Great Sins, Greater Mercies

Neh 9 – God’s Construction Project: A Series in Ezra-Nehemiah – Nov 27, 2022

Introduction

Reading Nehemiah 9:1–15. Please stand while we read to mirror how these Jews would have listened. And if you’re watching online, please stand as well.

I’ll begin this morning with a story about a man named Roger. Roger was a typical boy growing up in a suburb of Raleigh. Got decent grades. Especially good at math. In college he got a degree in accounting. Eventually an MBA.

Landed a good job in a growing company. In his late 20s the company began to go south. But he figured out a way he could alter how they showed profit-and-loss. They could look profitable even when they weren’t.

For several years the shareholders and executives were happy. But eventually someone figured out the lie. They posted things online, and the police got involved. The whole thing got exposed and the company went bankrupt. Roger went to jail for ten years.

But in jail there was a Bible study. He began to learn about the forgiveness available in Jesus. He put his faith in Jesus and became a Christian. He was totally changed.

After his time in prison, though, he left as a convicted felon who had done time. After that, with every job application he was forced to face the reality of his crime. No company was interested.

He realized that God had forgiven his sins, he had satisfied the demands of the government for his crimes, but the consequences of his sins were with him constantly.

How would you try and help Roger?

That’s the situation we’re reading about this morning. The prayer of Nehemiah 9 is a prayer by a people in some ways restored—and in some ways facing daily the consequences of their sin.

What do you pray for in that situation? Mercy!

Series: God’s Construction Project. Temple, Wall, and now the People. For us it’s about building the church. The church is not a building or a place. It’s a people.

Structure of Ezra-Nehemiah, where we are in the 2-volume work. Remember these works were a single book until after the NT was written.

Our chapter takes place just weeks after the falls are finished in 445 BC, 25^th day of 6^th. Now we’re in the 7^th month, just a few weeks later.

Remember in Nehemiah 8:9 when the people were weeping after public reading of the Bible. Weeping over conviction of sin. Well, they confess that sin.

• Fasting, sackcloth, earth on their heads (9:1).
• Confessed “their sins and the iniquities of their fathers” (9:2).
• Read from “the Book of the Law of the LORD their God” 3 hrs (9:3).
• Confession and worship 3 hrs (9:3).
• Levites led the public prayer in 9:5–37.
• WHAT COMES NEXT: COVENANT RENEWAL

Sermon: Our sins are great, but God’s mercies are greater: (1) Our Great God (9:5–15); (2) His Great Mercies (9:16–31); (3) Our Great Distress (9:32–37).

Prayer

I. Our Great God (9:5–15)

First is the call of these Levites to “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting” (v. 5a).

And then they turn to God himself in prayer in an opening doxology.

Doxology (9:5b–6)

• 5b: “Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.” Verse 5, then, is a call to praise the name of the One whose name is above all praise. It’s a call to bless the One whose name is above all blessing.
• 6: “You are YHWH, you alone.”
• 6: “You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them.”
• God the Creator. The creation around us is HIS handiwork. No natural causes made such a marvel.
• 6: “You preserve all of them”—God’s providence. He maintains all. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground apart from his sovereign will.
• 6: “The host of heaven worships you”—He doesn’t just receive our worship, but the worship of “the host of heaven”—stars & angels!

Then, Abraham’s Covenant (9:7–8)—Genesis 12 and 15—emphasis on people and land: “Your have kept your promise, for you are righteous” (Neh 9:8).

Then, the Exodus (9:9–12)

• “The Red Sea” (v. 9), “signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants” (v. 10).
• God’s provision in the desert: “pillar of cloud” by day, “pillar of fire” by night (v. 12).

Then, the Law, a BIG EMPHASIS here (9:13–14)

• Revelation of God: “You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules...” (v. 13).
• “Right rules” (v. 13).
• “True [i.e., “trustworthy,” HALOT] laws” (v. 13).
• “Good statutes and commandments” (v. 13). “Good,” “pleasant.”
• These are actual commandments that require obedience.
• ..they’re right, true/trustworthy, and good.

