Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the 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. Nehemiah 9:5, 6.
These verses are the opening lines of a public confession the Israelites made together. Nehemiah left his job as cupbearer to King Artaxerxes so that he could return to his hometown of Jerusalem. After he was appointed governor, the walls were rebuilt. Then the day arrived when Ezra the Priest stood before the citizens and read the Law.
This was the moment these people had been waiting for. Their ancestors had spent generations in exile. Now this group was allowed to return home. Home to their beloved Jerusalem, the center of their religious life and cultural identity as the nation chosen by God.
As Ezra read from the Book of the Law, the precious words carried a deep conviction. Their nation had sinned. The crimes their ancestors had committed against God had led to the loss of their homeland. They didn’t want that to happen again, so they stood together and made a new agreement.
That agreement began with this decree: “All these (the priests, gatekeepers, musicians, temple servants, and all who separated themselves from the neighboring people for the sake of the Law of God) join their fellow Israelites the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God to obey carefully all the commands, regulations, and decrees of the Lord our Lord” (Nehemiah 10:28-29).
This new agreement committed the Israelites to following God’s ways. They reached this point of decision after a thorough confession. That confession began with the verses from Nehemiah 9:5 and 6. In making this confession, the Israelites are repenting of sin. In addition to their repentance, they are acknowledging God’s sovereign work in the history of their nation.
If you go on to read Nehemiah chapter 9, you would find that the rest of the chapter is a recitation of God’s work among them. Here are some examples: In verse 7, they declare that God chose Abram and brought him out of Ur. God saw the suffering of their ancestors in Egypt (v 9), came down to Mount Sinai to speak to them from heaven (verse 13), and showed great compassion to them in the wilderness (verse 19).
This is God’s sovereign work. There was nothing the Israelites could do to change God’s plan for them as his people. He intended for his son Jesus, our Savior, to come from the Jewish ancestry, and that is exactly what happened. Rebellion, sin, and the abandonment of God’s statutes by the Israelites couldn’t destroy the destiny God had designed for them.
God also weaves his sovereign plans throughout our stories. Look back over your life and keep watch for those times when you felt rescued, blessed beyond what you deserve, or used to bring influence and meaning to a difficult situation. These are the intersections in our lives between our human experiences and God’s sovereign plans.
He intends for you to be chosen for a special work. He infuses your life and makes it shine with his glory for his honor. Nothing we can do will alter God’s plans for us. The apostle Paul wrote about this in Romans 8:35 when he asks who shall separate us from the love of Christ. He lists all kinds of terrifying hardships but can’t find one that could separate us from God.
Jesus makes a similar statement when he addressed a group in the temple. “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30).
God’s power is given to Jesus, and we also have been designated by God as belonging to him. We can find great comfort in this. God intends only our good, and he is revealing his perfect plans for us a little at a time, one day at a time.
Is there a situation that is overwhelming you? Do you feel stuck, or like you are drowning, and you don’t know what to do next because the obstacles are too big and powerful?
Is there a sin you’ve committed and you wonder if you’ve messed up your life too much to get back what you had before?
Maybe you are feeling beyond God’s forgiveness and there’s no way home for you.
Remember the Israelites’ homecoming in Nehemiah 9. This was the moment in time when they caught a glimpse of God’s plan for them. Just because they didn’t know of it before doesn’t mean it hadn’t already existed for a long time. They just needed to see it, to understand it, and to embrace it.
As the confession in Nehemiah 9 reminds us, God alone is the Lord. He made the heavens. He made the earth and everything in it. He made the seas and all that is in them. He gives life to everything.
He gives life to you and to me. He’s chosen you, designed a plan for the life he’s given you, and works in that life for your good.
King David understood this, and it made him burst out in praise and in worship of God.
Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours (I Chronicles 29:10-11).
