Debt

Last week President Biden created a firestorm in political circles as well as evangelical circles when he single-handedly forgave hundreds of billions in student loans.  The political controversy was expected but the fierce debate amongst evangelical circles was a bit surprising.  Leader after leader and pastor after pastor in the Christian cultural world spoke up about their perspective on whether or not God is for canceling debt.  In this episode, we take a look at the various Christian responses and then take a deep look into the book of Nehemiah to gain insight from one of the clearest biblical accounts of debt forgiveness.  As always we might just find that God isn't necessarily on either side of this debate.  Enjoy!

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right everyone and welcome back to the christening podcast thank you as always for tuning in and giving us a listen and a download another great conversation on tap today one i'm I'm oddly excited about. Who would think I'd be pumped to talk about finances and debt and things of that nature? But as you can tell from the title, we're talking about when the president forgives student debt. And I didn't, you know, this is, this kind of created quite the stir in the evangelical circles. I was following my Twitter peeps and yeah, there's some Some articles written about it and a lot of kind of heavy hitters in the evangelical world are posting quite a bit on social media, sharing their input, insights. And as usual, the two poles are revealed within evangelical circles. Christians are very passionate about their perspective on this situation and Both sides claiming biblical authority to back them up. And that's what's always fun in the Christian world. We see how this revelation of God is used to back up multiple perspectives according to various interpretations and things of that nature. So good stuff. I wasn't really anticipating doing an episode on student debt forgiveness, but based on all the the response that i was seeing out there kind of caused me to do some prayer study meditation myself to see where i would where i would go with something like this and as usual i found myself going a kind of a completely different direction so yeah that's what that's what we're here for to give you the alternative to the two standard polls in evangelicalism that hopefully can help bring you into a little more balance, so to speak. So to kind of set this up, you know, obviously you've probably heard by now that President Biden, by executive order, has thus decreed that$10,000 of federal student loans will be forgiven of students people that took out those loans. And then if you received a Pell Grant, you would get$20,000 forgiven. So the fact that you got the Pell Grant, that's all the validation you need to show. That's already done, and the$20,000 will be forgiven. Of course, we're not here to hash into all the details of policy and things of that nature, but just to set the stage, there's obviously debate outside of the church within the political sphere about can a president actually forgive debt and obviously debate on what is forgiveness of debt because in this situation that doesn't just poof disappear it's just absorbed by the rest of the citizenry so to speak and so yeah there's great debates outside of the church saying is that the right thing to do Somebody I'm close with puts it this way. You can either pay your own student debt for a period of 10, 20 years, whatever it is, or you can pay everybody else's student debt for the rest of your life. So that's kind of a generalized way to think about it, but it's obviously more nuanced than that. But then once you get into the Christian sphere where we're trying to determine what is right in the eyes of God, which is a weighty issue, and it's something that I definitely commend anybody for giving some honest prayer and study and thought to. The typical polls are revealed. You have your more, just for lack of a better terminology, your conservative theological-leaning church, aspect of the church that is high on personal responsibility. It's your biblical duty to pay what you owe, not be a drain on society, those kinds of things. And then there's, again, for lack of a better term, not politically, but theologically liberal-minded, where they see clear biblical compulsion to bring relief to the poor. and to those that are excessively in debt that it is a biblical mandate and compulsion to do whatever you can to help bring relief so so of course my you know i've kind of On social media, I've learned who to tune into on both sides just to get those perspectives. Again, I really encourage you to do the same. It's so good. It's so healthy as opposed to just staying in one, only hearing one perspective. So yeah, to set up kind of how we're going to discuss this and a lot of scripture we're going to get in today that we'll probably run through quickly. But yeah, dug into a lot of good stuff. One of the big issues that I see ailing modern society, even outside of the church, is we have an inability for nuance right now. And what I mean by that is, we'll put it this way, there's very few issues in the world that don't have multiple competing factors at play. That's what nuance is. It's where you look at one situation and you see that, wow, there's multiple factors at play here. So generally speaking, two things have to be true at the same time. That's what our society is horrible at. We are very much a this or a that society. And we have a real tough time