Turn there with me.
Our passage today is a summary of the whole Old Testament in one chapter.
So if you're new to the Bible, maybe this will be a helpful chapter for you.
But this text is also a prayer.
It is a prayer to God for mercy.
So let's pray, and then I'll read the text for us.
Amen.
God, what a wonderful thought it is that you are everlasting
and that your glory will outlast and outstrip and exceed
any of the fame that we see in this life.
God, what our hearts are really hungry for is an intimate word from you,
our Creator and our Redeemer.
So as we draw near to you and your word in this moment,
would you speak, God, through your Holy Spirit by your word
and help us to see Jesus in fresh ways, Father, we pray.
In his name, amen.
Nehemiah chapter 9.
Now, on the 24th day of this month, the people of Israel were assembled with fasting
and in sackcloth and with earth on their heads.
And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins
and their 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 a quarter of the day.
For another quarter of it, they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God.
On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bonnie, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Buni,
Sherabiah, Bonnie, and Chanani.
And they cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God.
Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bonnie, Hashbaniah,
Sherabiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pathahiah said,
stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting.
Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
You are the Lord.
You alone.
You have made heaven, heaven of heavens with all their host,
the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them,
and you preserve all of them.
And the host of heaven worships you.
You are the Lord, the 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 with him the covenant
to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite,
the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite.
And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.
And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt
and heard their cry at the Red Sea
and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants
and all the people of his land,
for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers.
And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day.
And you divided the sea before them
so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land,
and you cast their pursuers into the depths as a stone into mighty waters.
By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day,
and by a pillar of fire in the night,
to light for them the way in which they should go.
You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven
and gave them right rules and true laws,
good statutes and commandments.
And you made known to them your holy Sabbath
and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law
by Moses your servant.
You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger
and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst.
And you told them to go in,
to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.
But they and our fathers acted presumptuously
and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.
They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders
that you had performed among them.
But they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader
to return to their slavery in Egypt.
But you are a God ready to forgive,
gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,
and did not forsake them.
Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said,
this is your God who brought you up out of Egypt
and had committed great blasphemies,
you and your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness.
The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way
did not depart from them by day,
nor the pillar of fire by night
to light for them the way by which they should go.
You 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
and they lacked nothing.
Their clothes did not wear out
and their feet did not swell.
And you gave them kingdoms and peoples
and allotted to them every corner.
So they took possession of the land of Sihon,
king of Heshbon,
and the land of Og, king of Bashan.
You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven
and you brought them into the land
that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.
So the descendants went in and possessed the land.
And you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land,
the Canaanites,
and gave them into their hand
with their kings and the peoples of the land
that they might do with them as they would.
And they captured fortified cities and a rich land
and took possession of houses full of all good things,
cisterns already hewn, vineyards,
olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance.
So they ate and were filled
and became fat and delighted themselves
in your great goodness.
Nevertheless, they were disobedient
and rebelled against you
and cast your law behind their back
and killed your prophets who had warned them
in order to turn them back to you.
And they committed great blasphemies.
Therefore, you gave them into the hand of their enemies
who made them suffer.
And in the time of their suffering,
they cried out to you,
and you heard them from heaven.
And according to your great mercies,
you gave them saviors
who saved them from the hand of their enemies.
But after they had rest,
they did evil again before you,
and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies
so that they had dominion over them.
Yet when they turned and cried to you,
you heard from heaven,
and many times you delivered them
according to your mercies.
And you warned them
in order to turn them back to your law.
Yet they acted presumptuously
and did not obey your commandments,
but sinned against your rules,
which if a person does them,
he shall live by them.
And they turned a stubborn shoulder
and stiffened their neck
and would not obey.
Many years you bore with them
and warned them by your spirit
through your prophets,
yet they would not give ear.
Therefore, you gave them into the hand
of the peoples of the lands.
Nevertheless, in your great mercies,
you did not make an end of them
or forsake them,
for you are a gracious and merciful God.
