Seeds for 10/31/2024 - Nehemiah 9:22-31
Scripture:
22 “You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan. 23 You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to enter and possess. 24 Their children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you gave the Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. 25 They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness.
26 “But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. 27 So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.
28 “But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.
29 “You warned them in order to turn them back to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, of which you said, ‘The person who obeys them will live by them.’ Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. 30 For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you warned them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. 31 But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.
Observation:
The prayer of the Levites continues to rehearse the story of their people. As we read it, we find a pattern that matches the cycles in the book of Judges that go roughly like this: Israel does well with the help of God, God blesses them, they forget God and turn away from His guidance, God gives them over to the consequences of their choices, they suffer from their poor choices and cry out to God for help, and God helps them.
Verses 26 and 28 both begin with the conjunction, “but.” In both cases, it indicates that the Israelites are turning away from the Lord and toward disobedience and evil.
One phrase captures an important truth: “you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.”
This reminds me of a line I heard from a fellow Methodist preacher recently. It goes like this: “God is better at saving than we are at sinning.” As bad as the Israelites were, as low as they went, they couldn’t go so far that God couldn’t reach. Their sins led them to dark places, and they didn’t straighten things out after one backsliding episode. They needed God’s saving help over and over again. And He “delivered them time after time.” He is better at saving than we are at sinning.
Related to this is another observation I find in this section. God’s consequences are real, but His compassion is just as real. God gives them over to the consequences of their choices. He isn’t a needy parent, so desperate for the children’s affection that He has no boundaries. At the same time, His love for the children is such that a shift in the orientation of their hearts—the phrase “they cried out to you” appears twice—is sufficient to activate the saving action of God on their behalf.
We can’t sin so much that God won’t save when our hearts authentically cry out to Him. Praise be to God!
Application:
Why do people find it hard to believe that God will forgive “time after time?”
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for giving grace to me “time after time.” Keep me coming back to you. 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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Beautiful, grace-filled and incomprehensible.