A MODEL PRAYER OF REPENTANCE

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on January 10, 2024 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: January 10, 2024 from Nehemiah 9:1-38

Theme: This passage gives us an example of a prayer of repentance that ought to be prayed in a time of revival.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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After the story of the rebuilding of the city wall in Chapters 1-7, Nehemiah—in his great biblical ‘diary’—went on to tell us about the spiritual work that needed to be done in the hearts of the people of Jerusalem. The people had completed the rebuilding of the wall; but now they needed a revival of the heart. Chapter 8 told us the beginning of this work of revival through the preaching of God’s word. And now, in Chapter 9, we read of how that growing revival was expressed in the prayer of repentance.

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There are three great chapters in the Old Testament that record significant prayers of revival. And interestingly, they are all chapters ’9′. Chronologically, the first would be the prayer of Daniel in Daniel 9. He prayed his great prayer of repentance for his people while living under the Median/Persian empire. He had read in the Book of Jeremiah that God had determined 70 years of captivity for His people (Daniel 9:2; Jeremiah 25:11); and having added the years up, he calculated that the time of deliverance had come. And so, he prayed a fervent prayer of repentance for his people’s sins. God graciously heard that prayer and delivered His people.

That deliverance came in 536 B.C. The people returned to the land; but they delayed the building of the temple for many years. Finally, in the days of the godly scribe Ezra—after about 80 years of waiting—the restoration began; and Ezra prayed the second great prayer of repentance. It’s found in Ezra 9. Ezra had discovered that many of the leaders of the people had been guilty of the very sins that had brought about the captivity in the first place; and with a broken heart, he prayed an earnest prayer of repentance for his people’s sins.

And now—about 12 years after Ezra had prayed his prayer; and after the walls of the city of Jerusalem had been rebuilt—the spiritual leaders of Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s time prayed yet another prayer of repentance. It’s recorded for us in Nehemiah 9. This prayer was not prayed in the same situation that the other prayers were prayed—that is, in a time of spiritual crisis. Rather, this one was prayed after a time of revival had already begun.

It’s interesting to note that, when it comes to these three great prayers of repentance, there is something that they all have in common. The ones who were doing the praying were among the most righteous people of the time. If you looked at their lives in comparison to the people around them, you would not have thought that they were the ones who needed to pray a prayer of repentance. But they not only did pray such a prayer, and they not only led their people in such a prayer, but they were very careful to identify themselves with the sins and guilt of their people. “We have sinned”, they would say.

One of the great characteristics of times of spiritual refreshing from the Lord—times of great revival—is prayers of repentance. And in Nehemiah 9, we find a model of such a prayer.

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Note first …

1. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PRAYER (vv. 1-5a).

The story of this prayer begins in Chapter 8. It had been on the first day of the seventh month—after the wall had been completed—that the people called for the scribe Ezra to bring out the book of the law and read it to them. The reading of God’s word had a powerful effect. They wept over their sins; and the Levites sought to comfort the people. They even remembered that they had not kept the Feast of Booths for nearly a thousand years of their history; and they repented and kept it according to God’s word.

Now; that feast was to be observed from the 15th to the 21st day of the seventh month (Leviticus 23:34). And now, Nehemiah tells us what happened three days after the feast was completed:

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads. Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. (vv. 1-3).

Notice that repentance was an active thing with them. They took practical measures to set themselves apart from foreign people (Gentile people who were outside of the covenant that God made with the people of Israel through Moses); and they assembled with true humbleness of heart. They had built the wall to define their separateness as a people; and now they put that separateness into action. They also made personal confessions before God. Apparently, this great prayer of repentance was a part of an ongoing process that touched the lives of individuals. Corporate prayers of repentance don’t really count for much unless that repentance works down—in practical ways—into individual lives. Note also that this prayer involved an ongoing interaction with God’s word. For three hours, they listened to God’s word; and then, for three hours, they confessed and worshiped. Their confession and worship were biblical.

Then came the time for the official prayer for the nation. We’re told that specific leaders took action in an official and formal way;

Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the Lord their God. And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said:

“Stand up and bless the Lord your God
Forever and ever! (vv. 4-5a).

The Levites—who were commissioned by God to serve the spiritual needs of the people under the work of the priests—called for all the people to stand at attention and turn their hearts in reverence toward God.

And this leads us to …

2. THE CONTENT OF THE PRAYER (vv. 5b-37).

Note carefully that it begins with worship. The leaders prayed;

“Blessed be Your glorious name,
Which is exalted above all blessing and praise!
You alone are the Lord;
You have made heaven,
The heaven of heavens, with all their host,
The earth and everything on it,
The seas and all that is in them,
And You preserve them all.
The host of heaven worships You” (vv. 5b-6).

All true prayers of repentance ought to begin with a recognition of who God is. Unless we recognize who God is—and unless we grasp the majesty of His holiness—we really can’t see the sinfulness of our own sin as we should. A lack of sorrow for our sin often comes from a failure to appreciate the holiness of God. If we only look at ourselves, we’ll think that we’re wonderful. And if we only compare ourselves with others, we’ll make ourselves out to be better than them. But if we turn our attention to God, as He is presented to us in the Scriptures, then we will see our sinfulness in the light of His holiness.

