The solemn fast of assembled Israel. Notice three features in the people's religious life.
1. Their confession of sin.
2. Their external reformation.
3. Their solemn adoption of the written word of God as the law of their life. Take these as representative, universal.
I. HUMILIATION AND CONFESSION.
1. Public and united as well as private and solitary. Great impressiveness in numbers. The heart needs the stimulus of contact with great waves of feeling. There is much in the expression of religious emotion to feed and sustain it.
2. The sense of sin should not be merely the acknowledgment of individual transgressions, but of moral helplessness. "They confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers." They recounted the history of Divine grace and the backslidings of his people. It kept alive in their hearts the sense of their utter dependence on the free, unmerited mercy of Jehovah.
3. The penitential spirit will clothe itself in an appropriate dress. The people fasted and put on sackcloth and earth, as signs of mourning and self-humiliation. We are not enjoined to adopt their religious customs, but there is a natural expression of penitence which is not formality or self-righteousness. Self-denial, simplicity of life and manners, practical remembrance of the nothingness of earthly things. "Moderation known unto all men."
II. THE REFORMATION OF THE OUTWARD LIFE. There are external conditions under which alone the true service of God can be fulfilled. Such are—
1. Complete separation from alliance with ungodly strangers. The uncompromising purity of our conversation is our only safeguard. The truly consecrated heart will renounce all for God. Often a sacrifice will be involved, but to give up the old life is to save the new.
2. Attention to the public observance of religious ordinances. The most humble and sanctified natures appreciate such opportunities the most. Neglect of the house of God is a sure sign of decay of the spiritual life. Nothing can be substituted for it. Solitary religion may be sincere, but it cannot be entirely healthy, and is generally apt to grow morbid. The consecrated gifts of God's people are placed at our disposal by the mingling together of hearts and voices, and the use of a prepared expression of religious feeling.
3. The service of God in the daily life. "In the land which thou gavest unto our fathers;" "behold, we are servants in it." Religion must be made a reality, not only in the public assembly, but in the household, in the place of business, in the relations we sustain to fellow-men, in national life, in all the land.
III. THE SOLEMN COVENANT SEALED BY GOD'S PEOPLE, ADOPTION OF HIS WORD AS THE ONE ONLY LAW TO BE OBSERVED. "We make a sure covenant, and write it."
1. The covenant rests upon a covenant. We stand upon the ground which God himself has prepared for us—the history of his faithfulness and love in the past. We dare not undertake to live by the law of God except we have the assurance of his grace. The Old Testament is the precious support of our faith as we pledge ourselves to Christ in the new covenant of the gospel. We are able to surround ourselves with the cloud of witnesses.
2. The fellowship of faith our help. Those who have set their seals to the same writing hold up each other's strength in the fulfilment of the vow. Princes, Levites, priests, with the people. God is no respecter of persons; but when all ranks and offices are united in his service, the confidence of all is maintained, and the spirit of brotherhood feeds the spirit of self-sacrifice.
3. Public consecration and profession of obedience should be the result of a deep, inward work of God's Spirit, in the renewal of the heart and life. All rash vows are wrong; how much more those made in the name of religion! Because we repent and return to the Lord, we may safely make a covenant of faithfulness; but a mere sealing of the outward man, without a spiritual renovation, is a mockery and a snare.
4. Enlightenment should accompany all public religious acts. The people heard the word and understood it before they solemnly pledged themselves to keep the law. There can be no healthy revival of religion which is not founded on enlightenment. The great assemblies are easily moved to common action; but the preparation for it should be the clear, full, simple announcement of the gospel. We can never take too much account of the fact that the human heart deceives itself, that ignorance blinds, that selfishness and slothfulness hide the wonders of the past and the dangers of the future. The whole word of God should be the foundation on which religious life is built up.—R.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Appeal
It has been remarked that there is no prayer in this lengthy address to God. And the absence of direct supplication is certainly very noticeable. But it must be remembered that we may make our appeal to God in more ways than by directly asking him for the blessings we desire at his hand. The comparative and almost complete absence of formal petition from this address suggests to us that we may go far towards winning our cause by—
I. PRESENTING THE SOUL BEFORE GOD IN A RECEPTIVE SPIRITUAL STATE. It is only in some spiritual conditions that we can expect to be recipients of his bounty. Not to be in the right state is to lock the door at which we stand. By such an address as this the Jews either showed themselves to be in, or brought themselves into, an acceptable recipient condition. There were—
1. The solemn recognition of God's excellency; of his greatness—"Our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God" (Nehemiah 9:32); of his goodness—"thy great mercies' sake;"… "thou art a gracious and merciful God" (Nehemiah 9:31); of his faithfulness—"who keepest covenant and mercy" (Nehemiah 9:32); of his justice—"thou art just in all that is brought upon us" (Nehemiah 9:33).
