But they, our fathers, dealt proudly, and hardened their neck, and hearkened not to thy commandments,
In Nehemiah 9 the people who have returned from exile stand before God and pray through their own history. Up to this verse the prayer lists what God gave. Here it turns to what the people did with it, and names three charges in one breath: pride, a stubborn neck, and disobedience. How are the three linked?
Then they turn to themselves. One commentator sets the two sides side by side:
So far, it is a tale of grace — of a giving God. He had chosen Abraham, redeemed His people, guided, spoken to, and sustained them. All had been given from the heart of God — in His own pure and sovereign grace. Next they turn to their side of the picture. And what a contrast — as there always is when you set the heart of man beside the heart of God! What then did they have to say about themselves, faced with all this mercy and grace? Not one single good thing. … In a word, they confessed pride, stubbornness, wilful disobedience, forgetfulness of the displays of God's power among them, and turning away from God altogether. On God's side there had been mercy, patience, and tender care; and on theirs, ingratitude, and almost every form of evil and corruption.
The prayer does not treat pride as one sin among many. One writer reads the repeated charge as a diagnosis:
In this long prayer of confession they reviewed the history of their nation. Twice they named one of the great root causes of their sin: their forefathers had "acted presumptuously" (verses 16 and 29). Out of this spirit of pride sprang the self-assertion and disobedience that marked their whole history. No doubt the very privilege and favour they enjoyed as a nation helped it along.
A writer draws out what the stiff neck stands for:
The stubborn neck that will not bow, speaks of the pride that governs the heart. They shrink from a path that makes nothing of man and his self-importance.
This was not a case of trying and falling short. One commentator names what was really going on:
This was cold-hearted rebellion. They ignored the great wonders God had done among them for their good. They went so far as to appoint a leader against Moses, aiming to return to slavery in Egypt. Of course, God would not allow any such thing.
Behind such refusal lies something deeper. One commentator traces it to its source:
Not only was this failure in keeping the covenant of God, but it was stubborn refusal to do so. So our troubles do not usually come from ignorance. They come from stubbornly doing what we know is wrong. Why did they forget God's works and His former wonders? Because they had no regard for God Himself!
The confession says "they and our fathers." Those praying do not stand outside the record they read out. One commentator explains why:
They also confessed the sins of their fathers. They did so because the Lord's hand had been upon them for this very reason… So they went down to the root of all the evil. They told out before God their fathers' sins as well as their own. Their humbling on this day was no shallow work. Standing before the Lord, in the light of His presence, they wanted to lay bare every sin and wrong for which they had suffered His discipline.
- Pride starts it. The prayer names pride twice as the root cause. Out of it grew the nation's self-assertion and disobedience — and their own privilege helped it along.
- Pride stiffens the neck. A neck that will not bow shows a heart ruled by pride. It shrinks from any path that makes nothing of man and his self-importance.
- A stiff neck shuts the ear. They did not merely fall short of God's commands. This was cold-hearted rebellion, not ignorance.
- A shut ear empties the memory. They forgot God's works because they had no regard for God Himself. Trouble comes not from not knowing, but from stubbornly doing what we know is wrong.
- Confession reverses the chain. They laid the whole record bare, their fathers' sins included. They went down to the root instead of skimming the surface — while God's side of the account stayed a tale of grace.
and refused to obey, neither were they mindful of thy wonders which thou hadst done among them; but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion made a captain to return to their bondage. But thou art a +God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great loving-kindness, and thou forsookest them not.
The Levites' prayer in Nehemiah 9 retells the nation's whole history, and verse 17 is its hinge. The record of rebellion stops there, and one question hangs over the rest: what does God do with people who have chosen slavery over Him?
The prayer names a sin that lies underneath all the others, and it names it more than once.
In this long prayer of confession they reviewed the history of their nation. Twice they acknowledged one of the great root causes of their sin: their forefathers had "dealt proudly" (verses 16 and 29). This spirit of pride was helped on, no doubt, by the very privilege and favour they held as a nation. Out of it sprang the self-assertion and disobedience that had marked their whole history.
Appointing a leader to take them back to Egypt was not a small failure of nerve. It was a verdict on the leader God had already given them. The next verse sets the golden calf beside it.
Nehemiah 9:17-18 brings both these evils together very strikingly, but there the order is reversed. It looks as if the provocation in this later case was as great as in the former. To reject a servant whom God has appointed captain amounts to rejecting God Himself. Making a golden calf was a cruder way of rejecting Him.
Everything turns on the single word that opens the second half of the verse. One writer points out where the Old Testament puts God's kindness: never against a clean background.
It is a remarkable and truly blessed fact that the Old Testament mentions the kindness of God where His people have failed and turned away. The graciousness of God shines like a brilliant jewel against the dark background of sin. In Nehemiah 9 we hear the Levites lament. They recount how completely the people failed to respond to the promises and tender care of God. Pride; hardening of the neck; disobedience; no appreciation of what God had shown among them; rebellion — a wish to refuse all that God had done and go back to slavery in Egypt!
Set the two halves side by side and you have the shape of the whole chapter.
They confessed, in a word, pride, stubbornness, wilful disobedience, forgetfulness of the displays of God's power among them, and apostasy. On God's side there had been mercy, long-suffering, and tender care; and on theirs, ingratitude, and almost every form of evil and corruption.
"A God ready to forgive" is not a phrase the Levites invented. It points back to Exodus 34, where God published His Name again. One writer notes how different that Name was from the one Israel needed in Egypt.