The worship of God that began this prayer included a careful recognition of God’s works in history—and of how those works had demonstrated His grace toward His people;

“You are the Lord God,
Who chose Abram,
And brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans,
And gave him the name Abraham;
You found his heart faithful before You,
And made a covenant with him
To give the land of the Canaanites,
The Hittites, the Amorites,
The Perizzites, the Jebusites,
And the Girgashites—
To give it to his descendants.
You have performed Your words,
For You are righteous” (vv. 7-8).

The grace of God is shown specifically in how God called Abraham to Himself from out of a land and culture of paganism; and gave Him the land of promise. This grace was still shown even while Abraham’s descendants were under bondage in Egypt in the times of Moses.

“You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,
And heard their cry by the Red Sea.
You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh,
Against all his servants,
And against all the people of his land.
For You knew that they acted proudly against them.
So You made a name for Yourself, as it is this day.

And You divided the sea before them,
So that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land;
And their persecutors You threw into the deep,
As a stone into the mighty waters.
Moreover You led them by day with a cloudy pillar,
And by night with a pillar of fire,
To give them light on the road
Which they should travel” (vv. 9-12).

God not only demonstrated His grace by delivering His people from bondage, but also by giving them a good law and by entering into a covenant relationship with them.

“You came down also on Mount Sinai,
And spoke with them from heaven,
And gave them just ordinances and true laws,
Good statutes and commandments.
You made known to them Your holy Sabbath,
And commanded them precepts, statutes and laws,
By the hand of Moses Your servant.
You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger,
And brought them water out of the rock for their thirst,
And told them to go in to possess the land
Which You had sworn to give them” (vv. 13-15).

God’s gracious promise to Abraham seems to be continually in view in this prayer. That’s because this prayer was being prayed at a time when the people were returning to the land that God had promised to Abraham after having been sent into exile for 70 years for their disobedience.

What’s more, this prayer recognizes that disobedience to God was a part of their story from the very beginning. They went on in their prayer to recall the sins of their fathers in the wilderness under Moses—on the way to the promised land. They said;

“But they and our fathers acted proudly,
Hardened their necks,
And did not heed Your commandments.
They refused to obey,
And they were not mindful of Your wonders
That You did among them.
But they hardened their necks,
And in their rebellion
They appointed a leader
To return to their bondage.
But You are God,
Ready to pardon,
Gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger,
Abundant in kindness,
And did not forsake them” (vv. 16-17).

It must have been painful to remember the way that their fathers rebelled against God—and how they even appointed Moses’ brother Aaron to lead them back to Egypt. But in the words of verse 17, they remembered the character of God that was declared to Moses at an early time of the people’s rebellion. God had revealed Himself to Moses as “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin …” (Exodus 34:6-7a). They would need to call upon God’s gracious and pardoning nature many times throughout their history. They had to do so from the very beginning; because no sooner had God delivered them from their bondage in Egypt than they began to rebel against Him—and no sooner had they rebelled against Him than God demonstrated to them the greatness of His continual mercy.

“Even when they made a molded calf for themselves,And said, ‘This is your god
That brought you up out of Egypt,’
And worked great provocations,
Yet in Your manifold mercies
You did not forsake them in the wilderness.
The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day,
To lead them on the road;
Nor the pillar of fire by night,
To show them light,
And the way they should go.
You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them,
And did not withhold Your manna from their mouth,
And gave them water for their thirst.
Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness;
They lacked nothing;
Their clothes did not wear out
And their feet did not swell” (vv. 18-21).

For forty years, that first rebellious generation wandered in the desert in an area that would have taken less than two weeks to travel. But that first rebellious generation had to die out; so that God could keep His promise to their children. That next generation entered the land under the leadership of Joshua; and they began to take possession of the land with God’s mighty help.

“Moreover You gave them kingdoms and nations,
And divided them into districts.
So they took possession of the land of Sihon,
The land of the king of Heshbon,
And the land of Og king of Bashan.
You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven,
And brought them into the land
Which You had told their fathers
To go in and possess.
So the people went in
And possessed the land;
You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land,
The Canaanites,
And gave them into their hands,
With their kings
And the people of the land,
That they might do with them as they wished.
And they took strong cities and a rich land,
And possessed houses full of all goods,
Cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves,
And fruit trees in abundance.
So they ate and were filled and grew fat,
And delighted themselves in Your great goodness” (vv. 22-25).

But in spite of God’s faithfulness to them, they rebelled yet again. They, in fact, rebelled over and over again during the times of the Judges. These leaders of prayer in Nehemiah’s day remembered that repeated pattern of rebellion, confession, and restoration.