Now, therefore, our God,
the great, the mighty, and the awesome God
who keeps covenant and steadfast love,
let not all the hardships seem little to you
that has come upon us,
upon our kings, our princes, our priests,
our prophets, our fathers, and all your people
since the time of the kings of Assyria
until this day.
Yet you have been righteous
in all that has come upon us,
for you have dealt faithfully
and we have acted wickedly.
Our kings, our princes, our priests,
and our fathers have not kept your law
or paid attention to your commandments
and your warnings that you gave them,
even in their own kingdom
and amid your great goodness that you gave them
and in the large and rich land
that you set before them,
they did not serve you
or turn from their wicked works.
Behold, we are slaves this day.
In the land that you gave to our fathers
to enjoy its fruits and its good gifts,
behold, we are slaves.
And its rich yield goes to the kings
whom you have set over us
because of our sins.
They rule over our bodies
and over our livestock as they please,
and we are in great distress.
Because of all this,
we make a firm covenant in writing
on the sealed document
are the names of our princes,
our Levites, and our priests.
We are in great distress.
Now, on the one hand,
it's a bit surprising
that the people in Nehemiah chapter 9
would describe themselves this way,
great distress.
After all, as we've seen this summer,
God has been at work pretty powerfully
during this period in Israel's history.
After all, aren't these the very people
who can remember how God,
just a generation before,
moved the heart of the Persian king
to bring them home from exile
around 539 B.C.?
Aren't these the very people
who can remember how not so long ago
God empowered them to overcome opposition
and rebuild the temple in 516?
And aren't these the very people
who just a month ago,
in the sixth month of 445 B.C.,
didn't they just see God
bring them together
and complete the massive rebuilding project
of rebuilding Jerusalem's walls?
That sounds like a pretty inspiring
string of events.
You would think that they are
flying high spiritually.
And yet here in Nehemiah 9,
as the people are gathered
on the 24th day of the seventh month,
having just completed celebrating
the Feast of Booths
for the first time
since the days of Joshua,
here they are,
calling out to God,
saying that they are in great distress.
The key is verse 36.
Although the people are indeed
in the land
that God had promised to Abraham,
yet they are still slaves.
A foreign king rules over them,
verse 37 says,
over their bodies
and over their livestock
all as they please.
On the one hand,
the people are free.
They are back home
in the land of promise
and yet at the same time
they are not free.
They are slaves,
servants of a foreign king.
On the one hand,
God's promises
are already fulfilled.
Here we are,
we're back in the land
and yet at the same time
they're not fulfilled.
They're still in bondage.
Now we have to appreciate
how disconcerting
that reality would have been
for the Israelites
in Nehemiah's day,
not just politically
but spiritually.
After all,
what is the basic story
of the Old Testament?
It's this,
God frees his people
from slavery
and then he puts them
in the land of promise.
That's sort of the basic arc.
Out of slavery
and into their true home.
And now,
the people are back
in the land of promise.
God brought them
back from exile.
They're back in the land
but paradoxically,
they are still slaves.
They are free
and yet not free.
They are home
and yet not home.
And perhaps you've begun
to feel that this
spiritual experience
isn't just limited
to the people
in Nehemiah's day.
Isn't that true
of us today as well?
On the one hand,
living this side
of the New Testament,
we see so many
of God's promises fulfilled.
The Messiah has come.
The Spirit has been poured out.
The nations are coming
into the people of God.
The new creation has begun
and yet at the same time,
there's still suffering
and death
and decay
and injustice.
And that can cause
great distress.
We are living
in the tension
between the already
and the not yet.
Already,
God's kingdom
has come in Christ.
Not yet
is God's kingdom
fully complete.
We can feel like
we're free
and yet not free.
Home and yet not home.
And that often puts us
in a place
of great distress.
distress.
But the biggest challenge
of all,
the source of
their greatest distress
and our greatest distress
today,
the source of our
greatest distress,
even living on this side
of the New Testament,
is it not this?
That in Christ,
our sins have been forgiven
and yet
we still sin.