with really thinking through and evaluating, well, two seemingly opposing things can be true at the same time. That's the gift of nuance, where you see, wow, this is true, but also this is true. So as I accept that, now I have a better ability to think more deeply about something and come up with a potential solution that that can unite the most amount of people. We are awful at that right now. We see it, well, it's either you see it this way or you see it that way. This way is right, that way is wrong. And man, I don't know a lot of issues that work that way at all. We used to, as a society, we used to be much, much better at this. We used to really understand that. And so if you had a tough time wrapping your head around two things being right at the same time, generally, you know, generations past, you'd say, you know what? This person's been hired or elected to figure that out. I'm just going to go with what they say. So obviously that trust in institutions and positions, that's all eroded. So we now are... feel the need and and i understand why to to figure everything out for ourselves and you know that's that type of nuance is is difficult for just the random uninformed person you know so we typically grab on to the first thing that comes our way and if it makes sense it's like huh that that's that's what i'll go with you know so so this inability for nuance is tough but here's Christians, we should be really good at this. I always see these kinds of things as an opportunity for the church because I'm just like, man, we should be amazing at nuance. If you're a Christian and you have accepted... the truth of the gospel, there's nothing more nuanced than the gospel. There's nothing more two seemingly opposing things being true at the same time. Just think about it. Paul states very clearly that you are saved by grace, not of works, so that no man can boast in Ephesians 2. And then James says in his book that faith without works... is actually dead faith and it doesn't actually exist so here you have two things that are biblically rock solidly true at the same time at the surface level they can seem to compete they can seem like how can that be true and that be true but as gospel believing christians we go deeper we go deeper into christ we go deeper into who he is and and how the gospel actually works and we actually find that those two things are very harmonious. They actually work together extremely well. But to get there, we go through a process of some nuance. It's been said that theology is the art of distinction. I've heard that said. And as a teacher that has been teaching Bible slash theology for many, many years, that's really all I do. Anytime I stand in front of my students, I stand in front of people and I advocate the oracles of God All I'm doing the entire time is drawing distinctions. As I boldly make proclamations that I see in the Bible, I always have to stop and say, it's this, God is this, but he's not that. The gospel is this, but it's also not that. It's so clear when you talk about, when you're just trying to get someone to wrap their heads around the grace of God, a gospel of salvation based solely on grace, not of works, People always respond, especially if they're near the faith. So does that mean I can do whatever I want and God will always forgive me? That's where distinctions come in. Well, yes, it is a gospel of grace, but it's not a license for continued sin. The book of Romans is like this masterclass of Paul setting up biblical truth after biblical truth. But as soon as he asserts one biblical truth, he immediately follows up with a distinction. But It's not that. So if you are a Christian, you have become very comfortable and very good at saying, yes, it's this, but it's not that. Because in our human minds, we draw conclusions and we want to make sure that our ultimate end conclusions are still in line with the truth of God. So that's all I do. And so that's... That's why me, I'm extremely comfortable in these situations. Duants and distinctions like, yeah, this is what we do. So here we go. Let's talk about debt forgiveness. And spoiler alert, you are going to see that two things are true biblically at the same time. And actually, as you dive deeper into you're going to see that they're not competing, but they're complementary the whole way through. And so our challenge as a society is to find the complements within the seemingly competing truths. So we're going to walk through that process when it comes to debt, loans, loan forgiveness, things of that nature, because there is tons and tons of of scripture regarding this situation this has been an issue as old as the earth pretty much so lots of words of the day but our primary word of the day is going to come in nehemiah 5. um we'll spend the most time there but you know we're going to be kind of scrambling around a few different places as we as we dive into the word so i hope you're pumped i hope you're excited okay so let's go psalm 31 21. says, the wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives. Ecclesiastes 5, 4 and 5. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Again, that's talking about vows to God, not specifically financially, but the principle definitely says is valid when you're thinking about making vows with your finances. Romans 13, 7. Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. That's just a couple skimming off the top. There is a clear ethic here. presented in scripture to pay what you have agreed to pay, whether that's financially, whether that's through a business agreement, whether Christians are largely people who do what they say and say what they do. We don't set up false agreements. So that kind of personal responsibility and personal accountability to This money was provided for me, so it is my biblical duty to return it. That's clear. However, and this is where nuance comes in, there is another side to this. Right now, as you dig in and you listen to different Christians, depending on where they are more comfortable... on this kind of evangelical spectrum. You might be hearing a lot of this, a lot of complaining about, you know, President Biden and, you know, his, you know, kind of executive order and things of that nature because of these biblical, this clear biblical ethic. I get it. You're not wrong. But are you comprehensively correct? I'm not going to say whether you are or whether you're not. I'm just here to put into play, everything that needs to be into play so that we can Christian well and we can kind of really represent the full counsel of God as we are dragged into discussions about this kind of stuff. And again, as always, these discussions are opportunities to represent Christ in a really winsome, effective way. So, as you look at Proverbs 22, 7, you start to see another side of this kind of financial ethic. Proverbs 22.7, the rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender. Hmm. There's another, there is another truth that is equally true at play here, and that's the issue of slavery. Um, And that's something that the Bible has a lot to say. There is a natural dynamic at play in the lending and the borrowing of money to where the lender is a master and the borrower becomes a slave to the realities and the terms that they are put in. And we're going to look at a clear Old Testament illustration, but all over Scripture. The Bible is very clear that if you're in the role of master, read the book of Philemon, there's a lot of places to go. There's a different way that Christians harness that level of influence and authority. We're very careful with those things. And the reason is... The reality is people are enslaved to the things that they're in debt to. So that's the other side of this. So we're going to just quickly read Nehemiah 5, just 1 through 13. And then we're going to pull out four important things. Okay, we're going to... Just to kind of give you a table of contents while we're reading, we're going to see that there's three complementary roles slash ethics at play in these types of discussion. There's the borrower, there's the lender, and there's the leader. Okay, so we're going to see these three roles that are all at play, and then we're going to see clearly that these three, the borrower, The biblical command is that these three roles work complementary. That when there is an adversarial reality in this, then you know you have an issue. You know you've deviated from the biblical path. Some way, somehow. I don't know who exactly is at fault. That's for everybody to trust the Spirit and the Word to kind of discern. When you're in a situation, but what we're going to we're going to kind of use this student debt situation is kind of just a background as we try to dive in and apply this in a situation. So situation here, biblically, they're going to read is Nehemiah is if you guys don't know the book of Nehemiah, it's a great book. A lessons that people pull from. I've studied this book a ton. And this is an interesting little chunk. After, you know, the first four chapters are really focused on Nehemiah being called to kind of restore Israel after the Babylonian captivity and these captives start making their way back. But the city of Jerusalem's in shambles, the kind of country's in shambles. So Nehemiah is the one who's tasked to kind of rebuild structure in the city. Structure is needed so that the city can defend it and protect itself and that citizens can sleep without being raped and pillaged and all these terrible things that would happen to a city that was unprotected. So Nehemiah 5 kind of takes a break from that, that building of the wall. So much of Nehemiah is focused on the building of the wall around Jerusalem, which walls were physical protection, but also kind of a kind of symbolic protection. And then he has to deal, his attention is turned from the wall to some internal protection. issues dealing with finances, debt, slavery, of indebtedness and things of that nature. And we're just, this is rich. This is so rich that we're just going to kind of skim the surface of it. But let's dive in. Nehemiah 5, 1 through 5. Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. So internal strife, this isn't like warring tribes or warring different ethnic nations or anything like that. This is internal issues, just like we have here in the United States. For there were those who said, With our sons and our daughters we are many, so let us get grain, that way we may eat and keep alive. There were also those who said, We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine. You see here the... Concept of slavery comes back in, not necessarily sometimes physical slavery, but also just slavery of indebtedness. And some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it. For other men have our fields and our vineyards. That goes back to the indebtedness. When you're in debt, you don't own what you actually are utilizing. Somebody else owns it. You're just being allowed to use it. So their sons and daughters are being enslaved and there's no way