The other day I read Nehemiah Chapter Nine and today read Daniel Chapter Nine. It is no coincidence that both chapters are known for their “vicarious repentance.” Although Daniel had no terrible sin to confess, he said “we have sinned” in verse 11. In Daniel 9:13-14 he uses “us” and “we.”
The Jews (Daniel and Nehemiah’s nation) had once tolerated sins such as idolatry in their land, human sacrifice of babies, temple prostitutes, and lax observance of God’s law. Spectators could have observed parents who placed their infants into the red-hot arms of a pagan idol and watched their own children burned alive. No man-made law kept them from this practice. This grievous sin went on publicly.
Today in our culture, what is going on publicly? Well, there are abortions with public lines of young ladies waiting for the procedure, hotel rendezvous for adulterers, ill-clad beach attenders, “shacked up” neighbors shamelessly living together and creating families, and roommates performing unnatural sex acts—all condoned by the laws of the land.
Yet those who are grieved by these things are put down and called names meant to silence, intimidate, or vilify them. Evil is called good and vice versa.
In Nehemiah 9, a throng of people confessed their own sins and the wickedness of their fathers (v. 2). Nehemiah stops confessing the evils of the land to praise God (instead) for His contrasting goodness, from verses 5 through 15.
But the pivotal statement is verse 16, “but they, our forefathers…,” followed by a record of Israel’s decline. See the “but they” lists in 16, 26, 28, and 29.
They
- became arrogant
- sinned against your ordinances
- turned their backs to you
- became stiff-necked
- refused to listen
- were disobedient
- rebelled against you
- put your law behind their backs
- killed your prophets
- committed awful blasphemies
- did what was evil in your sight
- became arrogant and disobeyed your commands
- sinned against your ordinances
- became stiff-necked and refused to listen
- paid no attention.
A sadness fills my heart as I see America in this sad scenario:
“Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.” (NIV)
It took the seventy-year captivity of Israel in Babylon “to break the backbone of idolatry” in Israel. It was never again a problem after the captivity. What will God put an end to through this shut down and economic decline? How we need repentance personally and as a nation!
Nehemiah 10 shows a degree of repentance because, as well as the forsaking of idolatrous practices, two things showing their hearts had turned to God were brought in: (1) Sabbath keeping and (2) tithing.
Regarding Sabbath keeping, in our day, well-known companies like Chic-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby honor God with a Sabbath rest for their employees through a cessation of commercializing. Their practice carries with it an accompanying promise of blessing from I Samuel 2:30, shown above, that God will honor those who honor Him. Their success is a testimony to God. (I Samuel 2:30 was the same promise that someone gave Eric Liddell when he refused to participate in Sunday sports events in 1924 and later became the hero of the Chariots of Fire movie.)
What national sin could be dealt a deathblow through the corona virus of our day? What could END in America because of it? Could abortion vanish forever in our land? Could our outcry change from “open up the economy” to “stop offending God?” And what could BEGIN because of the virus? A revival?
May America “connect the dots” to see our flaws plainly. May the church and our pastors see clearly what they need to do. Other plagues in history have mysteriously advanced God’s agenda in supernatural ways that only God could have accomplished. Our prayer today is “do it again, Our Father.”