Wednesday, June
21, 2017
On October 31 the people assembled again, and this time they fasted
and dressed in burlap and sprinkled dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent separated
themselves from all foreigners as they confessed their own sins and the sins of
their ancestors. They remained standing
in place for three hours while the Book of the Law of
the Lord their God was read aloud to them. Then for three more hours they confessed their
sins and worshiped the Lord their God. The Levites—Jeshuaj, Bani, Kadmiel,
Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani—stood on the stairway of the
Levites and cried out to the Lord their God with loud voices. Then the leaders of the Levites—Jeshua,
Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah—called
out to the people: “Stand up and praise
the Lord your God, for he lives from everlasting to everlasting!”
Then they prayed: “May your glorious
name be praised! May it be exalted above
all blessing and praise! “You alone are
the Lord. You made the skies and
the heavens and all the stars. You made
the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of
heaven worship you. “You are
the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him from Ur of the
Chaldeans and renamed him Abraham. When
he had proved himself faithful, you made a covenant with him to give him and
his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites,
Jebusites, and Girgashites. And you have
done what you promised, for you are always true to your word. Nehemiah 9:1-8(NLT)
The
rebuilding of God’s temple in Jerusalem wasn’t the only restoration project on
Nehemiah’s (or God’s) heart. The people
of Israel, who had been conquered time and again, had learned the lesson of
humility; they now had to learn the lessons of victory.
Part of
that re-training, to re-shape the children of God into usable messengers of
God’s good news of salvation for the entire world, was to teach them to live in
the sacrifice of praise.
Nehemiah
called for a great praise and worship service, and all the people came dressed
in sackcloth and ashes (not Easter bonnets and top hats!). They stood in place for the reading of God’s
Word for three hours,
and then opened their hearts in response, confessing their sins, and their
ancestor’s sins for three more
hours! Then the liturgy
stopped, and the confessing stopped, and the priests called for the people to
start praising God – to call out to Him.
If you
noticed in the reading, every bit of the people’s calling-out praise to God was
a rehearsing of what God had done for, and through the people of Israel. This was a testimony meeting! This was the sacrifice God was interested
in…cleansed hearts in response to God’s Word, followed by the expression of
cleared minds, speaking the praise of God’s lovingkindness. Right minds that understood the presence of
mercy!
It’s
important to notice the pattern: Word of
God…Confession…Praise.
If ever our
world needed to get this right, it is certainly now!
For You Today
When
you take the Word of God seriously, how can you NOT confess your sins?
And once you’ve confessed those sins, is it not time to offer the
sacrifice of praise?
NOTES
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