WWUTT 759 The People Confess Their Sin?

You have no one that you can blame for your sin. Only you are responsible for the sins that you have committed against God. But if you ask forgiveness, God is faithful and just to cleanse you from all unrighteousness when we understand the text.

When We Understand the Text and the Weekly Teaching Schedule

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now, here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Nehemiah 9 and the People’s Corporate Confession

Thank you, Becky. Well, in our Old Testament study, we have been in the book of Nehemiah, and today we'll be looking at chapter 9. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, the people of Israel pray a prayer of confession unto the Lord, and it's a prayer that stretches almost the entire length of the chapter, so that's where we'll be in our study today.

But just to give you a quick recap, Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem with the blessing of the king of Persia, and he helped to reconstruct the walls. It was a very adventurous part of the story in the first half of Nehemiah.

Upon the completion of the walls, Ezra read the law, and that's what we looked at last week. Ezra stood at the water gate there in Jerusalem, which was a location that was fairly close to where the temple was.

They had a platform built for him, and he read the law aloud to all of the people of the city who had gathered there. Now, it was tens of thousands of people, and so he had to project very loud, couldn't read very fast.

There were other Levites who were around that likely relayed what it was that Ezra was saying, but this took some time, so it wasn't like going to church and just sitting for an hour-long sermon. It could have been anywhere from three to five hours for Ezra to read the entire law, and the Levites to help the people understand what it was that Ezra was reading.

And so, then we get to the second half of Nehemiah 8, and the people indeed understood the law, and it cut them to the heart, and they realized they had not been keeping the feasts and the holidays that even according to the law of Moses, they were supposed to be celebrating unto the Lord.

And one of those feasts being the Feast of Booths. So, that was the last part of chapter 8 last week as the people kept that particular feast, and now we get to chapter 9, and still being convicted over what they've read in the law, and realizing their sin, and the mercy of God to restore them from exile back to this place, that the temple of God would be rebuilt, and they would even have a city with walls that protects them from the people who hate the Jews that exist on the outside.

So, here they realize that God's hand of mercy has been upon them, and so they pray this prayer. And within this prayer, there's a lot of history. I mean, basically, we're looking at Genesis all the way through 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles in this prayer.

So, if you want to get a summary of everything that's happened up until this point, this is where you would find it, here in Nehemiah 9. So, let's begin in verse 1. Now, on the 24th day of this month, the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with the earth on their heads.

Now, this is quite a contrast to what we were looking at at the end of chapter 8, because remember, keeping the Feast of Booths, this was supposed to be a very happy feast. It was one of the most joyous feasts that the Jews celebrated.

So, now, at the completion of that feast, we see a different turn in their posture before God. So, before, in keeping the Feast of Booths, they were supposed to have delightful hearts. They were mourning over their sin, but it was pointed out to them, no, in this feast, we must express our joy before God.

So, now, having completed that feast, they totally changed their demeanor, with fasting and with sackcloth and with earth on their heads. They ate during the Feast of Booths, but now entered into a period of fasting.

And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and 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 a quarter of the day.

For another quarter of it, they made a confession and worshipped the Lord their God. On the stairs of the Levites stood And they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. Then the Levites,.

Said,.

So, here where you have the Jews standing before God, and as it says in verse 2, confessing their sins and the iniquities of their fathers, this may have been very individual. It would have been individual persons confessing their own sins, the sins of their families and the sins of their households, the sins of their tribes.

It was not yet the corporate repentance. That's coming up in verse 6. So, for a time, there was individual repentance. And then all the people together led in this particular prayer that chronicled the entire history of the Jews to the point that they had come to this place and all the different ways that they had transgressed the law of God in that particular period.

So, here we get to verse 6, where here is the corporate prayer that was lifted up before God. And some of your translations may even have, at the start of verse 6, Ezra said, And if you have that in your Bible, it's because that's translated from the Septuagint.

It's translated from the Greek text. But that's not in the original Hebrew. It actually doesn't say that there was one particular person like Ezra who lifted up prayer. As a matter of fact, Ezra becomes a background character at this point.

Though he had read the law in chapter 8, we don't see him come up with such prominence again in the book of Nehemiah. So, here, this is just a prayer that may have been a summary of the prayer that was lifted up to God, led by the Levites, whose names we just read.

And very similar to the Levites who were with Ezra when he read the law and helped the people to understand it. So, here is the prayer that was corporately lifted up unto the Lord. Verse 6. Now, when I told you that with this prayer, they go all the way back to Genesis.

Yeah, I wasn't kidding. They go all the way back to creation. You are God who has made the heavens and the earth. You know, that's a great way to begin a prayer. When Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6, pray then like this.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. So, there is a recognition of God who sits enthroned above heaven and earth. He has created heaven and earth, so he is above it all. And this is a little bit more lengthy introduction to a prayer just like that, but we see a very similar introduction here with the people of Israel acknowledging God as all-powerful and sovereign creator of even time and space.

He has given a blessing, given a promise to Abraham and has been faithful to that promise. And the people recognize the only reason we're standing here is because God has been faithful to his promises.

Not because we did anything great, but because God is great. My brothers and sisters, may we enter into prayer with such humility before God and recognition of who he is. Let's go on to verse 9. And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and you heard their cry at the Red Sea, and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all of his servants and all the people of his land.