We've been liberated
from spiritual slavery
and yet so often
we return to our chains.
We've been given
an internal inheritance.
We've been made
a new creation
and yet we so often
live as if we belong
to the old.
All of our sins
have been forgiven
and yet
we still sin.
does that not cause
great distress
in our hearts?
For some of us
it causes doubt.
For some of us
discouragement.
For some of us
fear.
For some of us
loneliness
and isolation,
confusion.
What are we to do?
Where are we to go?
Well,
Nehemiah chapter 9
points the way.
You see,
this prayer in Nehemiah 9
is more than just
a recitation
of Old Testament history.
Although it is
a beautiful retelling
of the whole biblical story
up to this point,
it's more than that.
It's a humble prayer
to the God of mercy.
In our great distress,
we must remember
the inexhaustible
mercy of God.
So for a few moments
this morning,
I want to look
at the mercy of God
displayed in this prayer.
And then once we have
God's mercy fully
in our sights,
we're going to apply it
to ourselves
and to our neighbors
and to our world.
But first,
let's look at the prayer itself.
Now,
there are lots of ways
we could approach
this lengthy prayer
in chapter 9,
but I think the simplest way
is to just take it
in four broad movements.
And that fourth
and last movement
is what we've already
been looking at,
verses 32 through 37.
The people of Nehemiah's day
after the exile
calling out to God
in the land
in their great distress,
confessing their sin.
But the first three movements
walk us through
the reasons why
we can call out to God
in the first place.
Why should we?
Why can we go to God
in our great distress?
And the first movement
of the prayer
in verses 6 through 8
tells us this.
In your great distress,
remember that your Creator
is a merciful God.
Now, in these verses,
we don't see God's mercy
explicitly referenced.
Compared to verses 16 through 21,
where God's mercy
is a major theme,
or compared to verses 26 through 31,
where God's mercy
is referenced
in nearly every verse,
this opening movement
of the prayer
seems a bit quiet
on the theme
of God's mercy.
However, that doesn't mean
that this opening movement
of the prayer
is just an introduction.
After all,
consider everything
that transpires
in the biblical story
between verses 6 and 7
of our prayer here
in chapter 9.
In other words,
consider all that happens
between the creation
of all things
in Genesis 1 and 2
and the covenant
with Abraham
in Genesis 12.
What happens?
The fall of Adam and Eve,
the murder of Abel
by his brother Cain,
the worldwide judgment
of the flood,
the building
of the Tower of Babel.
What does God,
our Creator,
do in the face
of humanity's
constant rebellion
against his goodness?
Well,
he makes a covenant
with Abraham.
Now, a covenant
is a binding promise,
and God binds himself
to Abraham
and Abraham's family,
promising to give them
a place to dwell
and to bless them
in order that the effects
of curse and sin
might be overcome.
That's what God promised
Abraham from the very beginning,
that in Abraham
and in his offspring,
all the world
would one day be blessed.
So this story
of creation and covenant
in verses 6 through 8
is really a story
of God's mercy.
When the world stood
under the curse of sin,
God made a covenant
to bring blessing.
Notice how verse 8 ends.
And you've kept
your promise
for you are righteous.
The people in Nehemiah's day
were indeed living
in the land.
God kept his promise.
And did that not mean
that God would also
keep his promise
to be merciful to them,
to forgive their sin,
to liberate them
once for all?
Indeed, if this is the God
who created heaven
with all their hosts,
the earth and all that is in it,
the seas and all that is in them,
if this is the God
who not just creates
but preserves
every living thing
every second of every day,
if that is who God is,
how could he not
keep his promise?
What would stop such a God
from keeping his promise?
And if this God promises
to be merciful,
then indeed he will show mercy.
So our creator
is a merciful God.
But the prayer goes on.
In verses 9 through 21,
we find the second movement
of the prayer.
And in the second movement,
we find this.
It tells us,
in your distress,
remember that your Redeemer
is a merciful God.
Remember that your Redeemer
is a merciful God.
These verses retell
the story of the Exodus
when God liberated,
when he redeemed his people
from slavery in Egypt.
