Spiritual Restoration: Learning from history. Nehemiah 9
Notes
Transcript
Text - Nehemiah 9
Subject - Compassion
Theme - God’s compassion
Thesis - We can confess our sins before God because He is gracious and compassionate.
Principle - Even though we are unfaithful, God is always faithful.
Intro
Many of us are familiar with the saying Winston Churchill made “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
The sentiment in this statement is quite true.
He is often credited with it, though he is not the first to say it.
Irishman Edmund Burke said it this way, “those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
And another man before both of them, George Santyanna said it this way, “those who cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”
Each of these men said the same thing with different wordings.
If you go into a history professor/teachers office or classroom, this quote is often seen somewhere.
Because it is a true statement.
As statement that when we look around our country today, is one that it appears many people, both young and old have forgotten.
The statement and idea is much, much older than these men in the early to mid 1900’s.
This sentiment really comes from God.
We see the truth of that in our passage this morning.
I was doing a little math and over the course of the 7 days of the feast of booths, they were reading scripture 6 hours per day.
That is a total of 42 hours.
For us today, and it would have been similar in Hebrew, but for us today to read the entire OT at an average reading pace it takes about 58 hours.
It is very likely that during the feast of booths, the entirety of the OT was read, at least once.
Looping back to the phrase that I opened with, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
God knows, that we, as sinful men, are prone to forget.
I always resonate with the lyrics in Come Thou Fount
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
God is fully aware of this tendency in our hearts, which is why he tells us to remain firmly connected to him.
That is why as we saw last week that an emphasis on God’s word is required for true spiritual renewal to take place.
It is through God’s word that we can be truly connected to God.
When we know God’s word, we know God.
When we know God, we know that He is gracious and compassionate, abounding in steadfast love, that we can confess our sins to Him and receive forgiveness.
“You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.
You are the Lord, the 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 with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.
“And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea,
and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all 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.
“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 did not forsake them.
Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up 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.
Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
“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.
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, 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.
“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.
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, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your 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 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.
Last week in the 8th chapter we saw the beginning of spiritual restoration and that spiritual restoration begins with an emphasis on God’s word.
If we are honest with ourselves, we all need some spiritual restoration in our lives.
We need to remember to keep God at the center of our lives.
Here now in chapter 9 we pick up a couple of days after the feast of booths has ended.
I you remember or read back into chapter 8, the people were greatly saddened by what they learned and how they had grieved God by not following His commandments when scripture was read to them.
But they were told that it was not the time for sadness.
The feast of booths was to be a celebration of what the Lord had done.
They were told to go and
English Standard Version Chapter 8
Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
The time of feasting is over, now it is time for repentance.
The ESV titles this section The People of Israel Confess Their Sin
The posture of the people is important to note as we begin this chapter.
English Standard Version Chapter 9
the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads.
Their physical state shows the seriousness of what they were doing.
Fasting was meant to direct the peoples attention to God.
They gave up food for and time and the hunger pangs reminded them to seek the Lord.
Sackcloth was rough and scratchy, often made of goat or camel hair, worn directly on the skin, was an irritant, also to remind them to seek the Lord.
The dust on the head was a symbol the people’s lowly position.
This goes back to Gen.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
They separated themselves from all foreigners.
(Every time we see foreigners introduced with the people of God in the OT, they bring with them false God’s and lead the people away).
The people then confessed their sin, both personal and corporate sin.
They read from Book of the Law for about 3 hours, and spent another 3 hours making confession and worshipping God.
How does that sound for a church service?
Even more uncomfortable for us today I think than 6 hours of Bible reading.
None of us like to admit our sin.
The truth is though that lukewarm Christians don’t really want to be saved from their sin; they only want to be saved from the penalty of their sin.
They want to remain living in it.
We see here an example of genuine repentance and an example for each of us.
Think about your own life and motivations to seek forgiveness.
Am I seeking forgiveness so I can keep on sinning, or do I genuinely want forgiveness so I can go and sin no more?
After reading for 3 hours, and confessing and worshipping God for 3 hours, they gathered around the stairs and a group of Levites lead the people in crying out the the Lord.
This cry is often considered a prayer, while not directly stated as such, it is though of this way because it is directed to God.