2. Sense of their own ill-desert. "Thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly."
3. Readiness to separate from sin. "The seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers" (Nehemiah 9:2). "If we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us" (Psalms 66:18; Isaiah 1:15).
4. Preparedness to pledge themselves to his service. The Jews were prepared to "make a sure covenant, and write it and seal it" (Nehemiah 9:38). Thus, on this occasion, the children of Israel presented themselves before God, and not only showed, as they began to speak reverently and humbly to him, but gained more as they proceeded, a fitting spiritual condition for receiving his Divine communications. It is not by" loud speaking," nor by "much speaking" (Matthew 6:7), but rather by asking in a right temper and mode, that we make a forcible and prevailing appeal to the Divine Helper; presenting ourselves before him as suppliants in the spirit of
(2) deep humility,
II. REQUEST IN WORDS (Nehemiah 9:32, Nehemiah 9:36, Nehemiah 9:37). "Now therefore, our God,… let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, and on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day" (Nehemiah 9:32). "Behold," continues this appeal, "we are servants, and the land thou gavest unto our fathers,… we are servants in it: and it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us:… they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress" (Nehemiah 9:36, Nehemiah 9:37). This is
Adoration and thanksgiving.
At this great and solemn gathering, which followed the feast of tabernacles, Ezra and eight Levites led the whole assembly in a reverent address and appeal to God. It is thought by some that the record of it in this chapter (verses 6-38) is the exact copy of it as then written down for the use of the Levites; or it may be the leading topics of it as afterwards recollected and recorded. We have seen that confession of sin is the groundwork and substance of it. But it includes adoration and thanksgiving, for the grateful recital of the excellences of God's character and the graciousness of his dealings would be the very thing to deepen and to quicken penitence for their sin. A realisation of God's holiness and a remembrance of his kindness are inseparably connected with the sense of our own guilt. This recital of the goodness of God, both general and particular, contains reference to—
1. The essential greatness of God: as the one Lord; Creator and Preserver of men; Maker of heaven, "with all their host;"… whom "the host of heaven worshippeth" (verse 6).
2. His distinguishing goodness to Israel: choosing Abraham (verse 7), working great wonders on behalf of the race (verses 10, 11), giving them a day of rest and a human leader (verse 14), establishing and enriching them in the land of promise (verses 22-25).
3. His miraculous and his abiding care for their wants: giving them "bread from heaven for their hunger," and bringing forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst (verse 15); forty years sustaining them in the wilderness (verse 21).
4. His faithfulness: "performing his words, for he is righteous" (verse 8).
5. His pitifulness, and mercy, and patience: seeing their affliction and hearing their cry (verse 9); "ready to pardon, slow to anger, and of great kindness" (verse 17); "many times delivering them" in answer to their cry (verse 28); "not utterly consuming nor forsaking them" (verse 31).
6. His guidance and teaching: giving the cloudy pillar and the pillar of fire (verse 12); speaking to them from heaven and giving them judgments and true laws, etc. (verse 13), and his "good Spirit to instruct them" (verse 20).
7. His chastening love (verses 28-30). Let us consider—
I. THE ABUNDANT GROUND FOR GRATITUDE ON THE PART OF EVERY ONE OF US. We worship and bless God as
II. GOOD REASONS WHY WE, AS ERRING BUT ENDEAVOURING SOULS, SHOULD RECALL AND RECOUNT IT. There are four very strong reasons why, in the presence of God and of one another, we should recall his past loving-kindness and his everlasting goodness.
1. It is in accordance with his will, and will give pleasure to him when we do so reverently and gratefully.
2. It will deepen our sense of sin; for we shall feel that it is against all this goodness and mercy we have rebelled.
3. It will give spirituality and intensity to the voice of our praise. Such recollections will constrain us to "make melody in our heart" when we make music with our voice.
4. It will give depth to our abiding gratitude—that sense of unbounded indebtedness which we carry with us from the sanctuary, and hold in our hearts everywhere.—C.
HOMILIES BY J.S. EXELL