And after liberating them,
he led them with a cloud and fire.
He gave them his law at Sinai,
even fed them with bread and water
in the wilderness.
God sees our affliction.
He sympathizes with our slavery
and he rescues us.
Our creator is our Redeemer.
But in verse 16,
we see that the people
acted presumptuously,
stiffened their necks,
and would not obey.
They even had the audacity
when God had just told them
for their own good
not to make idols,
that is carvings of false gods,
and worship them.
When God had just told them
not to do that,
they had the presumption
to make a metal calf statue
and say,
here's the Lord
who brought you out of Egypt.
Behold your God, Israel.
And what does God do?
Does he leave them
to wander in the wilderness alone?
Does he revoke his law?
Does he allow them to starve?
No.
Verse 19,
you in your great mercies
did not forsake them
in the wilderness.
The cloud and the fire remained.
God even imparted his spirit
to instruct them in the law.
The manna continued to appear
morning after morning
because our Redeemer
is a merciful God.
And how could he not be
at this point?
Having redeemed his people,
you see,
God's name, as it were,
was on this people now.
They were the Lord's people.
And how was he going
to forsake them?
How could he allow his name
to be dishonored in that way?
He had bound himself
to this people
to be their God,
to be their Redeemer.
In other words,
his own reputation
was at stake now
with his people.
He didn't just look
at their affliction
and have sympathy on them.
He bound himself to them
and said,
this is my people now.
So all the nations
looking on would not just
see what happened
to that people,
but would see what
this God was like.
God's own reputation
was at stake now
with his people
in the world.
And if that was true,
how could God forsake them?
How would his mercy
not remain on them?
Our Redeemer
is a merciful God.
But the prayer goes on.
In verses 22 through 31,
we find the third movement
of the prayer.
And as it walks through
Israel's history,
it tells us this.
It says,
in your distress,
remember that your glorifier
is a merciful God.
Now these verses tell the story
of how God gave Israel
the land of Canaan
and how he made good
on all of his promises
to fight for them
and give them a home,
to make them a numerous people,
as numerous as the stars of heaven,
and how he filled them
with good things.
You see,
God not only creates us
and redeems us,
but he also glorifies us.
That is,
he brings all of his promises
to completion,
to consummation.
He is our goal
and our end
and our delight.
God saves us
to bring us somewhere
and he brings us there
to glory.
But in verse 26,
we see that although God
had given the people
everything,
they still rebelled.
So throughout what's called
the period of the judges,
a downward spiral takes place
in Israel's history.
The people would begin
serving other gods,
the Lord would give them
over to their enemies,
the people would cry out
to the Lord,
and then the Lord
would send a judge
or a savior,
as verse 27 puts it,
and the people would be
liberated for a while.
But then the same thing
would happen all over again.
They would go back
to other gods
and experience defeat
and cry out for help
and another rescuer would come
and it would keep going
and going on and on.
The downward spiral went.
And when Israel
eventually became a monarchy
under Saul
and then ultimately
under King David,
it seemed like maybe
things would be different
at that point.
It seemed like maybe
God would be able
to get them out
of the downward spiral
and yet as the generations
of kings went on,
the kings proved
just as fickle
as the people.
Until eventually
God ultimately gave them
up to the Assyrians
and then the Babylonians
to be ejected
from the land,
to be sent out
into exile.
And it seemed like
that might be
the end of the story.
Had God simply
had enough,
was God done
once and for all
with his rebellious people?
No.
Look at verse 31.
Nevertheless,
in your great mercies,
you did not make
an end of them
or forsake them,
for you are a gracious
and merciful God.
Our creator
and redeemer
and glorifier
is a merciful God.
A remnant survived
the exile
and eventually
God brought them home.
And that's the story
of Ezra and Nehemiah,
right,
that we've been looking at.
And you see,
it's on the basis
of this history,
this history
of inexhaustible mercy
that the people
in Nehemiah's day,
knowing their own sin
and sensing
their own slavery
and feeling the dislocation
of being in between
the already
and the not yet,
it's on the basis
of that history
that they call out
to God
and ask for mercy.
