Neh 9:12-21 | KingComments | STEP | In the people are in the wilderness; in they are in the land. In every part of Israel’s history we see the interweaving of man’s unfaithfulness and the mercy of God. After their deliverance, He does not leave His people to their fate. He Himself goes before them and travels with them through the wilderness. His light shines on the path they must go.

‏ Nehemiah 9:12-21

The Pillar of Cloud and the Pillar of Fire

In Neh 9:12-21 the people are in the wilderness; in Neh 9:22-29 they are in the land. In every part of Israel’s history we see the interweaving of man’s unfaithfulness and the mercy of God. After their deliverance, He does not leave His people to their fate. He Himself goes before them and travels with them through the wilderness. His light shines on the path they must go.

At Sinai

He governs all their life. They themselves need not think of anything to remain a people. From heaven, His dwelling place, He speaks to them. Where He dwells, everything is in accordance with Himself. If He speaks to His people from there, it can only be for their benefit. He has redeemed His people to dwell with them. Then that dwelling place must correspond to heaven.

That is why He gives them “just ordinances”. The point of departure for His abode among them is His righteousness. He gives His people those provisions so that they may enjoy the blessing of His presence. He also provides them with “true laws”. Their life together before Him is governed by incorruptible justice. These are not laws adapted to the situation. They can rely on those laws, as they come from Him Who is completely and in every way trustworthy.

Furthermore, He gives them “good statutes and commandments”. He determines their lives socially and religiously. His statutes and commandments must serve as the marrow of society. With all this He has their well-being in mind. Accepting and applying all this as a gift from Him means blessing and prosperity. Deviation from it leads to disaster and misery. God has given us His good Word. If we allow ourselves to be dictated by it and live by it, we will enjoy His blessing. Any deviation from His Word has unpleasant consequences.

The sabbath is not called a commandment here, but a “holy sabbath”. Between the listing of all that the LORD has given in the form of laws, commandments and ordinances, the Levites here remind us of this special institution. The LORD has given this day as a blessing. The people need not work on that day. They may share in the rest of God. By keeping that day they show that they appreciate God’s peace. It is also a proof that they appreciate all God’s commandments.

Bread and Water

The LORD delivered His people out of misery, freed them from their oppressors, led them into the wilderness, and enabled them to function as His people. All non-material conditions have been fulfilled. They are paramount. After all the efforts the LORD has made to provide the people with everything they need, He has also given them food and water in the wilderness. He has also promised them that they will come to the land that He wants to give them. For this He has sworn an oath.

He has always helped the people and given them a perspective for the future. They would have been able to live as a grateful and happy people, provided with all that was necessary, overwhelmed by the support and encouraged by what He had promised them.

But …

The prayer of the Levites takes a turn here. That turn is heralded with “but”. After seeing Who God is and acting in faithfulness and grace with them, it is now necessary to look back at the attitude of the people since their deliverance from Egypt.

Their attitude of rebellion and unbelief, after all the goodness of God, comes over us like a cold shower. A cold shower is sobering. This is necessary, because when we have seen the faithfulness of God, we must also have an eye for our reaction to it. It should make us ashamed.

Our shame becomes even greater when we see that the ungrateful reaction of the people is also answered with a “but” from God’s side. In spite of their rebelliousness and their disobedient and wicked conduct, He has continued in grace with them, both in the wilderness and in the land. The Levites are aware of this, and at the end of Neh 9:17 a new enumeration of God’s blessings follows, which can only increase their amazement and gratitude.

Each time we find the interaction between the ‘but’ that heralds the actions of God’s people and the ‘but’ that heralds God’s actions. How far He has risen above man’s actions. How totally different is His action from that of man. God is a God of forgiveness, of pardon. The word “forgiveness” is in the plural. It is a rare word and only occurs in Psalm 130 and in Daniel 9 (Psa 130:4; Dan 9:9).

God’s Faithfulness and the Unfaithfulness of the People

The nadir of their rejection of God is the making of the golden calf. With it they have a visible god in their midst. To this god they attribute their deliverance. This is very offensive to their Deliverer and a great insult. Yet He has not surrendered them to the dangers of the wilderness to be devoured in it. He remains faithful to His oath and leads them further with His light on the way they should go. If blessings, which we must lose because of our unfaithfulness, remain our share, it should lead us to double our gratitude.

Also in Christianity there has always been a desire for visible leadership. When faith disappears, the longing for tangible things increases. God is invisible to the natural eye. But those who believe “that He is” (Heb 11:6) receive abundant proof of His existence and of the care He exercises. A visible leadership cannot be anything but a creature, so by definition, it will be a failing leadership. Those who rely on it instead of God will have no prosperity.

In Neh 9:20 we find again an abundance of good gifts that God has given His people to be able to travel through the wilderness. Those who pray speak of “Your good Spirit”, “Your manna”, and “water”. There is not only talk of the Spirit of God, but of God’s “good” Spirit. The Spirit of God is working among them in goodness to teach them. He wants to control their minds so that they will think as God thinks. God has communicated His thoughts to them in His commandments and statutes. They do not need to guess what His intentions are. The good Spirit of God teaches them.

The Holy Spirit does not dwell in the members of God’s earthly people, as He does in the members of God’s heavenly people, the church (1Cor 6:19). But He does work in and among them. Every Israelite who repents does so because the Spirit convinces him of his sins. This gives him a nature that desires to do what God wants.

Teaching the will of God is not all they receive. God also gives them the strength to do His will. For that He gives them His manna. This food enables them to go the way God wants them to go. The manna is the well-known picture of the Lord Jesus in His life on earth. He speaks of Himself in connection with the manna as the bread from heaven (Jn 6:31-35). For our walk on earth through the wilderness of this world we gain strength by occupying ourselves with the Lord Jesus and His life on earth. The way we must go, He has gone before us. His example gives us strength to follow Him.

In the just quoted section from John 6, the Lord Jesus also says that whoever believes in Him will never thirst again (Jn 6:35). This is the third thing the Levites quote in their prayers in this verse. They tell the LORD that He also gave water to His people for their thirst. Faith in the Lord Jesus, real trust in Him, is a refreshment that makes the thirst for other things disappear.

We have here in Neh 9:20:

1. the Holy Spirit who teaches in goodness;

2. in the manna the example of the Lord Jesus, in Whom the teaching becomes visible as it were;

3. in the water – a picture of the Word of God (Eph 5:26) – a means to quench thirst.

The Levites notice still more goodness. For forty years the LORD has cared for His people. The provisions mentioned in the previous verse are not temporary. They have been with the people all the time they had been in the wilderness. They had suffered no shortage, neither of food, nor of drink, nor of clothing. They always had warmth. The warmth of their clothing symbolizes the warmth of God’s loving care.

Also there was nothing to be seen by their feet of the fatigue of the journey. When they looked at their feet, they could notice that the LORD had not let them travel a way that had asked too much of them. Yes, He carried them “as a man carries his son” (Deu 1:31).