We are still in the seventh month and on the twenty-fourth day the people were assembled with fasting (v1). They wore sackcloth and had dust on their heads. Their fasting and dust on their heads indicated their humble repentance before God. Maybe some did it because others did, but some were genuine, and this was to be commended.
There are times when we should come before God in repentance. Whilst humility should be our normal manner before God, fasting is not commanded for us, but is commended. Fasting from food may not be the best when certain medical conditions prevail, but we can fast from other things and concentrate our minds and wills toward God.
The true Israelites separated themselves from the foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and those of their fathers. (V2)
Whether we fast or not it is essential that we confess our sins to God. There are sins of commission (these we actually do (commit) when instructed not to) and sins of omission (those we don’t do when we should). There are no categories of magnitude of sins. All sin is sin, whether we consider it big or small. Jesus said that if we hate someone, we are guilty of murder. Romans 3:23 says, that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. ‘Coming short’ is missing the mark. We might consider some sins as small, but they are all sin just as much as the ones we consider as big. David said in Psalm 51 that he had sinned against God and God only. His sin was also against someone else, but he still sinned against God. There is none righteous, not one (Romans 3:10). Thus, we must confess our sin to God, not to a man. It might be necessary to confess to the person we have wronged but ultimately it must be confessed to God.
I’ve often wondered if it is possible to confess the sins of others, especially our nation and whether we can repent for them. The Bible gives instances of godly men repenting on behalf of a nation; thus, I guess we can, but we need to tread carefully. In this verse the people confessed the sins of their fathers. We can confess that our forefathers sinned and thus we have inherited a nation of wickedness and be careful that we do not continue in such. I don’t think that it brings forgiveness for those who committed them in the past, but it helps us in our present circumstances to deal with the failings of the past and put them right. Our nation has passed ungodly laws. They cannot be excused but we can strive to change them. Daniel, in chapter 9, prayed and confessed the sin of his nation and God gave him visions of the future and how God would deal with the situation.
The people stood up and read from the Book of The Law for a quarter of the day and for another quarter they confessed and worshiped God. If the day was twelve hours, then for three hours they read the Word and for three hours they confessed and worshiped. Nehemiah tells us that eight Levites, all named, stood on the stairs and led the people in confession and worship. In verses 4-38 we have what is thought to be the longest prayer in the Bible. Tradition says that Ezra prayed it. It may have been a prayer meeting where these men plus one or two others, also named, offered prayers to God. It is encouraging that names are listed, showing the importance of those who were prepared to stand in front of the people and pray and worship God. Obviously, prayers do not need to be long, even Nehemiah offered a quick prayer to God when faced with decisions, as he did in chapter 2:4-8.
I remember as a teenager attending our church prayer meeting. It lasted an hour and often there were four long prayers and there were no gaps, as time went on, others managed to interject with short prayers. I learned much from those prayer meetings, in that prayers whether long or short were important. I’m glad I stuck at it; it has stood me in good stead for the rest of my life.
People have often tried to compartmentalise prayer times but I’m not sure it is necessary. If prayers are from the heart, I’m not sure it matters whether we cover the same or different ground in them. The important thing is that we are praying to Almighty God, and he hears and will answer them, and He has no problem in deciphering what we are saying. Having said that, it is important that we remember that praying is not just asking for something. It is not simply a ‘shopping list’ but pouring out our hearts to God and thanking Him for Who He is and what He has done.
This prayer begins with praise, exalting God above all as the one and only God. God is recognised as The Creator and sustainer of everything. He praises God for His faithfulness to their forefathers in His promises (v7,8), for rescuing them from Egypt and all their enemies and leading them through the wilderness with great signs and wonders. All this displaying the goodness and greatness of God.
He then confesses that their fathers rebelled by being proud and refusing to obey. They forgot about the wonderful things God had done for them. However, he reminds them of the pardoning God, full of grace and mercy, slow to anger and abounding in kindness to them. God was ready to forgive even though they had made an idol, the golden calf. He didn’t forsake them but led them by the pillar of fire and cloud, fed them and gave them water to drink. They lacked nothing for the forty years they wondered about in the wilderness. Even their clothes and shoes did not wear out.
Micah 7:18 reminds us – “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage. He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in mercy …. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
The prayer continues by thanking God for setting them up as a nation and giving them a land, which God had promised to their fathers. He had fulfilled His promise to defeat their enemies and taken possession of a land rich with all they needed. They admitted that they had been disobedient and rebelled against the God who had been so faithful to them. Nehemiah confessed that Israel had even killed the prophets who had testified against them when pointing out their failings. Because they didn’t want to hear what God was saying to them, they disobeyed and were delivered into the hand os their enemies. Then in times of trouble they cried out to The LORD and He heard from heaven and sent deliverers and gave them rest. But the cycle continued, and they did evil again, and when they cried out to God, once again He heard them and delivered them, over and over again. He thanked God for being patient with them despite their indifference, even though they had refused to listen to the messengers which He had sent to them. He was thankful that God was ever merciful and did not utterly forsake them even though they were handed over to their enemies and taken to foreign lands.
This prayer does not make for pleasant reading, but it was truthful, and that is what God seeks from us. We cannot hide anything from Him, and it is pointless to try. We may often think that when we keep asking Him to forgive things which we keep doing and have asked for forgiveness many times before, that He will get tired of the same request. However, God will always answer the true prayer of repentance. Yes, we shouldn’t keep doing the same wrongs over and over, but He does recognise our weakness, that we are but dust and God does use failures. There’s the old, probably amusing story of the man who regularly prayed at the penitent rail, ‘Lord, please remove the cobwebs out of my life’. The vicar who overhearing the confession, frustrated, in the end, said, ‘Please Lord, remove the spider!’
Back to more serious matters – he brings this amazing prayer to a conclusion with a ‘therefore’ and what a conclusion! I can only quote it in full to get the full effect of it – (v32-37) “Now 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. However, You are just in all that has befallen us; For You have dealt faithfully, But we have done wickedly. 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. For they have not served You in their kingdom, Or in the many good things that You gave them, Or in the large and rich land which You set before them; Nor did they turn from their wicked works. Here we are, servants today! And the land that You gave to our fathers, To eat its fruit and its bounty, Here we are, servants in it! And it yields much increase to the kings You have set over us, Because of our sins; Also they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle at their pleasure; And we are in great distress.”
Nehemiah recognises just who God is and that in all that has befallen them, God has acted justly. They deserved everything they got. The late Alan Redpath, who I had the privilege to meet some years ago, said, “It is a tremendous moment in a Christians’ life when he can honestly look up into the face of God and say, ‘Yes, Lord, You are right and I am wrong,’ when he stops arguing with God, and drops his controversy. He says, ‘Lord, yes. I’ve got what I deserved in this situation. You are right; I am wrong.’ That is the thing for which God has been working in your life and mine from the very moment of our conversion.”
Nehemiah goes a step further and says that in the light of all that has been said in this prayer, they make a covenant with God in writing and the leaders, Levites and priests seal it, committing themselves to it. A decision has to be made, and we need to keep to it (v38). It should affect our relationship with God and with others.
