The sermon by Scott Brown on Nehemiah chapter 9 explores the significance of the Israelites gathering on the 24th day of the month for repentance and confession of sins. This gathering occurs without a biblical requirement, indicating their voluntary desire to seek God and meditate on His works. The passage recounts the history of Israel from creation to 445 BC, emphasizing God's faithfulness and mercy despite Israel's repeated disobedience. It highlights key events such as God's covenant with Abraham, the Exodus, and the conquest of Canaan. The sermon portrays God as gracious, merciful, and slow to anger, encouraging believers to see God's kindness as a call to repentance. The speaker draws parallels between the Israelites' confession and the Christian life, stressing that repentance is an ongoing process. The sermon concludes by connecting the historical narrative to the New Covenant in Christ, emphasizing God's ultimate act of mercy through Jesus' sacrifice.

This is Nehemiah chapter 9. Now on the 24th day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and sackcloth and with dust on their heads. Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and they confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for one fourth of the day, and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Muni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Shineni stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God.

And the Levites, Jeshua, Cadmele, Bani, Hashabnaya, Sherebiah, Jodah, Hodajah, Shebinaya, and Pethahaya said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You have made heaven. The heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all.

The host of heaven worships you. You are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites to give it to his descendants. You have performed your words, for you are righteous. You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Red Sea.

You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against all the people of his land. For you knew that they acted proudly against them. So you made a name for yourself as it is this day. And you divided the sea before them so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and their persecutors you threw into the deep as a stone into the mighty waters. Moreover, you led them by day with the cloudy pillar, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the road which they should travel.

You came down also on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. You'd made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws by the hand of Moses your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought them water out of the rock for their thirst and told them to go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them. But they and our fathers acted proudly, hardened their necks, and did not heed your commandments. They refused to obey, and they were not mindful of your wonders that you did among them.

But they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion, they appointed a leader to return to their bondage. But you are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them. Even when they made a molded cavern themselves and said, This is your God that brought you out of Egypt and worked great provocations. Yet in your manifold mercies you did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light and the way they should go.

You also gave your good spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. Moreover, you gave them kingdoms and nations and divided them into districts so they took possession of the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Aghi, king of Bashan.

You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land which you had told their fathers to go in and possess. So the people went in and possessed the land you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands with their kings and the people of the land that they might do with them as they wished. And they took strong cities into rich land and possessed houses full of all goods, cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate, and were filled, and grew fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness. Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their backs and killed your prophets who testified against them to turn them to yourself And they worked great provocations.

Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their enemies who oppressed them. And in the time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven, and according to your abundant mercies, you gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest, They again did evil before you. Therefore you left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they returned and cried out to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies and testified against them that you might bring them back to your law.

Yet they acted proudly and did not heed your commandments but sinned against your judgments which if a man does he shall live by them. And they shrugged their shoulders, stiffened their necks, and would not hear. Yet for many years you had patience with them and testified against them by your spirit and your prophets. Yet they would 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. 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. It 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, for 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, in the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its bounty. Here we are, servants in it, and yet 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. And because of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it.

Our leaders, our Levites, and our priests Seal it. Let's pray. Father of mercies, oh great Father of light, you made the oceans, the land, the seas, the mountain, the stars, and the sky. We worship you because of your faithfulness to both the Israelites and now to your people. We thank you.

We were not a people, but you have made us a people. Help us to worship you. Help us continue to learn more about you. Help our brother Scott as he comes up and he expounds on this text. Lord help us.

We are a needy people. Amen. Well here we are in Nehemiah 9 and these words that have just been read, I think were fulfilled from the mouth of David, who said, let me hear your loving kindness in the morning. Well, that's what this passage really focuses in on. You're gonna hear of God's loving kindness as we work our way through this passage.

Well, Nehemiah 9 is a prayer, and it's one of the great prayers of the Old Testament. You've heard us say before, there are the nines of prayer in the Old Testament. There's Daniel 9, there's Ezra 9, and there's Nehemiah 9. And this is one of those great prayers of the nines of the Old Testament. And it's a prayer of confession, and it recounts the entire history of Israel from creation to 445 BC as these people are there in this moment in 445 BC.