“Nevertheless they were disobedient
And rebelled against You,
Cast Your law behind their backs
And killed Your prophets, who testified against them
To turn them to Yourself;
And they worked great provocations.
Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies,
Who oppressed them;
And in the time of their trouble,
When they cried to You,
You heard from heaven;
And according to Your abundant mercies
You gave them deliverers who saved them
From the hand of their enemies” (vv. 26-27).

The story of the days of the Judges is a sadly repetitive record of the people’s disobedience, and suffering, and crying out to God in repentance, and being delivered again—only for the people to rebel again afterward. But time and time again, God demonstrated His unfailing mercy to them. God gave them kings to rule over them; and prophets to declare the truth to them; and yet, they again rebelled. The spiritual leaders of Nehemiah’s time confessed;

“But after they had rest,
They again did evil before You.
Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies,
So that they had dominion over them;
Yet when they returned and cried out to You,
You heard from heaven;
And many times You delivered them according to Your mercies,
And testified against them,
That You might bring them back to Your law.
Yet they acted proudly,
And did not heed Your commandments,
But sinned against Your judgments,
‘Which if a man does, he shall live by them.’
And they shrugged their shoulders,
Stiffened their necks,
And would not hear.
Yet for many years You had patience with them,
And testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets” (vv. 28-30a).

Those words in verse 29 about God’s law—“Which if a man does, he shall live by them”—are taken from Leviticus 18:5. God had told them this from the very beginning;

“Yet they would not listen;
Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands” (v. 30).

Now; those words in the latter half of verse 30 speak of the very judgment of God that the people had just been delivered from. God had warned them that they would be taken out of the land if they continued to rebel against Him. And so it happened. They had spent 70 years in exile—in a far-away, pagan land; and were only now beginning to rebuild their city. And now, as they could plainly see, God in His mercy had once again restored them and had kept His promises to them. The leaders recognized this when they prayed;

“Nevertheless in Your great mercy
You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them;
For You are God, gracious and merciful” (v. 31).

God had now graciously brought them back into the land. The temple was being restored. The city wall had been rebuilt. The spirits of the people were being revived. God’s grace had once again been shown to them as a people. It’s a key moment in their history. And that’s why this great prayer of repentance was being prayed. Would they again ignore God? Would they again rebel against Him? Or would they admit the truth of their sin, and appeal to Him for His mercy? The Levites led the people in saying;

“Now therefore, our God,
The great, the mighty, and awesome God,
Who keeps covenant and mercy:
Do not let all the trouble seem small before You
That has come upon us,
Our kings and our princes,
Our priests and our prophets,
Our fathers and on all Your people,
From the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.
However You are just in all that has befallen us;
For You have dealt faithfully,
But we have done wickedly.
Neither our kings nor our princes,
Our priests nor our fathers,
Have kept Your law,
Nor heeded Your commandments and Your testimonies,
With which You testified against them.
For they have not served You in their kingdom,
Or in the many good things that You gave them,
Or in the large and rich land which You set before them;
Nor did they turn from their wicked works” (vv. 32-35).

Note how these leaders are admitting to the sins of their people. They are confessing the faithfulness of God in the judgment that they suffered; and recognizing the things that they had done to bring that judgment about—“From the days of the kings of Assyria” (which was when the northern tribes of Israel were taken into captivity) “until this day.” They recognize that they had ended up in the situation that they were in because of their rebellion and sin. They were praying as ‘servants’; but not as servants of God. They were confessing that they were the servants of a foreign king in their own homeland.

“Here we are, servants today!
And the land that You gave to our fathers,
To eat its fruit and its bounty,
Here we are, servants in it!
And it yields much increase to the kings
You have set over us,
Because of our sins;
Also they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle
At their pleasure;
And we are in great distress” (v. 36-37).

Now; what are they to do about all of this? In Chapter 10, we will go on to read of how they entered into a covenant with God to keep His law diligently. The last verse of this prayer introduces us to …

3. THE COVENANT OF THE PRAYER (v. 38).

They pray;

“And because of all this,
We make a sure covenant and write it;
Our leaders, our Levites, and our priests seal it” (v. 38).

The remainder of this section of Nehemiah’s diary—Chapter 10—gives us a description of that covenant.

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So then; this remarkable prayer gives us a great example of genuine confession and repentance. In it, we see the worship of God’s holy character and a declaration of His gracious nature. We see the recognition of God’s grace to His people in history; but of their continual rebellion. We see how they suffered the consequences of their sin, and of the oppression they experienced by the enemies because of it. But we also see that God keeps His promises to them; and hears their prayers, and restores them.

And will we embrace the spirit of this prayer; and also pray to the God who has shown such great mercy to us? In his first letter, the apostle John wrote;

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us (1 John 1:5-10).

Our God is the same God as He has always been. He hears the sincere prayer of repentance. And what’s more, He has provided a Redeemer. As John went on to say;

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world (2:1-2).

So then; let’s praise Him! Let’s trust Him! And most of all, let’s turn to Him in repentance! As it says in Hosea 14:1-2;

O Israel, return to the Lord your God,
For you have stumbled because of your iniquity;
Take words with you,
And return to the Lord (Hosea 14:1-2a)

AE