Shabbat Shalom. I would like you all to take your Bibles and please open it to the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah, chapter 9. Nehemiah, the servant of the Lord, this Hebrew-Israeli-Jewish man whom the Lord had raised to lead a group of returned Jewish people back to the Promised Land to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem and ultimately to lead the nation into a restoration period in the history of the people of Israel. Well, we finally have arrived to chapter 9 and it is rather a very long chapter. It has 38 verses in the English text in the Hebrew. Actually, verse 38 belongs to chapter 10. Again, in the Hebrew Masoretic text, we only have 37 verses.

But let me read some of these verses and seek with the Lord's help to comment on that chapter. So, please follow with me. I begin with verse 1. Now, in the 20th and 4th day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and with sackcloth and earth upon them. And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquity of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God one-fourth part of the day. In another fourth part, they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God.

Then stood up upon the stairs of the Levites. Yeshua and Banai, Kadmiel, Shephaniah, Buni, Sherebaiah, Bani, and Hanani, and cried with a loud voice unto the Lord their God. Then the Levites, Yeshua and Kadmiel, Bani, Sherebaiah, Sherebaiah, Shephaniah, and Petattiah said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever. And blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessings and praise. And now from verse 6 all the way to verse 31, Israel is really rehearsing before the Lord and before themselves all their history. I'm continuing now from verse 32. And I'm reading. Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepeth covenant and mercy.

Let not all the trouble seem little before thee that has come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day. Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us, for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly. Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers kept thy law, nor hearken unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them. For they have not served thee in their kingdoms, for they have not served thee in their kingdoms, and in thy great goodness that thou gavest them.

And in the large and fat land which thou gavest before them, neither turn they from their wicked works. Behold, behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers, to eat the fruit thereof, and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it. And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou had set over us because of our sins. Also, they have dominion over our bodies and over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. And I'm going to stop here at verse 37 for the reading at this point of time. I have neglected purposely to read from verse 6 to verse 31, in which Israel, our people of old, rehearse the ways of God with our nation Israel, and they also rehearse and confess their own failure to submit to the authority of the word of God.

So, let me just put us all a little bit in the thought that we have here in the book of Nehemiah. Again, his name simply means Nachum Yad, the comfort of Yehovah, the comfort of the Lord. He was a man that was raised by God to lead the remnant of Israel that were in Persia back to the promised land of Israel. His exercise of heart was to build again the walls of Jerusalem, which was broken down, and to set up once again the gates thereof, and to restore the city of Jerusalem back to a way in which it was in some small measure. So, Nehemiah was that wonderful servant of the Lord.

He took a group of people. He arrived back to the land of Israel. And if you remember, he had done what he had done. And now, the people of Israel are in a period of time that you might say, a good and healthy period of time. They have celebrated the feast of Sukkot. If you notice, it says at the end of verse 18 of chapter 8, "And day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God, and they kept the feast," this is the feast of Tabernacle, the feast of Booth, "for seven days, and on the eighth day, it was solemn assembly according unto the menel." Now, brothers and sisters, here we see the people of Israel returned back to the land.

A measure of them were now in the land, though the vast majority of them are still scattered around the nations of the world. And now they have celebrated, as we have noticed from last Shabbat meeting, the feast of Sukkot. They realized that for many, many years, they did not celebrate it. And not only that, they didn't celebrate it in the same manner in which they were celebrating it now, when they were back in the land, at about 445 B.C. Now, all of a sudden, we enter into a new chapter, as far as we are concerned, if we will have the division correctly of the Word of God.

And in chapter 9, we find such a long chapter that is devoted to a time of prayer. Now, while in the end of chapter 8, Israel was celebrating, specifically verse 10, at the end of the verse, it says, "Don't be sorry, because the joy of the Lord is your strength." In other words, they were celebrating the feast of Sukkot, but something happened here, between chapter 8 and chapter 9, that brought the people of Israel to such a time of repentance and confession. And that long chapter 9 of the book of Nehemiah is a very, very important lesson for you and I to learn. I want to remind you that according to Romans chapter 15 and verse 4, Paul Shaul said, "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and the comfort of the Scripture, might have hope." Whatever happened to our people Israel historically become an example for you and I, who believe in Yeshua the Messiah in this present-day dispensation.

So the question immediately arises in our mind. Why is it now that in chapter 9, we find out that the children of Israel now began to confess their sins and repent before the Lord and acknowledge before Him their sins. Notice throughout this chapter, for example, it says in verse 2, "And they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of theirs and their fathers." Notice it says in verse 16, "But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their necks and did not obey your commandments." Notice a little bit later on in verse 26, "Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy law behind their backs." Notice in verse 28, "But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee." You see, the whole chapter 9 of the book of Nehemiah is the rehearsal that these Jewish men and women and their leaders and the Levites and the priests and so on are rehearsing the story of our forefathers and the manner in which the people of Israel behaved over the generations in their relationship with their God.

