Is there a prayer of confession in your church service? A prayer of confession in the corporate worship service is important. God’s people come together to also confess their sins.

By the end of this study, we hope that you are convinced that confession is important, and to make it a part of your own discipline. As we read this passage, we want to consider how we approach a holy God as a sinful people, and see this as a biblical model for confession of sin.

(A) The How of Confession: Urgent, corporate, humble, obedient and worshipful (Neh 9:1-5)

Up to this point, the wall was completed (Neh 6:15), which was what Nehemiah had set out to do. But that was not all. They also read from the book, the Law of God, and understood it (Neh 8:8). The people also observed the Holy Day by eating, drinking and rejoicing (even though they wanted to weep after hearing the Law) (Neh 8:11-12), celebrated the Feast of Booths (c.f. Lev 23:42-43). The Feast of Booths served to remind the people of His act of deliverance as He had promised!

How are the people described here?

Before we dive in here, note the day -- “on the 24th day of this month”. The Feast of Booths was celebrated from the 15th day for 7 days, followed by an 8th day of solemn rest. So the very next day, we find the Israelites here. There is an urgency to their confession, a continuation of the grief and sorrow in Nehemiah 8:9. Nehemiah had asked them to pause their grief to celebrate the Feast of Booths, but here they jumped right back into weeping. More than an urgency, they are also described as “assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads”.

God’s people were assembled to confess their sins and hear His word read. Do we see the communal aspect of being God’s people? In our world today we might be tempted to confess our sin individually — perhaps shame and face get in the way. But let us not miss the corporate confessing of sin — it is a practice from generations before, and we would be foolish to neglect or even reject that.

With fasting and in sackcloth, with earth on their heads really show us the gravity of sin that weighed heavy on their hearts. You get the image of being humbled and brought low — a conviction that was more important than food, sackcloth as they mourned their disobedience, earth on their heads as they bowed and were brought low, even physically. This is not a performative weeping. Rather it reflects a contrite heart, one that genuinely sees and feels the weight of their sin and disobedience.

How do we confess our sin? Do we approach sin in this way? Or are we slow and careless to confess? Are we happier and more comfortable to confess our sin on our own? Words of Ps 51:17 come to mind - The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. There is an urgency and humility to their confession as God’s people do so together.

Do you feel an aversion to confession? Consider what this passage says!

Do we approach sin the same way God’s people do here — corporately with a sense of urgency and humility?

Notice how God is referred to as LORD. This covenantal God — the promise that He made — and the relationship He has with them forms the basis of this covenant. This God had also revealed His commandments and the laws.

The Israelites did two main things in response. They separated themselves from all foreigners in obedience to the words recorded in the Law (Neh 9:2). In Exodus 23:32-33 they were told not to make a covenant with the nations and their gods. In fact, they were not to coexist with the foreigners in the same land, “lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you”.

They and their fathers disobeyed, and indeed it was a snare. Notice the nature of their obedience — it is immediate. No dilly dallying, no arguing, no justifying, no waffling - delayed obedience is no obedience at all. Obedience is immediate and complete. Anything less than that is disobedience. There is no dragging of feet or “praying about it”. This is a good point for us to reflect :how is our obedience? Are you disobeying God in some way?

They stood and continued reading from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God — three hours of reading, three hours of confession and worship (Neh 9:3). Notice what drives and sustains their obedience and confession and worship — the reading and understanding of God’s word. It is in the consideration of who God is and what He has done and what He has commanded that a people are brought to confession and obedience and worship — not an experience of God, not a pillar of smoke, not a dream, not their own thoughts or musings, not Nehemiah’s or Ezra’s or any of the Levites’ wisdom, but God’s word alone. Only as we see God as He reveals Himself in His word do we truly see what we are like. We cannot see our sin for what it really is without the revelation of God’s character and grace.

This should affect how we worship on Sunday, how we study God’s word, how we read it daily. How do we approach God’s word? Do we arrive in church on a Sunday morning bleary eyed and half awake? Do we get in after the announcements and halfway through worship? Or do we come prepared to worship? Do we read the text ahead of the preaching?

God’s word is understandable. And this drives our obedience and worship! God’s word and our understanding of it is an essential part of our obedience and worship. Only as we see God that we truly see ourselves and deep praise wells up in our hearts and expresses itself in lips that delight to worship God in praise and with surrendered lives. How do we read God’s word? Do we simply look for nuggets of wisdom, or do we seek to see God as He is and us as we are? Do we read just to tick the Christian box? Do we read because we are afraid of what happens if we do not? As we read God’s word, look to know Him — bless the covenantal LORD from everlasting to everlasting.

God’s word is understandable! And we need to know what God intends to say. Anything else is not biblical (including the preachers that we listen to).

