Text: Nehemiah 9:1-37, Romans 8:3-4
Y’all want to do something different today? (I’m just going to assume you’re saying yes here…) Let’s turn to a fresh page of journal paper and write the last part of verse 33 across the top.
“For you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.” (Nehemiah 9:33b, ESV)
Under that, divide your page into two columns. In the column on the left, write the ways in which God dealt faithfully with the Israelites as described in chapter nine. In the right column, list the ways the Israelites acted wickedly in response.
I’ll give you a moment.
Finished? Okay, take a look at your list. What do you see?
I don’t need it to show you how ungrateful the Israelites were. I don’t even need this list to make you see yourself in their unfaithfulness today.
I want you to see God on this page.
“But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.” (9:17b, ESV)
Do you see Him there on the page – lavishing good gifts, provisions, laws of protection, even great rescues and wondrous signs on His people, even in their wickedness?
You know who else I see there on that page? I see Christ. Or at least I see His shadow.
You see, the page and the columns weren’t going to get better. The people were always going to fail. And, the Mosaic Covenant was always going to be conditional: it offered life and prosperity for obedience, but disobedience resulted in death and destruction. The People of Israel were unable to save themselves and, even in this tiny sliver of the Old Testament, a clear need for a Substitute is apparent. The Israelites needed Jesus. They needed Righteousness to come down in their place.
“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3-4, ESV)
The Israelites recognize their grave misdeeds and are confessing their need for the Father’s mercy.
“For you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.”
And when it’s all laid out in the open, no matter what the page says – no matter how painfully our unfaithfulness looks compared to His sovereign faithfulness – all that’s left to see is Christ.
oh my goodness, I loved this. Thanks for this today (so I’m a week behind….it’s fine right?
Of course, Kara! So happy to have you xoxo
-Kaitlin for She Reads Truth
How can I not completely surrender to a God like that? But still I hold tight to parts of my will. Forgive me.
So, so thankful for God’s grace and mercy.
I just love this sisters. Digging into the earth of the bible. Reading things and seeing things I haven’t before. This is what it means to study the bible. The very word of God! the chronicles of his faithfulness and everlasting goodness.
I did the column thing and the list of his faithfulness and the list of the Israelites unfaithfulness. ..wow. god kept his promise. ..he heaped on something else to this list of covenant and faithfulness. ..jesus. God gave us the righteousness of his son even in our wickedness. Thank you God.
Reading these words reminds me of the song; "I need the oh I need the every hour I need the……." How I need Jesus each and every day and I am very thankful that even when you and I mess up He is right there hands out stretched to love us again like He was with the Israelites (70 times 70 He forgives us……..) AMEN!!!!!
How I needed this today… how I've failed so miserably. Sisters, pray for me. That I'd see Christ and believe in Him more than my own failures. I love you guys.
Praying for you, sister!
Praying for you sweet friend…….
Thank you, sisters. The Lord is good. His love endures forever. Praise Him for that.
Some verses from the NLT that spoke to me:
17. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. You did not abandon them,
27 So you handed them over to their enemies, who made them suffer. But in their time of trouble they cried to you, and you heard them from heaven.
28 Yet whenever your people turned and cried to you again for help, you listened once more from heaven. In your wonderful mercy, you rescued them many times!
30 In your love, you were patient with them for many years. But still they wouldn’t listen!
31 But in your great mercy, you did not destroy them completely or abandon them forever. What a gracious and merciful God you are!
33 Every time you punished us you were being just. We have sinned greatly, and you gave us only what we deserved. (Nehemiah 9:17 NLT)
What a great and merciful God!
My flesh says fear, worry, logic. Is Rwanda safe? What is my purpose in going? Am I qualified to be among the story tellers that are going? My spirit says, fear not! I go before you and I follow you! If you haven’t voted in the style for justice competition, I would treasure your vote! http://www.noondaycollection.com/styleforjustice#view/23056/2110642