Then, provision of “bread from heaven,” “water for them out of the rock” (9:15)

Application: We need to see from this passage the sinfulness of sin.

• First, sin is so sinful, because it’s sin against the true and living and awesome God: Very different than violating the policies of some low-level official. Our man Roger at the beginning of our sermon might feel like his crime was no big deal, because it was just against government regulators.
• But it wasn’t. His crime was also a sin against “the LORD,” who “made heaven” and earth, and “preserves” them, and receives the worship of all heavenly beings. And us: Our sins are against our great God.
• Second, sin is so sinful, because it’s sin against the God who has been so good to us: Our sins are against the God who has chosen us (like Abraham), redeemed us (like Israel out of Egypt), and provided for us (like Israel in the desert).
• On crime shows, you never feel bad when it turns out the guy killed was a monster and the person who killed him was one of his victims. Yeah, crime needs to be punished, but in the flow of the story you tend to be glad the guy got wacked. He was terrible. But not so with God!
• Third, sin is so sinful, because it’s a violation of the clear commandments of the living God: At times you get punished for breaking rules that just weren’t clear. You broke a law and didn’t even know it was a law. No one told you.
• But with God’s law, we have a Bible in our own language that explains what his commandments are. And our own conscience even guides us here. Our conscience isn’t perfect, but it is a guide that makes us feel uneasy when we’re doing something wrong to a person or even to God. Conscience can get corrupted. But sometimes the voices yelling the loudest that this terrible wrong is really right are really just trying to drown out the conscience in their head that continues to let them know it really is wrong.

Our sins are great, but his mercies are greater...

II. His Great Mercies (9:16–31)

There’s a pattern in this prayer: repeating cycles of (1) God’s goodness, (2) Israel’s sinful response, (3) God’s “great mercies.” Or, God’s goodness, Israel’s sin, God’s discipline and THEN God’s great mercies. The first cycle is the longest. We heard about God’s goodness in the opening passage (vv. 5–15). Now we’ll read about (2) Israel’s sin and then (3) God’s great mercies.”

READ Nehemiah 9:16–21.

Remember God’s goodness and glory in 9:5–15: Who he is, what he did for Israel.

How did Israel react to such glory and goodness? Not well. Nehemiah 9:16–17.

The Levites look back at the Golden Calf incident from Exodus 32–34. Israel just been delivered from Egypt and already breaking at least the second commandment but probably first and second (no other gods, no graven image)—Not the fine print of the Law of Moses but the first two of the Ten Commandments! (Exod 20:1–6).

This could have been the end of Israel. Or maybe another new beginning, like the new beginning with Noah after the flood or the new beginning with Abraham himself. Maybe a new beginning with Moses.

But God chose to be merciful. His people would be spared. Now it’s true that three thousand would be killed for their part in this sin (Exod 32:28). But the vast majority of the nation would live and continue as God’s people.

This act of mercy is what Nehemiah 9 highlights.

And 6 times in this section the Levites mention God’s “mercies” (Neh 9:28) or “great mercies” (Neh 9:19, 27, 31) or say that he is “merciful” (Neh 9:17, 31).

The first mention is in Neh 9:17: “But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.”

This is a paraphrase of what God says about himself after the golden calf incident, in Exodus 34:6–7. That phrase, “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” will continue to reverberate throughout the OT.

Any “great mercies” we experience, then, are an overflow of the character of God himself who is merciful.

But let’s think a minute about what mercy is.

Louis Berkhof, 20^th century theologian:

The mercy of God: Another important aspect of the goodness and love of God is His mercy or tender compassion. The Hebrew word most generally used for this is chesed. There is another word, however, which expresses a deep and tender compassion, namely, the word racham, which is beautifully rendered by “tender mercy” in our English Bible. The Septuagint and the New Testament employ the Greek word eleos to designate the mercy of God. If the grace of God contemplates man as guilty before God, and therefore in need of forgiveness, the mercy of God contemplates him as one who is bearing the consequences of sin, who is in a pitiable condition, and who therefore needs divine help. It may be defined as the goodness or love of God shown to those who are in misery or distress, irrespective of their deserts. In His mercy God reveals Himself as a compassionate God, who pities those who are in misery and is ever ready to relieve their distress.
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology[1]

His definition ties into our passage well.

