Seeds for 10/30/2024 - Nehemiah 9:16-21
Scripture:
16 “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.
19 “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. 21 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.
Observation:
Sometimes the trouble we deal with comes from outside. Hard situations that test our grit. Or difficult people—let’s be honest, even downright mean people—who try our patience and require our perseverance. Yet sometimes our problems come from within. Such it the case in the section of the leaders’ prayer that we read today.
One thing I’m observing first is that this prayer is deeply honest, in a “good, bad, and ugly” kind of way. The Levites who are leading the people in spiritual renewal at this gathering are not only “playing the hits” in this prayer. Yes, they remembered the good times of how the Lord came through for them when they needed help. They were in a desperate situation and God delivered them. But today’s passage indicates that they are willing to acknowledge before God the regrettable, embarrassing, even shameful parts of their story too.
Following on that, a second observation is this: there’s an implicit contrast (though only barely so) between what you’d expect a people thus delivered and provided for to respond to God and how the Israelites do. Words like “arrogant,” “stiff-necked,” “refused,” and “failed” pepper the paragraph. Yeesh. God is good, but the people are hard-headed and fickle.
A third observation takes us a step further. Despite the people’s shortsightedness, stubbornness, rejection, and rebellion, God remained faithful. The prayer says it like this: “But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them…”
Two simple, familiar, and critical words frame the story: but and therefore. In contrast with their fickle, disobedience character, God remains who He is. His character remains. That’s the “but.” Their character is malleable, but God is the same God—“forgiving… gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.”
Which brings us to the “therefore.” God’s actions are determined by His character more than they are influenced by the people’s whims and erratic behavior. Hence, “Therefore you did not desert them…” The causal factor is not the people’s worthiness, but God’s goodness.
It is always amazing how deeply the story and truth of Jesus is woven throughout the pages of scripture from Old Testament to New and here we see it yet again.
Application:
What parallels do you see between this passage and the story of Jesus?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, thank you that our hope is in your goodness and compassion and not in our steadfastness. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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