And friends,
it's on the basis
of that same history
that you and I
can call out to God
for mercy as well.
It means we can be honest
with our sins
and our failings.
We don't have to try
to hide them
or cover them up.
Don't try to excuse them
or pass them off
or stuff them down.
After all,
God is an almighty.
God is the almighty creator.
There's no use hiding
from a God like that.
He keeps your DNA running.
I'm pretty sure
you can't keep your secrets
from Him.
But God's also
the almighty redeemer
who loves you
and longs to receive you
and enters into your pain
and your suffering.
You don't have to keep secrets
from a God like that.
You can be confident
to go to a God like that
and ask for mercy
because He knows you.
And what's more,
God is your glorifier.
He has a plan for you
and He has a future for you.
A plan and a future
that actually no sin
and no shame
can stand in the way of.
But perhaps this morning
your sins seem too great.
Perhaps you know
what it's like
like the people
at the beginning
of this chapter
to maybe you're not
literally throwing dirt
on your head
and tearing your clothes
because your heart
is so broken
but maybe at a spiritual
or existential level
you can feel that.
Perhaps doubt
and great distress
still haunt you.
Could God still love me?
Could God still receive me?
Have I not sinned
too greatly?
Have I not acted
too presumptuously?
Have I not actually
stiffened my neck?
Have I not refused
to obey even when
I knew better?
How could God
be merciful to me?
You know,
we've been looking back
over the story
of the Old Testament
but for a moment
look ahead.
Look at what
the New Testament holds
and what do you see there?
The almighty creator
takes flesh
and becomes a creature
weak and in a manger.
The compassionate redeemer,
the one who rescues
from slavery
with a strong arm
takes the form
of a servant.
The glorifier,
the one who lives
in perfect beauty
and goodness
is put to shame.
Why?
Why would such a great,
mighty,
and awesome God,
as our chapter says,
why would that God
do such a thing?
Why would Jesus
come and suffer
and die?
It's mercy.
It's mercy for you,
friend.
He was forsaken
so that you
would never have to be.
No matter how great
your sins,
there's mercy for you
in the arms of Christ.
So how should we apply
this great prayer
of Nehemiah 9?
First,
to ourselves.
And the key word here
is peace.
For all who are in Christ,
the mercy of God
covers all your sins,
past,
present,
and future.
So confess your sins
to God.
Go to Him
in sorrow
and repentance.
Cry out to Him
for mercy
and you will find it.
And let the words
of God's mercy
bring your heart peace.
And you know,
this is the sort of peace
that doesn't give you
a license
to sort of do
whatever you want.
This is the sort of peace
that causes you
to sin less and less.
Let me use a somewhat
simple illustration.
When I go to the grocery store
hungry,
what do I usually
come home with?
What do you usually
come home with?
I'll tell you
what I come home with.
Ice cream.
Those New England
barbecue chips
that are so crunchy
and delicious.
Some form of baked good
that probably has
a high fat content.
Oreos.
Do you know they make
mega stuffed Oreos now?
I think when you open up
the package
it's just white stuff.
There's not even
a cracker in there.
That's what happens
when I go
to the grocery store
hungry
and all that food
ends up in my cart
because my stomach
is growling
and it all looks
so good.
But what about
when I go to the grocery store
after I've already
had a satisfying meal?
Well,
I usually come home
with what's on my list.
Do you see
the spiritual truth here?
When your heart
is full
of the peace
and mercy
of Christ,
when you're able
to look back
and recite
the mercy of God
not just through
biblical history
but on into your own history
and to the history
of those around you,
when your heart
is full of that
mercy and peace
and when you have
fellowship with God
your creator
and redeemer
and glorifier
and you know
that he looks upon you
not with condemnation
but with favor,
when your heart
is full
with that satisfying
peace of forgiveness,
then your heart
doesn't need
the junk food anymore.