And it's a prayer in the midst of a moment, looking back. It's a prayer where those who pray are looking at their lives at the moment, but they're looking back and they're seeing the context of their moment. And It's a prayer that I pray will help us to see the riches and the goodness and the forbearance and the long-suffering and the goodness of God, and that all of these kindnesses of God would lead us to repentance. That's really the purpose of this prayer. And the context here is right after the wall is finished, a month after the wall is finished, this scene takes place.

And now it's the 24th day of the seventh month. The wall was finished at the end of the sixth month. Now we find ourselves on the 24th day of the seventh month. And we have already discussed that The seventh month was the month of the great fall feasts of Israel where they would gather together in the first day of that month for the Feast of Trumpets and then the Day of Atonement on the tenth of the month. And then on the fifteenth of the month, the Feast of Tabernacles where they live in booths and so these feasts have been completed now and it's the 24th day.

So what's the significance of the 24th day? Why are they meeting on the 24th day? Well there's no biblical requirement for them to meet on the 24th day. They're meeting on the 24th day because they want to continue to pursue the Lord. They want to continue to meditate on the works of God.

They want to continue to deal with their sins. They're not finished with their sins and they want to meet. Their hearts were tender before the Lord. It's a picture of a people who who desire to be with the Word of God and the people of God at the same time. So it's a voluntary gathering.

Another thing we should recognize is that Nehemiah 9 and Nehemiah 10 represent one day in the life of the people of Israel. So this is one day. Notice just the short time frames, you know, the wall was finished, they enter into the feasts, and now 9 and 10 are one day. And then in chapter 11 or 12 the walls are dedicated. So all of this happens in a fairly tight time frame of the people of God.

And what is happening? I Think they're fulfilling what Jesus talked about when he said blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven They're coming humbly before God and They're crying out to God in there. They're really filled up with a sense of the goodness of God toward them and particularly God's goodness all throughout history. Now so as you can tell here there's a wave of conviction that washes over their souls and they see their sins, they confess their sins. You see that there in the first five verses, but hasn't this already happened?

Haven't they already confessed their sins? Well, if you go back to Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 1, in those first six verses, they were confessing their sins back then. How come they're confessing their sins now? And I think it's because the true people of God are constantly seeing their sin and they're continuing to go deeper. And Confession of sin and repentance is a lifelong matter.

That's why Martin Luther said that the essence of the Christian life is repentance. That's what Christians do. They humble themselves before God. And they really are not done looking at their lives in light of the Word of God. I also just want to remind us that this is all happening in the midst of hard times.

We've seen how difficult the times were. People were losing their properties because of the high taxes. Other people had had undergone tremendous tension with their brethren because of harsh treatment and favoritism. It was a time of famine. This is all happening still in a time of famine.

We're only a few days after these great calamities that have taken place already and so there's heartache and hardship in the air at the same time in the midst of this repentance and gratitude. Isn't that amazing? There's all these emotions flying around the people of God, the hurts and the hardships of the past, the mercies of God that they see throughout all of history and their moment, the moment they find themselves in right now. So it's a very beautiful picture of the human experience where we go through life and God continues to speak with us even through all the contours of our lives, even when times are really, really hard, God comes and he reminds us of the things we really need to be reminded of. And I think that's what we have here before us.

And they tell the story about how God carried them and corrected them and how he was merciful and forbearing toward them. They look back And they just see how good God is. Now I'd like just to pause on that for a minute. There's this idea that people have that the God of the Old Testament was the mean God, the mean punishing God. But the God of the New Testament is sweet, meek, and mild Jesus.

But guess what? These people don't think that the God of the Old Testament is the mean God. They think He's merciful. They think He's so wonderful. They, when they look back, all they see is how kind He's been to them.

They don't think, they don't think of the God of the Old Testament as the mean God at all. So if you have any of those thoughts in your mind, perish those thoughts because in this passage, God is a God of forbearance and mercy and kindness and it runs all the way through this verse 17 I think summarizes the view of God He's ready to pardon gracious and merciful slow to anger Abundant in kindness and did not forsake them. That's the God of the Old Testament. That's the God who never changes. And, but why?

Why is He that way? And we'll learn why as we go through this passage. But I'd like you to look at the outline here to see what we're going to try to cover this morning. We're going to try to go through all these 38 verses, and we're going to camp on each section, the sections that are identified in your outline. I'd like you, if you can, keep your outline, you know, right there with you and follow the words because I'm gonna be taking us Into each one of these sections as we go through this passage of Scripture.

