Nehemiah 9:11-20

Ne 9:11

And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.

 

But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. (Exodus 14:16)  Then God parted the Red Sea and they were able to go through it on dry land which would have easily supported all the heavy wagons.  Then Pharaoh had pursued them so he could kill all of them but by the time he and his army came to them, they had already crossed the sea and they thought that they could pursue them in the same manner but God had different plans.  And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. (Exodus 14:28)  Then the waters closed in on them and the entire army of Egypt was drowned.  They went down so fast it was like someone tossing in a heavy stone which quickly sinks to the bottom.

 

Ne 9:12

Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go.

 

The LORD gave them continuous encouragement that he was with them by leading them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  It gave them both light and showed them by which way they should travel.  And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: (Exodus 13:21) 

 

Ne 9:13

Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:

 

Then the people of Israel had come to Mt. Sinai and God met them there.  And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. (Exodus 19:18)  Then God gave to Moses the law in which we find the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-17 which was a summary of the entire law.  In all they were given 618 different laws and commandments.

 

Ne 9:14

And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:

 

Then within the law they were told about keeping the Sabbath day which was the seventh day.  9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:9-11)  The Sabbath day was made holy by God because it was the day he rested after he created the universe and the world in six days.  The Sabbath was given in conjunction with the many laws found in the first five books of Moses such as feasts, sacrifices, and commemorations.

 

Ne 9:15

And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.

 

Then God fully provided for them in the wilderness and gave them quails and also Manna.  And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. (Exodus 16:15)  Then the people became thirsty and the LORD provided for them fresh water from the rock of Horeb.  Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. (Exodus 17:6)  Then God led them to the brink of Jordan to go in and possess the land which the LORD had promised unto Abraham.  Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. (Deuteronomy 1:8) 

 

Ne 9:16

But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,

 

Then the fathers and those who came out of Egypt began to act proudly toward the LORD.  The word “proudly” carries with the meaning of “insolent, presumptuous, arrogant or rude.”  It is the exact word found in Exodus 18:11 when the Egyptians are described.  Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them. (Exodus 18:11)  Instead of being thankful to the LORD for their release from bondage, instead they became a very hardened crowd.  They refused to obey the commandments of the LORD.  For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death? (Deuteronomy 31:27)  Moses told them that they have become a stiff necked people meaning they would not take upon themselves the law of God.  They had promised God that they would obey all that he commanded them but they did not.  And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. (Exodus 24:7)

 

Ne 9:17

And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.

 

Even though God had exhorted them, yet they became so rebellious that they had actually refused to obey.  It wasn’t that they did not understand what was being told to them, they understood but refused to obey.  They did not even keep in mind the great wonders that God performed in Egypt and on the Egyptian army which made them free but in their arrogance they hardened themselves against the LORD.  Their rebellion was so deep that they actually appointed a captain to help them organize and return to Egypt.  And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. (Numbers 14:4)  Then Moses had brought up the fact that if the people would have repented then and came to their senses that God would have pardoned them and not forsake them.  And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, (Exodus 34:6)  Moses knew that God wanted them to succeed but what was holding them back was their own recalcitrance.  God would not forsake his people but they were making it hard for the hammer of God’s justice not to fall on them.

 

Ne 9:18

Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;

 

Then their rebellion had manifested itself with the building of a molten calf which would have been an image of the Egyptian bull god Apis.  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. (Exodus 32:4)  Then the building of the false god was bad enough but when they attributed their freedom via all the miracles to it by proclaiming that it was Apis that lead them out of Egypt, it was pure blasphemy.  They provoked the LORD by replacing him with false gods and false religions which would eventually cause the complete and final end of Israel in both northern and southern kingdoms.

 

Ne 9:19

Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.

 

Yet even though they provoked him with false religions and images, God did not abandon them to their own devices and did not forsake them because out of this rebellious nation would eventually come the Lord Jesus Christ.  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:13)  The LORD had made a covenant with Abraham for the land and even though the people were being rebellious, God’s faithfulness to his promises never waned.  He continued to supply them with the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day and continually guided them until it was time to cross over and claim the land of promise.  It is a great comfort for us to know that if we temporarily lose faith that God is still faithful and will be there to guide us.

 

Ne 9:20

Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.

 

God graciously and plentifully gave His good spirit to instruct them.  And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. (Numbers 11:17)  He gave this good spirit through Moses as they were given the law that Moses received from the LORD.  It is like the good spirit that the Christians receive by giving us the Bible in its entirety.  In spite of their rebellion, he continued to give them water to drink and continually supplied their food in the form of Manna.  Then in Numbers 20, we read that Moses disobeyed the LORD and struck the rock twice instead of only once and that act caused him to be omitted from Israel when they crossed over to possess the land.  11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. 12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. (Numbers 20:11-12)  The reason that this was important was because the rock represented the Lord Jesus Christ and he was only crucified once for the sins of his people and not twice.  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28)  The Roman Catholic heresy of the Mass teaches that Christ is sacrificed in every Mass but the Bible teaches that he was only bore the sins of the Elect once and not multiple times.  That is why Moses striking the rock twice was a serious offense.

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