And when we read such a chapter, it really behooves us to really look back into our own lives and to ask ourselves the question, "How did we behave?" "How did we live our lives as believers in Yeshua the Messiah?" "How did we conduct ourselves in relationship to God?" "And on the other hand, to look at him and to say, "What way in which God have dealt with us?" "What he have done for us and what he had done on our behalf in the way in which he conducted himself towards each and every one of us as believers in Yeshua the Messiah." "And so we learn from this chapter and I want to go over it

a little bit to see the reason that they have come to a time such as this and the whole chapter is devoted to the prayer of the children of Israel." Now let me remind you, if you turn back to the book of Deuteronomy in Hebrew, Dvarim, chapter 28 and verse 1 "God said to our forefathers, and it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments, which I have commanded thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth." Now continue on a little bit further and jump down to verse

13.

"The Lord shall make thee to be the head and not the tail." "And you shall be above only and you shall not be beneath." You see, God said to our forefathers, the people of Israel, "Listen, if you will submit to me and if you will obey my word, I promise you Israel, you're not going to be the tail, you are going to be the head of all the nations of the world. You are the chosen nation, the nation that I have chosen for myself." But the problem is, he gave them this condition of submissiveness to his word. The moment Israel didn't obey the word of the Lord.

The moment Israel violated the word of the Lord. All the promises that God had promised them would be now set aside for a season. He will have to discipline them. He will have to punish them. He will have to allow other nations to take them over. And he will end up to judge even the very own people whom he loved so dearly. And as we learn this and apply this for us today, it's the very same thing. A believer that is not walking with the Lord, a saved child of God, that is not submitting to the word of God. What do you think the Lord is going to do with us?

The book of Hebrews tells us in chapter 12, "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and he scourges every son or daughter whom he had received." And the lesson is very important. And here you can see, beloved brothers and sisters, that the people of Israel, even though they are back in the land, they realize that something is not right. We are back in the land, a minority of Jewish people. We are surrounded by many people around us, many nations around us. We still don't have what God had promised unto our forefathers. And so back to chapter 9. And at the end of the chapter, I'm going to go now to the end for a moment for two more verses.

And I will go back to the beginning of the chapter. Notice what they say at the end of this prayer time. In verse 36. They say, "Behold, we are servants this day." In Hebrew is, "Hayom anachnu avadim." We are slaves now today. Servants in it, in the very land that you had promised to our forefathers. The land, it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom you have set over us. Because our sins, they have dominion over our bodies. They have dominion over our cattle and their pleasure and so on. And then notice at the end he says, "And we are in great distress." In the Hebrew it says, "Ve anachnu betzara gdola." We are in a great distress.

Now you see, it is so interesting. Beloved brothers and sisters, immediately rise to your mind and to mine. How come? Israel is now back in the land. Minority, a remnant, is back in the promised land. The city of Jerusalem and the walls have already been set up. The gates are placed there. The walls are all around the city of Jerusalem. And yet, these Jewish men, women and children, the Levim, the Kohanim, the Levites, the priests, the leadership of Israel recognize that even though we are back in the land, and even though we got the walls surrounding the city of Jerusalem, we are really not where we should have been and where God has intended to give to all the people of Israel.

All the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel. I can say it this way a little bit to make it up to a New Testament setting. You see, you and I are part of the church, the body of Messiah. Look at the condition of the body of Messiah today. The divided condition. The scattered condition. There are believers everywhere, in every form and shape, in every view that you want to have. The body of Messiah is scattered. And maybe a few believers gather together and they come into a right relationship with the Lord. And maybe we come and we can say, listen, we really want to walk with the Lord.

We want to learn the word of God. We want to teach the word of God. We want to exalt Yeshua, the Messiah. But we look around and we see maybe some small group was in some small measure successful in returning to principle. But where is the rest of the body of Messiah? Where is the rest of all the believers who are really in such a sad condition that they are still today in so many places around the world? There is an amazing lesson. And so it grabbed them in their hearts. And it was so moved because of this. And they realized that still they were in such a state that they could still say, we are in a great distress.

We have trouble, Lord. And so look what they are doing. They cry to God in prayer and in confession and in worship. This really behooves us, dear brothers and sisters, to learn from this and to apply this to our own life. And not to say, well, you know what, I'm a believer. Things are well with me. And things are okay with maybe my family and my friends. A little group that I'm with. Never mind about all other believers. Never mind about believers that are struggling. Never mind about other brothers and sisters that are going through suffering and persecution and rejection. As long as things are fine with me, I do not need to think about someone else.