The content of this cry shows what the reading of scripture had done to, done in the people.
It reminded them of their story.
Through reading the word, they remembered their ancestors, which helped them learn about themselves.
Second, they learned about God's dealings with them, which helped them learn about God.
And third, they saw their current (poor) condition clearly, which helped them learn about their need.
The word woke them up, helping them see themselves, their God, and their need correctly.
If we are going to experience God's renewal in our lives, we must go to God's word for all three—who we are, who God is, and what we need.
Verses 6-37, this cry to God, summarizes the story of the OT up to the point of Nehemiah’s day.
They had read Genesis, Exodus, and on through reminding them of who they were.
They recalled how God made everything and sustains everything.
“You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.
They were reminded that God had chosen them, as descendants of Abraham to be His special people.
They were the result of the covenant that God made with Him.
As we read scripture,
Scripture ought to do the same for us as believers today.
Especially when we read things like what Peter writes for us
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Do you believe that this morning?
That you have been chosen, that you are a part of a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
That you are part of a people for the Lord’s possession?
This extends far beyond the USA, we must remember that.
As the people looked at their own history, they realized how much God had already done for them.
God had seen the afflictions of their fathers in Egypt and had come down to do signs and wonders against Pharaoh, defeating him finally and totally at the Red Sea.
God lead them through the wilderness and provided for them all the way.
He came down on Mount Sinai and gave them right rules and true laws.
Through their time in scripture they were reminded of just how much God had been at work in them as a people.
Especially considering what they saw about themselves.
Amid the stories of God's calling and deliverance and provision and victory, the people also saw how their forefathers had consistently rebelled against God.
Even though they were God's special people—even though they were abundantly blessed by God—they often turned their backs on him.
They saw their rebellious history in the way they behaved after the exodus.
God had taken them out of Egypt with a strong hand, working plagues and miracles and signs as a way to set them free, but they still stiffened their neck and did not obey God's commandments (16).
They even appointed a leader to take them back to their slavery in Egypt (17).
They worshipped a golden calf, claiming it was the god that delivered them from Egypt (18).
They also saw their rebellious history in the way they behaved after the conquests.
Once they left the wilderness, they went into the Promised Land and won victory after victory.
But there, in the land, they were still disobedient and rebellious against God.
So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. (25)
They cast the law behind their back and even killed his prophets who had warned them (26).
This cycle of victory, then rest, then rebellion was repeated many times (28).
They weren’t only said about their past though, they were also saddened by their current situation.
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.
After reading the word, they felt they deserved this distress, which was why they were mourning to begin with.
If we think of our own lives, are there not times when we grow discouraged by the reality of our situation?
We know God chose us, set us free, spoke to and provided for us, and that we can run in his victory.
But we don't always live in that place—
instead, we often live in defeat and a vicious cycle of sin.
And that cycle often gets us into a sad situation—defeat and slavery.
Can you think of that sin in your life that you so desperately wish to rid of?
Through their reading of scripture, the people learned they were God's special people, but they consistently still rebelled, and their current situation was dire as a result.
Perhaps we feel familiar.
We realize who we are because of God's calling, but rebellion is still our pattern,
and it has gotten us into some deep pains and consequences.
There is help and there is hope though as we continue.
There is help and hope because through the people’s reading of scripture, they cry out to God about what they have learned about themselves.
But they cry out to God as well about what they have learned about Him!
Throughout its contents, this cry to God is a recounting of stuff God did.
God created the world.
God called Abraham and made a covenant with his descendants.
God delivered them from their captivity in Egypt.
God spoke the law on Mount Sinai.
God provided manna and water and miracles.
God gave them powerful victories over their enemies.
God!
God did, and he still does today.
He is the prime mover, the main character, the hero and focus of their story and of ours.
As I read and studied this passage, there were phrases that continually jumped out about God.
First, the people remembered that God is righteous (8, 33).
English Standard Version Chapter 9
And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.
and at the end
English Standard Version Chapter 9
33 Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.
God’s holiness, justice, and perfection are on full display in this passage.
God is shown to be righteous in how he kept is promises and his judgments.
This aspect of God is one the modern mind often craves to delete.
Many have thought God would be better if he were all-accepting without any standard of justice.
We like the a god who makes promises to bless, but not one who makes promises to hold us accountable.