So keep your outlines with you And so that you can see where you are and then and then and then try to understand what is being said in each one of these sections so what you see here is there's a prayer of confession in verses 1 through 5 and then in verses 6 through 31 is this prayer of remembrance and in this prayer is a history of the entire Old Testament. Now parents take note, Teach your children this outline. This is the outline of the history of redemption. Teach them these things that happened and when they happened. And this really does, I think, help us to fulfill Psalm 78.

I will tell of his wondrous deeds and the marvelous things that he's done. Tell the next generation. And here you have just a summary form of the entire Old Testament right up to 445 BC. So you'll see in verse six, he speaks of, they pray regarding creation. And then the second element of the history of redemption is the God's covenant with Abraham in verses 7 through 8, and the third element in the history of redemption is the exodus and the wilderness wanderings, which are from verses 9 through 21 and then the conquest of the promised land which is composed in verses 22 to 25 and then the time of the judges which is composed in verses 26 through 28, and then finally the season of the prophets, which I believe are the reign of the kings of Israel and the times of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the prophets that that we find, you know, after David.

And then finally, there is this very specific prayer for their current moment, the moment of being under the tutelage of a Persian king and the situation that they're in. So that's the flow of this passage. So let's let's dive into it here. Now I want us to notice that when we come to this first prayer of confession, it really begins like the Lord's prayer. You know, the disciples said, Lord teach us to pray.

And Jesus said, we'll pray this way, our father, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. It begins with God and they in their prayer are looking back to what God has done And so here in this scene in verses 1 through 5, they are assembled there on the 24th day of the month with fasting in sackcloth and with dust on their hands. So they're assembling particularly for repentance. That's why they got together on a day they didn't have to get together. They got together because their hearts drove them there.

Now notice they're dressed to communicate the condition of their heart. They are fasting. Fasting sharpens your awareness of your dependency upon God. Fasting humbles you. It almost turns your eyes down when you fast.

And then they have sackcloth. This is an uncomfortable garment that's really designed to show you how uncomfortable sin really is and how bad it is, all the affliction it causes. It's just like a scraping on your skin. It's annoying and it doesn't do all that good for you. And then there's dust on their heads and this is the posture of humility and shame that they're experiencing.

So they are coming before God with a spirit of repentance. I really liked how one of the commentators spoke of this moment. James Hamilton says it like this, and I'd like to say this to all of us. Take this in. Think over the course of your life and consider the adding and piling up of transgression second by second, moment by moment.

Imagine it as massive, big as the amount of time you have spent on it, dense as the frequency of your thoughts about it. And what you have is the measure, is this massive, dense weight of guilt that hangs over your head, threatening to crush you at any moment. The only thing keeping it off you is the mercy of God. And that's what we see here in this very first section. There's a great sense of the weight of sin And, you know, I think we learn that as we see these people in the days of Nehemiah returning home, returning to the healing balm of Gilead, the way there is the way of repentance.

And we're brought back to the healing place to the most beneficial place first of all through acknowledging our past we have to understand who we have been and our and our history It says that they separated themselves from the foreigners in verse 2. What does that mean? It can mean it possibly means that the foreigners didn't experience this history that Israel experienced in the same way And so they're repenting of their own sins. It can mean that they were separating themselves from those who were not believers and Only the believers were gathering. I'm not sure which it is, but they're definitely distinguishing themselves as a repentant people who are looking back on the history of their lives and reflecting upon their disobedience and they're confessing their guilt from their disobedience.

And so they're confessing their sins, says they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. They recognize that their backgrounds were flawed, that their families were messed up. That's true of all of us. We all come from flawed and messed up backgrounds, and that's exactly what they are admitting there. There's no pedigree that's superior among any of us and they had picked up sinful perspectives going way back they're tracing their sins to their fathers a thousand years ago.

And they read from the law a fourth of the day, look at verse three, you'll see that. And then they confess and they worship God for the other fourth of the day. So on this day, They spend a half a day first reading and second confessing and worshiping God. And then the Levites cry out, and the names of the Levites are listed there in verses four through five, and they called for the people to stand up and bless the Lord their God forever and ever there at the end of verse 5. And this this really is what we are doing today.

