Nehemiah 9
Notes
Transcript
After the Party
After the Party
So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness.
After Ezra started reading the Book of the Law, the people had a party.
They celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles.
Which ends with a sacred assembly.
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. Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 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.
First, those who were decedents of Israel separated themselves from those who had joined them.
And the decedents of Israel confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
They recognized not only their mistakes, but those of their fathers.
If you want to get where you planned to go, you have to start by knowing where you are.
They had to admit the mistakes that their fathers had made, to understand where they were, before they could set course to where they want to be.
If you read the books of Kings and Chronicles, you’ll see that many of the problems in Israel & Judah came from sons following after their fathers.
They spent a quarter of the day listening to the Book of the Law, and another fourth they confessed and worshiped God.
How many of you will get antsy if I go longer than 30 minutes?
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.
Then several levites stood on the steps of the temple called the stairs (literally ascent) of the levites.
They had something important they wanted to say,
Not to the people, but to get the people to talk to God...
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!
They wanted the people to bless God.
Now what does God need with His people’s blessing?
What Scripture is talking about here is the people speaking, I believe reminding themselves, of just how great God really is.
God certainly doesn’t need a reminder.
How did they want the people to bless God?
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.
God alone is the Lord, Jehovah
And He has made everything.
Not only has He made them, he keeps them alive.
They wanted the people to remember that God is the creator of everything.
“You are the Lord God,
Who chose Abram,
And brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans,
And gave him the name Abraham;
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.
It was God who chose Abram, not the other way around.
It was God who changed his name to Abraham and led him out of Ur and to the land of Canaan.
And it was God who gave the land to Abraham.
It was God who had chosen their ancestors,
And by extension, had chosen them.
“You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,
And heard their cry by the Red Sea.
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.
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.
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.
It was God who saw how the Egyptians treated the Hebrews,
And God who provided for their salvation.
With signs and wonders,
By parting the Red Sea,
By leading them day and night on the road they should travel.
They wanted the people to remember the miracles God had performed to save them from slavery.
“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.
You made known to them Your holy Sabbath,
And commanded them precepts, statutes and laws,
By the hand of Moses Your servant.
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.
It was God who appeared on Mount Sinai and spoke to the people.
And scared them to death by His appearance.
God gave them the law, introduced them to the Sabbath, provided bread and water in the wilderness.
“But they and our fathers acted proudly,
Hardened their necks,
And did not heed Your commandments.
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.
It was the Hebrews, the fathers of the people now living in Jerusalem, that were proud and would not listen to God’s commandments.
They refused to obey, even after seeing the wonders God had done.
They rebelled,
They thought one of their own could lead them better than God.
To lead them back into bondage.
But the people needed to remember that God is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger and ready to pardon.
“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,
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.
Even when they created an idol, and claimed it had rescued them from Egypt.
He showed them mercy.
He did not leave them in the wilderness.
He continued to lead them.
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.
Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness;
They lacked nothing;
Their clothes did not wear out
And their feet did not swell.
For 40 years, God continued to provide for them.
Not just with food and water,
but clothes that did not wear out and feet the did not swell.
Most of all, with His Spirit to teach them.
Even though the people kept wanting to give up on God,
God didn’t gave up on them.
“Moreover You gave them kingdoms and nations,
And divided them into districts.
So they took possession of the land of Sihon,
The land of the king of Heshbon,
And the land of Og king of Bashan.
You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven,
And brought them into the land
Which You had told their fathers
To go in and possess.
So the people went in
And possessed the land;
You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land,
The Canaanites,
And gave them into their hands,
With their kings
And the people of the land,
That they might do with them as they wished.
And they took strong cities and a rich land,
And possessed houses full of all goods,
Cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves,
And fruit trees in abundance.
So they ate and were filled and grew fat,
And delighted themselves in Your great goodness.
Not only did God provide for them, He gave them a promised land.
He subdued the previous inhabitants,
He gave them cities and rich lands.
“Nevertheless they were disobedient
And rebelled against You,
Cast Your law behind their backs
And killed Your prophets, who testified against them
To turn them to Yourself;
And they worked great provocations.
Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies,
Who oppressed them;
And in the time of their trouble,
When they cried to You,
You heard from heaven;
And according to Your abundant mercies
You gave them deliverers who saved them
From the hand of their enemies.
But did the children of Israel learn their lesson?
Nope. They rebelled against God and his law.
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Even then, God did not forsake the Hebrews.
“But after they had rest,
They again did evil before You.
Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies,
So that they had dominion over them;
Yet when they returned and cried out to You,
You heard from heaven;
And many times You delivered them according to Your mercies,
And testified against them,
That You might bring them back to Your law.
Yet they acted proudly,
And did not heed Your commandments,
But sinned against Your judgments,
‘Which if a man does, he shall live by them.’
And they shrugged their shoulders,
Stiffened their necks,
And would not hear.
Yet for many years You had patience with them,
And testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets.
Yet they would not listen;
Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
Nevertheless in Your great mercy
You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them;
For You are God, gracious and merciful.
And this cycle repeated over their history,
The people would abandon God and fall into misery.
Then they would call out to God, who would deliver them.
Then they would abandon God again.
Yet in all of this, God never abandoned the people of Israel.
“Now therefore, our God,
The great, the mighty, and awesome God,
Who keeps covenant and mercy:
Do not let all the trouble seem small before You
That has come upon us,
Our kings and our princes,
Our priests and our prophets,
Our fathers and on all Your people,
From the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.
However You are just in all that has befallen us;
For You have dealt faithfully,
But we have done wickedly.
Neither our kings nor our princes,
Our priests nor our fathers,
Have kept Your law,
Nor heeded Your commandments and Your testimonies,
With which You testified against them.
For they have not served You in their kingdom,
Or in the many good things that You gave them,
Or in the large and rich land which You set before them;
Nor did they turn from their wicked works.
How important is it for the people to have godly leaders?
Their kings, princes, priests, prophets, even their fathers led the people to abandon God.
Which led to their captivity.
How important is it for nations to have godly leaders today?
What about leaders in their congregations?
How important is it that we have godly leaders in our churches?
“Here we are, servants today!
And the land that You gave to our fathers,
To eat its fruit and its bounty,
Here we are, servants in it!
And it yields much increase to the kings
You have set over us,
Because of our sins;
Also they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle
At their pleasure;
And we are in great distress.
“And because of all this,
We make a sure covenant and write it;
Our leaders, our Levites, and our priests seal it.”
And on that day, they once again declared themselves servants of the Most High God.
God has brought them back to the land He had given them.
And for this reason, they will once again write a covenant with God and seal it.
More about that next time.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Sometimes, we need an intervention.
A reminder of what we had, how badly we screwed up, and what God has done to bring us back to him.
Just like those in Israel, our reminders are usually not pleasant, but they are needed.
Sometimes, it takes someone else to show us just had big a mess we have made,
Before we are ready to beg for forgiveness.
There are two main points in the blessing these Levites led the children of Israel through.
That both they and their fathers had screwed up by not following God.
And that God was always there to forgive them.
The same way today, we should recognize how our fathers, both physical and congregational, have made mistakes.
So that we can learn from them
And see how God was always there, even when they made mistakes.
It reminds me of something John Newton said.
I know two things...
There is a God,
And I am not Him.
