You were patient with them for many years, and Your Spirit admonished them through Your prophets. Yet they would not listen, so You gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. You were patient with themThe Hebrew root for "patient" here is "arak," which conveys the idea of being long-suffering or slow to anger. This patience is a divine attribute, reflecting God's enduring mercy and grace towards His people despite their repeated disobedience. Historically, this patience is evident throughout the Old Testament, where God continually offers opportunities for repentance and restoration. This patience is not passive but active, as God continually seeks the redemption of His people. for many years
This phrase underscores the extent of God's patience. The "many years" can be seen as a reference to the entire period of the judges and the monarchy, where God repeatedly sent prophets to call Israel back to faithfulness. It highlights the enduring nature of God's covenant love, which persists despite human failure. Archaeological findings, such as ancient inscriptions and records, corroborate the long history of Israel's existence and their interactions with surrounding nations, providing a backdrop to these "many years." and Your Spirit admonished them
The term "Spirit" here is "Ruach" in Hebrew, indicating the active presence of God among His people. The Spirit's role in admonishing suggests a divine initiative to guide, correct, and instruct. This is consistent with the broader biblical narrative where the Spirit empowers prophets to speak God's truth. The admonishment is a form of divine communication, urging repentance and a return to covenant faithfulness. through Your prophets
Prophets in the Old Testament were God's chosen messengers, often called to deliver difficult truths. The Hebrew word for prophet, "navi," implies one who is called or appointed. Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel served as intermediaries between God and Israel, delivering messages of warning, hope, and future restoration. Their role was crucial in maintaining the spiritual and moral compass of the nation. yet they paid no heed
This phrase reflects the tragic reality of Israel's repeated disobedience. The Hebrew root "azan" means to listen or give ear, and the negative form here indicates a willful refusal to listen. This stubbornness is a recurring theme in the Old Testament, where despite clear warnings and signs, the people often chose their own path over God's. This refusal to heed divine warnings ultimately led to severe consequences. So You delivered them into the hands of the people of the land
The phrase "delivered them" is significant, as it indicates a judicial act of God. The Hebrew root "natan" means to give or hand over, suggesting that God, in His justice, allowed Israel to face the consequences of their actions. The "people of the land" refers to foreign nations, such as the Assyrians and Babylonians, who were instruments of God's judgment. This historical reality is well-documented, with archaeological evidence supporting the invasions and exiles that Israel experienced. This act of delivering them serves as both a punishment and a means to bring about eventual repentance and restoration. Persons / Places / Events 1. GodThe central figure in this verse, demonstrating patience and justice. 2. The IsraelitesThe people who repeatedly disobeyed God despite His patience and warnings. 3. The ProphetsMessengers sent by God to admonish and guide the Israelites back to Him. 4. The Spirit of GodThe divine presence that inspired the prophets to speak God's truth. 5. Surrounding PeoplesNations used by God as instruments of judgment against Israel's disobedience. Teaching Points God's Patience and JusticeGod is incredibly patient, giving people ample opportunity to repent. However, His justice requires that persistent disobedience be addressed. The Role of the ProphetsProphets are vital in communicating God's will and calling people to repentance. We should heed the messages of God's Word today. The Consequences of DisobedienceIgnoring God's warnings leads to consequences. We must be attentive to His guidance to avoid spiritual downfall. The Work of the Holy SpiritThe Holy Spirit continues to admonish and guide believers. We should be sensitive to His leading in our lives. Learning from HistoryThe history of Israel serves as a warning. We should learn from their mistakes and strive to remain faithful to God. Bible Study Questions 1. How does God's patience with Israel in Nehemiah 9:30 reflect His character, and how should this influence our view of His patience with us today? 