Neh 9:19 | KingComments | STEP | 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” ( ) 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 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 ( ). 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 ( ). 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 ( ). 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 : 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 ( ) – 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” ( ).

‏ Nehemiah 9:19

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).