Tag Archives: Nehemiah 9-10

Daily Bible Study

June 5, 2023 Bible Study — Characteristics Of God

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 9-10.

In yesterday’s passage, when the Jews gathered in Jerusalem to hear the Book of the Law of Moses read after rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls, they responded to hearing God’s commands by weeping.  The leaders convinced them to put off their mourning because that gathering was one of celebration.  So, they gathered a second time to once more hear the Book of the Law and mourn their sins.  That right there contains a lesson for us, but is not what I want to write about today.  When they gathered the second time it was to confess their sins and renew their covenant with God.   However, before I get into my main point for today I want to touch on how this gathering also emphasizes my point from yesterday’s entry.  The version of the covenant this group entered into with God specified that all those who had separated themselves from the neighboring peoples along with their wives, and their sons and daughters who were old enough to understand were agreeing to this new covenant.  That is, this renewed covenant was being entered into by men and their wives on an equal footing.

As part of that renewed covenant they recounted the many wonderful things which God had done for their ancestors, and the ways in which their ancestors had turned from God.  We can learn from this that our human nature leads us to turn away from God when times are good,  which leads to suffering and hard times.  Yet, when we do fall on hard times and cry out to God, He will come to our rescue time and again.  I especially want to draw your attention to the characteristics of God which they describe here.

  • God gives life to everything
  • God gave us regulations and laws which are just and right, and good
  • God is forgiving
  • God is gracious
  • God is compassionate
  • God is merciful

The first two are important reminders for us and the other four are characteristics we should seek to emulate.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 5, 2022 Bible Study — All Too Often We Turn To The Lord In Times Of Trouble Only To Return To Our Sins When The Crisis Has Passed

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 9-10.

I wrote yesterday that when the people in rebuilt Jerusalem heard the Book of God’s Law  read to them they grieved, but their leaders instructed them to put aside their grief because they had assembled to celebrate God’s mercy.  They followed their leaders’ advice, but in today’s passage we are told that two weeks after that festival they assembled once more, this time to express their grief over their sins.  This time they fasted and prayed, and once more listened to the Book of the Law being read to them.   Then they listened to a litany of how their ancestors had cried out to the Lord when in distress, been rescued by Him, only to turn back to their sins as soon as the crisis had passed.  Once more they, as a people, were in  a situation of crisis and were turning to the Lord.  Are we too willing to admit that we cry out to the Lord when in trouble, only to return to our sins when the crisis has passed?  Are we willing, as these people were, to strive to make a break with out past and commit to following the Lord when the good times return?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 5, 2021 Bible Study Separating Ourselves From Those Who Will Not Give Up Unclean Practices

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 9-10.

When Ezra read the Law to the people during the Feast of Shelters discussed in yesterday’s passage, the people initially began to mourn how badly they had violated God’s Laws.  However, because that assembly had been called to celebrate God’s providence in allowing them to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, the leaders encouraged them to put aside their mourning and celebrate.  That occasion was a time for celebrating God’s goodness.  However, a short time later the people assembled once more to fast and mourn their sins and those of their ancestors.  They entered into an agreement with each other and with God to separate themselves from the people of the land and to keep God’s Laws.  One could easily interpret this passage to mean that the Israelites living in the land excluded those of other descent from joining in their worship of God and that this was how they were supposed to behave.  However, I believe that the passage I highlighted a few days ago from Ezra 6:21 applied here as well.  Certainly, I believe that God’s will was for that to apply. They were to accept into their numbers “all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices…”  And yet, we will see in tomorrow’s passage the difficulty in allowing outsiders to join us in worshiping God while maintaining separation from unclean practices.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 5, 2020 Bible Study Uniting And Taking Responsibility For Our Sins

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 9-10.

When the people had gathered at the beginning of the month to hear the Book of the Law read, their initial reaction was to mourn their failure to keep God’s law, but they were told that the time was wrong.  Instead they celebrated that they were able to gather, worship God, and hear His Law.  Then they studied His Law and celebrated the Festival of Shelters.  Finally, at the end of the month, they gathered once more to mourn and pray for forgiveness.  They confessed their sins and the sins of their forebears.  They acknowledged that their suffering was a result of their sins and vowed to behave better going forward.

Throughout Nehemiah the Jewish people came together to help each other, and when they recognized an example of mistreating each other they vowed to change.  When they discovered their fellow Jews enslaved to outsiders, they pooled their resources and bought them out of captivity.  When they realized that their own behaviors were causing their fellow Jews to be sold into slavery, they changed their behaviors.  They sought ways they could act to relieve the burdens on their fellow Jews.  And while they banded together to defend themselves against outside aggressors, at no point did they seek to attack those outsiders who might have been perceived as harming them.  We should take responsibility for how our own sins have led to our suffering, repent, and seek to follow God’s will more closely going forward.

Daily Bible Study

June 5, 2019 Bible Study The People Confess Their Sins and Make a Plan To Do Better

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 9-10.

