Cleaning the Slate: Nehemiah 8-10
Steve Simala Grant, May 4/5, 2002
Intro:
Do you believe in a clean slate? In new beginnings, in starting again, in new life?
I do. With all my heart. I have seen God bring life out of death, hope out of despair, healing out of pain, beauty out of ugliness.
And I’ve seen God start new things where good things have been before. Bringing change when change is needed in order for there to be continued growth and excitement. That is the point I believe we are at today.
I was out in our garden the other day, cleaning away all the dead plants and flowers from last summer. I had a pair of garden sheers, and was cutting off the old dead stalks – flowers that had been beautiful last year but died back as winter came. In a number of places, as I cut off the stalk I noticed that there, growing up in the middle of the dead stalk, was a new, green shoot. You see, the root was good and strong. The same root that produced beautiful flowers last summer was alive and growing again, producing another plant which will be bigger and stronger and even more beautiful this summer. I recognized that immediately as a picture of our church. We have come through a winter, and sometimes as we look out all we see is the dead stalks, the places where there used to be life and beauty. But I know the root is strong, and I know that underneath those dead stalks is new life, new excitement and enthusiasm and joy, and it is already beginning to poke through the surface. We have a little work to do to clear away the dead parts, to cultivate the soil and make the conditions ripe so that God can provide the growth. But I know it is coming, and am excited to see what God has planted begin to bloom.
We need to do a bit of that work this morning.
Newness in Nehemiah:
I want to take us back into the Old Testament to look at a time of new beginnings for God’s people the Israelites. The story is in the book of Nehemiah, looking at sections from chapters 8 to 10.
As you’re looking that up (OT pre-Psalms…), let me sketch the background. This is more than 500 years after David and Solomon, after the great prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. The nation of Israel had been defeated and carried off into exile, leaving the promised land in ruins. Then King Cyrus of Persia had issued a decree allowing the Jews to return to their homeland in 538BC, and a number of them had returned under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra. The walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt, and the people had settled in their towns. And as that is done, they all gather at Jerusalem. We pick the story up in Nehemiah 8:1ff
Nehemiah 8
1 all the people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.
2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. 3 He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.
5 Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. 6 Ezra praised the Lord , the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, "Amen! Amen!" Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, "This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.
10 Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."
11 The Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve."
12 Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.
Point 1: Being in the presence of God illuminates our sinfulness.
This is a beautiful picture of the best of worship. We see the people come into the presence of God, as they hear from His word, and they respond in worship. The second half of verse 9 tells us of the people’s reaction: weeping. Why? Because as they worshipped God the sinfulness of their lives became apparent. As they came into His presence they recognized their unworthiness.
That is the Biblical way of coming to repentance – we come into God’s presence and then see our sinfulness. Sometimes we try to do it the opposite way (or else insist others do it the opposite way) – we insist on trying to repent before coming to God. But that way doesn’t usually work – we don’t see our sinfulness as God sees it, through His eyes. And so we aren’t motivated to repent because we see how horrendous our sins are in the sight of God. Instead we are trying to scrub off our own dirt, and while we might get a little of it clean on the parts we can see, the layers go down deep and are in places that we can’t reach. And only God can illuminate those deeper places, and bring us to repentance. The danger is that we try to clean ourselves up and then think we’re done – think we are presentable – without ever seeing ourselves through the eyes of God and in contrast to His holiness.
Maybe you’ve been trying to do it that way – trying to get all cleaned up before coming to God. You look at yourself and say “I can’t come to God like this, I’m not good enough, I’m not worthy, I don’t deserve it.” Or maybe you have cleaned yourself up, to the best of your ability, and now think you are ok. To you I say simply, come. Come as you are, not as you think you should be. Come into God’s presence and let Him change you, let Him clean you off, let Him make things right. If you think you’re all cleaned up, ask God to show you if that is in fact the case. I’ll let you in on a little secret – you can’t do it on your own. You will never get to a place of being worthy. So just come as you are. Trust God with the rest.