But I want you to notice that these Jewish men, women, children, they were really searching their hearts. And they rehearsed before themselves and before the Lord the whole history of our nation of Israel. The reason why sometime God had to discipline the people of Israel. The reason why sometime they were not in a right spiritual condition. So let's look over a little bit those passages together. And I want you to notice how it begins. It began in verses 1, 2, and 3. Where Israel gathered themselves together for a special time of confession and repentance and worship. It was a special time. Notice it says in verse 1, the time is just after they finished to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacle.

The Feast of Sukkot. It says now in the 20th and 4th day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled together. Notice number one with fasting, number two with sackcloth, number three with earth upon them. The date was the 24th of the month. This is the month of Tishrei. This is the seventh month. This is where the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the month of Tishrei. On the 10th day is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. And on the 15th day is the Feast of Sukkot, Tabernacles for seven days plus one. So the Feast of Sukkot, if it's starting on the 15th day of the month, it will end on the 22nd after eight days altogether.

So when they finish all the celebration, and they went back, you might say, to their own homes. They realized, wait a minute. Even though I celebrated the Feast of Sukkot, things were not bad. I'm back in the land. But they were thinking about all the nation of Israel. And immediately, notice, two days after, it didn't take any more. Two days after the hype of the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, they went down back to earth. And now notice that it says, they assembled themselves together, and they fasted. Now remember in the previous chapter, Ezra and Nehemiah and others said to them, no, no. It's not a day of mourning.

It's a day of celebration. It says, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Celebrate. Give gifts and celebrate with one another. But now, beloved brothers and sisters, things change. They finished the celebration, and they went back down to earth, and they realized, yes, we are back in the land. We are back in the city of Jerusalem. The temple is built. We can continue on with the sacrificial system. But where is the rest of our brethren? Our people. The rest of the Jewish people, remember in the time of Esther, many of them were left in Persia. You remember? And the northern kingdom was scattered by the Assyrians, and they were dispersed among the nations of the world.

And here they are there now, a minority of Jewish people, at least 50,000, if not more, maybe 100,000. I'm not sure. They were there now. They began to rehearse their history. And look at this, brothers and sisters. They come, number one, with fasting. Deny themselves from necessary food. Number two, they put sackcloth. In Hebrew, we call it sakim, you know, bags that you carry, potatoes or something. They were not wearing nice clothes with suit and tie, but they put upon themselves sackcloth. They were mourning. And thirdly, they put upon themselves earth. The Hebrew word is adamah. They took earth from the ground, adamah, and they put it upon them.

They were in a condition of mourning and weeping because they really wanted to be with repentance before the Lord. They want to be right with God. And they began really to rehearse before the Lord the history of the nation of Israel. Look at the second thing that they have done. In verse two, it says, and the seed of Israel. In verse one, it says, the children of Israel. But in verse two, it says, the seed of Israel. In Hebrew, zera Yisrael. In other words, they separated themselves from the strangers. You see what happened? God said to the people of Israel to separate themselves from the nations of the world.

And why? Not because Israel were a better nation or better people, but Israel were the chosen people. And they would believe in the only true and living God. And the moment they will mingle themselves with other people of the nations of the world who did not believe in the true and living God. They will be drawn away from the things of the Lord. And they will be taken away and ultimately they will not follow the God of Israel. But they made a decision here. And they separated from the strangers. The word for separated means Vayi Badlu. You know, they really separated themselves from the nations that were around.

And thirdly, God gave Israel this warning that if they are going to follow him, they are not to marry with other nations. But apparently, you will see, we are going to get to it later on. They already began intermarried with the people of the nations of the world. It is not because they couldn't marry someone who would believe in the God of Israel. But God was concerned that they will end up to become idol worshippers. You see, God have allowed Rechab to come among the people of Israel. God have allowed Ruth the Moabitish woman to become part of the nation of Israel. Because they have adopted the God of Israel.

But when the Jewish people would get married with people from other nations, they will end up to become worshippers of idols from other nations. And this is exactly what happened in the history of our own nation Israel. And it is exactly what happened with the believer in Yeshua the Messiah, who allowed himself or herself to adapt other people's view and not drawing others to the true and the living God, the Father of our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah. This is exactly what happened. That's why the Apostle Paul said to believers in 2 Corinthians 6:14, "Be ye not unequal yoke together with unbelievers." And he gave them the reason.

Why? He said, "For what fellowship have righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has the Messiah with Blial? And what part has he that believeth with he that doesn't believe? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them, and I will walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." See, the Apostle Paul was quoting what God said to Israel, the nation, and apply this now to the believers in the present-day dispensation of the church age.