We like God as our servants, but struggle to become his servants.
But—at this moment—these people recognized God's righteousness.
Every time he disciplined them, it was right.
Every time he made a promise, he kept it.
Every time he acted, his motive and works were pure.
There is no defilement in God.
He is righteous.
He is right.
But they also realized God was merciful.
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 did not forsake them.
Past generations had been delivered according to God’s mercies.
English Standard Version Chapter 9
Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies.
Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.
They recognize how amazing God is, and the reason for their current situation of relative safety was only because of God’s care for them.
God was merciful.
Gracious
Gracious
Through their reading of scripture they also see that God was gracious to them.
Grace and mercy are different things.
God’s mercy is when he doesn’t give us the judgment we do deserve.
God’s grace is when he gives us his goodness which we don’t deserve.
These people knew this righteous God was also gracious and forgiving.
Look back to the end of 17 again.
English Standard Version Chapter 9
But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them
This of course brought them to realize their current situation.
God was once again giving the people another chance.
Another chance to flourish as His people.
How about you?
Do you see God as gracious, the one who gives what we don't deserve?
Do you see God as merciful, often withholding judgment and discipline we do deserve?
Do you see God as righteous, right in the way he keeps promises and brings discipline when needed?
This is what learning Bible stories is all about—growing to know God.
Through the stories, they realized much about themselves, but it wouldn't have mattered unless they realized much about God.
They saw him and his righteousness, mercy, and grace.
How about you?
When you read the Scripture, do you see more than yourself in the stories?
Do you see more than yourself in the inspirational sentiments?
Do you see more than yourself in the doctrines?
Don’t read the Bible to make yourself a better person.
Read your Bible to know God better!
You must see God.
You must see his goodness, his mercy, and his amazing grace.
You must go to the well of God's word not merely to see your reflection in its waters but to draw upon and become refreshed by God.
All of this drives to people to see their need.
That is why they were mourning after all.
They now knew they were a needy people.
The chapter ends in 38 saying
“Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests.
That will be the focus of our study next week going into chapter 10.
In brief, they said they would do the right thing with their money, bodies, and time.
But spoiler alert - they didn’t keep this one either!
It can be rather discouraging to consider the failure of the people. They learned about themselves. They learned about God. And they did the best they could by renewing their covenant with God.
But what they truly needed was a New Covenant.
Nehemiah's story is chronologically the last historical book of the Old Testament.
So the book of Nehemiah describes the final state of God's people before Christ comes.
And when Jesus came,
Did he find a revived, passionate, God-fearing people?
No, instead, Jesus found apathy, legalism, and spiritual lethargy.
But God knew of this problem in his people.
He knew of our tendency to commit and fail.
That is why he promised a new way of doing things.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
At the last supper, on the night he was arrested, when he took the cup, Jesus said:
And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
This New Covenant, promised long ago and delivered by Jesus, is what these people really needed.
They needed a new nature, a new heart, and the Spirit within them.
They had no real hope of change or transformation without an inward change of the heart.
Unless someone understands the forgiveness of God, and how we are so in the wrong with God.
No matter where we are.
Whether an ultra religious zealot or a drug addicts.
It is the the same grace of God is what Woos us and wins us and brings us to himself.
If we don’t understand the nature of our predicament, we will never understand the reality of our forgiveness.
This inner newness is precisely what Christ offers.
This is what Paul is telling us in
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
When we find ourselves in Scripture—or in real life—
as a called, chosen people for whom God has fought,
yet enslaved to sin, we must remember this New Covenant.
When we find ourselves in the same old spin cycle of sin, discipline, repentance, and renewal, leading to more sin,
we must get back to the New Covenant, where we abide in Christ and he continues to change us from the inside out.
We have this hope in him—and we must never let it go!
As a reminder of this, and as we close we are going to remember this covenant together through our taking of the Lord’s supper.
Perhaps you have heard it said that history is “his story.”
The Lord’s Supper is deeply rooted in history.
It was a certain man, Jesus Christ, who on a certain night, the night he was betrayed, said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
When you think about it, that is what history is all about.
It is a remembrance of life not to be forgotten.
As we take communion together now let us use this time to remember who we are, who God is, and what we need.
And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it.
And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.