A few weeks after completing the Festival of Shelters the Returned Exiles gathered once more in an assembly.  This time they gathered to grieve over and confess the sins of themselves and their ancestors.  As part of this exercise they stood and listened to a reading of the entire Book of the Law which took three hours.  Then when the reading was completed they spent three more hours standing there confessing their sins and worshiping God.  The passage does not describe what that was like, but I have an image of what happened based on the prayer of confession which the Levitical leasers prayed.  I imagine that the leaders read out excerpts from Exodus through Chronicles of the sins which the people of Israel had committed, interspersed with songs and opportunities for the people to think over their own lives and how they had failed to obey God’s Laws just as their ancestors had failed.  As part of their confession they acknowledged that God had repeatedly given their ancestors opportunities, which they and their ancestors had squandered in their wickedness.

At the conclusion of this six hour service the leaders of the people presented a document which they had prepared to the people.  This document was a confession of faith which the leaders had all signed and which they called on the people to affirm.  This confession of faith highlighted areas where they believed that failure would lead to all of the other sins which they and their ancestors had committed.  Further they believed that following the practices laid out in the document would make them and their descendants more likely to obey all of God’s commands.  So, they did not just grieve over what they had done wrong.  They made a plan to do better and committed themselves to follow that plan.  To my mind the confession of faith had three key elements.  First, they agreed not to intermarry with those who did not subscribe to this confession of faith.  Second, while they would not prevent outsiders from doing business on the Sabbath, they would not do so themselves, not even with those outsiders.  Third, they committed themselves to an annual tax for the maintenance of the Temple and its priests.   

Daily Bible Study

June 5, 2018 Bible Study — The People Act In Response to Their Faith

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 9-10.

    When Nehemiah first had the people assemble to listen to the Law, he and the other leaders told them not to mourn for their failure to keep the Law at that time. That was a time to celebrate what God had done for them. However, the people assembled a second time a few weeks later for a time of mourning and repentance. There is a lesson for us here when dealing with sinners who come to the Lord. When they come to know the Lord we should encourage them to celebrate their salvation, there will be time to mourn and repent of their sins later. I want to be careful on this because many people have sins which have become deeply embedded in their lives which need to be rooted out (that may even be true of some who have been walking with the Lord for years). I want to note that there was not much time between the celebration of renewal and the gathering for repentance. The former happened on Oct 8th and the latter on Oct 31st (as the dates were translated from the calendar used to our modern calendar). I want to also say that there may be times when God calls us to follow a similar pattern, celebrate what God has just done NOW, mourn and repent the sins which He revealed to us later. I would think that these occasions would usually be corporate events rather than individual ones.

    I think we should look at the procedure they followed on this day. First, the people gathered and spent three hours listening to God’s Law being read to them. Then they spent three more hours confessing their sins. After this, their leaders led them in a prayer worshiping God and confessing their sin. Finally, their religious leaders wrote out a covenant under which the people bound themselves to obey God’s Law. A covenant to which all of the people present old enough to understand bound themselves to keep. The passage does not spell it out, but the context makes it seem to me that this gathering, and this covenant, were the idea of those who gathered to study the Law of God with Ezra. This was not something imposed on them by Nehemiah, or Ezra, or another of the elite leaders. Instead this was a gathering initiated by the people in response to beginning to truly understand the Law of God.

Daily Bible Study

June 5, 2017 Bible Study — Acknowledging That Our Sins Deserve To Be Punished

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 9-10.

    After celebrating the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall and the Festival of Shelters, the returned Exiles gathered to mourn and confess their sins. For the second time the entire Book of the Law was read to them, which took three hours. They followed this up by spending another three hours confessing their sin and worshiping God…and we think the service is too long if it goes over an hour. At the end of this service of confession and worship the leaders prayed acknowledging that the difficult situation the people found themselves in was a just punishment for the sins which they had committed. They concluded the service by renewing the covenant which the people of Israel had made with God at Mt Sinai.

    While they promised to follow all of God’s commands, a little can be learned about being faithful from paying attention to the commands of God which they highlighted. First, they refused to intermarry with the pagan people of the land (saying nothing about those people of the land who gave up pagan worship and began worshiping God). Second, they promised to keep the Sabbath, including the Sabbath Year. They promised to make provisions for the maintenance of the Temple (the place of worship) and for the services conducted there. Finally, they promised to acknowledge that everything they had was a gift from God by giving a portion of it back for God’s ministry.

Daily Bible Study

June 5, 2016 Bible Study

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 9-10.

    At the beginning of the month the people had gathered to study the Law and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. At that time, the leaders had insisted that it was a celebration and that the people should not mourn for their failure to follow the law. At the end of the month, the people assembled once more. This time they gathered to fast and mourn for their sins and their failure to be faithful. In their prayer they recounted all of the things which God had done for their ancestors and their ancestors repeated failure to remain faithful. The key here is NOT that they were responsible for their ancestors sins and needed to confess them. The key here is that they acknowledged the human condition. That we, as humans, sin time and time again. That God will forgive us and give us second, and third, and fourth, opportunities to obey His commands. It is by following God’s commands and regulations that we find life and happiness. Failing to follow God’s commands and regulations leads to sorrow and suffering. God does not promise that if we follow His commands and regulations that we will not face suffering, but He does promise that we will find joy. He, also, promises that if we do not follow His commands and regulations that we will face suffering and sorrow.