for them to fix it because they don't have any wealth of their own. Even because what they did have, they had to sell in mortgage so that they could pay for food to eat. And so there's this huge just... Social unrest, social dilemma going on while Nehemiah is trying to lead. So there's external strife. There's very real enemies trying to do very real harm. And then, as always, there's internal strife where there's people within the same community doing harm to one another. Let's keep going. Verse 6. Look at the leaders. Here comes the leader. I said there is the borrower, the lender, the leader. Two roles that have to play a complementary role according to their own biblical mandated ethic. So here comes the leader. I was very angry when I heard their outcry in these words. The best leadership comes out of that verse 6 vibe. My best moments of leadership. come out of that verse 6 when I just see something or I hear an outcry or whatever and that's unacceptable. That cannot happen. That's when we lead at our best. It's awesome. Those gem moments are challenging but I also love them because I'm more motivated than ever to do God's best for people, for others. Verse seven, I took counsel with myself. Notice that, that's very interesting. And I brought charges against the nobles And the officials, I said to them, your exacting interest, each from his brother. And I held a great assembly against them and said to them, we, as far as we are able, have brought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers so that they may be sold to us. Nehemiah is saying, what are we doing here? We're trying to get our brothers back who have been sold, enslaved to other nations, and now they're home to we're selling them to each other like what what is going on here they were silent and could not find a word to say so i said the thing that you're doing is not good ought you not walk in fear of our god to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies moreover i and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain let us abandon this exacting of interest Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them. Then they said, we will restore. This is their response to the leader. Rising up. This is the nobles and the officials. This is a response. Then they said, we will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say. And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised, because I guess the priests were in on this as well. I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied. And all the assembly said, Amen, and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised. Wow. As a leader and someone who highly values leadership, I just... I read this and I get goosebumps because, man, I crave these moments. And I pray for a moment like this in the future of our nation. I mean, look at the unity. There is issue. There is conflict that's instantly resolved by a God-fearing leader leading. Man, I don't need to get in the weeds of this, but obviously we are seeing none of that in I don't care what your preferred political bend is. We couldn't be further away from this. And I don't even think you need to be a Christian necessarily to do something like this, even though fear of the Lord apparently is a big deal in this. So anyways, word of the day, that's the story. This is a situation where debt was erased. It was forgiven. So here's a situation where a godly leader did what is clearly a God-ordained thing and forgave and forgave debt. So yes, two biblical ethics. Again, we're good at nuance. Two things can be true at the same time. As Christians, we are people that we pay our vows, we pay our dues, we do what's required of us. At the same time, we understand that we live in a fallen world and indebtedness can be used to oppress poor and impoverished and people in weaker situations. And so we as Christians, we always because of the truth of the gospel, because we are saved not by our strength, but by the strength of Christ, we are always sensitive to that and we care deeply about that as well. So, like I said, first thing we need to walk away from when we're evaluating the forgiveness of debt. And again, we'll just use this student debt thing as kind of the backdrop. And I'm just setting the structure. You use the structure to make your own choice to make your own decision i'm just gonna i'm just gonna set the table you eat the way the spirit leads you to eat when you kind of draw your final conclusion i never feel like that's that's my job to draw these conclusions for anybody um so again you know shameless plug i just think that's that's what's unique about about this this podcast and the things that the lord's called me to share with with you guys is you'll go to christian podcast christian podcast and it's to every man an answer, right? That's like, you come with the question, talk to the really smart Jesus person, and they'll give you an answer, just do what they say. That's not an approach that I feel called to. I will clearly look at the scripture and try to articulate clearly what are the most relevant factors that need to be involved as you examine and think through a given situation. So let's do just that right now. So first thing we need to understand, there's three complementary roles or ethics. The borrower, so their role slash ethic is pay what you owe. Whenever you're in the borrowing position, that is always your biblical compulsion. We are never looking to... to be lazy and get out of vows. That's not who we are. So that's what we