06/04/2025 – Day 329 – Nehemiah – Chapters 5 – 9 / Chapter 9 commentary – “A Time to Mourn”
Let’s get started with J.G. McConville’s commentary on Chapter 9:
“It was right to celebrate God’s goodness to the returned exiles in enabling Jerusalem to be built. Their leaders however — and Ezra is still in the forefront (v. 6) — know that the story is not over. The remainder of the Book of Nehemiah, consequently is take up with the need for the people to extricate themselves from their mediocrity in devotion to God, which is reflected in their status as a vassal-people (v. 36). Chapter 9 must be seen in the wider context. It belongs particularly close with Chapter 10. It was common in the ancient world to cement relationships (normally political ones) by agreements (or treaties) between the parties, which were characterized (a) by a rehearsal of past relations between them and (b) by formal commitments about the future. The Old Testament often adopts this practice, somewhat loosely, for the relationship between God and Israel. Nehemiah 9 and 10 together are a case in point. Nehemiah 9 rehearses the past in the form of a prayer of confession (vv 6-37), and prepares for the new commitment to God in 9:38 – 10:39. The form in its entirety is one which commends itself for Christian prayer in general, and solemn acts of renewal in particular. We look first, however, at the great commission.
The atmosphere is far different from that which prevailed during the Feast of Booths. Once again outward manifestations betoken the condition of the worshippers’ hearts (v. 1). The sackcloth and the earth on the worshippers’ heads are signs of humility and mortality. The note of praise which prefaces the confession (v. 5) heralds what will in fact be the tone of the prayers, namely that despite the sin of Israel, the relationship with Israel’s God is a continuing one, and that praise and confession belong intimately together, both appropriate because of the greatness of God. It is important to notice that the confession – like the earlier joy — has been engendered by the reading of God’s word (v. 3). The Levites have a prominent place again, showing that Ezra’s prayer speaks for the community in the totality of its religious authority structure.
The confession itself encompasses the whole history of the people of Israel, from creation (v. 6) through the election of Abraham and promises to him (vv. 7-8) to the fulfillment of those promises in the miraculous exodus of the earlier Israelites from Egypt by the division of the Red Sea (v. 11)., their guidance and sustenance in the wilderness (vv. 12, 15), the giving of commandments at Sinai (v. 13), and the ultimate possession of the rich land of Canaan as a numerous and victorious people (vv. 22-25). (The reader who wishes to follow the story in detail will need to read large parts of the Pentateuch and beyond. The events that are expressly alluded to here occur in Genesis 1; 12; 17:15; Exodus 2: 23-25; 7-12; 13:21; 14; 16; 19-24; 32; Numbers 21: 21-35; Joshua 1 – 12.)
Ezra thus claims a solidarity between the people of his day and their ancestors in the faith. This is two-edged. On the one hand it is to claim the mercies of God all down the ages for the contemporary community. On the other hand, it means that the people of the present have a share in the guilt of the past. The ‘sins of the fathers’ are in no way minimized in Ezra’s prayer. Indeed, the prayer oscillates between statements of God’s goodness (vv. 9-15, 17b, 19-25, 27, 28b, 31) and statements of the poeople’s sinfulness (vv. 16-17a, 18, 26, 28a, 29-30) in such a way as to throw their ingratitude into sharp relief. The high point of their sin was the manufacture of the golden calf (v. 18; cf. Exodus 32), an act of idolatry at the very moment when Yahweh was setting his seal to the election of Israel as his own at Sinai. Yet this was merely typical of what was to come. Every act of love on God’s part was met and matched by one of disloyalty on the part of his people (e.g. v. 26). Ezra is in no sense exonerating his own generation by this catalogue. Rather, he is allowing the character of former generations to reflect upon it.
There is an obvious point here for the faithful of today as we reflect upon our own failures. Our confessions can be very individualistic. In relation to the Church in other times and places we even tend to distance ourselves from its inadequacies and lean towards self-congratulation. How much better to try to see with God’s eye the failures of the Church in all ages, to admit that we are made of similar stuff, and to admire far more his graciousness! This is not blame-shifting. It is entirely to accept that the sins of the past are our own heritage, and is a sure defense against self-justification or the feeling that one has nothing to confess.
Yet at the heart of Ezra’s prayer is the mercy of God. It is instructive to notice how often the word ‘but’ occurs in it. Whole sermons have been preached on the words ‘But now…’ in Romans 3:21, representing the great turning point of the gospel. Men are chronically sinful, but God has shown in Jesus Christ that he justifies the sinful, to because of any price they pay, but as a free gift (Romans 3: 22-26). The same principle is present here, even if its final exhibition (in Christ) was yet withheld. ‘But thou art a God ready to forgive’ (v. 17); ‘Even when they had made [a calf] … thou in thy great mercies … (vv 18-19); ‘yet when they turned… thou didst hear (v. 28). There is, of course, a corresponding succession of ‘buts’ and ‘neverthelesses’, showing the people’s ingratitude. This only serves, however, to bring out more forcefully the Lord’s determination to be gracious.
Notice the terms that describe his character, especially in v. 17b. He is a God, literally, ‘of forgiveness’; more than simply being ‘ready to forgive’ (RSV), he has forgiven and goes on doing so times without number. He is gracious, i.e.
To be completed by e.o.d. – 06/10/2025.