Nehemiah 9:32-37

Again I am struck by the spirituality of these Old Testament people. They spend much more time in worship and praise and humbling themselves before God, than in asking. I can not claim such a quality of spirituality, but how important this long period of worship and praise and confession is. It centres the mind and heart upon God, and tunes the soul to the atmosphere of heaven, and to the mind of God. Notice that in chapter 8 we find that this praying commenced with the reading of the Law of God. This reveals the importance of regular Sunday worship. This is what Sunday worship is for, which is to listen to God and tune our hearts to him, and bind us to the Lord in love and obedience, and to tune our souls to the mind of God. This gives such great importance to the ministry of the church of God. How important it is that every service should lift God�s people into the heavenlies and to the lively meeting with God which we need.

Why has Nehemiah inaugurated this worship and devotion to God at this time. Surely Nehemiah had a great sense of need. This is a sense of need the church must always have if it is to survive and remain alive and spiritual. Up to this moment the people had been fired up with the task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, and they had been occupied with the many difficulties this had brought them, in the opposition of their enemies. Times like these are times when spiritual life is more easily maintained. In one sense it is easier to fight the enemy outside of us, than the enemy within. Also when we have specific goal before us, we are ready to give ourselves devotedly to this goal. However we all know that when that immediate goal has been achieved, there is a sense of relief, and lethargy sets in. It is at this time that the devil assaults the soul, and it is so easy for God�s people to grow lazy in spiritual duties, and let the heart grow cold, and allow the things of the world creep in and dim our spiritual vision and life.

Nehemiah knew this only to well, as the subsequent record in Nehemiah tells us. Nehemiah felt this great need, for Israel to be kept faithful to the Lord, and also the need for the people to be delivered from the slavery they were in. In spite of the fact that the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt, there was still much to do in order to build up the life of the people in worship and service of God. Further, Israel was still under the dominion of a foreign power, and they were still so vulnerable to the alien people around them. This is illustrative of our spiritual dilemma. Although we are delivered from the dominion of Satan, and have new life in Christ, we still live in this fallen world which is still under Satan�s dominion, and we still live in this world through a fallen and sinful flesh, and Satan is still very much active in harassing us, and tempting us. We need the Lord to keep us, and so we need to be much in prayer as Nehemiah was.

The next thing I notice as I have meditated upon this act of intercession here is the attitude of heart of these people as they prayed, and I have realised how important a right attitude towards God is as we come to him in intercession. This attitude is expressed in three things.

Firstly, there is the attitude of heart whereby God is highly exalted in the mind and heart of these people. It is expressed in verse 32 where we read �Now therefore, O our God, the great, mighty and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love ...� In the attitude expressed here, these people acknowledge the greatness and majesty of God, and their attitude of heart as they come to him in prayer is one of awe and worship and bowing before his majesty with reverence. They do not come to God in a careless and off hand way. They do not come as if God was their equal, or just to be used as means of obtaining things that are needed. They come to God as the one who is over all in authority and greatness, and to whom is owed total obedience and reverence. The words that express this are nothing unless the heart is in tune with the words, and the words are echoing and expressing the true attitude of the heart.

Secondly, there is the attitude that in all things God acts justly and does right. This is expressed in verse 33 where we read the people saying �In all that has happened to us, you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong.� There is a terrible tendency in the human heart, even amongst the best of us, to complain to God about what we may be suffering, and in this is an attitude that God is acting unfairly towards us. This is a wrong attitude in which to come to God in prayer. Our attitude must acknowledge before God that even if we are called upon to suffer, this is only a tithe of what we deserve, and we need to acknowledge that if we were given our just deserts nothing could be too bad for us to suffer. The truth is that our sins deserve nothing less than hell, and no sufferings that we may suffer here on earth can be as bad as hell. Another thing is that we fail to appreciate that we do not know what is best for us. Also we fail to understand that God�s wisdom is perfect, and he knows what is best for us, and all his acts are for our greatest good. We fail to appreciate that God always acts in love and grace towards his redeemed people, and sometimes he knows that suffering is a means of grace. Paul acknowledges this in Romans 5:3 where he says that we rejoice in suffering, because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. It is important as we come before God in intercession that we come with an attitude of humble submission to his will, and trust in his loving grace towards us.