And we know that, brothers and sisters, we know that very well, unless the Lord graciously have pulled us out of our own way and our own will, we would be just like Israel of all and just like many from among the people of God who suffered the consequences of disobedience to the Lord. And this is exactly what they were repenting of in the ninth chapter of the book of Nehemiah. And so, notice now, after the seed of Israel separated themselves from all the strangers, notice that they were not now going to talk with anybody else. They were now searching their own hearts. They were not trying to blame anybody else, but they were now applying that to themselves as the seed of Israel, as the children of Israel.

They were coming collectively for a time of prayer, of confession, and repentance before the Lord. And notice what he says in verse 2b. And they stood and they confessed their sins, number one, and the iniquities of their fathers. Notice that? It's interesting. They confessed, first of all, their own sins. You know, we are very easily capable to blame someone else. But they, first of all, applied this to themselves. They said, Lord, you know, it is me. It is me. It is I who failed you. It is I who sinned against you. And then they confessed the sins of their fathers. You know how sad it is?

In every generation, we leave to the next generation certain things. Some good, but unfortunately there are some things that we leave that are not so good. Our sins and disobedience and rebelness and a waywardness and stiff-neckedness that we leave and we hand it over to the next generation. And you would look at that from history, whether it is history of the people of Israel, our own nation, or the history of the body of Messiah. You can see how from generation to generation we pass, we hand the baton, you might say, to the next generation. And many times to our own shame and to our own failure that we are handing out some certain things that were not right.

And then they have to take it and they have to make something with it. They have to make a decision in their own life. And you know, brothers and sisters, how many times we have inherited things that our forefathers have left and we have handed over things to a younger generation of our own failure and our own sins that we have committed. So you see what they do here in verses 1 and 2. The time was two days after the end of the Feast of Tabernacle. They were separating themselves and now they began to present themselves and confess before the Lord their sins and their forefathers' sins, the children of Israel.

And I want you to read now verse 3. Look how they have done it, in what manner they have done it. It says, "And they stood up in their place, and they read in the book of the law of the Lord their God, one fourth part of the day, and another fourth part of the day they confessed, and they worshipped the Lord their God." In other words, if you would say there are twelve hours in the day, and about three hours they were reading from the Torah, the law of the Lord. And they were learning as they were reading. And then the second three hours they were repenting and confessing and turning to worship the Lord their God.

Amazing to see. And notice the order. First the Word, then the Word speaks to our heart, and then we turn into a confession, repentance, prayer, and worship. First the Word, then prayer. It's so important. That's why we need to read the Word constantly. We need always to be occupied with reading and listening to the Word. Some of us are probably easier for us to listen to the Word being read to us. They didn't have many Bibles. See, you and I, I trust every one of us open the book, the Bible that we have in our hands. How many copies do you think they have heard of the Scripture?

They didn't have many copies. So most of the time they must have been hearing public reading. But they took it to heart. And then they turn into a time of confession and worship. Three hours they were hearing. Three hours they were repenting. They were doing it perhaps more than one day and again and again. But they were listening to the Word of God. And I would like to encourage you and I, beloved brothers and sisters, if we want that the Lord will speak to us, we have to hear and to read the Word of God. You remember what the apostles said, even for salvation. Romans 10:17 Faith cometh by hearing.

And hearing by the Word of God. We need to hear the Word. We need to read the Word. And the Lord, by the Spirit of God, can convict us and show the wrong things or the things that we need to be corrected in our own life. So in order to do so, we will turn to Him in confession and in worship. Notice both things are mentioned. They confess and they worship. Not only confession. And not only worship. The word for confession. Think about the first John chapter one and verse nine. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is very important. Then we have the worship. Hebrews chapter 13 says that let us, the fruit of our lips giving praise and worship unto the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. We are also exhorted to read the Word, to hear the Word, to appropriate it to our hearts, to repent and confess before the Lord and also to worship Him and to praise Him for who He is and for what He has done for us. And so in the first three verses, Israel gather themselves together in this special time for the reading of the Word and for repentance and confession and ultimately the worship of the God of our fathers.

And now in the next verses four and five, we find out that the Leviim, the Levites took leadership. You know, the Leviim, these are the servants, the tribe of Levi. They took the responsibility in leadership. And they set the tone. They set the example. And you know, we need it today that the leadership among the people of God will set the tone. Sometimes, unfortunately, we are not always a good example, but it is so important for the Leviim, for the Levites, for the leadership to set up the tone and be an example. And so in verse four, they stood upon the stairs and they cried.

