Nehemiah 9:23-38, November 30th, 2025
- Brian Lee
- 2d
- 3 min read
Summary
Nehemiah 9:23–38 records the final movement of Israel’s great corporate confession. After recounting God's mighty acts from creation to Sinai and through their wilderness rebellion, the Levites now trace God’s faithfulness into the period of the conquest, the judges, the monarchy, and the exile. The story continues in the same pattern of grace and human failure. God gives, but the people refuse; God sends deliverers, but the people return to sin; God shows compassion, but they harden their hearts.
The summary is honest about Israel’s history. God “multiplied their children as the stars of heaven” and “gave them kingdoms and peoples” (v. 23), yet “they were disobedient and rebelled against you” (v. 26). God “warned them…by your Spirit through your prophets” (v. 30), but “they would not give ear.” Eventually, God “gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands” (v. 30), fulfilling His covenant warnings. Yet even there, He “did not make an end of them or forsake them” (v. 31).
This is the heartbeat of the chapter. God’s covenant mercy is greater than our sin. And now in verse 32, the Levites plead:
32 “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day.
The people confess their present suffering as just (v. 33) yet plead for restoration based solely on God’s faithfulness. Their final response is to enter into a “firm covenant in writing” (v. 38), a renewed act of dedication to the God who has never abandoned them.
Who is God?
God is faithful and compassionate. His love outlasts our rebellion.
“Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.” (v. 31)
God is portrayed as a Father who continues to love prodigal children. He is patient through centuries of disobedience. He multiplies, provides, delivers, warns, and restores. If God dealt with us according to our sins, our story would have ended long ago. Instead, our Heavenly Father keeps moving toward us with mercy. His compassion does not fail.
What is our Guilt?
Our guilt is a long history of resisting God’s Word while enjoying God’s gifts.
“They were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back.” (v. 26)
The people enjoyed God’s blessings. They delighted themselves in God's great goodness without delighting in God. Their sin is not ignorance but willful forgetfulness. They rejected the prophets. They silenced their consciences. They repeatedly chose comfort over obedience.
This is our story too. We enjoy God’s daily mercies even as we drift into self-sufficiency. We grow comfortable. We forget. We drift. Our guilt is not merely individual failures but a heart that keeps resisting the God who has loved us.
How does Grace Shine?
Grace shines in God’s relentless compassion—a mercy that perseveres until it transforms us.
“And many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets.” (v. 30)
Even judgment was grace, for it brought them to repentance. Even exile was grace, for God preserved a remnant. Grace is not God ignoring sin, but God refusing to abandon sinners. And this grace finds its ultimate fulfillment not in Nehemiah’s renewed covenant, but in the new covenant sealed in Christ’s blood.
Israel wrote their covenant on a scroll (v. 38). But the gospel declares that God writes His covenant on our hearts (Jer. 31:31–34).
Israel promised to obey. Christ obeyed perfectly on our behalf.
Israel confessed their sins. Christ bore their sins on the cross.
The people of Nehemiah’s day longed for a restoration they could not secure. In Christ, we receive a restoration secured by His righteousness, His death, and His resurrection.
Prayer
Gracious Father,
You are the God who never forsakes Your people. When we look at our lives, we see the same pattern of forgetfulness, pride, and drifting that marked Israel’s history. Yet Your mercy has never run dry. Thank You for warning us, restoring us, and calling us back to Yourself.
Help us to return with our whole hearts. Turn our drifting into devotion and our inconsistency into faithfulness that flows from Your grace. Restore to us the joy of walking with You.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
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