WHEN WE CONFESS OUR SINS PART 2 NEHEMIAH 9

As the children of Israel confessed their sins, they recognized that their Lord had ‘Given them kingdoms and nations and divided them into districts.’ (v22)
They had responded by ‘taking possession of the land.’ Had they forgotten to thank the Lord for His graciousness?   Then they were aware of the miracle of human reproduction, ‘which is sadly overlooked in prosperous times.’ You multiplied your children as the stars of heaven.  Every male ejaculation of semen contains 200-400 million spermatozoa, a prodigious natural provision, defying our imagination. I use medical illustrations to confirm God’s specialty in colossal procedures.

They recalled the gift of the land of Canaan, which God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ‘The people went in and possessed the land. You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land.’ When they confessed such wrongdoings, they remembered Jericho, the destruction of the city and the miraculous crossing of the river.  The Spirit of God stirs the chords of memory, which have been silent for ages. ‘They took strong cities and a rich land. And possessed houses full of all goods, cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance, so they ate and grew fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.’ (v25)  Our family joyfully entered a village in East Java when wells had been dug, banana and coconut trees planted, houses built. Oh, the relief, after months in a hotel. A sinful life, with awakened memory of the Lord’s bounty, warranted such a confession.

God’s word reveals the true situation, for ‘They were disobedient and rebelled against You, cast Your law behind their backs and killed Your prophets, who
testified against them to turn them to Yourself, and they worked great provocations.’  (v26) A just God had no alternative, for ‘You delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who oppressed them; and in the time of their trouble when they cried to you, You heard from heaven, and according to Your abundant mercies You gave them a deliverer who saved them from the hand of their enemies.’  Confession brings out the truth: disobedience, rebellion. Despising the law, slaying the prophets, and exasperating the Lord.  We must not hide from His pure light.

In accepting blame that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, (Jeremiah 17:9) the children of Israel recognized ‘That after they had rest, they again did evil before you.’ Therefore, you left them in the hand of their enemies, (enjoying God’s gift of free will) so that they had dominion over them.  Recognition of slavery may develop only over a lifetime or generations. ‘They had dominion over you, yet when they returned and cried out to You, You
(mercifully) heard from heaven, and many times You delivered them according to Your mercies. ‘You testified against them, that You might bring them back to Your law, yet they acted proudly (pride brought satan down from the heights) and did not heed Your commandments, but sinned against Your judgments.

They were obstinate, ‘Shrugging their shoulders, stiffening their necks and not hearing. Yet for many years, You had patience with them, and testified against them by Your Spirit in the prophets. Yet they would not listen; therefore, You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.  Nevertheless, in your great mercy You did not utterly consume them (as the righteous Lord could well do) nor forsake them, for You are God, gracious and merciful.’ (v31) How often did they throw themselves on the mercy and grace of God. We should do so constantly.

They finally exalt the Lord of glory,’ Therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and awesome God, Who keeps covenant and mercy: do not let all the trouble seem small before you that has come upon us, our kings and our princes, our priests and our prophets, our fathers and on all Your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.’ (v32)  They acknowledged all are guilty, regardless of rank or status: and that their God is just and faithful. ‘You are just in all that has befallen us, for You have dealt faithfully, but we have done wickedly.’  Their confession overflowed, ‘Neither our kings nor our princes, our priests, nor our fathers have kept Your law, nor heeded Your commandments and your testimonies, with which You testified against them.  They repeated the range of responsible offenders. Oh that national and Christian leaders would be accountable to their God and to their citizens.  

Israel was humbled to admit that they were lackeys of pagan peoples; over the four centuries, they were exploited by Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian rulers.  All because they had defied the living God.

They deplored their position; ‘Here we are, servants today! Really enslaved. And the (productive) land that You gave to our fathers, to eat its fruit and its good things, here we are, servants (slaves, bound) in it!’ They reluctantly admit that the foreign kings are beneficiaries for ‘It yields much increase to the kings, You have set over us, because of our sins; and they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle at their pleasure; and we are in great distress. (v37)’.  ‘Sin is a reproach to any people’ for God meant His people to enjoy the fruits of the nation, which were carried off to heathen unbelievers.

This stirred their confession: ‘Because of all this, we make a sure covenant, and write it, and our leaders and our Levites and our priests seal it.’ (v38)  They meant business with the Lord. ‘Nehemiah the governor, sealed the document; with 22 other dignitaries, the priests; then the Levites, and a list of the leaders of the people. Such was the stirring of God’s Holy Spirit. Oh, that we shall see that today!  God had touched His people for many responded;’ the rest of the people , priests, Levites, gate-keepers, singers, and all those that had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God.’  Families rightly followed their leaders, ‘wives, sons and daughters.’ With striking effect, ‘They joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and oath,(which they chose) to walk in God’s Law, given by Moses the servant of God;( 10:28) to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God, and His ordinances and statutes.’
          Do you confess personal sins and national short-comings just like that?