The Levites. Now, it is interesting. Now, it is interesting. I was wondering, what are those stairs for? You remember, in the previous chapter, we already read earlier, in verse four, that they made a tower. Notice that if you go back to chapter eight, in verse four, and Ezra, the scribe, stood upon a pulpit of wood. In Hebrew, it's migdal etz. It is a tower that was made out of wood. And in order to get up on that tower, you needed to have some steps to climb up. So it's very interesting. And maybe, I'm not sure, that there was on the side of the tower some steps.

And the Levites stood upon those steps and they began to cry publicly to set up an example before the people of Israel and to lead Israel in a time of repentance and confession. Notice, it gives you the name of these Levites. You have Yeshua. You have Bani in verse four. Kadmiel. Shebanaya. You have Buni. You have Sherabaya. You have Bani again. And you have Chenani. And they cried. Look at this. They cried with a loud voice unto the Lord their God. You see, brothers and sisters, the Hebrew word cry is Lizok. Lizok means to cry aloud. They were raising their voices so everybody will hear them from among the people of Israel who perhaps there, if it was at the same area as the water gate, they were crying with a loud voice to the Lord their God.

This was a sincere brokenness of heart. A heart who affected because they were so moved by the condition of the nation of Israel. They cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. And look what it says in the next verse. Not only that they stood upon the stairs and cried the Levites, but in verse five they invited all the nation of Israel to stand and to bless the Lord. Notice, I'm reading verse five. And the Levites, the Leviim, Yeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Chashabaniah, and Sherabaya, and Hodaya, and Shebanaya, and Pathahaya said, Stand up. Stand up. And bless the Lord your God forever and ever.

And blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessings and praise. See what they have done, beloved. These Leviim, from the tribe of Levi, these servants of the Lord, they have led the people of Israel, who came back from Persia now and from Babel, to begin to lift up their voices and praise and bless the Lord the God. And notice what a beautiful thing. Bless the Lord your God forever and ever. Blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessings and praise. You see, they wanted to restore the people of Israel and of course to be restored themselves into a recognition that there is no other God besides the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

There is no other God who is as great and elevated and supreme as the God of Israel. There is none like him. He is the one that they wanted that Israel will bless. This is the God that Israel, the Levites wanted Israel to worship and adore. And you know, I remember vividly in my own time when I was a little boy. And I think I mentioned it many times when I was in the synagogue in Jerusalem with my grandfather. I remember so well. I can just kind of visualize it in my own mind today when these Jewish, elderly Jewish men, bearded men, whether it is the rabbi, whether it is my grandfather, or whether it is all the elderly men.

The women were in the other room looking behind because there was a segregation between the men and the women. And all the women were looking down to these men and they were praising God and they were singing of the grace of God. You see, the thing that people make a mistake, they think that the God of the Old Testament was an angry God. And the God of the New Testament is a gracious God. And they don't realize that we believe in the same God. And God always was gracious. God always was loving. Sometimes he had to discipline his own people. But God was always a blessed God.

And he is the one that ought to be exalted above all other gods. I just want to recite before you the verses of the song that I was singing in the synagogue when I was a little boy those days that I found in Exodus chapter 34. I think it's so precious. I think it's so precious. As it says, "The Lord, the Lord God is merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundance in goodness and in truth, keeping mercy unto thousands, and forgiving iniquities and transgressions and sins." And you know, they were singing these songs as praises unto the God of our fathers. And it is such a wonderful thing for us to realize that and practice this as we gather together around our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

And so here is the Levine instructing the people of Israel to bless the Lord, to praise the Lord, to worship the Lord because he is exalted above all blessing and praise. And I trust that you and I can also praise the Lord today. Think about who he is and what he had done for you in your life. How the Lord had been so gracious towards you and I and how you and I ought to praise him and to bless his holy name at all times. And never to forget his faithfulness and grace towards each and every one of us in our lives. And so as we move along, I didn't read verses 6 to verse 31.

But in verses 6 to verse 31, these remnant of Israel, these Jewish people who are now back in the land, they are now rehearsing God's gracious ways with them. And secondly, they also rehearse and confess their very own failure and sins at the same time. And I want you just to highlight certain things, beloved brothers and sisters in those verses 6 to 31. First of all, I want you to notice that in verse 6, they acknowledge God as a creator. They recognize that God is a creator. You know, today, people cause us to doubt who made heaven and earth. There was some sort of evolution and, you know, they teach in school, little children, that there's no real God who made heaven and earth.

You see, there was an evolution. There was an explosion somewhere. And everything came to pass. But you see, these Jewish people knew their Bible. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He is the creator, beloved brothers and sisters. And they acknowledge that he is the creator. Notice what it says in verse 7. Not only that he is the creator, he is the one who chose the people of Israel to be his people. Notice, it says in verse 7, "Thou art the Lord, the God, who did choose Abraham and brought him forth out of Ur the Kaladins." You know, brothers and sisters, Israel is a chosen nation.