Notice as well what they do after they realize their sin and their need to confess — they read some more. We do not like hearing uncomfortable truths. We are content to be convicted and then leave, without unpacking it more. We do not like hearing that we have missed the mark, that we are sinful, that we deserve judgement. In our day and age, we could just close the book and turn away, the equivalent of ghosting someone you do not like. Friends, when we realize our sin and our Holy God, the answer is not less Bible and less God — it is more. If you are avoiding Him for whatever reason dive deeper, lean further into, drink more deeply from His word.

Notice how this is not the first time they have confessed and repented. They had already done it with Ezra. See how God is still faithful and loving, and they can turn back to Him again. His word is till true and His salvation is still available!

(B) The Who, What and Why of Confession: A sinful people and their faithful God (Neh 9:6-37)

Nehemiah’s prayer surveys the history of Israel from Genesis to Kings. We learn about God’s people and God through this prayer.

Nehemiah 9:6

In Nehemiah 9:6, God is the covenantal LORD who created all things — heavens, all their hosts, earth and seas and all in them. This is the language of Genesis 1. Not only is He the eternal, omnipotent Creator, He also preserves everything in His good will. Nehemiah begins here because all things begin here.

Think of this when we look around — all of nature points us to a good and faithful and almighty God. He sustains all things. In Ecclesiastes, we see how life is like a breath. But our God is not like that!

Nehemiah 9:7-8

In Nehemiah 9:7-8, we see how Abram’s heart was found faithful before God. He believed and obeyed. God made a covenant with him, changed his name (Gen 12, 17), and promised to make him a great nation, bless the earth through him, promised land to him — and here they were.

God is faithful. He is a promise-making and promise-keeping God. And He initiated this with Abraham. He is proactive! God’s salvation plan is not up to us to keep and see through. He does what He set out to achieve and do!

Nehemiah 9:8-15

The rest of Genesis is skipped over in Nehemiah 9:9-15, but between Abraham and the Exodus account, God’s people had become a nation and episode after episode we see the men of God, supposedly chosen and elect, fail and fail again. From Abraham’s failure as a husband, Jacob and Esau’s broken relationship, plotting, murder, family conflict, more plotting, more murder, more problems in the family.

Here we see them subject to oppression in Egypt. During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cries out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

God heard their cries for help and rescued them. He hears, sees and remembers the covenant He made (c.f. Exo 2:23-25).

He performed miracles, brought the ten plagues against Egypt, divided the Red Sea, delivered His people from slavery —“for you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day” (Neh 9:10b) — because of what He had done, Egypt and the nations knew who God was. Remember how this was Egypt, a powerful nation. Yet He destroyed this powerful nation.

He saved His people despite their sin.

God also took the form of a pillar of cloud and fire to guide them in the wilderness. He also gave them the “right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments,” everything they needed to live righteously as a people — moral, civil and ceremonial laws. His people are to be set apart from the nation and they are to live distinct lives.

God also gave them bread from heaven and water from a rock to sustain them. He heard the cries of His people, and remembered His covenant. God performs miracle after miracle, showing Himself to His people and reminding them of His goodness. Even the nations around could see that!

Nehemiah 9:16-21

How did the people respond? “But they” stiffened their neck, acted presumptuously (proudly), rejected His lordship and elected their own leader to go back into slavery. We see a full account in Exodus 32. There is judgement on the people, and eventually the covenant is renewed after Moses intercedes for them (Ex 33-34).

How did God respond? In Nehemiah’s prayer, he recognises how God is different. “BUT YOU” are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. The pillar did not depart from them, He continued to sustain them with food and drink daily in the wilderness for 40 years.

God continues in faithfulness, mercy and grace.

Nehemiah 9:22-27

Nehemiah also recounted how they entered and possessed the land that was promised, fortified it, enjoyed it, became rich and fat and delighted themselves in God’s goodness (Neh 9:22-27).

But they were disobedient and rebelled against God and cast His law behind their back and killed His prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies.

As a result, they suffered greatly and cried out for mercy. God provided and allowed them to flourish according to His goodness.

As a result of their rebellion, God “gave them up” to their enemies. This is God’s judgement on them and their punishment for their sin against Him. He allowed them to pursue their sinful desires and this is judgement.

Yet, He also heard their cries, was merciful and saved them yet again.

Nehemiah 9:28-31

“But after they had rest” they did evil again, turned and cried again, time after time. We see this getting worse with each time — a stiffening of necks, a hardening of hearts, acted presumptuously,

“You did not make an end of them or forsake them” for you are a gracious and merciful God. Time and again the people turn away in sin, and time and again we are not just amazed by their forgetfulness and ungratefulness and gall, but more than that, the sheer mercy of our Holy God. God did not make an end of them or forsake them! He continues to show amazing grace and mercy.

Nehemiah 9:32-37

Even in this period where they are in the land promised them, they refuse to obey. They had not paid attention to the commandments and warnings given. They do not serve Him or turn from their wicked works.

Yet here they seek His mercy and deliverance. God gave them up as slaves, as captors in this land paying a tax to the Persians and were oppressed.

Yet did not give them up to be destroyed.

