Bible Study

*Just for your thoughts.*

Expository commentary on the book of Nehemiah .

Bible Study, Lesson 18.

Nehemiah Chapter 9:

The National Intercessory Prayer of the People of Israel
The prayer recorded in the ninth chapter of the Book of Nehemiah is a prayer offered on behalf of all the people of Israel. It is one of the longest prayers mentioned in the Bible.
Those who offered this prayer were the Levites — Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani. These men offered a public prayer of confession on behalf of their people.
This prayer can be taken as a model in several ways:
They praised and exalted God (Praise & Adoration)
They recalled their past history (Historical Review)
Repentance — Confession of Sins
They confessed both their own sins and the sins of their ancestors.
Recognizing God's Grace
They acknowledged the faithfulness and grace of God, who bore with their arrogance and did not abandon them in the wilderness.
Acknowledgment of their present condition
This prayer is an excellent example of how intercession for a nation ought to be made. If such a prayer were offered to the Lord on behalf of our nation, it would bring about a great transformation both in us and among our people. It is a cause for sorrow that such prayers are no longer offered in our churches today.
The word arrogance appears in this chapter in two places.
The word that describes the mindset of the people of Israel appears in Nehemiah 9:16 and 9:29.
The people who had been called by God, blessed by God, received His commandments, and who had once been slaves in Egypt — these very people acted arrogantly toward God. Forgetting how the Egyptian rulers had treated them with arrogance, and forgetting the Lord's deliverance that gave them the breath of freedom, they turned around and acted with arrogance toward the very Lord who had done them so much good.
"But they and our ancestors acted arrogantly and stiffened their necks and did not obey Your commandments. They appointed a leader to return to their bondage and rebelled against You."
— Nehemiah 9:16
The Five Wonderful Attributes of God — Nehemiah 9:17
Even in the midst of all these sins, God did not abandon them. For He is:
"A forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love."
— Nehemiah 9:17
When we read these words, we cannot help but feel the love of God.
A God who forgives
A God full of grace
A God full of compassion
A God who is slow to anger
A God abounding in faithful love
Such a God is not only the Father of the Jewish people — He is our Father too.
Arrogance That Continued Even in Canaan
Even after the people of Israel entered the land of Canaan according to the promise God had made to Abraham, they broke His commandments and statutes, worshiped idols, betrayed God, and acted arrogantly before Him (Nehemiah 9:29).
The Progression of Arrogance:
Disobedience → Arrogance → Rebellion
In the wilderness alone, they rebelled against God five times:
Exodus 14–16
Exodus 16–17
Exodus 32
Numbers 13–14
Numbers 16
Even after reaching Canaan, they continually forgot God, worshiped idols, killed the prophets, and eventually reached a point where God could have abandoned them altogether.
The Consequence: They lost their kingdom, wandered without a homeland for nearly 2,000 years, and to this day remain unable to find the true Messiah.
A Warning for Our Own Lives
Arrogance is no ordinary sin — it is stubbornness, it is rebellion. If it is not rooted out from our lives at the very beginning, it will grow within us and, at some point, turn us into people who rebel against God's own purposes.
This is not visible to those on the outside. Many who appear to be under a spiritual covering are living with exactly this kind of rebel mindset.
When a believer knows God's will but refuses to fulfill it and begins to pursue his own agenda, arrogance rises within his heart. If that arrogance is allowed to grow, it works within us and transforms us into a rebel.

If God hates it when we act arrogantly toward other people, howஞ much more when we act arrogantly toward the very Lord who saved us — the same fate that came upon the people of Israel will ultimately come upon us as well. This destruction will not be visible to others — only we ourselves will feel it. While living under a spiritual covering, we will have nurtured within ourselves a heart that is in rebellion against God.
Let us avoid arrogance. Let us know God's will. Let us fulfill it.
" *The idea that God will pardon a rebel who has not given up his rebellion is contrary both to the Scriptures and to common sense."*
— A.W. Tozer