Confession and Commitment

Introduction

How do you deal with a history of failure?

Does it get you down or does it motivate you to move forward?

Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything."

He was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive."

As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb.

When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, "I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."

Let’s face we are going to fail a lot in our lives.

When it comes to living as God would have us, we are going to fail in that too.

Like laundry, those sins or transgressions will begin to add up.

As the pile gets heavy we are burdened with a guilt that hangs over our heads, threatening to crash down at any moment.

The only thing keeping it off of you is God’s mercy.

As we look at Nehemiah 9, we will see God’s people back in the land, and what they’re going to do is rehearse the accumulation of their transgression.

There’s a repeated pattern in this chapter: having first rehearsed all that God’s done for them, they go through their transgressions, and then they return to God’s mercy.

They don’t necessarily make this explicit, but they are returning to God’s mercy to bring it to bear on their own sin.

After receiving God’s mercy through their confession, we see in Nehemiah 10 a reaffirmation of the covenant with God that they had turned their backs.

Sorrow Nehemiah 9:1-4

They gather together on the 24th day of the seventh month in deep sorrow over their sins that they need discovered from the reading of the Word of God in chapter 8.

A holy God desires a holy people to serve Him.

This is why it was essential for the Jews in the past, and ourselves nowadays, to be ‘people of a book’.

It is in that book, God’s Word, that we discover how to please God.

From the study of the Bible it should lead us to confess our sins to a Holy God.

In chapter 9, the Jews are going to repent of their sin.

What’s remarkable about this is that they first felt conviction when the law was read on the first day of the month.

Almost the whole month has passed.

They weren’t able to deal with the conviction they felt.

They took care of all that the law requires and gathered 23 days later to deal with their sin.

We should learn that if you have felt conviction that you haven’t addressed, you need to take care of that unfinished business.

Go before the Lord and imitate the Israelites here by confessing.

We see them here confessing their sins and also the sins of their fathers.

They will acknowledge all God has done for them as Israel, and they will confess all the ways that Israel has diregarded what God has done for them.

They confess that they received everything and appreciated nothing.

A Survey of History Nehemiah 9:5-37

They begin with praise.

The name of God is more worthy and more exalted and more majestic than our meager praises can express.

They want to see His name exalted over all blessing and praise, and the Levites call the people to “Stand up. Praise Yahweh” (9:5).

The Lord deserves this worship from His people.

To praise someone is to speak well of them, and the people are going to speak what is right about Yahweh throughout this passage.

In Nehemiah 9:6-37 we get the content of the way the people made confession and worshiped the Lord.

What we have here in this passage is the fullest summary of the storyline of the Old Testament in the Old Testament

Nehemiah will highlight these key moments in his retelling of the biblical narrative: creation, Abraham, exodus, wilderness, conquest, judges, prophets, and exile: justice and mercy.

The Levites focus on five facets of God’s dealings with his people.

The glorious God who created the world. Verse 6

Having praised God, they begin verse 6 with God Himself.

The Levites are asserting that Yahweh stands alone: There is only one God.

They summarize Genesis 1-2 showing that God made everything and He alone deserves credit for this fantastic world.

Confessing sin begins with the recognition that we are both accountable and obligated to the Creator.

Despite what modern philosophy may teach us about evolution, materialism, or the other explanations of how the word came into being, there is only living and true God who made you, and you are accountable to Him.

The Righteous God Who Keeps His Promises Verses 7-8

The Levites then move from creation to Abraham

God did three things for Abraham

He chose Him

He brought him from Ur, present day Iraq, to Canaan later called Israel

He changed his name to Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of a multitude)

God promised Abraham that he would have the land, nation, and a blessing and through Jesus a blessing to nations.

With them back in Israel after the exile is proof that God keeps His promises.

The fact that He is a promise keeper is emphasized throughout this passage.

God does what He says He will do.

The Gracious God Who Cares For His People Verses 9-21

Do you see the progress here?

We went from God’s identity and creation

To the covenant with Abraham

Now we go to the exodus.

The nation is in Egypt and in distress.

God hears their groaning

Saw their condition and

Remembered His covenant with Abraham

They cry out to the Lord and He leads them out of Egypt

The Egyptians acted arrogantly against the Israelites, so the Lord vindicated His people by delivering them.

He did the wonders and heard the cry of their affliction.

This is significant because later in this passage these Levites are going to say, “We are in great distress” (v. 37).

The distress of Israel in Egypt is like the distress the returnees face.

And the Levites want Yahweh to do in their day what He did at the exodus,

They go to recount God giving the Law at Mount Sinai

The law of Moses is a good gift to Israel.

God doesn’t leave His people guessing about how to please Him, and God doesn’t leave His people un-regulated.

If we look at human history and compare how kings and people in power have devised ways to oppress and abuse the people under their control, we will see that the laws of the Old Testament are good laws.

It’s a good system.

I love the idea that He commanded them to have a Sabbath day

What this text is saying is that God gave Israel the gift of a holy Sabbath.

Think of what a good gift that was: A day when they were commanded to rest.

A day when it’s not just that you don’t have to work, you’re commanded not to work.

So you feel no guilt about not working.

And if you’ll heed this, you’ll have a day where you can bring yourself back together.

A day where there is time to spend with your family.

A day where there will be time to read the Scriptures.

What a gift the Sabbath was!

A Compassionate God Who Does Not Abandon His People Verses 16-26

So now we move to the wilderness wanderings and that brings us to Israel’s sin.

The Israelites are described as acting like the Egyptians, who were arrogant against other humans, as they Israelites acted arrogantly against the Lord.

