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2025 Study of the Book of Nehemiah #8

THE ISRAELITES MADE A BINDING AGREEMENT

Nehemiah 9:1-10:39

Key Verse 9:38

1. What might have led the Israelites to gather together on the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month (9:1-2)? What significant actions did they take together on that day (3)? How do you think the Levites contributed to this assembly of repentance (4-5)
2. Who is the God whom the Israelites praise (6)? In what ways did God fulfill His promise to Abraham (7-8)? How did God demonstrate His power to the Israelites who were suffering in Egypt (9-12)?
3. How did God show compassion to the Israelites despite their disobedience and rebellion in the wilderness (13-21)? In what ways do the Israelites’ sins contrast with God’s forgiveness throughout their history (22-35)? How did the Israelites respond before God after recognizing their sins (36-38)?
4. Who sealed the binding agreement (10:1-29)? What commitments did they make to God (30-39)? How does the faith of the Israelites, who repented and sealed the binding agreement, inspire you to bear the fruits of repentance?

2025 Nehemiah March 16th, 2025

SPIRITUAL REVIVAL

Nehemiah 9:1-10:39

Key Verse 9:3

They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God.

In last week’s message, I quoted Pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones and shared with you the definition of revival. He said that revival is “experiencing the glory of God by way of a visitation or an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that manifests the power and authority of God through the preaching of the biblical message.” Are you expecting and waiting for this kind of revival to happen to you, your family, and your church?

A recent contemporary revival that you might have heard about is the Asbury Revival. On February 8th, 2023, there was a 50-minute chapel service at Asbury University located in Wilmore, Kentucky. It was a regular mandatory chapel that students had to attend. The chapel was not different from usual. The sermon was ordinary, and the praise and prayer were also typical. However, after it ended, several students stayed behind in the chapel hall and began to pray. Other students joined them, starting to pray together. Soon after, even more students gathered in the chapel hall. Eventually, the chapel was filled with students praying and worshiping. The chapel that was supposed to last only 50 minutes continued for 16 days. During that time, around 50,000 people from all across the United States and abroad came to Asbury University to experience the spiritual revival brought about by the visitation of the Holy Spirit. The Asbury Revival was a revival in which Generation Z experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit and were transformed. Young people from Gen Z experienced a deep brokenness before God with a sincere spirit of humility. They longed to encounter God with an insatiable hunger for Him and experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit. Do you want your spirit to be revived through the visitation and presence of the Holy Spirit?

Today’s passage is about the spiritual revival that took place among the Israelites after rebuilding the walls. Last week, we learned that they listened to the Law of the Lord, repented of their sins, and celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. During the seven days of the Feast, they experienced great joy as they listened to God’s word daily and obeyed the law. Then they went one step further and experienced a spiritual revival of communal repentance and restoration.

Look at 9:1. “On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads.” That day was the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month. They had already celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days, from sunset on the 15th to sunset on the 22nd of the seventh month. So, two days after finishing the Feast of Tabernacles, on the 24th day of the month, the Israelites gathered again. The passage doesn’t say exactly where they gathered, but it was probably at the square in front of the Water Gate, where they had assembled previously during the Feast of Trumpets. How did they present themselves before God? “Fasting, and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads.” This shows that they came with sorrow and mourning over their sins, demonstrating an attitude of repentance. Verse 2 says, “They confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors.” So they gathered together to confess and repent of their own sins as well as those of their ancestors.

Let’s read verse 3. “They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God.” A quarter of the day can mean either 6 hours, which is a quarter of 24 hours, or 3 hours, which is a quarter of the 12 daylight hours. Whether it’s 6 hours or 3 hours, either way, it’s quite a long time for us. Even if we understand a quarter of the day as 3 hours, it means they spent the first 3 hours reading the Book of the Law and the next 3 hours confessing their sins and worshiping God. For 6 hours, they wholeheartedly devoted themselves to reading God’s word, confessing their sins, and worshiping God. Try to imagine this scene. Imagine tens of thousands of people gathered together, reading God’s word, repenting, and worshiping God. This was an act of communal repentance. It was a work of restoration through the repentance of the Israelite community. It was a spiritual revival through which the Israelites came spiritually alive. How could such a spiritual revival take place?

It doesn’t seem like a spiritual leader such as Nehemiah or Ezra asked the people to gather for repentance. Instead, it appears that the Israelites gathered on their own, one by one. After spending a long time without God’s word, they heard the Law from Ezra, realized their sins, and sincerely repented before God. They gained great strength from the joy of the Lord. Then, in obedience to the Law, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. At that time their joy was great. They could not forget that joyful moment of encountering God. They became filled with a spiritual desire to know God more deeply. So immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles ended, they again sought God by gathering at the square in front of the Water Gate. No one had organized this event. They voluntarily gathered, seeking God, one by one, two by two. How amazing this scene is! Those who are spiritually awakened by God’s Spirit eagerly seek spiritual things and pursue God. Those who experience God’s work of restoration become even more filled with a spiritual desire to know God and seek Him more earnestly. The Holy Spirit moves their hearts and guides them into deeper encounters with God.

What did they do when they gathered together? Led by the Levites, they praised God and confessed and repented of their sins as well as the sins of their ancestors. Look at verse 5b. “Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.” Verses 6 to 37 clearly show God’s patience, compassion, and forgiveness, along with the Israelites’ disobedience and rebellion.

