Nehemiah

Nehemiah 9: A God ready to pardon

Begin in prayer

Before we hear the people confess their sin, let us come humbly to God. Please ask Him to show our family His mercy, and to teach us how He can be just and still pardon sinners through Christ.

we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances;

Daniel 9:5

Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Show us that You are just and ready to pardon, and help us to see Christ, who bore the judgment sinners deserve. Make us more like Jesus. And please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

Two days after the solemn assembly, the people gather again, fasting, wearing sackcloth, with dirt on them. They separate from all foreigners who served other gods, confess their sins, and read the law for a quarter of the day. The Levites call them to bless the LORD, who made heaven and earth and chose Abram. They tell how God saw the affliction in Egypt, divided the sea, led them by cloud and fire, and gave the law at Sinai. They tell how the fathers hardened their necks and made a calf, but God did not forsake them. Again and again they sinned and were given to enemies, and again and again God heard and sent saviors. At the end they say God is just and they have done wickedly, and they make a sure covenant and write it.

As you read Nehemiah 9, look for the answers:

• What did God do for His people in Egypt and in the wilderness? (verses 9 to 15)
• What did the fathers do, and what did God do? (verses 16 and 17)
• What do the people say about God's judgment? (verse 33)

Reflect together

Key truth

God is ready to pardon and slow to anger, and He did not forsake His people when they sinned.

Chapter 8 ended with joy, and chapter 9 begins with sackcloth, as the people confess (verses 1 to 3). The prayer is a long history of Israel, and it begins by praising God as the maker of all things (verses 5 and 6). God chooses Abram, sees the affliction in Egypt, divides the sea, gives the law and feeds His people (verses 7 to 15). The people harden their necks, and they even make a calf and say it brought them out of Egypt (verses 16 to 18). Yet God is “ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness” (verse 17). The pattern repeats in the land. They rest and do evil, God gives them to enemies, they cry out, and He sends saviors (verses 26 to 28). God is just, and the people say so, “we have done wickedly” (verse 33). At the cross, God stays just and still declares righteous the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3 verse 26).

How does Nehemiah 9 show us that God is ready to pardon and slow to anger, and did not forsake His people when they sinned?

God made all things and chose a people for Himself.

The Levites begin by praising the LORD, who made heaven, earth and the seas, and who keeps them all (verse 6). He chose Abram, brought him out of Ur and promised land to his children (verses 7 and 8). He did all this for a people who had earned none of it.

The fathers hardened their necks, but God did not forsake them.

They forgot the wonders, made a calf, and even chose a captain to go back to Egypt (verses 16 to 18). God stayed with them, with the pillar of cloud and fire, with manna and with water (verses 19 and 20). Verse 17 says He is “ready to pardon.”

God is just, and the people confess their sin.

They say God is just in all that has come on them, and that they have done wickedly (verse 33). God's judgment is right. Mercy comes to guilty people only through Christ, who bore the judgment that sin deserves (Romans 3 verses 25 and 26).

Memorise

But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and didn’t forsake them.

Nehemiah 9:17

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, what sin must I turn from, trusting God to pardon through Jesus?

The people told God, “You are just in all that has come on us, for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.” Yet they also said, “you are a gracious and merciful God.”

Both are true, and they meet at the cross. Our sin deserves judgment. God did not set it aside. He sent His Son, who bore the punishment His people deserved, and so God stays just and still pardons. Jesus was raised on the third day, and His death paid the whole debt.

This is the God who is ready to pardon. Come to Him. Turn from your sin, and put your trust in Jesus. Everyone who trusts Him is forgiven, and God will not forsake that person.

Parent's note

Tell your children that God is just and ready to pardon, and that Jesus bore the punishment sinners deserve. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God that He is ready to pardon, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so let each one tell God one sin they are sorry for.

But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his wrath.

Psalm 78:38

Gracious God, thank You that You are ready to pardon and slow to anger. Thank You that You are just, and that Jesus bore the judgment sinners deserve. Please lead each of us to trust Him and to follow You. Amen.