Now,
if that peace
seems elusive to you,
find an older,
more mature believer
or come talk
to one of the pastors
or elders
or maybe your small group leader
and open your heart
to them.
That can be a very
vulnerable thing to do
but in that safe place
of a trusted brother
or sister,
open your heart
to them
because sometimes
we need the word
of mercy
to come from the outside
so we can really
get down deep
on the inside.
That's the beauty
of confessing
your sins
to one another
in the spiritual family
of the church.
Open up your heart
to another trusted friend
but that's often
the way
to experience
this mercy
and peace
in a fresh way,
the peace
that satisfies you.
second,
let's apply this mercy
to our neighbors.
If the word
to ourselves
was peace,
the word
toward our neighbors
is patience.
When we know
God has been merciful
to us,
when we've experienced
that over time,
we become much
more patient
towards others.
not perfectly,
but gradually.
Because let's be honest,
people sometimes
annoy us.
People sometimes
disappoint us.
People sometimes
hurt us.
And we wonder,
how long
do we really
have to put up
with them?
But in those moments,
it's good to pause
and consider
how long
God has put up
with us.
How many of your sins
has God overlooked?
How many of your failures
has He patiently endured?
How often
has He taken you back
again and again
with no contempt
and no conditions
but with gentleness
and love?
Now,
this isn't saying
we don't need to have
good boundaries
at times with people,
but those who know mercy
become patient people.
Patient because God
has been so mercifully
patient with us.
But last,
this mercy applies
in our relationship
to the world.
Peace,
patience,
but the word here
when we look out
at the world
is hope.
You know,
it's easy to look out
at the world
and get pretty discouraged.
Things like poverty
and racism
and violence
and corruption,
they never seem to end.
And the longer
you care about
these things
as we should
as followers of Christ,
you know,
the longer you care
about these things,
the harder it can be
because so often
good plans for change
don't often bring
change about.
But a people
in touch with God's mercy
will always have hope.
Why?
Because hope,
you see,
is something much
different than a wish.
You wish for something,
but you hope in someone.
Do you see the difference?
We often wish for something,
but hope,
real hope,
is hoping in someone.
Now, wishes aren't bad.
It's good to have
and good to desire
specific,
concrete changes
that we'd like to see.
It's good to work for them
and long for them.
But the reality is,
friends,
in a fallen world,
often these wishes
will not materialize.
But hope is different.
Even when things
don't go as we planned,
hope in God
grows.
We may not know
how or when
God will come
and make all things new.
We don't know
when His kingdom
will break forth
and give us signs
of the coming day.
But we know
that it will.
How do we know?
Because our Creator
and our Redeemer
and our Glorifier,
the Lord Jesus,
is a God of mercy.
He will bring to completion
the good work He began.
Justice will roll down
like waters
and righteousness
will come
like an ever-flowing stream
and that kind of hope
will sustain us
even when our wishes
don't materialize
the way we want.
The people who know mercy,
in other words,
are a hopeful people.
So peace
and patience
and hope.
It is possible
even in our great distress
to know these things,
to know peace
and patience
and hope.
Why?
Because our God
is a merciful God.
And the more
you know this God,
the more you'll be able
to say with the psalmist,
surely goodness
and mercy
shall follow me
all the days of my life
and I shall dwell
in the house of the Lord
forever.
Let's pray.
Why don't we take
just a moment
and ask the Holy Spirit
to come
and show us
in our hearts
where we need
in particular
to feel
and to experience
God's mercy?
Perhaps it's sins
that you've been wrestling with,
something in your past,
something even
in your present.
Perhaps it's a relationship
that's been bringing out
the worst in you.
Perhaps it's a weariness
because your labors
in the world
seem to be bearing
so little fruit.
Lord Jesus,
we praise you
that you are a God
of mercy.
would you
equip us
and encourage us
this week
to go forth
from this place
to really live
into and press
into that mercy
in a way perhaps
that we've never
done before.
You must do
this work,
God.
You must do it
by your Spirit
so we look to you.
We yield to you,
God,
and ask you to come.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Well, church,
let's stand.