You know what I love in these verses? The people react with weeping, an appropriate response for sure when we recognize our sinfulness. But look at the response of their leaders: they basically say, don’t weep – have a party! Don’t grieve, rejoice! What? This is serious business! This is somber activity. Instead, Nehemiah says, “For the joy of the Lord is your strength” (vs. 10). Romans 2:4 tells us that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. Here is great wisdom. The process of repentance is one of joy. Oh, I’m not saying it’s fun or easy, but we need to see as Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites that it is cause for celebration. First because it is in the celebration that we find strength to do the difficult – changing sinful habits into God-pleasing habits. But second because repentance allows us to receive and enjoy the blessings of God: so it is a party in anticipation of what is next.
There is another great part to the story in vss. 13-18, but I want to skip past that to chapter 9:
Nehemiah 9
The Israelites Confess Their Sins
1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. 4 Standing on the stairs were…
Point 2: Repentance, both personal and corporate
Following 3 weeks of celebration, the Israelites gather once again. This time to bring their sins and confess them. Verse 2 tells us they first separated themselves from foreigners (in accordance with the Law), and then they came together for a time of confession. I want you to notice what they confessed: first, their sins. But secondly, the wickedness of their fathers.
What we are seeing here is a need for confession on two levels. First is the familiar one – the things we have done or not done – the things for which we are personally responsible. That aspect of confession we understand, and emphasize constantly – in fact each time as we gather around the Lord’s table we take time for this aspect of confession.
But we also see a second level – a confession of what I call “corporate” sin. These are sins which we are all responsible for together, as a society or as a culture. They aren’t necessarily things that we are personally responsible for, but things which we have done as a group which are wrong. We’ve seen a bunch of this recently – the Pope has issued a number of apologies for things like being too silent during the Holocaust and the 15th century killing of a Czechoslovakian religious reformer named Jan Hus. Church leaders in the US have passed resolutions apologizing for their roles in perpetuating slavery and discrimination. We see here in Nehemiah the people confessing the “wickedness of their fathers.”
There are some things which we need to seek God’s forgiveness for together, as a church, corporately. This is a theme our Elders have been prayerfully exploring in the last few weeks, and which I’ve been feeling God calling us to do this morning. And like Nehemiah, I believe this is to be a cause for celebration. It is God calling us to put some things behind us, to confess them and seek God’s forgiveness, so that we can fully take hold of all that God has for us next. It is to be something we do in joy as we remove anything that might hinder us, or God, from seeing God’s Kingdom established as He desires.
And this is where I wanted to start, on this, the first Sunday as Senior Pastor. I believe we need to wipe the slate clean, begin anew, start fresh, seek new life together. And like in my garden, it is not like the old was bad or awful. It was beautiful and good, at least most of it. But now we are in a new season. Winter is over, spring is here, it is time for new life and new growth and new vision and new excitement. I honor the past, I praise God for all He has done, and I want to lead us to be open to all that God has for us next. And so to begin that, we need to seek God in repentance so that He can be free to move among us, and so that we can be free and empowered to love Him and serve Him fully. We are going to do that together in just a few moments. The Israelite’s prayer which follows shows us how to do this:
Nehemiah 9:5-37 records the prayer of the people, and is a model for us. Verse 5-6 begin with the focus on God, where it needs to be:
"Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 You alone are the Lord . You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.
The next section is the longest, from vss. 7-31. I’m not going to read all of it, but enough so that you see the pattern that emerges:
7 "You are the Lord God, who chose Abram…
9 "You saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt…
13 "You came down on Mount Sinai…
16 "But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands… But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them…
19 "Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. 20 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. 21 For forty years you sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.
22 "You gave them kingdoms and nations…
26 "But they were disobedient and rebelled against you… But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.
28 "But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.
29 "You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. 30 For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples. 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.
Do you see what is happening? They are reciting their history, a litany of things that God has done among them, noting especially God’s great compassion in the midst of their continual habit of rejecting Him. The pattern is God blesses, the people begin to trust themselves instead of God and thus sin, God disciplines them in love and compassion, and they repent and receive God’s forgiveness as they pledge to live in obedience again.
