- Lesson Ten in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Assignment: The Relentless Pursuit of Obedience” focuses on Nehemiah 9:1-3.
In the ninth chapter of Nehemiah, the people reassembled on the 24th day with fasting, in sackcloth and with dirt on them.
They separated themselves from foreigners and confessed their sins: “While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God” (9:3).
Israel responded to the mercy of God with ingratitude throughout its history. God chose them, blessed them, delivered them, restored them, yet they never failed to turn away from God after a period of contentment.
The Levites standing on the platform led them in a prayer of confession and praise summarizing the grace of God and their own rebellion.
The Levites’ prayer reminds us to begin with a focus on God, remembering he is our Creator and Redeemer. As we meditate on God’s goodness, we are reminded of our own unfaithfulness and urgent need for his forgiveness and restoration.
The Levites began the prayer with praise and adoration to the one who is above all with the recognition that God is creator: “You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and allthat is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before you” (9:6).
Too often we jump into our prayers with a reminder to God of all of the problems surrounding us. We first need to focus on him. He is bigger than our problems.
He is before all things in both time and authority. He made all of the stars, the moon and the sun. He made the earth with seas and dry land, animals of the field, birds of the air, and fish of the sea.
God created us, in his own image and likeness. God is greater than all of our needs.
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The Levites’ prayer reminds us that God is a covenant God. God is not one who created the world and then abandoned it.
He remains actively involved with creation.
God chose Abram and brought him out from Ur. God gave him the name Abraham. God is righteous. And because of Abraham’s faithfulness, God made a covenant with him and gave the land of Canaan to him and his descendants.
The Levites continued the prayer recounting the ways God led the Hebrews and fulfilled his promises.
While the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt, they cried out to the Lord, and God brought plagues against the Egyptians until the pharaoh set them free.
They fled Egypt but became trapped by the sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them.
God parted the sea, and they crossed over on dry ground. The Egyptian pursuers were hurled into the sea like a rock in raging waters.
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