Look at verse 6. “You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.” First, they confessed and praised God as the Creator and the only Lord. Then they confessed God’s faithfulness. God chose Abraham, the ancestor of the Israelites, and faithfully fulfilled His promises to him. When the Israelites were suffering in Egypt, God rescued them. Through Moses, God performed signs and wonders and divided the Red Sea for them to pass through. Even during their 40-year wilderness journey, God protected them and provided everything they needed. During the hot days, God gave them shade with a pillar of cloud, and on cold nights, God kept them warm with a pillar of fire. God gave them the holy Ten Commandments and the Law, teaching them how to serve Him. He provided manna as daily bread, and when they were thirsty, He supplied water from a rock. God was always faithful to the Israelites.

But the Israelites became arrogant and rebellious against God. They became stiff-necked and did not obey God’s commands. They refused to listen to God and failed to remember God’s miracles. They worshiped idols and rebelled against God. Even after entering the Promised Land, they turned their backs on God’s law (26). They repeatedly became arrogant and disobeyed God’s commands, and sinned against Him.

On the other hand, God continually remained patient, gracious, and compassionate toward the Israelites. Even when they became arrogant and stiff-necked, God forgave them. He was always a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Despite their disobedience and rebellion, God did not abandon them. He continually provided manna, and He never took away the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. God blessed them to take possession of the Promised Land. When they became arrogant in the Promised Land, God delivered them into the hands of their enemies. Yet, when they cried out in their suffering, He repeatedly rescued them. God used other nations to discipline them and lead them back to Himself.

In response, the Israelites realized their sins and repented. In fact, their repeated sins despite God’s patience, compassion, and forgiveness made their reality truly miserable. They cried out to God in repentance, saying, “But see, we are slaves today” (36). This was their realization of their miserable reality and a sorrowful repentance for the consequences of their sins.

Recognizing and humbly accepting the miserable reality caused by our sins is the first step of our repentance. What about our current spiritual condition? Are you currently living as slaves to sin? Living as a slave to sin means that we are not living according to God’s will, but instead, following the desires of sin. It means living a selfish life, chasing after our own glory instead of God’s glory. It means failing to love God and our neighbors, living in hatred and hurting others. Let’s carefully examine our current spiritual condition. If we recognize that we are currently living as slaves to sin, now is the time to repent. Now is the opportunity to repent before Jesus, receive His forgiveness, and return to God. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” I pray that now we may come before Jesus, repent, receive forgiveness, and be saved. I pray that we can come to Jesus right now and be revived.

Look at verse 38. “In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites, and our priests are affixing their seals to it.” The Israelites sincerely repented, and as a fruit in keeping with their repentance, they made a binding agreement before God. This means that they made a serious decision before God. Verses 10:1-29 show that along with the priests, Levites, and leaders, the women, sons, and daughters also joined together to make this binding agreement. In other words, all the people entered into this binding agreement. First, they promised to keep their faith pure by not intermarrying with foreigners. Second, they promised to keep the Sabbath. Above all, they promised not to neglect the house of God by bringing their offerings. In this way, spiritual revival is accompanied by repentance and spiritual commitments.

I sincerely desire this kind of spiritual revival to happen in our community. I dream of our church being a place where people who earnestly seek God come to worship and praise Him with all their hearts. I dream of our worship hall being filled with people who hunger for God’s word, desire to follow Jesus, and walk by the Holy Spirit. I dream of weary and suffering souls coming here one by one into the presence of God, repenting of their sins, receiving the forgiveness of Jesus, and being spiritually revived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I know spiritual revival does not come from my desire or effort. Revival does not occur through human effort or organized mobilization. Revival takes place when people confess and repent of their sins as the Holy Spirit moves their hearts. Revival can happen through a small group of people or a small church without us even noticing it. It happens through people who are moved by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit uses spiritually awakened people. The Holy Spirit uses people who have a sincere desire for God’s word, people who humbly seek God, and people who love God and long for His presence.

Therefore, the way I can participate in the revival of the Holy Spirit is to create an environment where the Holy Spirit can work. How could we participate in the spiritual revival of the Holy Spirit?

First, we must earnestly desire spiritual revival. Why do we need revival? Isn’t it enough just to live our Christian life as usual? To answer this question, we must reflect carefully on the purpose of our lives. Those who don’t believe in God say our lives have no special meaning. They say that life has no particular purpose or meaning. But we believe that God created us with a special purpose. The purpose of our lives is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. How great is this purpose! Yet we are weak and sinful. How could we glorify God and enjoy Him forever?

For this to happen, our sleeping spirits must wake up. Our dying spirits must be revived. Through the visitation and outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we must experience God’s glory. Through the revival of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome Satan’s temptations and live victorious lives that glorify God. When revival happens, those who once lived selfish lives, pursuing their own glory, will begin living for God’s glory. Those previously troubled by negative thoughts and sadness will live lives filled with power and joy from God. We urgently need spiritual revival, so we must earnestly desire it.

Second, we must eagerly await spiritual revival by longing for God’s Word, praying, and worshiping. As we’ve already learned, revival happens through reading, listening, and obeying God’s word. God brings revival as we seek Him in prayer. God sends revival as we worship Him.

I pray that God may have mercy on our community and grant us spiritual revival. I pray that each of us may come to God with a thirsty heart, confess and repent of our sins, receive forgiveness, and experience revival. Amen.