Thirdly, I notice that the attitude of these people as they came asking in their need was one of reliance only on the grace of God. This is expressed in their acknowledgment of the their failure and sin, and what such failure truly deserves. They were humble before God. In this attitude is the attitude, commended by Jesus in the Gospels, which is expressed in the Tax Collector praying in the temple, and crying to God for his mercy. Jesus said of this man that God heard him and answered his prayer. There is no place for arrogant demands in intercession, or an attitude that thinks that God must and ought to give whatever we ask, and this is true when in our own estimation we feel that what we our asking for is good and necessary.

This brings me to the third thought about intercession that I find illustrated here, and this is perhaps the most important lesson expressed. In verse 32 we find the people expressing their faith in God in the words �who keeps his covenant of love�. This is what underlies the whole attitude of these people as they came to prayer. Their hope and confidence, their faith, was in the grace of God expressed in his covenant of love towards them.

For Israel in these Old Testament times this was a faith in God�s promise that he would be their God, and that they would be his people. It was a faith that God never reneged, and would never renege, on this covenant which he made to their Father Abraham. This gave the power to their praying, and gave them confidence to come to God and intercede before him.

What we are able to see and appreciate more clearly with the New Testament before us is the fact that the covenant of love that God made to Abraham, which the people here in Nehemiah�s day were relying upon, is none other than God�s covenant of love in the salvation of sinners through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Abraham was promised that through his seed all the nations of the world would be blest. This we know to be a promise fulfilled in the coming of Christ, and in Christ giving himself as a sacrifice for sin, and winning eternal redemption for all who believe.

The power we have in intercession, and the boldness we have to come into the holiness of God, is the blood Jesus shed for us. We come through the blood. It is in the blood shed for us that we see the covenant of love God made is fulfilled completely and fully. Our assurance and the power we have in prayer is in this fact that Christ has atoned for all our sin, and God welcomes us as his children, totally just in his sight, through Christ. This is why we come, and must always come to God in prayer, through Christ and his merits and death.

I am not one to lay down rules for our asking before God. Many and varied are the ways intercession is made before God. I will not say that we should not come to God with specific requests, and I affirm that it is right and proper for us to come to God with smallest of our needs. I learn from the Lord�s Prayer that it is right and proper to ask God for our temporal needs, and be specific about them. If a prayer is for a simple thing like a carpet for the sitting room, I do not say that this is improper. I find myself so often asking God to show me where I have left something I can�t find, and invariably, if not always, he shows me where this lost item is.

However, having said this, I am aware that my wisdom is so limited and flawed. I just do not know what is best either for myself or for others. I am conscious so often that I just do not know what I should be praying for concerning people and their needs, or concerning the work of the church or how it should go forward and be accomplished.

I believe this was the case here. Nehemiah, together with the people, knew that they needed God in their lives to keep them. They felt the shame and oppression of still being a nation occupied and subdued by a foreign power. They knew something of the pain of this slavery. Nehemiah certainly knew how easily the people turned away from God, and his ways. This is expressed in the way they mention in the verses before us their sins in the past. What they did not know is what the future held, or what they needed to be free from their slavery and what they needed to be kept loyal to the Lord.

In the light of this the intercession here is perhaps hardly what we would term intercession. They do not seem to ask for anything. However there is an expression of need which is an expression of asking. They bring their need to God. They express their longing before God. What they do not do is to tell God what they think or want God to do. They make no demands. They claim no privileges. They express no thoughts of what they feel they may be owed by God. In contrast they clearly express the attitude in which they know they do not deserve that God should regard them. I find this very telling. Intercession illustrated here is bring to God our need, even expressing our great desire, but in faith and trust leaving our need to the Lord, with faith in his grace and mercy. Also there is an acceptance that what God does give will be best, and there is an acceptance of the will of God. There is also the trust in the covenant love of God which gives them the assurance that God hears and will answer them in blessing.