That is the pattern I want us to follow as we gather around the Lord’s table this morning – to rehearse what God has done in our history as a church and to Praise God for that, then to seek forgiveness for our personal and corporate sins, and then to celebrate together the new life we have in Christ through His sacrifice for us on the cross. Those of you who are serving, please come and join me here at the table.
COMMUNION/CORPORATE PRAISE TIME
Praising God for the Past:
I believe we need to begin by praising God for all that He has done among us in the past. I could produce a list, but then it would be my list instead of our list, and so I want to open it up to you with this question: what sticks out in your mind as evidence of God’s power and faithfulness to us as a congregation? I’m going to ask you to share those out loud as expressions of praise to God for the things He has done.
(interactive time of sharing)
(server to lead in a prayer of thanksgiving)
SONG: “Forever”
Hearing God’s call for our present:
After reciting the history of God’s graciousness and covenantal love and faithfulness, the people confess their sin. I’ve taken some elements of that prayer in 9:32-37 and used that as a loose basis for a prayer of confession for us corporately. But first, we need a time of quiet personal confession. Take some time to come into God’s presence through prayer and ask Him to illuminate your life, ask Him to reveal the things that are wrong. Following that, please take the prayer of corporate repentance and read it and reflect on it, so that as we read it together aloud we can do so with conviction.
TIME FOR QUIET PRAYER
There are a number of specifics included in this prayer, which are there because they are things that our church leadership have felt God revealing to us as things that need to change. We have at times been proud and reliant on our own abilities instead of on God’s power. We have at times been stubborn, and often first ignored, then resisted, and only after wrestling with God for a long time have we obeyed. And we have at times been self-centered, focused on ourselves and our needs and wants instead of on God and the needs of others. I believe we need to confess these attitudes, that we need to be humble before God, and seek His forgiveness – why? For the joy set before us.
(ask people to stand together; server to lead this corporate prayer of repentance)
So we stand forgiven. The slate is clean, God’s promise of forgiveness claimed. What next; what first? What better place to start than gathered around the table of our Lord. God calls us to fellowship with Him and with one another. Around the Lord’s table we do both as we re-enact the atoning death of our Lord for us. And we do so in joy, in celebration just like Nehemiah’s people, at all that God has done for us His people.
Read 1 Cor. Communion passage.
Prayer of thankfulness for the bread; passing the bread.
Prayer of thankfulness for the cup; passing of the cup.
So what comes next? We trust God for the next steps: we start with a clean slate, and ask God to be the one to write on it. We’ll talk more about that in the weeks ahead.
But there is one last thing to point out from Nehemiah: at the end of chapter 9 we read:
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."
(10) 28 "The rest of the people-priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants and all who separated themselves from the neighboring peoples for the sake of the Law of God, together with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand- 29 all these now join their brothers the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord.
The last thing to point out is the Israelite’s commitment to change, to get things right, to not just ask for forgiveness and then run out and do exactly the same things all over again, but to follow God, to be humble and not proud, to be obedient and not stubborn, and to be God-centered and not self-centered. I want to invite you, urge you to make that change together. Why? For the joy set before us. So that we can receive all that God has for us.
Conclusion:
In 1874, a woman named Frances Havergal wrote this in her diary:
I went for a little visit of five days (to Areley House). There were ten persons in the house, some unconverted and long prayed for, some converted, but not rejoicing Christians. He gave me the prayer, “Lord, give me all in this house!” And He just did. Before I left the house every one had got a blessing. The last night of my visit after I had retired, the governess asked me to go to the two daughters. They were crying, &c.; then and there both of them trusted and rejoiced; it was nearly midnight. I was too happy to sleep, and passed most of the night in praise and renewal of my own consecration; and these little couplets formed themselves, and chimed in my heart one after another till they finished with “Ever, Only, ALL for Thee!”
What were those couplets? They were the words we sing together in the hymn “Take my life and let it be.” And that is how we want to respond this morning.
