… let your ear be
attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now
pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing
the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and
my father’s house have sinned.
THE STUDY:
Continuing on
in verse 6 we read how Nehemiah inserted himself into the situation. Even
though he was a leader, Nehemiah emphasized his identification with the people
and with their sins. Note that
Nehemiah used the pronoun “we” and
not “they,” identifying himself with the sins of a generation he didn’t even
know. Leaders must not consider themselves superior to others;
admission of fault will not ruin effectiveness. Corporate solidarity is an
important part of the Old Testament view of things, although not to the extent
of minimizing individual responsibility. Each of God’s children is a part of
the believing community and is identified with that community. Nehemiah
identified with his people in humility as Jesus did at his baptism. Even though Jesus did not sin, he so identified with the people who were coming to repent of
their sins that he insisted on being baptized by John the Baptist.[1] It would have been easy to look back and blame his ancestors for the
reproach of Jerusalem, but Nehemiah looked within and blamed himself! “We have
sinned! We have dealt very corruptly!”[2] This
is a character that is not found in our culture today.
WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY
WITH ….
- We walk away with the understanding that the body of Christ is just that “a body!” When the foot does something wrong the rest of the body feels it or knows it. When the one hand does something good the entire body is praised for it. The same can be said of the other hand. If it does something wrong the entire body is feels or knows about the punishment. Identifying with the body is what is expected by God not denying.
APPLICATION:
A few years
ago, when the “media scandals” brought great reproach to the church, Warren
Wiersby wrote in his book The Integrity
Crisis:
To
begin with, the integrity crisis involves more than a few people who were
accused of moral and financial improprieties. The integrity crisis involves the
whole church. I am not saying that people didn’t sin, nor am I preaching
“collective guilt,” whatever that is. I only want to emphasize that, in the
body of Christ, we belong to one another, we affect one another, and we can’t
escape one another. The press did not create the crisis, the church did; and
the church will have to solve it (Nashville: Oliver-Nelson, 1988; p. 18).[3]
Today, we can
be like the rest of the world and look to blame someone else for the problems
in our families, workplace, or churches. Or we can identify with these entities
(family, workplace, church) and call on the one who can restore, heal, or do
greater things than we could have ever imagined. We know what Nehemiah did, but what will we do
today? Identify or Deny?
Blessings my friends
Pastor Rod
[1]
Breneman, M. (1993). Vol. 10: Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (electronic ed.).
The New American Commentary (172). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2]
Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be Determined.
“Be” Commentary Series (18). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[3]
Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be Determined.
“Be” Commentary Series (18). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
