Neh 9:29-31 | KingComments | STEP | 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.

‏ Nehemiah 9:29-31

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”.