|
|
Nehemiah Chapter 9
The People of Israel Confess Their Sin
- Nehemiah 9:1 Now in
the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel
were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth
upon them.
- 2 And the seed of
Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and
confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
- 3 And they stood up
in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD
their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part
they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God.
This is what should be happening all
over the earth. God wants to save rather than destroy. His wrath is
usally the last resort. If He didn't bring correction or do
something to stop the sinning, sin and suffering would continue
forever. He wants us to live right and inherit His kingdom that is
coming. Now we have Jesus to go to for cleansing, renewing and
salvation but before Jesus came the law kept sin in check as they
looked forward to the final sacrifice for sin and the redemption
coming through Jesus our Christ or Messiah.
Repentance that is genuine will produce
in us the way of righteousness. We change, we desire God's ways
instead of our own ways. It is glorious and makes old things become
new.
What a great God we have. He makes a way for
anyone who will just believe Him. One time many years ago a man
named Abraham believed God. He just believed God and it was counted
to him as righteousness.
- Nehemiah 9:4 Then
stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani,
Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani, and
cried with a loud voice unto the LORD their God.
- 5 Then the Levites,
Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah,
Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless the LORD your
God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which
is exalted above all blessing and praise.
- 6 Thou, even thou,
art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens,
with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein,
the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all;
and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
- 7 Thou art the LORD
the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of
Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;
- 8 And foundest his
heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to
give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and
the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give
it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou
art righteous:
- 9 And didst see the
affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by
the Red sea;
- 10 And shewedst
signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on
all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt
proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as it is
this day.
- 11 And thou didst
divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst
of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest
into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.
- 12 Moreover thou
leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by
a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they
should go.
- 13 Thou camest down
also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and
gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and
commandments:
- 14 And madest known
unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts,
statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:
- 15 And gavest them
bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water
for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them
that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst
sworn to give them.
This is the kind of praying I love to
hear. When a whole congregation lifts up their voices and prays all
at the same time, crying out to God.
First they remind themselves and all
the people listening how God called Abraham whose name in the
beginning was Abram which means exalted father. God changed that
name to Abraham. Abraham means father of a multitude. He became a
father of a multitude literally from a barren woman too old to have
children came a multitude of people that Satan has tried to destroy
but they are still alive and all over the world. God's word will
come to pass and nothing can be done to stop it.
- Genesis 17:3 And
Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
- 4 As for me,
behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of
many nations.
- 5 Neither shall
thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be
Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
- 6 And I will
make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee,
and kings shall come out of thee.
- 7 And I will
establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after
thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a
God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
- 8 And I will
give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein
thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting
possession; and I will be their God.
God means what He says and says what He
means. His word is just as powerful today as it was in the
beginning.
They recognize here the creator of
heaven and earth which didn't evolve by accident. God was, is and
always will be the creator. That is what we need to teach our
children, not the foolishness that is being taught today. There is
proof in the earth of a divine creator if we would only look for it
instead of trying to explain away the existence of God. If we want
to believe that God does not exist, the old devil will make sure we
find things that is false and will lead us astray. If we desire
truth and seek the truth, we will find it.
Israel has not yet received all the
land promised them from God but they will at the second coming of
Jesus. God promised Abraham that His seed would inherit that land
but God did not allow them to possess it until the sins of the
people that occupied that land got to the point of no return. God
waits until the last minute before He sends judgment and
destruction. It does come when people get so wicked that God has to
stop it. That is why that land was given to the seed of Abraham
through Isaac. The reason they have so much trouble though is
because they keep going back into sin.
God heard their cries when they were in
bondage in Egypt and delivered them by using His servant Moses. All
kinds of miracles were done. The parting of the Red Sea, feeding
them food from Heaven, giving them fresh water to drink, delivering
them from enemies that outnumbered them and much more. He even led
them through the wilderness by a cloud by day and a fire by night.
He gave them His law to protect them and keep sin in check until the
final deliverer would come to take their sins away and fill them
with the Holy Spirit. This happened through the death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus.
As a nation though they will be given
back all the land originally promised to Abraham.