We're calling one another to stand up and bless the Lord our God, not just today, but forever and ever, to stand before God for all eternity. This is God has called us together to make that kind of declaration. And then they call the people by saying, blessed be your glorious name who is exalted above all blessing and praise. So the Levites are leading this prayer And now the Levites are going to pray. And I would just want to suggest that this is a representative prayer of the kinds of things that they were praying before the people.

These were the categories where these was was this every single word of the prayer? Possibly, but they they did pray for, you know, they were dealing with this for many hours, and it only takes 10 minutes to read this prayer, but it was probably longer than that. But it gave us help to understand how we should pray. And we should pray, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. How wonderful and marvelous you are.

And then the prayer moves to this chronological record of the history of the Old Testament. And it begins in 4004 BC in creation in verse 6 and then it moves to the covenant of Abraham in 2000 BC and then it moves to the Exodus and wilderness wanderings in 1445 BC and it moves on throughout the history of redemption. Now if you if you read this passage and mark it for for two particular categories you'll really it's it's a beautiful way to read it you might want to do that today read read and look for what God does and read and look for what Israel did and you will see the beauty of God and you'll also see the the sinfulness of man in all of it. But you if you want to know God read this that way and you'll see how God deals with sinners and it's it's really very wonderful and you what you see is God is creating and He's choosing and He's encouraging, He's hearing, He's delivering, He's forbearing, you know, He meets with His people, He teaches them, He feeds them, He provides for them, He accompanies them, He clothes them, He empowers them.

This is God, This is your God. Who would not want to worship this God and follow him? I think that's the argument that they're making, you know, in this prayer, if you want to say it that way. Now, This isn't the only place where in the Old Testament or even in the New Testament where you have a history recounted of the people of God. You find it in Psalm 78.

Psalm 78 ends with David in a very long history that he gives. You find it in Psalm 105 and 106 and 135 and chapter 136. You also find a manifestation of it in when Stephen just before he's martyred what in his sermon in Acts chapter 7. But God's people are historians. They go back and they tell the truth about what happened.

They confess their history and it's really a history of the riches and the goodness and the forbearance of God. And there's a reason that this history is given and that it is that we would see the kindness of the Lord and that his kindness would lead us to repentance. And so he begins with creation in verse 6. Look at these words, you alone are the Lord. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all.

The host of heaven worships you. So this is the beginning of what one one scholar called the the fullest summary of the old testament storyline in the bible and And it begins with the beginning of history, and that is with creation. And God is exalted in all of His works of creation. He is the infinite God who is infinitely good and who can satisfy the heart of every person who seeks Him. And He is the creator of everything.

Standing in contrast to those who believe that life just began as a blob and evolved after that, Not so with the God of the Bible. With the God of the Bible, you are connected to Him because He is the Creator. And you know, evolution is just sort of a creative way of ignoring our obligation to God. Evolution is just another way of saying there's nothing there. There's really no one there.

There's no one there to answer to. But with creation it's different. There is a God. He is there. You are here because of Him.

You proceeded for Him. You are connected to Him. He created you. That's what Christianity says. You know, I was thinking about this just yesterday.

A couple of days ago we had a new granddaughter born to us and it was born, you know, around 1130 at night And my son and my daughter-in-law held that baby all night long. You know, they were making it very clear to that baby that that baby is connected to something. The baby is connected to someone. A father and a mother. And when you hear the story of creation you should hear the story of creation that way you're connected to someone God created you he's holding he holds you he in Christianity we are connected to someone someone absolutely wonderful we were not just blobs randomly evolving throughout space and time.

We have been born because of a person and that person is God. And you know parents, parents even just by holding children, they teach them that they are connected to somebody and that's what we find here. And so then The prayer of the Levites, they move first from the act of creation, which I'm going to mark as 4004 BC or around then, to God's covenant with Abraham, moving forward to about 2000 BC. And that's the second element of this prayer. They recount God's covenant with Abraham in verses seven and eight.

You see it on your outline there? Verse seven, you are the Lord Who chose Abraham and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans now remember this is a prayer they're proclaiming God's faithfulness to Abraham and And God's election of Abraham and they're saying that God Took action to make in a covenant with Abraham. It was God that saved Abraham. It was God that pursued and actually chose Abraham. God is the author of salvation is one of the things that's really apparent here.