Israel is not better, but Israel is a chosen nation. They were not chosen because Israel were better, but they were chosen because God is sovereign. And he chooses whomsoever he will. Do you know, brothers and sisters, the Bible teaches election. Ephesians chapter 1 teaches us that we were chosen in the Messiah before the foundation of the world. Now, if you have a problem with that, you go tell it to God. But God is the one who is sovereign. He chooses whom he will. He chose Israel above all other nations. And this is not because Israel is better and you and I are chosen in the Messiah.

Not because you and I are better than the unbelievers in the world or anybody else. It is by grace through faith. And this is not of yourself. It is the gift of God. Thirdly, I want you to notice what it says in verse 8. He gave the land. He is a land giver to the people of Israel. Notice it says in verse 8. And you found his heart faithful before thee. This is Abraham. And you made this covenant with him to give him the land of the Canaanite, the Chittite, the Amorite, the Peredite, the Jebusite, and the Girishite. God is the one who gave the land. Look at this, what's going on today.

Whose land it is? Many people ask the question, well, whose land is the land of Canaan? You see, the land of Canaan belonged to Abraham and Abraham's descendants because God gave it. Because they deserve it. You see, the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah said to the disciples in John 14. In my Father's house, there are many mansions. And I go to prepare this place for you. Now, do you think we deserve to go to heaven? You think you and I deserve to go to the Father's house? But it is God who is sovereign, who not only has chosen us, but he has also promised us to be in the Father's house.

He is not only a creator, he is also a chooser, but he also gives us the promises. To Israel, he promised the land. To believers in Yeshua, the Messiah, he promised to be with him in the Father's house. Fourthly, in verses 9 and 10, we find out that they remember that God is a Redeemer. You notice it says, And you did see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt. And you heard their cry by the Red Sea. And you show signs and wonders unto Pharaoh. And you notice it says at the end here, All his servants and on all the people of the land, for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them.

So didst thou get thee a name as it is this day. You see, God redeemed Israel out of the land of Egypt. What is Redeemer? Redeemer is to buy back. He took them out of the land of Egypt. Remember what Peter said to the early believers. He said to them, You are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. You have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Messiah. You and I also have been redeemed like Israel have been redeemed. Not as long as we continue. Verse 12, He is also a leader. You led them with the cloudy pillar and with the pillar of fire.

You see, God led our forefathers Israel through the wilderness for 40 years. How did He lead them? Pillar of cloud by day. Pillar of fire by night. And He was right there leading them. Notice the next verses. Not only that He is a leader, He is the law giver. Verses 13 and 14. You came also upon Mount Sinai. Verse 13. And you speck us with them from heaven and you gave us them right judgment and true laws, good statutes and commandments. And notice even the Shabbat was so important for the nation of Israel because it says in verse 14, You have made known unto them thy holy Shabbat and commanded them to accept statutes and laws by the hand of Moses thy servant.

You see, brothers and sisters, you know, many times people tell us that God gave all the nations of the world the Shabbat the book of Genesis after creation. But you don't find this in the scripture. The Shabbat was given to them, to the nation of Israel. It is a specific connected with the nation of Israel. Notice how clearly it is in this verse. You have made known unto, not unto all the people of the world, but unto them thy holy Shabbat. It is linked with the nation of Israel. It is specifically linked with the nation of Israel. That's why Exodus 31, it is the sign of the covenant that God had made with the nation of Israel.

And that was the Shabbat that Israel is to keep that day holy unto the Lord. Continue here in verses 15. He is also a provider. You gave them bread. Then in the middle he says, you brought forth water for them out of the rock. Notice that when Israel were traveling for 40 years during the wilderness, where would they eat food from? Where would they get water from? God is a provider. Think about his brothers and sisters, how many things God had provided for you and I today. Everything that you and I have today is the provision of the Lord. James said in James chapter 1 and verse 17, Every good and every perfect things come from above, from the Father of light, with whom there is no variableness, no shadow of turning.

Everything we have came to us from the Lord. He is our provider. He continues now. There is a little pause here now. As they continue in reminding themselves and rehearsing before the Lord their history, all of a sudden they take a pause. And in verse 16, 17 and 18, now they look at themselves and their forefathers and they repent of their sins. Notice the word but. But they, our fathers, they dealt proudly. And they hardened their necks. And they hearken not unto thy commandments. They refused to obey. Now they were mindful of thy wonders. And thou didst among them. But they hardened their necks. The rebellion, listen, they appointed captains to turn back to bondage.