For you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers, and you made a name for yourself as it is to this day. And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land.

And you cast their pursuers into the depths as a stone into mighty waters. By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night, to light for them the way in which they should go.

You came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments. And you made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments and statutes, and a law by Moses your servant.

You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst. And you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.". So we're reading the Old Testament story up through about Exodus 20 at this point in the prayer.

Now surely you've heard it said that the slavery of God's people in Egypt was a type or a shadow that pointed forward to our slavery to sin. And the Lord Christ came and paid our ransom. So all who believe in Christ have been set free from their bondage of sin, just as Israel was set free from their bondage of slavery.

As we just went through a portion of Titus 3 yesterday, and we read the following. We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. So the same mercy that God had shown Israel and rescued them out of slavery, God has shown us mercy through his son Jesus Christ by rescuing us out of our slavery to sin and being set free in Christ Jesus.

Christ has paid our ransom. And Jesus himself said this, Mark 10, 45, for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Paul repeats this again in 1 Timothy 2, 6, that Jesus Christ gave himself as a ransom, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

And we read in 1 Peter 1, 17, if you call on him as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

And so here Peter even equates the exile to the way that we have been rescued by Jesus Christ. We've been delivered out of our exile into the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And we'll get to that even here in this prayer in Nehemiah 9.

So we see even types and shadows that point toward a fulfillment that was coming in Christ. We ourselves were once foolish, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, and the Lord has heard our groaning and delivered us by the giving of Jesus Christ on the cross.

You know, I can't help but think about the popular Christmas song, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. You know the first verse of this song, right? O come, O come, Emmanuel, to ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall ransom captive Israel. And as the Apostle Paul refers to the church in Galatians 6 .16 as the Israel of God. So we have been ransomed from slavery and from our exile by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Israel’s Rebellion, God’s Mercy, and the Wilderness Years

Let's continue on in Nehemiah 9. So after God gives the law to the children of Israel, we read in verse 16. But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.

They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them. But they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

And you did not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, this is your God who brought you out of Egypt and had committed great blasphemies. You in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness.

The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. You gave your good spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.

Though they groaned about it, by the way, yet the Lord continued to give these things to them. Verse 21. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

Now, indeed, the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years because of their sin, because of their complaining. But the Lord did not leave them in the wilderness to languish and die out, but rather he punished the generation that would not be allowed to enter into the promised land and their children would receive the promise.

Again, because the Lord is faithful to himself, he will fulfill those things that he has promised that he would fulfill. As he told Abraham he would do this and God is faithful to himself, so he did it.

And not because we are great, but because God is full of mercy and grace. As we read in 2 Timothy 2 .13, even if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. Let's go on to verse 22.

Possessing the Land, the Judges, and Repeated Covenant Breaking

And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. And that would have been in the book of Numbers.

You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. So the descendants went in and possessed the land. So again, remember the fathers died off in the desert as they were wandering as punishment for their sin and they're complaining, their descendants possess the land and you subdued before them, the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and gave them into their hand with their kings and the peoples of the land that they might do with them as they would.

And they captured fortified cities and a rich land and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

And even in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses said to the people, do not think that you're inheriting this rich land and all of its goods because you're good or because you've done anything great. It is because the sin of this people, the Canaanites has become a stench unto the Lord.

And so he is using the Israelites to punish them for their hundreds of years of sin and idolatry and rebellion. So they received great goodness from God having inherited this land that God had promised to the descendants of Abraham.

Verse 26, nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets who had warned them in order to turn them back to you. And they committed great blasphemies.

Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering, they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven. And according to your great mercies, you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies.

That would have been the judges. But after they had rest, they did evil again before you and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven and many times you delivered them according to your mercies.

And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them.

And they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. Many years you bore with them and warned them by your spirit through your prophets, yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

Nevertheless, in your great mercies, you did not make an end of them or forsake them for you are a gracious and merciful God. Now, therefore, our God, the great and mighty and the awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardships seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all people since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day.

Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly. Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave to them even in their own kingdom and amid your great goodness that you gave them and in the large and rich land that you set before them they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works.

Behold, we are slaves this day in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts. Behold, we are slaves and its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins.

They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please and we are in great distress. Because of all of this we make a firm covenant in writing on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

Confession, Covenant Renewal, and Final Prayer

And where we will pick up tomorrow we will read of the people who sealed the covenant and the obligations of this covenant that the people were making before God. And the people recognized their own sin.

They didn't try to blame a previous generation. Well God, that was our fathers. I mean, why are you making the Persians persecute us? We didn't do anything against you. Our fathers were the sinners. No, they recognized their own rebellious sinful nature in their own hearts and asked for God's forgiveness.

And so likewise, we can't blame anyone else for our sin. It is our fault and we need to take responsibility for our sin. But if we ask forgiveness God is gracious to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I come back again to Titus 3 verse 4 where after we read that we were slaves to our sins and our passions when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness but according to His own mercy.

By the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

God, forgive us our sins and cleanse us for Your namesake. In Jesus' name, Amen.

This has been When We Understand the Text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

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