2. In what ways can we ensure that we are listening to the "prophets" or messengers God sends into our lives today? 3. What are some modern-day "surrounding peoples" or influences that God might use to discipline us when we stray from His path? 4. How can we cultivate a heart that is sensitive to the Holy Spirit's admonitions, avoiding the hard-heartedness seen in the Israelites? 5. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's patience and eventual discipline. How did this experience shape your relationship with Him? Connections to Other Scriptures 2 Kings 17:13-18This passage describes how God sent prophets to warn Israel, but they did not listen, leading to their exile. Jeremiah 25:4-7Jeremiah recounts how God persistently sent prophets to warn the people, yet they refused to heed the warnings. Acts 7:51-53Stephen accuses the Jewish leaders of resisting the Holy Spirit, just as their ancestors did by rejecting the prophets. Hebrews 3:7-11The author warns believers not to harden their hearts as the Israelites did in the wilderness. 2 Peter 3:9This verse highlights God's patience, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance. People Abram, Amorites, Bani, Bunni, Canaanites, Chenani, Egyptians, Ezra, Girgashite, Girgashites, Hashabniah, Hittites, Hodiah, Hodijah, Israelites, Jebusites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Levites, Og, Perizzites, Pethahiah, Pharaoh, Shebaniah, Sherebiah, SihonPlaces Assyria, Bashan, Egypt, Gate of Ephraim, Heshbon, Mount Sinai, Red Sea, UrTopics Admonished, Attention, Bear, Bore, Drawest, Ear, Extend, Forbear, Forewarn, Gavest, Handed, Hands, However, Lands, Mercy, Neighboring, Paid, Peoples, Prophets, Spirit, Testified, Testifiedst, Testifiest, Warn, Witness, YetDictionary of Bible Themes Nehemiah 9:30 1428 prophecy, OT inspiration
1611 Scripture, inspiration and authority
1690 word of God
3110 Holy Spirit, titles of
3140 Holy Spirit, teacher
3212 Holy Spirit, and mission
3236 Holy Spirit, and Scripture
3272 Holy Spirit, in OT
3281 Holy Spirit, inspiration
5762 attitudes, God to people
5885 indifference
5926 rebuke
6231 rejection of God
8282 intolerance
8318 patience
8401 challenges
8452 neighbours, duty to Nehemiah 9:16-31 6223 rebellion, of Israel Nehemiah 9:26-31 8705 apostasy, in OT Nehemiah 9:29-30 1075 God, justice of
5777 admonition Nehemiah 9:29-31 8764 forgetting God Nehemiah 9:30-31 1095 God, patience of
1310 God, as judge
4925 delay, divine
6687 mercy, God's
8459 perseverance Library The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength. Neh 9:10
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John Newton—Olney HymnsQuestions About the Nature and Perpetuity of the Seventh-Day Sabbath.
AND PROOF, THAT THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK IS THE TRUE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. BY JOHN BUNYAN. 'The Son of man is lord also of the Sabbath day.' London: Printed for Nath, Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1685. EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. All our inquiries into divine commands are required to be made personally, solemnly, prayerful. To 'prove all things,' and 'hold fast' and obey 'that which is good,' is a precept, equally binding upon the clown, as it is upon the philosopher. Satisfied from our observations …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Ten Reasons Demonstrating the Commandment of the Sabbath to be Moral.
1. Because all the reasons of this commandment are moral and perpetual; and God has bound us to the obedience of this commandment with more forcible reasons than to any of the rest--First, because he foresaw that irreligious men would either more carelessly neglect, or more boldly break this commandment than any other; secondly, because that in the practice of this commandment the keeping of all the other consists; which makes God so often complain that all his worship is neglected or overthrown, …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety The "Fraternity" of Pharisees
To realise the state of religious society at the time of our Lord, the fact that the Pharisees were a regular "order," and that there were many such "fraternities," in great measure the outcome of the original Pharisees, must always be kept in view. For the New Testament simply transports us among contemporary scenes and actors, taking the then existent state of things, so to speak, for granted. But the fact referred to explains many seemingly strange circumstances, and casts fresh light upon all. …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Fragrant Spices from the Mountains of Myrrh. "Thou Art all Fair, My Love; There is no Spot in Thee. " --Song of Solomon iv. 7.