You see what Israel did? When they did not want to follow the Lord during the wilderness journey, they raised some leaders to take them back to Egypt. What a sad thing it must have been. Remind us really. As if we today will have somebody who will lead us. And we say, you know what? Let's not follow after the Lord's instruction towards the promised land. Let's turn back to Egypt. Or let's turn back to the world and its system. You see, the Bible teaches us love not the world. Nor the things that are in the world for all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

Not of the Father. But you see what happened? At times we think that the world is better. And they thought that Egypt was better. They remembered the leeks and the onion and all the things that they have eaten there. But they forgot what God is going to bring them into. They forgot that there were slaves in the land of Mitzrayim, the land of Egypt. And so they raised up leaders. But you notice that it says how God is so merciful. In verse 17b, it says, But thou art a God ready to pardon. You are gracious. You are merciful. You are slow to anger. You have a great kindness.

And you did not forsake them. See, the kind of a God that the God of our fathers is, is a God that is a pardoning God. He's a forgiving God. You know, again, I would like to remind you. It is so sad when people tell us the God of the Old Testament is a God of anger. And the God of the New Testament is a God of love and grace. Beloved brothers and sisters, the God of Israel is the very same God we believe in today. And Yeshua the Messiah is God the Son who is in love for us, came to this world and became a man of sorrows and died for us on a tree in order to save us and to forgive our sins.

He is a gracious God. In verse 18, he says, Yea, when they made themselves the molten calf. And they said, This is thy God. Can you imagine making yourself a golden calf and saying, This is the God that brought me out of the land of Egypt. How it must have grieved the heart of God who loved them so much. And yet the Lord has forgave them. And though he disciplined them, he forgave them. And so they pause and reflect over their failure and their forefathers' failure. Now in verse 19 on to verse 25, they continue to present before the Lord and to say what God is. Notice again, verse 19, God is a leader.

Verse 20, God is a provider. Verse 21, God is a sustainer. Verse 22 to 25, God give to the people of Israel all the nations there in the land of Canaan to be the ones that will be the head and not the tail. And so we read there in verse 19, Yet thou in your manifold mercies forsook them not in the wilderness, in the pillar of cloud, with the pillar of fire. Notice verse 20, the provision. Again, the reminder of the manna and the water in verse 20. Notice again, verse 21, how God sustained them. Notice, yet 40 years you have sustained them in the wilderness. 40 years. And they remember that they lack nothing.

Their clothes waxed not old. Their feet swelled not. Now I don't know about that. I'm telling you, my feet many times are so swelling when I just take a little walk. And for 40 years God sustained. And you know, we get the best shoes so we'll have a good support and not walking in the sand. Imagine for 40 years how the Lord sustained them. They didn't lack anything. And yet the provision of the Lord. They remember, they rehearsed their history. Now notice that in verse 22 to 25, God gave Israel all the nations there. Notice that, moreover, thou gave them kingdoms and nation. And it's divided them into corners.

And they possessed the land of Shichon. The land of the king of Heshbon. The land of Onk, the king of Bashan. And so on. And you see, verse 23, they possessed it at the end. And then it tells you in verse 24, the Canaanite and so on. And you can see, God have given to Israel the promised land. And Israel should have inherited all the land had they been faithful. But look, beloved brothers and sisters, in the next verses, again, they pause and reflect on the behavior of Israel. And you notice again, verse 26 and 27, they confess again, the second time, their disobedience. Let me read those two verses, 26 and 27.

Nevertheless, they were disobedient. And they rebelled against him. And notice how sad. They cast thy law behind their backs. Now, in other words, they said, I don't need the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord. I don't need the Lord. To rat Adonai. It's just like believers today would say, well, I don't need the word of God. Well, I have the promises of God, but I don't need the word of God. I'll set it aside. It is not important what God is saying. I'm going to listen to everybody else, but I will not listen to the word of the Lord. How sad it is, beloved brothers and sisters.

And so they are pausing here and they are reflecting upon them. Notice verse 27. They say, therefore, you deliver them into the hand of their enemies who waxed them. And in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee. Notice, it's so beautiful to see how even these rebellious people, just like you and I, when we rebel against the Lord and we violate his word. But when we cried for help and for mercy, he's always ready to restore us. He says, when you heard them from heaven and according to thy manifold mercies, you gave them saviors. And those saviors speaks of the judges. In the time of the judges.

The shoftim. The word for savior is in the Hebrew word moshim. Those leaders who will save them for a season until they again violate the word of God. And again, God handed them over to the nations around. You see, brothers and sisters, they rehearsed their history. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses in the time of Egypt. Moses in the time of the wilderness. Joshua in the time of the wilderness. Joshua in conquering the land. The judges, the shoftim in the time when they became saviors. They were helping and saving, delivering the people of Israel out of the hands of their enemies. As it says here, you have gave them saviors who saved them out of the hands of their enemies.