bring to the table. The lender, their ethic is never to take advantage of people in disadvantaged positions. So that is always, that's the ethic now of the lender. So if I'm the borrower, I'd I have to do my ethic and trust the Lord with the other roles. I don't have control over the other roles. That's where we find peace in our role. Just do what the Lord's told you to do. Trust him to work it out for your good. So lender, it is my clear biblical ethic. If I'm in the position of lending the money out, I have to examine, am I taking advantage of somebody who's in a disadvantaged situation? That is clearly... Nehemiah chapter 5. There's a famine going on. There's a famine happening. They are already captives coming back to an unsecure nation, an unsecure location. They are scrambling for their survival. They don't have privilege and advantage in this moment. So Because of their disadvantage, they were susceptible to schemes and they had no choice. They had to buy into the scheme to get through the next day. And the schemes kept compounding and compounding and compounding until they finally cried out and did the right thing and cried out to their leadership. The leader's role in ethic, serve the people's interest above your own. Serve the people's interest above your own. And we're going to move forward after we kind of walk through this to kind of tie about one more bunch of scripture where we're going to see the lengths that Nehemiah went to make sure everybody knew he was there to serve the people above his own interest. So when you have those three roles all at play at the same time, you have a harmonious situation. You have a harmonious situation. You have a borrower who's doing everything they can to pay back their debt. You have a lender who's making sure that they're not taking advantage of disadvantaged situations and they're making adjustments when they see they ethically need to or morally need to. And then you have a leader that's overseeing this process that The only reason they're leading is for the good of the people and not their personal career interests. So that's what we're... Those three things, whenever those are in place, all three of those ethics, you have a great situation. You have nobody fussing. It works out pretty much every single time. So when there's a breakdown... One or more of those ethics or roles is not being looked at. So that's now, when we're looking at this student borrower situation, that's what we're going to do. We're going to examine the borrower, we're going to examine the lender, and we're going to examine the leader. And then as we do that, I believe the spirit will lead us to, okay, where did this thing go off the rails? Okay, pretty obvious. Pretty simple. This stuff like nuances isn't that hard and it's a great place to be. Okay, so first we examine the borrower. Let's examine the borrower. And so we ask ourselves the question, if the borrower is crying out like, man, this sucks, I can't do this, blah, blah, blah. Is this an issue of laziness or luxuriousness? That's the question when we're trying to examine, okay, where did this thing go off the rails? They're fighting over this debt. They're fighting over this issue. I would love to lend my voice. I'd love to be a help. So I want to say what's good. So first, I look at the borrower. Is their indebtedness or their struggling to pay back the debt, is that attached to laziness? Meaning like, I don't want to do this anymore. This was harder than I thought. Yeah. Or luxuriousness is the reason they can't pay the debt because they're diverting what they do have to other things that are non-survival, non-basic necessity related. So you can make a determination on that relatively quickly. And I'm not saying we're doing some deep character assassination or judgment, but just looking at the overall scenario. So We're looking at the college students in debt, okay? And this crisis that one side of the aisle says we're in, this massive student debt. So first thing is, is this an issue of just, I just don't want to, or I'd rather spend this money on something else. Then if it is, you got an issue with the borrower. So you deal with that. That's where you kind of focus your policy prescription or your policy idea or whatever. So next, you examine the lender. And so the question there is, is this an issue of oppression? Now, that word, if you hear that, if you heard that, you're like, oh, great, here we go. That's because that word has been grossly misused and mischaracterized. But awesome, in the Bible, we have just example after example after example of what oppression is. really is so let me give us an oppression test the way the way i see it in scripture as we ask the question of the lender is this an issue of the lender oppressing and enslaving those that they're that are in debt to them okay first oppression test this is as you look at it in in ephesians i mean in nehemiah 5 first is it clear and obvious Is it clear and obvious? We go back to verse 5. Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers and our children are as our children, yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves. And some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it's not our power to help. So they have children, slaves. So we're talking about something that... You don't need to give someone a college course to help them understand. It's just like, look at that. There's an eight-year-old girl right there working 12 hours of hard labor. You know what I'm saying? The oppression test, first of all, that has to be something clear and obvious, something that all you have to do is walk somebody over and say, would you just observe this for a few hours? And I don't need to make some case. I don't have to create some sociological kind of framework to get you to see it the way I see it. The oppression needs to be clear and obvious. So next thing, look at verse 3. survival is what is being extorted survival is what is being extorted look at let's go up to verse 3 where it says we are mortgaging our fields our vineyards and our houses to get grain because of the famine so they're trying to eat and they're going in debt so that they can actually continue to survive If your very survival is what's being extorted, then you're clearly passing the oppression test. In America, we have so many rights, we have become a very entitled nation. I'm not saying that that's wrong. I'm just saying that creates a challenge. Because we've been living in prosperity for so long that when you remove an aspect of of prosperity but I still I can pay all my bills I live in a great home I have food in the fridge all the time that's there's a chance you may not being oppressed if someone has just kind of maybe removed in a privilege or what you have what you have become to because we're entitled and I say we all are we have you know viewed that as now a right so So we say, help, help, I'm being oppressed. Kind of the Monty Python line. So that's part of the oppression. Someone's survival is that's what's being played upon, preyed upon, and extorted. Unfortunately, we do have a history in our country of that being government-sanctioned, or at the very least, government... neglected like they they turn the other way you know so so yeah we we have a good history of dealing with real oppression in our country and we can look at that and really learn and and see what what was done so third thing to the oppression test is taxes are excessive verse four Check this out. And there are those who said we have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. So another reason they were coming in debt was to pay taxes. They were borrowing money so that they could afford to be a citizen of their own nation. Now that's that. And here that's part of oppression. That's part of the oppression tax. So not everything government does is good, moral, and right. You actually have to make that practical case. And yes, maybe I think one side of the aisle thinks that the other side is really bad at that. And I get it. I understand. So those are three oppression tests that you see in this passage alone. And I'm not saying that's the only one, but I just always want to kind of stick stick to the scripture we're dealing with but that's a great start so when you're examining the lender you're asking is this an issue of oppression well is it clear and obvious meaning i i don't need someone to teach me why it's oppression but i just i open my eyes and i see oh yeah that that ain't good two is is someone's survival being extorted like is their ability to just move forward and survive in this country? Is that what's being taken advantage of? If so, it's like, that ain't good. Or is it a luxury or a privilege that's being maybe denied? I'm not saying that's still good or right. I'm just saying it's not oppression. It's not oppression. So the lender could have some freedoms in what they're doing there because we're not dealing with survival. This person borrowed money to you know or stick to the the student loan they borrowed money to get a degree that they're not even utilizing it's it's not even like it's not even applicable to how they're providing for themselves and it's it's it's it was never essential it was just kind of a a nice thing that you know they would have liked to have which is that's true about college you know i I have one of those degrees that it was kind of a checkbox degree. So if I was ever asked, did you graduate college? Yeah, I graduated college. Now, I think my bachelor's didn't set me up for the role that I currently have. It just didn't. I talked to my advisor once. He said, what's your plan with this major? And I said, I don't know. He said, well, you're going to sell insurance then because everybody who has a social science degree If you don't have a plan to be in public policy or things of that nature, like social work, you're just going to sell insurance because that's the job you're going to be able to get. Well, me, I got a job in education, Christian education. It's worked out, but my bachelor's degree isn't what set that up. So my debt, I'll just speak of my debt. I... to me wouldn't have passed this oppression test. I couldn't go and say, I'm being oppressed because I'm being forced to pay this back. It didn't have anything to do. I could survive just fine whether I had the degree or not. And then taxes are excessive. As a nation, if we're in a situation where people are going in debt because the taxes are so excessive that they just can't afford to be a citizen in the country, that would be a form of soft oppression, of governmental oppression. Again, according to this word. So I'm just setting it up. You knock it down how you see fit. So that's how we examine the lender. Now let's examine the leader. And this is where I'm going to read another chunk of scripture. We already saw Nehemiah rise up. But let's continue in Nehemiah 5 and let's look at the kind of leader that he was when I said the ethic at role is serving the people's interest above your own. Look at how he describes himself. Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the 20th year to the 32nd year of Artaxerxes the king, 12 years, so 12 years Nehemiah had this poll. That would be three presidential terms. Neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor. The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration 40 shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded over the people, but I did not do so because of the fear of God. Look at the lengths that Nehemiah is going to to make sure everybody knows I was here. I took this post for 12 years to serve the people's interests, not my own. I didn't even eat what the law said I could eat. Because the people were providing that. This type of integrity just does not exist. It does not exist. I don't care if you're a Republican. I don't care if you're a Democrat. If this ever showed up on the national scene, I can't imagine this person wouldn't win in an absolute landslide if we could just get over our pettiness. Anyways, I'll get off that soapbox, you know, again. But he says, I did so because of the fear of God. Verse 16, I also persevered in the work on this wall and we acquired no land and all my servants were gathered there for the work. So he didn't accept any land bribes. He didn't say, hey, I'll do this post. But at the end of it, I need to have, I need to be set up. And he said, my servants... We're there for the work as well. The people didn't. It came out of my bank account. Now, I'm not saying American presidents need to be that excessive, but I'm just saying this was the moment that Nehemiah just knew that in order to get buy-in for what he was charged to do, he had to go to these lengths. We're at a time in our nation where someone may need to go to these lengths in order to regain the trust of their community. Yet, For all this, I did not demand the food allowance of the governor because the service was too heavy on this people. Remember for my good, oh my God, all that I've done for this people. So examine the leader. The leader should not personally benefit from their time of service. And we're talking generalities. Obviously, not everything perfectly matches up with American democracy and our governmental structures. I get that. I'm talking in general. Bottom line is, if you're a public servant, you shouldn't come out with more than what you started. And Raise your hand if you think that's true of any of our governmental leaders. And if you know of one that you know that this is true of, you vote for that person every single time their name comes up. I don't care R or D, whatever animal, donkey or elephant is attached to their name. You vote for them every single time. Because we just... There's so few of those. We need to elevate those people. I would say that's the most Christian way to vote at this point in time, given our crisis. Nehemiah recognized the crisis that he was facing. He knew that there was going to have to be extraordinary amounts of trust built between him and the people that he was serving and he was attempting to lead. So he knew he was going to have to go extra lengths. Not all kings of Israel went to these same lengths. But I'm just saying we may be in a similar time where some walls and some structures need to be put in place. And there's no way to get by it. You need true leaders. So this situation that we're facing could be a failure of the leader. Maybe the borrowers and the lenders, they're doing their roles fine. And the reason we got an issue is because the leader's not leading. That could be. That could be. Honestly, yeah. put my cards on the table. That's the greatest issue I see is lack of leadership in this situation. I don't, and again, Republican or Democrat, I don't see leaders at the national level that are serving people. I see them serving self-interest. And so I see that as I examine all these situations, that's where I routinely go to is like, we just have a vacuum of leadership all across the board. And Until we fix that, the borrowers or lenders are just going to be hung out to dry all day long. So that's my conclusion. I'm not telling you that needs to be your conclusion. But here we see clearly the tools that you have in the Word. If you're like, man, what is God's view of this student loan debt forgiveness situation? Well... Three complementary roles. If everybody's doing their role, you don't ever have an issue. So if you have an issue, look at the borrower, look at the lender, look at the leader. We gave you the Bible. Nehemiah gives you the breakdown of how to examine those well. And I know that the Spirit will lead you to some great conclusions. And conclusions that could inform you and... maybe empower you to do some good in your community. So that's it today, man. I told you I was pumped about this one. I don't know. This one got me. I was excited. So I hope that was exciting for you. I hope you appreciate that. And as always, if you did, please review it. Give me five stars. Share this one. Be like, hey, you got to check out this perspective on this whole student loan forgiveness fiasco thing. This is something I haven't heard yet or whatever. Please get the word out there. But as always, I love you. I appreciate you. Until next time, Christian Well, everyone, have a great week.

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He taught me how to live my life as it should be. He taught me how to turn my cheek when people laugh at me. I've had friends before and I can tell you that he's one who will never leave you flat.