• That Hebrew word racham is used throughout this chapter, six times.
• He mentions “bearing the consequences of sin.” Which these people praying about.
• Remember: Consequences can be direct (my sin, Roger’s) or general (Adam’s sin).
• And then “relieve their distress”—the chapter will end with a heavy emphasis on “the great distress” of the Israelites.
• They’re asking God to pity them, be compassionate toward them, to remember his mercy in his dealings with them.

In their prayer they detail God’s mercy. It’s not general but specific.

God’s “great mercies” (v. 19) included:

• “You did not forsake them in the wilderness” (v. 19).
• Pillar of cloud, pillar of fire (v. 19).
• “Your good Spirit to instruct them” (v. 20).
• Manna, water (v. 20).
• 40 years God sustained them (v. 21).

Second cycle: Read Nehemiah 9:22–27—covers Joshua, Judges, monarchy.

• God gave them victory in Canaan (Neh 9:22–25).
• “Nevertheless...” (Neh 9:26).
• Added element: “killed your prophets...” (Neh 9:26).
• But still, “great mercies you gave them saviors” (Neh 9:27).

Last cycle: Read Nehemiah 9:28–31—rest of monarchy and especially Assyrian/Babylonian captivities.

• The captivities were signs of both (1) God being “slow to anger” but also (2) his holy commitment to judge sins.
• But even then, in v. 31, there were “great mercies” and “you did not make an end of them.”

Application: This section shows us how to ask God for mercy.

• Pray his character back to him: E.g., Nehemiah 9:17c.
• It’s the OT equivalent of John 3:16.
• Pray his mercies in the past back to him: E.g., Here they’re reminding God of his mercies in the past. Specific times when he was faithful to his people—when they were unfaithful.
• They’re praying, “O Lord, you are merciful, you have shown great mercies to us in the past, show me mercy now!”

Our sins are great, but his mercies are greater...

III. Our Great Distress (9:32–37)

In the final section of the prayer, the leaders once again start with a doxology and then make the only request in the whole prayer.

But they’ll end the prayer with a sobering look at their “great distress.”

READ Nehemiah 9:32–37.

Request – 9:32b – the only request in the prayer.

“Great Distress” – 9:33–37.

Application: The passage reminds us of the very real consequences of sin.

• You’re forgiven.
• You’re reconciled.
• ..consequences can sometimes remain.
• In this case, “we are in great distress” (Neh 9:37).

Conclusion

Our sins are great, but God’s mercies are greater: Despite his goodness and greatness, we have sinned and these sins are great. But his mercies are greater!

What do we do with this chapter?

First, if you ever encounter a guy like Roger—forgiven but experiencing the consequences of his sin—Nehemiah 9 would make a great Bible study to do together.

You could go through the chapter to put words to prayers. The chapter helps you to IDENTIFY THE SINFULNESS OF SIN so he can own it; but also to KNOW HOW TO ASK FOR MERCY so he can find grace.

E.g., those “great mercies” in Neh 9:19–20: We need those! Pray for those!

Second, see here a guide to national and personal revival: It begins with the Word of God and prayer. Don’t lose faith that God really can do this!

Third, the chapter shows what we need. We need to be born again.

• Jesus talking to Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
• It’s not enough to have a great heritage, generations of those who have been part of God’s people.
• It’s not enough to have a significant past where you experienced “signs and wonders” and many deliverances.
• It’s not enough to have the Bible read, preached, taught to you.
• It’s not enough to have God’s messengers proclaiming his promises and warnings to you.
• You need to be born again.
• After the words to Nicodemus, we’re told what we must do in John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Prayer: If sin, forgiveness. If consequences, mercy. Come, Lord Jesus.

Closing Song: “His Mercy is More”

[1] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), 78.