You....Lord...
Nehemiah 9 begins with the reading of the law...then goes into the confession and history of God’s dealing with the nation of Israel ...
The word, “You” is repeated over and over, describing God, who He is, His character, his dealings with them....I have delineated out a few...
It made me consider, how many times He has worked in my finite life...
Have I looked back enough when reading His word, to see from my perspective all the areas He has worked, where I have failed or grown and He has blessed, disciplined, restored, rebuilt, provided, loved unfailingly...those times unseen and unknowingly to me, He has been at work in my life...thank YOU...for sustaining my life, my Savior, making me whole...let me never forget your abounding mercies....
“And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
-“You are the Lord,
-you alone.
-You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and
-you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.
-You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.
-You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite.
-And you have kept your promise, for
-you are righteous. “And
-you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea, and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for
-you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers.
-And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day.
-And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and
-you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. -and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. -You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and
-you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that -you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But
-you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.
-you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.
-You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years
-you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
-“And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan.
-You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and
-you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and -you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. Therefore
-you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and
-you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies
-you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and
-you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you,
-you heard from heaven, and many times
- you delivered them according to your mercies. And
-you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. Many years
-you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore
-you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great mercies
-you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. Yet -you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for
- you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly. Even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that
-you gave them, and in the large and rich land that
-you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works.
Nehemiah 9:3,5-11,14-15,17,19-24,27-35
