Thursday: Praise and Petition
Read Nehemiah 9:32-38. What is the focus of the conclusion of the prayer of confession?
Once again the prayer turns to praising God for who He is: great, mighty, and awesome, one who keeps the covenant and mercy. They seem sincere in their acknowledgment of God’s goodness to them.
Petition
They also bring a petition in the form of making a covenant with God, which is described in detail in chapter 10. What is their petition?
“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” (Neh. 9:32, NKJV).
The community has to pay tribute to the kings who are over them. Oppression from every side is plaguing the small company of Israelites, and they are tired of it. They have had to endure one tyranny after another, and they are hoping for a reprieve.
Interestingly, they call themselves “servants”. After outlining the infidelity of their nation, they end by referring to themselves with that word. Servants, of course, obey those who are over them. The use of this term, then, implies that they realize they need to obey the Lord in ways that those who came before them didn’t. This is an expression of their desire to be faithful to the Lord and His commandments. And, as servants of God, they are asking Him to intervene in their behalf.
The community of Ezra and Nehemiah describe their current experience as being “in great distress” (Neh. 9:37), which can be compared to the affliction the Israelites experienced in Egypt (Neh. 9:9). Their prayer praises God for seeing their affliction in Egypt and not overlooking it. The community is now asking God to intervene just as He had in the past, even though they don’t deserve it, because no one — kings, princes, priests or prophets, or fathers — was faithful. Thus, they are relying only on God’s grace and mercy to them, and not on themselves or in their ancestors’ works, in hopes that the Lord will intervene in their behalf.
Read Romans 5:6-8. How do these texts reflect what the Israelites were asking of God? What comfort can we draw from what the Israelites were asking and what Paul was saying in Romans?
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Post-exilic Jews faced the challenge of believing in an all powerful God while still being governed by a foreign power. In fact they did not regain their autonomy until 1948 with the creation of the modern state of Israel. (I know that there is a whole branch of Christianity that puts a prophetic interpretation on this but I don't want to go there.) In their prayer they record:
The Jews morned the loss of their kingdom and looked forward to the time when the Messiah would return their autonomy. And in the security of our own sense of prophetic history we like to point out that that their view of history was wrong. Hindsight often has 20-20 vision and it would probably be useful to remind ourselves that if we were in their position 2500 years ago we would have probably thought the same.
Like the post-exilic Jews, we Christians live in a world where secular governments rule over us. What are the lessons for Christians living in the 21st century?
Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and awesome God
The great
Alexander the great, Cyrus the great - Where are they now? Where is their fame?
When the bible says Our God the great, He is, He was, He will always be great.
The mighty - every one of the kingdom fell and was overtaken by other kingdoms.
For a time this earth was under Satan. Praise God for Matthew 28 ALL authority in heaven and earth has been given unto Me.
“Never can the cost of our redemption be realized until the redeemed shall stand with the Redeemer before the throne of God. Then as the glories of the eternal home burst upon our enraptured senses we shall remember that Jesus left all this for us, that He not only became an exile from the heavenly courts, but for us took the risk of failure and eternal loss.” (Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages. Page 131 ‘The Victory’)
Awesome - Presence of God
Running away, lonely, away from home when Jacob fell asleep he had a dream and realizes God is with him. He wakes up and says, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Surely in your life you have experienced the great, mighty and awesomeness of God.
Even under bondage Nehemiah acknowledges: Our God the great, the mighty and awesome.
Do you let the situations dictate who God is?
NEH 9:32 "Do not let our trouble seem small before you that has come upon us. "
Why their trouble which came upon them they don't want to seems as a small things?
God is wonderful! We must understand that all that we are and possessed were given by Him. He can transforms us into something different, a new vase, a new instrument. And perhaps the "new" adjective is just a reduntant word. Perhaps God has already a plan for each one of us, which includes the talents we were already given. God's knowledge is marvelous! All praise must be given to Him! Glory to the name of Him Who died for me and you!
Need of God in your life, because that just in Lord there is Power to win [over]our bad habits🙏❤🙌
Often on visual media when people are astounded by something they use the phrase OMG which really bothers me, I prefer to use the phase 'Praise the LORD' when wonderful things happen in my life.
A famous TV host promoted the idea of a Gratitude Journal and I think it is a great idea to every day record how the LORD has blessed us every day in small or great ways.
I quote from the lesson:
Interestingly, they call themselves “servants”. After outlining the infidelity of their nation, they end by referring to themselves with that word. Servants, of course, obey those who are over them. The use of this term, then, implies that they realize they need to obey the Lord in ways that those who came before them didn’t. This is an expression of their desire to be faithful to the Lord and His commandments. And, as servants of God, they are asking Him to intervene in their behalf
I wish to suggest that this was a lamentation about their condition rather than an overture to God about their current or former status as servants of His. They were saying here we are in a land given by YOU God but yet because of OUR unfaithfulness we are servants to foreign kings in a land that is ours. A God given land. We need YOUR help!!!
That's my understanding also!