He's really, he's quoting Genesis 11 and 12. He's bringing forward the story that we read there. And notice the words, and gave him the name Abraham. Well that's Genesis 17. Remember when Abraham's name was changed to Abraham?

He's just praying about this change of a name, change in the identity. God changes your name. He completely changes your life and He gives you a whole new identity. You know, you live a certain way and He says, I'm going to give you a different name. You know, you were a loser before, but now I'm giving you a new name." And so he's recounting Genesis 17, and then he says, "...you found his heart faithful before you and made a covenant with him." This is Genesis 15 verse 6, where Abraham was reckoned to God as righteousness and it refers to the covenant that you read about there where Abraham cut the animal in two and God passed between And God made a covenant with Abraham based on His own name, not on Abraham's performances, but on God's holy, righteous performances.

And so there is this covenant. And there is The representation of God keeping his promises to Abraham to perform everything that he has said to him. So after praying about just the kindness of God to rescue Abraham and to give Abraham children who would bless all the families of the earth. They're praising God, the Levites are praising God for that, that God would be so kind to take a pagan, Abraham, out of the land of Ur. Abraham didn't know and love God when God called him, but God called him even though he did not love him.

Which really, it just should remind us that he saved us while we were in our trespasses and sins. And so they're praising God for the mercy of God toward Abraham and all of his children and then and then they they turn from God's covenant with Abraham to the time of the Exodus. And this is the longest section in the chapter verses 9 through 21. Now the Exodus is the premier example or type of salvation. And I don't know how many times the Exodus is referred to in the New and the Old Testament to refer to salvation, but here's one of them.

It's many, many times, and if you pick it up in verse 9, you see this that he saw. Now I want to just bring a few things out that are disclosed in this part of the prayer. First of all, he knew their condition and he heard their cries. This is God, verse 9. You saw the affliction.

God sees your affliction, he knows where you are, and in verse 9 it says, and he heard their cry by the Red Sea there was no way out by the Red Sea no way at all but not absolutely no way because of God. Have you ever felt like that, that there's just no way out? Well, there's no way, but not absolutely no way because of God. And then notice secondly he protected them by miracles verse 10 you showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh against all his servants and against all the people of the land for you knew that they acted proudly against them, so you made a name for yourself." So God did miracles to make a name for himself, to be the one who would bring plagues and depart the red sea and to bring various manifestations of his care toward them, but he protected them by his miracles. Verse 11, you divided the sea before them.

At the end of verse 11, and their persecutors you threw into the deep as a stone into the mighty waters. Here he's talking about how God destroyed the entire Egyptian army right before their eyes. They had nothing to fight with and there God rescued them. The Bible is full of these kind of stories where there's no way no way out But not absolutely no way and Then he guided them with his with his guidance system in verse 12 moreover you led them by day with a cloudy pillar, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the road which they should travel." So in this prayer, they're just, they're praising God for his faithfulness to lead them through the wilderness to fulfill his promise never to leave them or forsake them but to give them a guidance system you know the clouds by by day and the fire by night this is what God promises he promises to lead his people he He leads his people by his word and by the various things that he does throughout history. And then in verses 13 and 14, he not only gave them guidance, but he also gave them good laws.

Verse 13, you came down also on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws by the hand of Moses your servant." You know, God's laws are all good. They're good laws. The laws of God in the Old Testament aren't from the mean God. They're from the God that's full of mercy.

I don't know, I'm not sure why they pray particularly about the Sabbath in verse 14. Do you see that? There's just one commandment that they pray about in Thanksgiving, and it's the Sabbath. And I just want to suggest that they likely are praying that about the Sabbath because the Sabbath is God's call to rest, that God calls his people to come and rest and set aside their labors and trust in him and believe in him. This is the God who calls you into rest.

And so they give thanks for the Sabbath as we do here and and then he fed them from heaven look at verse 15 he fed them you gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought them water out of the rock for their thirst." This is just a prophecy or a pointer or a type of Christ. Jesus Christ said, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. He uses this exact language almost. He says, I'm the living water. And so they're giving thanks for being fed from heaven.

