We have come to Nehemiah 9. Let’s take a quick glance at the setting.
• The Jewish people had been in captivity in Babylon. Their Temple and the entire city of Jerusalem had been destroyed.
• Now, after 70 years, they have returned and rebuilt their city.
Although we usually say they “returned” to Israel, most of them were coming back for the first time. They were the newer generation, born in captivity.
• They had found the Law of Moses during their work on the Temple. Prophet Ezra read it aloud to them. They vowed to return to God’s Law.
• Chapter 8 described their sorrow for having strayed from God and sinned against Him. They were determined to obey God and get back to God’s ways.
• Chapter 9 continues on this theme.
We are going to read this beautiful prayer led by the Levites – Neh 9:1-37 [use audioclip]
We see the nation making attempts to RECONNECT with God.
• They listen to the Word, they pray and they worship Him. They confessed their sins.
• The Levites led them in this corporate prayer, the longest recorded prayer in the Bible.
It was a prayer of confession and repentance, recounting what God has done for them and men’s failure to honour Him.
• I find the prayer awesome. You see a retelling of everything that God has done and what He has shown them (over their entire history). And a recounting of their disobedience and rebellion.
• It was a confession. There was this realisation of how far they have drifted from God, and an honest confession of their sin.
This is the first step in every spiritual renewal or revival – a realisation that we have drifted from God and a desire to get back.
• This confession makes renewal possible; confession makes revival plausible.
• TRUE CHANGE or RENEWAL can only happen when these 3 things take place:
(1) Admit our wrongs, (2) Acknowledge God’s ways, and (3) Act on It.
The first step is the confession; it is to admit that there is a need for change.
• We saw how this started in Chapter 8 – when they heard the Word, they mourn and weep.
• We saw that now in this corporate prayer.
Confession is important because it is the first step to change.
• James Montgomery Boice: “There can be no genuine forward moral progress for either a nation or an individual without an acknowledgement of, sorrow for, and a true turning from sin.”
• It is important that we examine ourselves. If we are not convinced that we need a change, we won’t. This realisation leads to repentance.
We pray that we will always be sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit when He brings to our mind the Word of God.
• It doesn't help if we confess ‘just to confess’, or because ‘this is what everybody does’, or because ‘we have to do it’.
• We want to confess because we are moved by the Word of God or convicted by the Holy Spirit.
• This was what happened to the prodigal son. Luke 15:17-18 “When he came to his senses (realisation), he said, “How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.” (confession)
Why does God want us to confess? Surely not to inform Him of something He does not already know.
• Firstly, God wants us to admit them so that we can take the steps toward change. Only when we agree with God that it needs to be change, will we find the commitment to change it.
• Secondly, confession makes us real. We are fully honest before God, honest with self, and honest towards people. It is being authentic, being vulnerable and being real.
• This is the way to happiness. We are not laden with guilt or shame; we experience God’s forgiveness and the joy of forgiveness.
• Good fellowship with God cannot happen with unconfessed sin in our lives.
The second thing that is necessary for RENEWAL to take place is to acknowledge God’s way – or take God’s Word seriously.
• It is this deep conviction that His Word is the only blessed way.
This is closely related to the first – confession. God’s Word leads to confession.
• The reading of the Law, and the subsequent DAILY reading of the Scriptures, led to the people’s confession and repentance.
• This realisation that we have sinned against God comes through the reading of God’s Word.
• We will never acknowledge sin to be sin or grieve over it unless we understand it as an offense against God, and the only way to see that is to know God’s Word.
If we are to change, then we got to have an alternative. What do we really want to change into? What kind of a change are we looking at?
• It cannot be your way against my way, or his way against the world’s way. It must be God’s Word that we are looking at. God’s Word is our benchmark.
• God’s Word is the mirror to our soul, to our character, to our conduct.
In this prayer of confession, the Levites directed the people’s thoughts to the goodness and grace of God. The word YOU appeared throughout the prayer.
• You made the heavens; you give life to everything; you are the Lord God – we see God’s greatness in creation.
• You made a covenant with Abraham; you saw our suffering; you sent miraculous signs and wonders against Pharaoh; you divided the sea; you came down on Mount Sinai (the list goes on) – we see God’s goodness to Israel, His people.
Despite their failures to recognise God’s kindness and their betrayal, God remains faithful and continues to shower His blessing on them.
• 9:17c “But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.”
• You did not desert them in the desert; you gave your good Spirit to instruct them; you did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst; you made their sons as numerous as the stars in the sky.
• 9:31 “But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.”
• 9:33 “In all that has happened to us, you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong.”
God was good and faithful to His people, when His people were ungrateful and unfaithful to Him. It speaks of God’s grace.
• In this prayer, the people were led to see through their history, a God who is great, good and gracious, despite man’s sin and failures.
• This is the basis why we confess our sin.
We have a forgiving God, a merciful and gracious God.
• This is why the father waits for the prodigal son to return. Not to judge or condemn him, but to embrace and forgive him.
• Our pardon today is not based on our merit or our worthiness, but upon His goodness and grace.
• We don’t base our appeal on our past accomplishments (how much I’ve done for God), but simply upon His grace and mercy.
• 9:17 “But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.”
The third step to a CHANGED LIFE is to act on it.
• When we know where we are and where we want to go, we need to take the necessary steps to induce the change.
• They ended their prayer saying (9:38), “In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.”
They are going to make a covenant before God that they will do the following:
30 "We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons.
31 "When the neighbouring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day.
Every seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.
32 "We assume the responsibility for carrying out the commands to give a third of a shekel each year for the service of the house of our God…
35 "We also assume responsibility for bringing to the house of the LORD each year the firstfruits of our crops and of every fruit tree.
36 "As it is also written in the Law, we will bring the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, of our herds and of our flocks to the house of our God, to the priests ministering there.
37 "Moreover, we will bring to the storerooms of the house of our God, to the priests, the first of our ground meal, of our [grain] offerings, of the fruit of all our trees and of our new wine and oil.
And we will bring a tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns where we work.
39C "We will not neglect the house of our God."
They were determined to make right what was wrong, so are we today.
HOLY COMMUNION
We are taking the Holy Communion today. I like to move into it right now, since we are talking about confession and repentance.
• 1 Cor 11:28-29 “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
• Nothing will really transpire if we simply take the bread and drink the cup.
• Renewal comes when we ADMIT our sin before God, ACKNOWLEDGE His commands, and tell Him we are committed to ACT on it, to really take step to change our lives.
• EXAMINE oneself becomes that important step, at each communion time.
David - Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
[don’t rush, take your time]
Allow the Holy Spirit to take away the hindrances and obstacles you have placed in God’s way.
• Tell Him what you did wrong.
• Is there someone or something you love more than Him?
• Is God’s Word a concern to you? Can you really worship Him, or has something taken the place of God in your heart?
• Tell Him the attitudes you have that are not good – pride, arrogance, jealousy, lust, unwillingness to forgive, laziness…
Allow Jesus to minister his cleansing and healing to your spirit.
• If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