FRAGRANT SPICES FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF MYRRH. HOW marvellous are these words! "Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee." The glorious Bridegroom is charmed with His spouse, and sings soft canticles of admiration. When the bride extols her Lord there is no wonder, for He deserves it well, and in Him there is room for praise without possibility of flattery. But does He who is wiser than Solomon condescend to praise this sunburnt Shulamite? Tis even so, for these are His own words, and were …
Charles Hadden Spurgeon—Till He Come The Personality of the Holy Spirit.
Before one can correctly understand the work of the Holy Spirit, he must first of all know the Spirit Himself. A frequent source of error and fanaticism about the work of the Holy Spirit is the attempt to study and understand His work without first of all coming to know Him as a Person. It is of the highest importance from the standpoint of worship that we decide whether the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, worthy to receive our adoration, our faith, our love, and our entire surrender to Himself, …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit The Early Life of Malachy. Having Been Admitted to Holy Orders He Associates with Malchus
[Sidenote: 1095.] 1. Our Malachy, born in Ireland,[134] of a barbarous people, was brought up there, and there received his education. But from the barbarism of his birth he contracted no taint, any more than the fishes of the sea from their native salt. But how delightful to reflect, that uncultured barbarism should have produced for us so worthy[135] a fellow-citizen with the saints and member of the household of God.[136] He who brings honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock[137] …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh The Prophecy of Obadiah.
We need not enter into details regarding the question as to the time when the prophet wrote. By a thorough argumentation, Caspari has proved, that he occupies his right position in the Canon, and hence belongs to the earliest age of written prophecy, i.e., to the time of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah. As bearing conclusively against those who would assign to him a far later date, viz., the time of the exile, there is not only the indirect testimony borne by the place which this prophecy occupies in …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament The Preface to the Commandments
And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God,' &c. Exod 20: 1, 2. What is the preface to the Ten Commandments? The preface to the Ten Commandments is, I am the Lord thy God.' The preface to the preface is, God spake all these words, saying,' &c. This is like the sounding of a trumpet before a solemn proclamation. Other parts of the Bible are said to be uttered by the mouth of the holy prophets (Luke 1: 70), but here God spake in his own person. How are we to understand that, God spake, …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments Of Immediate Revelation.
Of Immediate Revelation. [29] Seeing no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth him; and seeing the revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit; therefore the testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be only revealed; who as, by the moving of his own Spirit, he disposed the chaos of this world into that wonderful order in which it was in the beginning, and created man a living soul, to rule and govern it, so by …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity Influences that Gave Rise to the Priestly Laws and Histories
[Sidenote: Influences in the exile that produced written ceremonial laws] The Babylonian exile gave a great opportunity and incentive to the further development of written law. While the temple stood, the ceremonial rites and customs received constant illustration, and were transmitted directly from father to son in the priestly families. Hence, there was little need of writing them down. But when most of the priests were carried captive to Babylonia, as in 597 B.C., and ten years later the temple …
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament The Holy War,
MADE BY SHADDAI UPON DIABOLUS, FOR THE REGAINING OF THE METROPOLIS OF THE WORLD; OR, THE LOSING AND TAKING AGAIN OF THE TOWN OF MANSOUL. THE AUTHOR OF 'THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.' 'I have used similitudes.'--Hosea 12:10. London: Printed for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms in the Poultry; and Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1682. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Bunyan's account of the Holy War is indeed an extraordinary book, manifesting a degree of genius, research, and spiritual …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Ezra-Nehemiah
Some of the most complicated problems in Hebrew history as well as in the literary criticism of the Old Testament gather about the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Apart from these books, all that we know of the origin and early history of Judaism is inferential. They are our only historical sources for that period; and if in them we have, as we seem to have, authentic memoirs, fragmentary though they be, written by the two men who, more than any other, gave permanent shape and direction to Judaism, then …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Nehemiah 9:30 NIVNehemiah 9:30 NLTNehemiah 9:30 ESVNehemiah 9:30 NASBNehemiah 9:30 KJV
Nehemiah 9:30 Commentaries
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