And then they confess their sins that their fathers acted proudly in verses 16 and 17. Now there are some language here to help us understand what disobedience feels like. It feels like a stiffened neck and it feels like a hard a hardened stiffened neck you know when your neck is stiff you don't you can't you can't bow down before God you keep your head up because you're proud And then they proclaimed God's grace and his mercy and faithfulness. And this is where we get to verse 17. Look at it with me.

But you are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them. This, behold your God, behold the God of mercy who does not forsake us. Now the meaning of this whole narrative is really explained in 1st Corinthians chapter 10. Paul tells why these stories are here and in chapter 10 verse 6, Paul says that these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted, and do not become idolaters as some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play, nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did.

And in one day twenty-three thousand fell, nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents, nor complain as some of them complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. And then verse 11 nails the reason for these stories that we've been recounting. These things happened to them as examples and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." These things are set before us in the Old Testament to humble us and to show us how we're just like that. We shouldn't read the things about the complaining in the wilderness and say, those idiots, how could they complain?

That's not why those stories are there. Those stories are there so that when we are tempted to complain, we will see that we are exactly like them and we deserve the wrath of God. They really are designed to drive us to repentance rather than to pride and there to expose and to help us to remember take heed if you think you stand lest you fall. So they really are meant to help us to understand our vulnerability. So then the prayer of the Levites moves from the Exodus in 445 BC approximately to the conquest of the land of Canaan in about 1400 BC.

And this spans from verses 22 to 25, And here at the beginning in verse 22, they acknowledged in their prayer how God gave them kingdoms and lands. Now these are the final events of the five books of Moses of the Pentateuch. And the summary statement is like this. You gave us cities and food so much that it made us fat, and we threw your law behind our backs. That's what that section is all about.

And so you can see that in verse 22. It's interesting, we read, you know, they, so they took possession of the land of Sihon and the land of the king of Heshbon and the land of Og, the king of Bayshan. These were the big, bad murderers of the day. You know Og, king of Bayshan, he had like a 13 foot long bed. He was a giant.

He was huge. And what God is saying is that, look, I brought you into a land where there was no hope, there was no way out, there was no way to conquer this land, but there is not absolutely no way because I'm bigger than Og of Vashon, my bed's bigger than his, You know, I'm bigger than Sihon, king of Hashmon. Nobody can stand before me. And then in verse 23, they give thanks that God multiplied their children as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land and but then they they rebelled verse 26 nevertheless they they were disobedient and rebelled against you so they're confessing that even though they were given so much abundance and so much advantage, and they walked right over Ogobation, even though God did that for them, they rebelled, and they cast his law behind their backs. Verse 26, That's the tragedy.

That's always the greatest tragedy of the people of God. To cast the law of God behind your back. And they're just acknowledging how important God's law is. That we say what David said, oh how I love your law, it's my meditation, that we build our lives on the on obedience to the word of God like Jesus spoke of in Matthew chapter 7. You have the wise man who built his house upon the rock, that's obedience to Jesus, and the foolish man who built his house upon the sand and that's rejecting the instruction of God.

And so then the prayer of the Levites moves from the conquest of the land, the land of Canaan, to the time of the Judges, this 400 year period of ups and downs and really abominable things that happened among the people of God. It was a dark age in the history of redemption. In Judges verses 27 to 28 we find the story of it summarized here and whether The first judge was Joshua or Othniel, probably Othniel, but it was right at that time. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And here's the summary.

They're saying, we did our own thing and you gave us judges that gave us rest that's the summary of the period of the judges we did what we wanted to do but you sent us judges to turn us back and you gave us rest Rest is a critical word in the Book of Judges because whenever there's a turn to God there's a return of rest. And so verse 27 we read, Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their enemies who oppressed them. And then they cried out to God and he delivered them. Verse 27 again, and the time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven and look at this. And according to your abundant mercies, you gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies.

But then they returned to their evil in verse 28, but after they had rest They again did evil before you So they did they did their own thing? Life got really hard their sins punish them the natural law of harm that takes place when you reject the law of God happened in their lives, they turned, God gave them judges and they had rest and their rest just led to more disobedience in time. Four hundred years of up and down, rest, no rest, rest, no rest, because everyone is doing what's right in his own eyes. And then the prayer of the Levites then moves from the time of the judges in about 1400 BC to the time of the kings of Israel beginning with David or perhaps even Samuel in what around a thousand BC. I'm just giving you general numbers here.

