Nehemiah 9 Devotional

Faithful Through Every Failure

“But in Your great compassion, You did not put an end to them; nor did You forsake them, for You are a gracious and compassionate God.”Nehemiah 9:31 (BSB)

Later that month the people gather in sackcloth to read the Law and confess (9:1-3). The Levites lead a prayer that retells Israel's story, and its main character is God. He alone made the heavens and gives life to all things (9:6). He chose Abram and kept his promise, because he is righteous (9:7-8). He rescued them from Egypt and fed them in the wilderness (9:9-15).

Then the prayer turns, and turns again. The people grew proud and stubborn, even making a calf and calling it their god, yet God did not abandon them (9:16-19). In the land they rebelled again, and still, when they cried out from under their enemies, he heard and rescued them many times (9:26-28). In his great compassion he did not make an end of them (9:31), and the prayer calls him just in all that had come upon them (9:33). Paul says that if we are faithless, God remains faithful, because he cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:13). Your history with God is also a history of his faithfulness.

To think about: Looking back over your own story, where can you trace God's faithfulness through the times you were not faithful?