They became stiff necked and did not listen to God’s commands

This is language that depicts Israel acting like a recalcitrant mule or an unwilling cow, and I think that G. K. Beale is correct that this imagery is used because the Levites are about to talk about the golden calf.

Israel is described acting like what they worshiped.

Psalm 115:8 says, we will become like what we worship.

Israel worshiped a calf; they acted like a calf

They stiffened their neck

Do you want to feel conviction for your sin?

Do what this passage says Israel didn’t do.

Look at your life, and look at the majesty of what you are as a human being, the way that God has created you in His image.

Then rehearse all the good things that God has done for you.

Think of the way that no one you know personally has died from hunger.

No one you know has died from thirst.

The Lord has preserved you, clothed you, provided for you.

He is even now allowing you to study His Word.

God freed them, and what do they want?

They want to be slaves again.

This makes no sense.

But that’s how sin is.

It makes no sense.

Sin is stupid.

Why would anyone act this way?

God has been so good to liberate them.

Why would they return to slavery?

That’s what they wanted.

And look at what the Levites say next: But You are a forgiving God,

The Levites are laying the foundation for their argument by rehearsing how the fathers were delivered, they they sinned, and God forgave them.

God showed them mercy.

The Sovereign God Who Achieves His Plans Verses 9:27-31

At this point the Levites have summarized creation, Abraham, the exodus, the wilderness and now they come to the border of the promised land.

They move into the land promised to Abraham and occupy it with God’s help

Everything they could want was given to them.

Cities already built, home furnished, and farms producing crops.

God took them out of slavery and gave them everything they could desire.

How did they respond?

Rebellion

The history of Israel is a history of rebellion.

It’s a history of God being good to Israel and Israel using God’s goodness to them to rebel against Him.

Sin cycle of Judges - rest, rebellion, retribution, repentance, restoration and rest

Then the Levites recall the prophets who were pointing the people back to the Law of Moses, which is law of God Himself.

The people never fully obeyed God and as a result the Exile happened.

Through all the cycles of backsliding and subsequent repentance the sovereign God was working according to his precise and perfect timetable.

The waywardness of his own people and the depravity of their adversaries could not thwart his decrees.

He would allow no one, nor any world power, however powerful, to destroy the nation which he singled out to be the vehicle through which he would reveal himself to the world.

Every event was leading on to the birth of his beloved Son at Bethlehem and his atoning death at Calvary.

We too deserve to be destroyed due to our sin

But verse 31 is there for them and us, “for You are a gracious and merciful God.

Supplication Verses 32-38

The Levites now address their own situation

They have shown that in spite of the history of rebellion, God continued in His patience and mercy to Israel.

The Levites are asking the Lord to keep showing mercy in their own day.

The want God mercies that are renewed every morning.

They have expressed how the Lord has always shown His people mercy, and they are asking Him to do it again in their day.

Let me encourage you to make the same argument, make the same plea.

When you want to bless God, when you want to praise Him, this is what you do: Take stock of all His goodness to you, then make confession of your sins.

Confess all your sins—own up, make a full accounting of your iniquity—then rehearse the repetitions of His mercies and ask Him for more.

In verse 38, they come with specific, actionable points of application.

They now make a covenant, or renew the old covenant with God.

Then there is a list of all who make the covenant.

The Covenant Chapter 10

These people recognised their obligations in the covenant

The people added their support to the governor, priests, Levites and leaders.

Provisions of the covenant

Mixed marriages

Intermarriage with the non-Jewish races would soon lead to worship of their gods and not Yahweh

One of the main issues in their history and Ezra had already dealt with this, but here they are addressing it.

The Sabbath

By observing the Sabbath and the Sabbath year shows they trust in God

God would provide for them on the Sabbath - no need to shop

In the 7th year they were to let the fields lay and not work them, again God would provide

Then cancel debts once again let God provide

Key is trust in God.

Provision for worship in the temple

Since worship of God was at the center of their lives and was the reason for their existence as a unique nation set apart from all other nations.

Therefore everything concerning worship, even down to the mundane chore of providing firewood for the sacrifices, was carefully planned.

They were expected to support the work of the ministry at the temple.

This would enable them to enjoy God’s presence

What is at the heart of these three issues to which the Israelites have committed themselves?

The Lord is the point of marriage: marriage exists to display the way God loves His people.

The Lord is the point of the Sabbath: old covenant Israel rested from their labor to declare that Yahweh was their provider. We rest from our works and take on the easy yoke Christ offers to proclaim that He saves us; He gives us rest.

The Lord is the point of temple worship: the point of that temple being beautiful, the point of those priests offering sacrifices, the point of the seasonal trips to Jerusalem to worship the Lord there—all that is about being with God, knowing Him, enjoying His presence.

Our Application

We live to know God.

Our cause is not the way of life of the American people.

We have something so much bigger and better than that.

We have this good news that sinners can be reconciled to God by faith in Christ because Christ has satisfied the wrath of God, He paid the penalty for sin, and all who trust in Him are right with God.

Maybe you’re not a believer in Jesus and you hear me talking about these obligations that have to do with not intermarrying with unbelievers and keeping the Sabbath and sustaining worship at the house of God.

What’s all this about?

This is all about knowing God.

We who believe want you to know God with us.

What you live for is what gives meaning to everything else in your life.

These old covenant Israelites are saying, “We live for the Lord.”

That dictates who they marry.

That dictates what their calendar looks like.

That dictates that they care for the most sacred place in their society.

We live for the Lord.

How does that dictate the way you live?

James M. Hamilton Jr. et al., Exalting Jesus in Ezra-Nehemiah (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014).