Strength & Direction for Life – Nehemiah 9:1–38

Handling Our Failures

Nehemiah 9:16–18, 26–31

Paul J. Bucknell

Handling Our Failures – Warnings with Hope

Warnings expose the pattern of our hearts (Nehemiah 9:16–18, 26–31) – God’s goodness is met by stubbornness and rebellion.
Warnings reveal God’s persistent compassion – Again and again He hears, forgives, and delivers when His people cry out.
Warnings invite honest repentance – They are meant to help us make right decisions, not to drive us deeper into failure.

Purpose: Handling Our Failures, an exposition of Nehemiah 9:16–18 and 26-31, reminds us the purpose of warnings is not to discourage us into more failure but to show us that God knows we can make the right decisions.

Handling our failures (Nehemiah 9:16–18, 26-31)

We would like to stop there, but we need two other parts of this prayer to gain the full perspective we need to consistently make the right choices, bringing us closer to God and fulfilling His good purposes in our lives. We have spoken on the three events where God intervened and brought grace into this world. These lay the framework for Jesus to come and bring His grace into our lives.

This prayer, however, also gives us further insight into the nature of man and what is needed for us to come to a full and proper grip on the perspective we ought to have of life.

If we are honest, we can learn much from our forefathers. If we are foolish, we will ignore their mistakes, think we are beyond them and fall headlong in worse errors. Both of these sections begin in the same way.

I have heard a number of people, maybe even myself, saying, “I’ll never be like them.” What is so interesting is seeing that we tend to repeat the problems we vow not to replicate.

Notice how these two sections have a similar beginning.

16 “But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly; They became stubborn and would not listen to Thy commandments. 17 “And they refused to listen, And did not remember Thy wondrous deeds which Thou hadst performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But Thou art a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness; And Thou didst not forsake them. 18 “Even when they made for themselves A calf of molten metal And said, ‘This is your God Who brought you up from Egypt,’ And committed great blasphemies.

26 “But they became disobedient and rebelled against Thee, And cast Thy law behind their backs And killed Thy prophets who had admonished them So that they might return to Thee, And they committed great blasphemies. 27 “Therefore Thou didst deliver them into the hand of their oppressors who oppressed them, But when they cried to Thee in the time of their distress, Thou didst hear from heaven, and according to Thy great compassion Thou didst give them deliverers who delivered them from the hand of their oppressors. 28 “But as soon as they had rest, they did evil again before Thee; Therefore Thou didst abandon them to the hand of their enemies, so that they ruled over them. When they cried again to Thee, Thou didst hear from heaven, And many times Thou didst rescue them according to Thy compassion" (Nehemiah 9:16–18, 26-31).

Both of these sections start with the word ‘but’ indicating that the expected response of God’s goodness was not realized but rejected. Their behaviors are a bit different.

They acted arrogantly in 9:16 while they became disobedient and rebelled in 9:26. What is it that had so poisoned their lives? They no doubt like us professed to know God but they turned aside from Him. Here are a few tests as seen in these passages.

God spoke, but they refused to listen (9:16–17).
God worked marvelous miracles, but they did not remember them (9:17).
God patiently worked with them (9:17–18) but they were not impressed.
God sent prophets to speak and warn them, but they killed Your prophets (9:26).
When God judged them to bring them back, and when they cried out, God delivered them. But then they forgot Him again (9:27-28).
As soon as they found rest, they did evil again before Thee (9:28).

The Real Test of our Lives

The real test of our souls is whether we are honest about our lives and willing to turn in repentance. Otherwise we will fall into a pattern of response that parallels the hardened heart of this people. God wants to further bless us, but our hearts are so unresponsive, minds forgetful, spirits hardened, that we turn away holding a wrong concept of life.

We need to be careful of our response to such examples. Some professing faith in the Lord see these failures listed here and just assume they can’t be someone special that God can work in. This is the wrong conclusion. The evil one is trying to blind you as to how God can forgive your sins through Christ, mightily fill and use you.

Watch out!

The failures are pointed out to warn us. God is trying to say that if one is not careful, we can and will go that way. Many are turning to immorality, drinking, parties, greed, gossip and justifying it, “That is the way I am.” God wants to show you the end of this path. But He is gently rebuking us to help us choose the better path that He has provided.

Application

Would you say that tthere is any of this chastening going on in your life?
Is there a point where you ought to obey but justify your rebellious conduct, somehow or someway?
Do you sense a spirit of arrogance or are you trying right now to dismiss the Word of God?

This is the time to awaken to how Satan gains access into our lives and poisons us with a false understanding. This is the time to open our lives completely to God’s purposes in our lives.

Let’s now turn to the final key to open our perspective of life.

=> Continue Reading the third perspective needed to make right decisions: Commitment to God’s Will (Nehemiah 9:32-38)