And so you find in verses 28 through 31, the time of the prophets, God gave a temple through Solomon and David and God gave a remarkable time of abundance, prosperity that was unmatched during the days of Solomon And what happened? They shrugged their shoulders at God's law. Who cares? Not a big deal to me. The temple, not such a big deal.

The laws of God, shrugging their shoulders. And, and they did it many times, he says. And they cried out again and again. But here's the summary. We shrugged our shoulders and stiffened our necks and you extended mercy.

That's the summary of this whole section between verses 28 through 31. And you know these are just very vivid illustrations using parts of the body, the shoulders, the necks and the ears. They shrug their shoulders, they stiffen their necks, and they would not hear. Shoulders, necks and ears. Those are illustrations of what's going on in the heart.

You know what this is like. If you're an adult, you know what this is like as an adult. If you're a parent, you know what this is like in your children. There's something about the shoulders and the necks and the ears that are somehow correlated to the heart and what's going on there. And so these illustrations are given and you know the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The body does actually reflect what's going on in the spirit of a person. But God was patient with them even though they wouldn't listen. Verse 30, Yet for many years you had patience with them and testified against them by your spirit and in your prophets, yet they would not listen. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands." But then look at verse 31, this is astonishing. Nevertheless, in your great mercy you did not utterly consume them nor forsake them for you are God gracious and merciful you know this is why the people of God become like God as gracious and merciful you know they have the wisdom that is from heaven, which is first of all pure and peaceable and full of every good fruit.

This is, this comes from God. It comes from heaven. And, And I think that this verse 31 really summarizes as well the overwhelming message arising out of the hearts of these people. In your great mercy, you are gracious and merciful. You know, it's so easy to just become overwhelmed with your background and the flaws in your life but here you know we find a people who are finding their strength in God's mercy.

I think that's really important. And God, you know, God is glorifying himself by covering their sin. This is how he displays his love. He glorifies himself by dealing with your sin that way. And he comes out as the merciful and gracious one.

You know, that's why Jeremiah said, "'Therefore I have hope.'" In Jeremiah 3, 22, "'Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because his compassion's fail not they are new every morning great is your faithfulness So the prayer of the Levites you know then moves from the time of David and the period of the prophets and the kings of Israel all the way down when we finally get to verse 32, we find ourselves back in 445 BC. The prayer started in 445 BC, it recounted the entire history of redemption, and now with verse 32 we're back to 445 BC. And there's this cry for restoration in verse 32, 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. You ever prayed a prayer like that? Lord, I know I've got such a dinky life, but don't let my trouble seem small to you.

Come to me, help me. And he says, our kings and our princes and our priests and our prophets and our fathers and all your people from the days of the kings of us of the Syria until this day in other words you've been that way all throughout history and then they confess their sin in verses 33 through 35 and they say this however you are in all that has befallen us you are just in all that has befallen us." In other words, they're saying that God was right in bringing his judgment about. It was right for him to bring the hardships to them because they were unfaithful and did not heed his commandments. And then in verse 36 we find I think some of the most penetrating words in this chapter, here we are servants today. Here we are today.

This is who we are today. Our background is colored. Our background has not been faithfulness. And here we are today. And they're seeing their life today in light of all of God's redemptive work in history.

And I think it's important that we do that too. We look at our lives not just as our own little lives here, but we look at our lives in view of God and all of what He's doing, what He has done in history. Because what you're experiencing today is only a small part of what God was doing and will always be doing with sinful mankind. You know, our lives really are a vapor. They're there.

We're here for such a short period of time. And here they're saying, here we are today. And he says, we are servants today. In other words, we're servants of the King of Persia. We're paying taxes to him.

And we have to give the bounty of our labor to him. Here we are. We are in a predicament. We are in really tough financial times and our history is bad. And here we are today.

And then they make a covenant with God in the final verse, verse 38. And because of all this, we make a covenant and write it. Our leaders, our Levites, and our priests seal it. So they all come together and they make a covenant with God, and they tell God that they want to follow Him. That's what this covenant is.

In the next chapter, we read more. We read about the people who signed the covenant and more details about that covenant. Remember chapters 9 and 10 are one day, so we can come to the end of chapter 9, we're just really beginning the consummation of this covenant that the people made. They came and they made commitments to God. Now here's some applications.

