Nehemiah 9:1-21
1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads. 2 Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.
4 Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the LORD their God. 5 And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said:
"Stand up and bless the LORD your God
Forever and ever!
"Blessed be Your glorious name,
Which is exalted above all blessing and praise!
6 You alone are the LORD;
You have made heaven,
The heaven of heavens, with all their host,
The earth and everything on it,
The seas and all that is in them,
And You preserve them all.
The host of heaven worships You.
7 "You are the LORD God,
Who chose Abram,
And brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans,
And gave him the name Abraham;
8 You found his heart faithful before You,
And made a covenant with him
To give the land of the Canaanites,
The Hittites, the Amorites,
The Perizzites, the Jebusites,
And the Girgashites—
To give it to his descendants.
You have performed Your words,
For You are righteous.
9 "You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,
And heard their cry by the Red Sea.
10 You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh,
Against all his servants,
And against all the people of his land.
For You knew that they acted proudly against them.
So You made a name for Yourself, as it is this day.
11 And You divided the sea before them,
So that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land;
And their persecutors You threw into the deep,
As a stone into the mighty waters.
12 Moreover You led them by day with a cloudy pillar,
And by night with a pillar of fire,
To give them light on the road
Which they should travel.
13 "You came down also on Mount Sinai,
And spoke with them from heaven,
And gave them just ordinances and true laws,
Good statutes and commandments.
14 You made known to them Your holy Sabbath,
And commanded them precepts, statutes and laws,
By the hand of Moses Your servant.
15 You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger,
And brought them water out of the rock for their thirst,
And told them to go in to possess the land
Which You had sworn to give them.
16 "But they and our fathers acted proudly,
Hardened their necks,
And did not heed Your commandments.
17 They refused to obey,
And they were not mindful of Your wonders
That You did among them.
But they hardened their necks,
And in their rebellion
They appointed a leader
To return to their bondage.
But You are God,
Ready to pardon,
Gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger,
Abundant in kindness,
And did not forsake them.
18 "Even when they made a molded calf for themselves,
And said, 'This is your god
That brought you up out of Egypt,'
And worked great provocations,
19 Yet in Your manifold mercies
You did not forsake them in the wilderness.
The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day,
To lead them on the road;
Nor the pillar of fire by night,
To show them light,
And the way they should go.
20 You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them,
And did not withhold Your manna from their mouth,
And gave them water for their thirst.
21 Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness;
They lacked nothing;
Their clothes did not wear out
And their feet did not swell.
After hearing the words of God’s Law, the word of His Book which they had violated as a people, the Israelites fasted and repented. They put away sinful entanglements (2 Timothy 2:4) which would only lead to further sin if not abandoned. They confessed their own sins as well as those of their fathers before them as a nation. For a quarter of the day they read God’s word aloud, then spent another quarter confessing sins and worshipped their LORD God with this contrite and repentant attitude, knowing their offense to Him by hearing His word as the standard, the mark which they so often missed by so far off. The long prayer which followed began with giving glory and honor to the LORD and His name, admitting that He alone created them and the entire existence f the universe. They acknowledged that He preserves it all, and that He is worshipped in heaven above (and so must in creation below). They confessed knowing it was His providence and sovereign grace which chose them as a people and kept them for Himself along the way, keeping His words of promise because He is righteous. They spoke to the LORD of understanding His salvation from the bondage in Egypt, their deliverance by the immersion through the Red Sea (1 Corinthians 10:1-2, Hebrews 11:29). He led them by fire and cloud through the wilderness to a land promised before Egypt and in spite of their continued rebellion. They confessed that He had given them His words and commands through Moses and that they had not kept them, for their forefathers had hardened their hearts and disobeyed those words of His Book meant for their good and His glory, honor, and praise. Yet they cried out in their prayer for God’s merciful pardon for sin because they knew His character was grace and mercy married in truth (Psalm 85:10), and they reflected on how He should have forsaken them before, but did not. His manifold mercies gave them light to guide back to Him instead (Psalm 119:105), making their way straight (Psalm 5:8, Isaiah 42:16) in spite of their wandering when they should have been attentive (Isaiah 30:21) to His leading according to His word. His Spirit was given to teach them the way to go as verse 20 says, for He had given them their daily bread and watched over them along the way, demonstrating His faithfulness and love. They lacked nothing from the LORD along their journey. We can learn from the first half of this prayer of repentance and praise to confess our sins of not following His word (1 John 1:6-9), and never stop praising and thanking our Lord for His work on cross and up from the grace to give us eternal life and hope in Jesus Christ. May we always remember our own deliverance, and not harden our hearts or turn our eyes and ears from His word and Spirit’s guiding us for His name’s sake.
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