The (re-)building of the life and mission of a Church begins when God takes the initiative, when God speaks. When we come into Neh.9, it’s been 3 ½ weeks since Ezra started his preaching marathon, and God is clearly still at work by His Spirit, convicting the people of their sin as they engage with the ‘Book of the Law of the Lord their God’ (Neh.9:3, i.e. Leviticus or Deuteronomy). The juxtaposition of conviction of sin (9:2) and praise (9:5) might seem strange to us, but it is no less authentic because of that. When God reveals Himself by His Spirit, through His word, we are both drawn out in joy and worship because of who He is, and sorrow for who we are. Being confronted with His blazing righteousness, we are confronted with our sin. And so we live in this deep tension where we are captivated by the beauty of the holiness of Jesus, and we are devastated by our sin, and our failure to bear the image of the God we love; with the Spirit is constantly bridging that gap to reassure us of the atoning work of Christ and the transforming work of the Spirit.
And as the Spirit instructs the Church (9:20), we are faced by the perennial decision of whether to return to slavery in Egypt, or to press on to learn how to live in the freedom of God’ good, right and just commands (9:13). When God speaks, it is possible to harden our hearts, but in Neh.9-10, the people choose a different path. And they don’t allow it to remain a vague spiritual intention. They spell out specific commitments and detailed obligations. They bind themselves to a public oath (9:38). This is no flash-in-the-pan spiritual elation... as if they were caught up in the moment. There is a profound and considered determination to separate themselves appropriately from the world, to maintain the worship of the Church and the proclamation of the Gospel, and to walk towards the vision of life they are called to inhabit as the Church.
It is all rooted in the epic retelling of the history of God that spans most of Ch.9. It might seem strange that so much space is given to rehearsing the failure of the Church. Except, of course, it isn’t just the failure of the Church they are reminding themselves of, but the faithfulness of God in the face of that failure (9:17, 19, 27, 31, 33). This is a crucial part of the process. In reminding themselves so forcefully of God’s grace in the past, they are confident of His grace in the present. This is the atmosphere that allows them to be honest about their failure, and ambitious in their reform.
Questions:
How can we stop sorrow over our sin from spiralling into an unhealthy self-obsession or spiritual depression? How can you tell the difference between Satan’s condemning, and the Spirit’s convicting?
Why do people who aren’t Christians so often think you have to be a good person to be a Christian? How is the Church’s self-assessment throughout Neh.9 different from that caricature?
Do you think people can fall away from being a Christian? Neh.9 celebrates God’s preserving of his people – but what about passages such as Heb.6:4-6 or Heb.10:26-31? Is God stricter in the New Testament, or less compassionate?
When we read through to the end of Nehemiah (Ch.13) we find that the people singularly fail to keep the commitment they make here in Ch.10. What do you make of that? Does it discourage you? Can you think why they failed? What are we supposed to learn here?
Does it strike you as strange that throughout Neh.9 (an OT passage) God is described in terms of goodness, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, faithfulness, grace and abounding in love? Why / Why not? Do you see the Lord’s commands as just and right and good (e.g.9:13)?
As you read through Neh.10:30-39, why do you think these are the issues that are being focussed on? What could be contemporary equivalents to the promises and commitments being made? Are these commitments that today’s Church should be making?
Is the separation of Israel from all foreigners (9:2; 10:30) an expression of racism? How might the building of the walls be a parable for such separation? Is there any sense in which a similar attitude should be appropriated amongst Christians today?