Ultimately this summary of Israel’s history tells us the story of a sinful people and their faithful God. Perhaps you’ve not seen this laid out plainly before - just how ridiculous Israel is, and how ridiculous God’s love is. As God’s people come before Him to hear his word read and confess their sins, they also confess who God is — He is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Ps 103:8). Perhaps these words have new meaning with this Israel’s history in view.

Some observations for application here for us. One temptation would be to think to ourselves: this God does not seem all that in control. Perhaps we think He’s weak, and that His people simply walk all over Him because He’s too nice. Friends, may we not mistake God’s grace for weakness (c.f. Rom 3:25). This is the almighty God who created the heavens and its hosts.

Are we amazed by God’s patience and love? We are often very Singaporean about our faith — now that I have become a Christian, what next? Now that I am serving, what next? Friends, let us push back against this notion that Christianity is this ladder to climb or to gain something more. The point of all of this is to show us our holy God. May we be slow to ponder God’s character, His mercy and love, His goodness and grace.

A simple application from this is for us to be more merciful! Are you often haughty, arrogant and disdainful? Do you write people off in your head if you think that they are not good enough? Consider the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18. Jesus had the right idea in mind when he called us to forgive seventy times seven. Is there someone you need to be merciful and forgiving towards? May we be a people known for our mercy.

Perhaps we also read this cycle of failure and suffering and read our circumstances into this — am I suffering because I have sinned? Is my specific tribulation God’s judgement on me? On one level, yes, that is very possible — your very real sin can have very real consequences. Lies that lead to broken relationships, careless tongues that lead to distrust, the list goes on. On another level we also know on a big picture scale, that is also true — the world is broken because of sin and we suffer its consequences — pain and sickness and death and toil and futility and disasters are all a result of sin, we know that from Genesis 3.

But we should be careful not to flip this on its head and make it something it is not. Your very real circumstances might not be the result of some unrepentant sin in your life. Job comes to mind, with his wife asking him to curse the Lord and his friends saying it must be because of some sin in his life. What then do we do with this? Jesus Himself says in John 9 as He heals the blind man — “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” James is helpful for us to understand the point of all trials as well. James 1:2–4 says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. The point of all trials is this: Much like what we have seen in Israel’s history, God allows trials and tribulations to happen to us for our good and for His glory.

As we are looking at this Israel’s history, perhaps we see ourselves in this story — of initial repentance and turning from sin, but repeated failures over and again. Perhaps we are discouraged — what’s the point? Is this Law just impossible to obey?

(C) Confession that leads to Repentance and Faith: Turning from sin, clinging to Christ (Neh 9:38)

As Nehemiah concludes this prayer, he rallies the people to action and to renew the covenant in writing. They resolved to:

  • Keep the commandments (Neh 9:29).

  • Keep apart from the people of the land (Neh 9:30).

  • Honour the Sabbath (Neh 9:31).

  • Not neglect the house of the Lord (Neh 9:39) and all the ceremonial commands before.

Before we press on and see how Israel fails spectacularly, this response in Nehemiah 9 should again give us pause. It is important for us to see that confession of sin ultimately leads to action and response. The chain of logic here is simple: If you confess that God is God and we are not, then our confession must lead to repentance from the sin we confess, and a commitment to obey the almighty God we confess.

Before we move on, let us consider: What are you being called out off today? How will you respond today? Whatever it is, write it down today. This is one practical step!

But, the book of Nehemiah does not end here. In fact, it does not take long for the people of Israel to fail yet again. Almost methodically and comically, Nehemiah records their failures of exactly the things they made a covenant to do — they did not keep the commandments, they did not keep their children from the people of the land, they did not honour the Sabbath, and they most certainly neglected the house of the Lord. And Nehemiah pressed on — he cleaned up and called them to repentance yet again.

We double back to the question we raised earlier, because this is probably the elephant in the room. We know exactly what this cycle of sin looks like, because we see this exactly in our own lives. How quickly do we falter after we have confessed and repented of our sins! In sexual sins, in our relationships, in guarding our tongues and hearts and minds, in seeking peace, in coveting — oh how often and regularly we do exactly the same thing! Perhaps we are tired of failing. Perhaps we are discouraged — why can’t we ever get it right? Do not be discouraged, for our good God is merciful and gracious to save.

Consider Ephesians 2:1-10. If we were left to ourselves to obey, we will find ourselves failing miserably, for we cannot. Jesus offers us something better, something that truly saves: If you confess that God is God and we are not, then our confession must lead to repentance from sin, and accepting this gift of God that is not a result of works.

Jesus Christ came to die exactly for this reason. Where we could never obey perfectly, He did. Where we could never live perfectly, He did. And where we were to die for our sins —- He did. This is the power of the cross — all of Israel’s history points to the need for a true Saviour, and we see that fulfilled in and by God’s own Son.

Friends, will we be amazed at God’s goodness and mercy and grace? Will we daily confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, turn from our sin and cling to Him?