- Nehemiah 9:16 But
they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks,
and hearkened not to thy commandments,
- 17 And refused to
obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among
them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed
a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready
to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great
kindness, and forsookest them not.
- 18 Yea, when they
had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that
brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great
provocations;
- 19 Yet thou in thy
manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the
pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them
in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them
light, and the way wherein they should go.
Forsaking God and His commandments is
why they have had so much trouble and was driven from their land
over and over again until 1948. Yet in all that God didn't give up
on them. He still hasn't. In fact Israel is the only nation
guaranteed to exist until God makes a new heaven and a new earth.
- Revelation 21:1
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
- 2 And I John saw
the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
- 3 And I heard a
great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his
people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Through Jesus the Son of God, this
promise of being part of the new heaven and the new earth is for all
who believe. Both Jews and Gentiles.
- Nehemiah 9:20 Thou
gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest
not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their
thirst.
- 21 Yea, forty years
didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked
nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled
not.
Who but God could take a multitude of
millions of people, feed them, keep them safe so much so that their
shoes didn't wear out after 40 years in the wilderness.
- Nehemiah 9:22
Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide
them into corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, and the
land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.
- 23 Their children
also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest
them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to
their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.
All this from a barren woman passed the
age of childbearing.
- Nehemiah 9:24 So the
children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst
before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and
gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people
of the land, that they might do with them as they would.
- 25 And they took
strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all
goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees
in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat,
and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.
- 26 Nevertheless they
were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law
behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified
against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great
provocations.
This is why the land promised to them
was taken away by Babylon and wasn't given back to them except in
part by Cyrus. They still were under the authority of Persia, Greece
and then Rome. Because of the rejection of Jesus and His
crucifixion, they lost their land in 70 AD by the Romans. They got
it back in 1948 but still have not received all that was originally
promised them. They will only at the coming of Jesus a second time.
- Nehemiah 9:27
Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies,
who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they
cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according
to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved
them out of the hand of their enemies.
- 28 But after they
had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore leftest
thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the
dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto thee,
thou heardest them from heaven; and many times didst thou
deliver them according to thy mercies;
- 29 And testifiedst
against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law:
yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments,
but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall
live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their
neck, and would not hear.
- 30 Yet many years
didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy
spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore
gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.
- 31 Nevertheless for
thy great mercies' sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor
forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.
- 32 Now therefore,
our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who
keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little
before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our
princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our
fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of
Assyria unto this day.
- 33 Howbeit thou art
just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right,
but we have done wickedly:
- 34 Neither have our
kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law,
nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies,
wherewith thou didst testify against them.
- 35 For they have not
served thee in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness that
thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which thou
gavest before them, neither turned they from their wicked
works.
- 36 Behold, we are
servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our
fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold,
we are servants in it:
- 37 And it yieldeth
much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because
of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over
our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.
- 38 And because of
all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes,
Levites, and priests, seal unto it.
This chapter explains it all. It shows us the
result of forsaking God and doing evil. Not just Israel but the
whole earth. We think we are going to get away with defying God,
killing the unborn children, leaving God's holy divine instructions
for sacred marriages between one man and one woman and doing things God did not
ordain. Now we have mental confusion and those wanting to change
their gender from male to female or female to male. Some are giving
kids hormones or surgery that will destroy their bodies for life.
God's laws are for our own well being. Living
outside of God's divine order will cause disease, confusion, death
both phycially and eternally if we don't repent and get right with
God. That is why He sent Jesus, His own pure holy sinless Son to
come and die for the sins we committed. When we receive Jesus, our
sins are forgiven and cleansed. We are then reconciled back to God.
We can be free of this junk but how many are refusing this good way
just like Israel did in the past. That is why the majority will be
lost in hell forever.
- Matthew 7:13
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which
go in thereat:
- 14 Because
strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it.
Jesus is that narrow way. There is no
other way to be saved and enter the Kingdom of Heaven for eternity.
DC
Thank you Jesus.
-
Jeremiah 6:16 Thus
saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the
old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall
find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk
therein.
Nehemiah
Chapter 10
|
|