Nehemiah had come to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall, and he had been successful in doing it. But we discover now that the rebuilding was far from all he had in mind. Nehemiah wanted to rebuild the wall, but beyond that objective he had the far more significant objective of rebuilding the nation.
In the eighth chapter of Nehemiah we see the starting point for any true national renewal. It is the Word of God.
If we are to see a spiritual recovery in our land today, it will be helpful to review the steps to revival as revealed in these activities.
In yesterday’s study we looked at the first two steps to revival as seen in our passage. Today we consider the third step.
The result of this anticipatory prayer, the reading of the Law of God and the explanation of the law was revival. And the first evidence that revival was truly on the way was grief over sin.
The first evidence of a true movement of the Holy Spirit is an awakened conscience, leading to genuine sorrow for sin in God’s people. It is only after this that revival comes. This is what happened in Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day, and it is why it is proper to speak of this as having been a true revival. There were three parts to this revival. We have already seen the first element, the prominence given to God’s Word. In this chapter we need to study its profound impact upon the people.
In yesterday’s study, we concluded by observing that when the people expressed sorrow for sin, Nehemiah and the Levites directed to people to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. I find two very interesting things about this.
The main part of Nehemiah 9 consists of a long formal prayer by the Levites (vv. 5-38), who presumably had been leading the people in the personal expression of sorrow given earlier. This too is a prayer of confession; that is why it is included here. But it is also a prayer which directs the people’s thoughts to the goodness and power of God and prepares them for a final appeal to Him for mercy in their distressed condition.
The second, major part of the Levites’ prayer is a review of Israel’s history. It begins with God’s calling of Abraham (vv. 7-8), as Genesis does. The people must have been thinking about the actual text of Genesis at this time, for Nehemiah 9:7 contains the only Old Testament reference after Genesis to the changing of Abraham’s name from Abram to Abraham (cf. Gen. 17:5). The name change calls attention to the unilateral way in which God dealt with Abraham, a point made repeatedly throughout this section. Notice that God is the subject of every action. But unlike God, who kept His promises, the people (so it is implied) did not keep theirs. God was utterly faithful; they were not.
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