In verse 27b. And again, brothers and sisters. They're going back to their own rebellion. And they said in verse 28, But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee. Again they went and they rebelled against the Lord. Look at the vicious cycle. Don't you see yourself here in this? We see ourselves. You know, one day we are walking with the Lord. The next day we find ourselves in a valley going away from the Lord. We are like hot and cold. One day we seek to obey Him. The next day we say, who cares? I'll do my own thing. See, all these things were not written to condemn Israel.

All these things were written to teach you and I today how we ought not to behave. And how it is a picture of ourselves. Now in verse 29, again they are repeating what God is. He is a discipliner. In verse 30, he is a forbearer. In verse 31, he is merciful and gracious. Those verses in a sense conclude all the history of the nation of Israel. From Abraham until, as they mention here in verse 31, Nevertheless, for thy great mercy's sake, thou didst not utterly consume them nor forsake them. For thou art a gracious and a merciful God. Now brothers and sisters, listen to that. If our relationship with the Lord depends upon our performance, none of us will ever be able to be right with God.

If Israel's relationship with God will be dependent upon Israel's performance, God long time ago would have done away with the nation of Israel. But because our relationship with God is not dependent upon our performance, our relationship with God is dependent upon His grace and His mercy. We are linked with Him and we will never separate with Him because He has saved us, but He is expecting from us to submit to His authority. And when we don't, as a Father, He will discipline us, but He will never cast us away. Just the same like He will never utterly destroy and consume the nation of Israel. Now let me make final remarks here on the last verses.

Verse 32 to verse 38, Now Israel bringeth to their present day, 445 B.C. Those are the Jewish people who came back from Persia, from Babel. And now they are in the land and they look around. And even though they are in Jerusalem, notice how they bring it to the present day. Notice verse 32, Now therefore our God, right now, Now, the great and mighty and the terrible God who keepeth the covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, upon our kings and our princes and our priests and our prophets and our fathers, and on all the people, since the time of the kings of Assyria, even unto this day.

Now they are looking back to about 721 B.C. When the Assyrian came and took the northern kingdom away. And then 605 B.C., the Babylonian came and took Judah away. And now they are about 445 B.C. Look at the God, please, since this time, up till this day, look at the condition that we find ourselves today. Even though we are in Jerusalem, the vast majority of the people of Israel are scattered and dispersed. And they are not in the land together with us. And so in the next verses 33 and on, Israel confessed God that he is just. But they are wrong. He said, however, you are just.

In all that you have done are brought upon us. And you have done in a right way whatever you have done. But we have done wickedly. It's not God's fault. You know, brothers and sisters, never blame the Lord for the problems that you and I might have in our life. People are blaming God. Why doesn't he care for me? Doesn't he love me? Doesn't he know what I go through? And oftentimes, unfortunately, we can blame him and accuse him. But you know, whatever he does, it's always right. And whenever we have wrong in our life, it is our own fault. Or sometimes the fault of sin in the community.

But it's never the Lord's fault. And so in the next verses 34 and 35, Israel confesses their disobedience to God. Neither have our kings and our princes and our priests and our fathers kept thy law. They didn't hearken to your commandment and to your testimonies. Verse 35, they have not served thee in their kingdom. And in thy great goodness that thou gavest unto them. And in the large and fat land which thou gavest unto them. And so on. And now verse 36 and verse 37, they are confessing their condition there. He said, "Behold, we are slaves this day." At the end of verse 36, we are slaves in the very land that you have promised to give us.

If you read verse 36 together. The very land that you promised to our fathers. We are now, even here we are slaves. We are servants. In Hebrew the word is not servant but avadim, slaves. And they conclude in verse 37. Why is it? He said, "It yieldeth much increase. The land hath a lot of fruit. But who takes it? The kings whom you have set over us." And here is the reason. Because of our sins. They have dominion over our bodies. And over our cattle. At their pleasure. See God have handed over the land in the time of the Gentiles to the Babylonians. Later on to the Middle Persians.

Later on to the Grecians. And ultimately to the Romans. And that's why the Jewish people even in the time of Yeshua the Messiah. Though they were in the land. But they were never free to do what they want. They were under the Roman occupation. And by the way. Even today. There are seven and a half million of our own Jewish people in the land of Israel. And every day. There is constant conflict. And friction. And wars. And bombs. And terrorism. And shooting and killing almost every day. And the only way for this to end. Is when the Mashiach will come. And when Israel will say.

When all Israel will repent. And acknowledge that Yeshua is the Messiah. And they need to turn their hearts to him. They concluded this repentance with these words. "We are in great distress." And they really confessed their sins. Before the Lord. Brothers and sisters. May we learn from that. And may the Lord help us. To follow him. And to submit to the authority of our Lord. Yeshua the Messiah.