Neh 9:16-37 | KingComments | STEP | 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 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 ( ; ).

‏ Nehemiah 9:16-37

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).

What the LORD Has Given

God had not only surrounded them with His care, He had also helped them to take possession of kingdoms and nations. The land of Sihon and the land of Og are mentioned by name. These are the first kingdoms that Israel had to take possession of even before they crossed the Jordan.

Furthermore, the LORD has blessed them with numerous offspring, so that they could populate the land. This offspring has been commanded to take possession of what the LORD had promised their fathers. They have done so, helped by the LORD Who gave the inhabitants of the land in their power. He has given them a free hand to do with those nations what they wanted. In doing so, He had put them to the test. Would they act with those nations as He commanded? He had told them to exterminate the inhabitants. Because of their unfaithfulness, the roles have been reversed. The nations reign over them, and the nations do with them as they please (Neh 9:37).

Their conquest of the land threw a treasure of blessings into their lap. They have feasted upon it. That is lawful. It has all come within their reach by the grace of God. God wants to give His people everything to enjoy. He wishes, however, to be involved, to be recognized as the Giver, and for His people to thank and honor Him for it.

This is not an ambition of God, as it would be with us. He knows that enjoyment without Him leads to selfishness and excesses, from which much evil arises. Enjoyment without Him has a devastating effect on the relationship between people. Where the bond with Him is broken, the bond between people is also broken.

Unfaithfulness of the People and God’s Salvation

When man departs from God, no longer involving Him in his actions, he comes to “great blasphemies”. Then the greatest of God’s blessings are returned by man with the greatest evil. The rebellion of the people manifests itself in rebellion against God. They cast His law behind their backs. That is an act of contempt. If then God sends His prophets to bring them back to Him, they kill them.

They have settled with God. They don’t want Him anymore. They’re declaring Him out of time. Their “enlightened” thinking is hindered by His existence and presence. That is why every voice that interprets Him must be silenced. As if this can silence God.

God does not give up. He has another method to bring His people to repentance. If they do not want to listen to His voice, they will listen to His actions. He delivers them into the hands of their enemies. That does not miss its effect. They are oppressed and cry out to the LORD. And, miracle of grace, He hears them. In His “great mercy” He gives deliverers.

And that does not happen just once. No, it repeats itself many times. Each time after their deliverance, they do evil again. They really are repeat offenders, people who fall into the same mistake over and over again. In His faithfulness the LORD then delivers them into the hands of opponents. Then they get oppressed again, and in their distress they cry out to the LORD. According to His unchanging mercy He then hears their crying and delivers them. The book of Judges impressively describes the course of these events.

The People Sin Against God’s Provisions

In spite of all these acts of God in mercy, the people went further and further downhill. God exhorted His people to return to His law, for in keeping the law lies life. In not listening to the law, in breaking it, lies death. His people did not act as ignorant ones. They knew God’s law. However, they did not put their shoulders under it, but they turned their backs on it. They did not bend their necks under it, but stiffened them. They piled sin upon sin.

God’s Great Patience Has an End

For many years God has endured this constant rebellion with longsuffering. In Neh 9:20 the Spirit is teaching the people. However, because they did not listen to the teaching of the Spirit, the Spirit began to admonish them. Each time God’s Spirit had been speaking to the people in His prophets to convince them of their sins (2Chr 36:15). He wants to make His people happy. Therefore, He exhorted them continuously to break with sin and to submit to His commandments. But they did not listen.

Finally, He had no choice but to deliver them into the power of the nations around them. First the ten tribes were taken from the land by Assyria and scattered over several countries. Later the two tribes were taken away to Babylon. But He didn’t wipe them out. In spite of all the unfaithfulness of the people and God’s discipline over them, He has not destroyed them forever. He remains “a gracious and compassionate God”.

Begging For God’s Favor

In the preceding verses, the Levites have recounted the history of God’s faithfulness opposite the unfaithfulness of the people in an impressive way before the face of God. On this basis they now plead with Him in view of their present state of unfaithfulness and weakness. They present the people in all His ranks – “our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers and on all Your people” – to the “the great, the mighty, and the awesome God”, whom they first and foremost and above all call “our God”.

They speak to Him in His relationship with them. In that relationship they know Him as “great”. He is all-embracing and transcends everything. He is also ‘great’, omnipotent, unlimited in His possibilities. And He is ‘awesome’, He is to be feared by everyone, especially by those who oppose Him.

They also know Him as the God “who keeps covenant”. They know that He will never break the covenant made and ratified by Him. The people have not kept their part of the covenant. That is why they also speak of God’s keeping of “lovingkindness”. They ask God if, in the abundance of lovingkindness that characterizes Him, He does not want to think small of all the trouble that has afflicted them from the moment that He has given them in the power of their enemies. They do not prescribe to God how He should act, but ask for a favor.

God Justified in His Actions

As they call upon the mercy of God, they do not forget to acknowledge that God has the right on His side in everything that has happened to them (cf. Psa 51:6). They take the right attitude before God. There is no justification for their own sinful behavior, and they do not blame Him for injustice. It is clear to them where the cause of all their misery lies. All the misery they have brought upon themselves can be traced back to their disobedience to the Word of God.

God has given them a kingdom. He has showered them with beneficence. He has given them space and abundance. Nothing has He withheld from them to make them happy, content and thankful. But instead of serving Him, they have served themselves. He has made them aware of this, but they have not repented of their evil deeds.

Slavery Is Justified

They are back in the land, but there is no liberty. A strange power rules the land, not a king from the house of David. They recognize their true position. Both for God and for the world around them, they take the place they have earned through their unfaithfulness.

They cannot fully enjoy the proceeds of the land either. They can enjoy it as far as their rulers allow. The proceeds are not for them, but for those by whom they have been subdued by God because of their sins. They do not even have anything control over their own bodies and possessions. It is all in the power of foreign rulers.