Yet for many years you had patience with them, and testified against them by Your spirit in Your prophets. Yet they did 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 nor forsake them; for You are God, gracious and merciful. Nehemiah 9: 30, 31, NKJV.
Dear LORD, we are so blessed to serve a God who is patient, gracious and merciful. As we study Your Word today, please teach us to be like You. In the blessed name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
You can tell that our Scripture for today is nota pericope. It is part of a bigger story. We would need to use the entire chapter, and perhaps, beyond, in order to to paint the complete picture. But the portion that I have selected for our meditation today, is reflective of the theme that runs throughout the chapter, and throughout history of humankind: human beings sin, and repent. God forgives and restores. Thank God for His mercy and grace!
Yesterday we learned, or were reminded, that grace is so much more than we can ever fully comprehend. It forgiives, it is enables, it restores! God has done everything in His power, to facilitate a relationship with His creatures, and to secure our salvation. If we are lost it will be because we chose to be lost. Do not forget, God will respect our decisions.
Throughout the chapter, Nehemiah narrates the history of God’s call to Israel as a people. He began with God’s call to Abram to leave his homeland, Ur of the Chaldees, and to go to a land that God would show him – the land of Canaan. God kept His Word and brought him and his family, and extended family, to the land of Canaan. He forewarned Abram that for four hundred years his descendants would be slaves in Egypt, but after the fourth generation He would bring them back to “this land.”
God visited them when they were slaves in Egypt, and brought them out with His “mighty right arm” from Egyptian bondage. He showed His power on their behalf, when He parted the Red Sea, and made them go over on dry land. He stood between them and Pharaoh, when Pharoah pursued them in an attempt to take them back to Egypt. But they worshipped a golden calf as the “god” who had brought them out of Egypt. Yet He was patient with [them].” During the wilderness wandering He was their shade by day, and light by night. He fed them with food from heaven, and water from a rock. Yet they rebelled against Him.
Nehemiah admits that God is just, and that it was because of their sins that all of these calamities had befallen them. He acknowledges the fact that neither they, nor their leaders (kings, princes, priest, prophets, fathers), had done according to God’s statues, and commandments. He confesses their sins to God, and praise Him for being, “God, gracious, and merciful.”
The very last words of the chapter are especially meaningful. It would seem that Nehemiah is saying: “After we have seen what our disobedience has cost us, and how enduring Your mercy and grace has been toward us, Your love has won our hearts! Therefore, we and our leaders, have decided to enter into a covenant with You! Love had done what captivity had failed to do! Love had won their hearts!