This is a prayer in a moment of time and It's a prayer that should help us relate to our own history and to our own condition as we are here now. And a prayer like this helps us to frame our lives properly. We often frame our lives in a corrupt way. We don't often think about our lives rightly. But this is like a frame around your life.

But it's a frame that goes way back in the past. And It's a frame that takes God into account, that God is the Creator. God is the one that created you, and He's led His people all the way to where you are today, now, in whatever kind of difficulty or bondage you are, it's so important that we understand that there is a frame around our lives bigger than just this moment. God is doing something much greater in the world through our existence in this world, and we are connected to God who created us who has a massive plan so don't frame your life just around yourself put a frame around your life that really reflects this prayer and see what God is doing God is bringing many sons to glory God is destroying the works of the devil God is sanctifying his people and we should see our lives in a bigger frame rather than just selfishly self-serving Lee about the moment that we're in I'll just have to confess. That's one of the biggest struggles of my whole life is Not just to think of myself We need a frame bigger than the one of our own creation.

And so they're framing this moment in their lives according to the majesty of God, the beauty of repentance, and the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. That's the frame. All the difficulties are meant for one thing, for you to see His kindness and to lead you to repentance. And So what is your moment? Don't get obsessed with your moment, okay?

See God in the midst of it all. The other thing that I want to say by application is that reformation and return seems to happen most of the time during hard times and you hear the Word of God and He turns you around and and that's what's happening they're hearing the Word of God in the midst of a very hard time and it does turn them around and it turns them around to the way Jesus wants to turn people to blessedness to happiness blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted And I pray that that happens here today, and that we, as we make our way home, we acknowledge our condition, we recognize the greatness of the plan of God, and we frame our lives in a way that really fits the Word of God. I also want you to recognize in this prayer how much these Levites love the words of God. They pray the words of God. We should pray these...if you go back and map what they say, you can map phrases all the way through the Pentateuch, all the way through the histories and the Psalms.

They use the words of God when they pray because their hearts are filled with the Word of God. If you don't know how to pray, pray the Word of God. And here's a great example of it. And you know, I would just suggest even pray a prayer like this. You know, when you go into your prayer time, pull out this chapter and just pray through these categories.

Give thanks to God for His creation that He created you. Give thanks to God for all of these different things that he has done in the past and in your life too because I I want to suggest that he's done everything if you're a Christian he's done everything in your life that he did in these people's lives and you can relate to it so pray to God according to his Word and but why why would God be so forbearing why why the forbearance of God? It's answered, right? It's answered here, and I think that the Apostle Paul in Romans gives us perhaps the most definitive interpretation of this passage and I want to read it to you it's in Romans chapter 2 in verse 4 beginning or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? So All these manifestations of God's goodness are designed to lead us to repentance, but he doesn't stop there.

Look at verse 5. But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent hearts you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. So what we learn here is that God's forbearance is for two purposes for two different kinds of people. God's forbearance and patience is to lead a person to repent of their sins. But God's forbearance also has another purpose, and that is to remind the unrepentant that they are treasuring up wrath, that God is delaying His wrath toward them and His kindness is giving them time to repent.

But if they don't repent, then they need to recognize that every act of his kindness is designed to remind them that he is going to finally end his mercy toward them and he will destroy them. And that's why he says you're treasuring up for yourselves wrath in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. So why, why God's forbearance? Why so much mercy? Why so much kindness all throughout history?

It's to lead sinners to repentance and for the hard-hearted to remind them what's coming, sometimes soon. I think it's very interesting that the very last thing that we read here is that they made a covenant and it's hard for me to read the word covenant without thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ and what He said about the Lord's Supper. This is the new covenant in my blood. And so all of history really focuses in on that one event. Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice, gave His life for sinners And this is the kindness of God.

That God would divert the wrath that we deserve and would lay it upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ and He would make a covenant and He would say, this is a covenant in My blood. It's not based on your righteousness, it's based on His blood. It's not based on your emotions, it's based on his blood that he shed on the cross and so this passage begins with repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and it ends with the cross of Jesus Christ. And so I'm grateful for a passage like this, where we can see the riches of the goodness of the forbearance of the long-suffering of Jesus Christ. And we'll see it in the Lord's Supper as we celebrate it in just a few minutes.

Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for this history, we Thank you