Bible Reading: Nehemiah 9:5-8 and 32-38 5 And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said: "Stand up and bless the Lord your God Forever and ever! "Blessed be Your glorious name, Which is exalted above all blessing and praise! 6 You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, The seas and all that is in them, And You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You. 7 "You are the Lord God, Who chose Abram, And brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, And gave him the name Abraham; 8 You found his heart faithful before You, And made a covenant with him To give the land of the Canaanites, The Hittites, the Amorites, The Perizzites, the Jebusites, And the Girgashites— To give it to his descendants. You have performed Your words, For You are righteous. 32 "Now therefore, our God, The great, the mighty, and awesome God, Who keeps covenant and mercy: Do not let all the trouble seem small before You That has come upon us, Our kings and our princes, Our priests and our prophets, Our fathers and on all Your people, From the days of the kings of Assyria until this day. 33 However You are just in all that has befallen us; For You have dealt faithfully, But we have done wickedly. 34 Neither our kings nor our princes, Our priests nor our fathers, Have kept Your law, Nor heeded Your commandments and Your testimonies, With which You testified against them. 35 For they have not served You in their kingdom, Or in the many good things that You gave them, Or in the large and rich land which You set before them; Nor did they turn from their wicked works. 36 "Here we are, servants today! And the land that You gave to our fathers, To eat its fruit and its bounty, Here we are, servants in it! 37 And it yields much increase to the kings You have set over us, Because of our sins; Also they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle At their pleasure; And we are in great distress. 38 "And because of all this, We make a sure covenant and write it; Our leaders, our Levites, and our priests seal it." |
This is a magnificent prayer. It would do you good to read the whole of it, starting with verse 5 and going on to the end of the chapter. Notice several things in this prayer. First, there is the I faithfulness of God. The last part of verse 8 says, 'Thou hast fulfilled the promise for thou art righteous'. At the same time all through the prayer there is the story of God's dealings I with his people. They had been unfaithful to him so many times, but time and time again he had delivered them out of I their enemies' hands. He had punished them for their sins, but had always done it in love. It is a clear summary of the story of the Children of Israel. There are some beautiful verses in it. Notice the last parts of verse 27 and verse 28, and also verses 30-31. Aren't they a wonderful description of the love and compassion of God? Now in the light of all God's goodnesses, the people promise him that they will do what he wants them to do. Read verse 38 again. Would you be willing to publicly sign a letter to God saying you will always try to do what he wants? I Do we realise how very serious it is to make God a promise? In Psalm 116:14 the Psalmist said he would pay his vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. He meant what he had promised and he was determined to fulfil it. What promises have you made to God? Have you forgotten them? God hasn't. God is always faithful to his promises and he wants us to be just as faithful to ours. A THOUGHT: Never promise God what you are not willing to fulfil. |
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