In Exodus 34 He publishes His Name again. But it is a very different Name. This Name has to do, not with strong enemies, but with a disobedient, rebellious people. So it is a Name full of pardoning grace, not of delivering strength. For this was the new Name that Israel's condition at that moment needed. The people had now brought trouble on themselves, and it was forgiveness they wanted. Before that, Egypt troubled them, and they needed strength and deliverance.
There is a further edge in the wording. The people had pointed at a metal calf and called it elohim, their god; the prayer answers by calling the true God Eloah, the singular form set in contrast with all the so-called gods.
"But you are a God [Eloah] ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and did not forsake them. Yes, when they had made themselves a molten calf, and said, This is your God [elohim] that brought you out of Egypt, and had done great provocations; yet you in your manifold mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness."
God's refusal to forsake them was not a mood. It showed up daily, where they could see it.
The patience of God with them is amazing. They even made a golden calf and worshipped it as the god who brought them out of Egypt. Still God bore with their evil in His manifold mercy (vv. 18-19). He continued to lead them by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. There was no lack of evidence that God was sustaining them and leading them through the wilderness. That wilderness would have swallowed them up if divine power had not kept them.
The desire for a captain back to Egypt was not a strange ancient quirk. It came from unbelief, and unbelief has not changed.
Unbelief wants a God clearly visible to the natural eye, so they made the calf. Unbelief is also not ready to face forty years in a wilderness with no visible resources. So they wanted a captain after their own heart, to lead them back to a land of plenty, even if it was a land of slavery. It is easy for us to see their error, but let us not forget that the flesh in ourselves has exactly the same desires and tendencies.
- Pride — the prayer names one root twice: they dealt proudly. Out of that pride came the self-assertion and the disobedience.
- Rejection — choosing their own leader back to Egypt rejected the leader God gave, and that amounts to rejecting God Himself. The calf was the same sin in cruder form.
- But — right here, against that dark background, comes the kindness of God. His Name in Exodus 34 is full of pardoning grace.
- Not forsaken — the pardon was not sentiment. It kept showing up as the cloud by day and the fire by night, in a wilderness that would otherwise have swallowed them.
- Us — the same unbelief still wants something visible and a leader who spares us the wilderness, even at the price of slavery.
Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy god that brought thee up out of Egypt! and they had wrought great provocation,
Nehemiah 9 records a day of fasting and confession. The Levites led the restored people in retelling their whole national story before God. Verse 18 reaches the low point of that story: the golden calf, made at the foot of Sinai. The wonder is that this was not the end of Israel's story. God bore with them and kept leading them.
The confession sets two columns side by side: what God did, and what Israel did with it. Verse 18 holds both at once.
As they poured out their hearts before God, they retold His ways of grace with His people. At the same time they confessed their own continual sin and hardness of heart. On God's part there had been nothing but grace, mercy, and patience. On their part there had been nothing but sinful ingratitude and rebellion. So they justified God and condemned themselves. That is the sure mark of a work of grace in repentance, in saints and sinners alike.
The sin was not only making an image. It was giving that image the credit for the rescue out of Egypt.
A calf, made by their own hands — an image carved by art and man's skill — had brought them up out of Egypt! A thing made out of the women's earrings had redeemed and delivered them! And this has been written for our warning. But why should it be written for us, if we are not capable of, and liable to, the very same sin? We must either admit that God the Holy Spirit has written an unnecessary sentence, or admit our need of a warning against the sin of idolatry. And our need of that warning proves our tendency to the sin.
Israel had claimed God's promises on the terms of their own obedience. The calf broke those terms at once. That left God one way only to keep them.
By this act Israel had forfeited everything. They had cast off the promises, which they had accepted on the condition of their own obedience. They had also cast off the God who made those promises — the only One who could fulfil them. Could God overlook this sin? Israel had undertaken to have the promises by their obedience. If God had dealt with Israel in righteousness, every one must have been cut off. What could God do but withdraw into His own sovereignty? There He had a resource; for if any of them are to be spared, it must be in this way of mercy.
Another writer sums up how far Israel went, and what it cost:
Last of all, they crowned their contempt for the Lord with the golden calf, and committed great blasphemies against God. Then they were condemned to forty years in the wilderness. In spite of that, God showed Himself to be a God of mercy toward them. He showed it as far as His holy law allowed. Their rebellion had put a stop to all God's ways of grace toward them. Even so, the Lord had watched over them.
God's patience was not just a feeling. It showed in what He kept doing for them, day and night.
God's patience with them is amazing. Then they made a golden calf, worshipping it as the god who brought them out of Egypt. Even so, God still bore with their evil in His manifold mercy. He continued to lead them by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The evidence was plain. God was sustaining them and leading them through a wilderness that would have swallowed them up if His power had not kept them.
No reader today is likely to melt down jewellery. The danger described is quieter and closer.
Everything that takes first place over the Person of Christ is an idol. … In fact, think of any person, believer or not. If Christ is not the supreme Object of his affections, he is to that extent an idolater. So idolatry is not limited to bowing to an image of gold or of wood. The idol may be only, but really, in the imagination. There is a constant and pressing need to remember the apostle's words: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."
- Forfeited. By making the calf, Israel gave away every claim built on their own obedience. Strict righteousness would have cut off every one of them.
- Sovereign. With that ground gone, God withdrew into His own sovereignty. Mercy was the only resource left for sparing anyone.
- Unforsaken. The proof was practical: the cloud by day and the fire by night never left, in a wilderness that would otherwise have swallowed them.
- Confessed. Generations later the people retold both columns: His grace, their rebellion. They justified God and condemned themselves. That is the mark of real repentance.
- Warned. God had this story written for us. Our need of the warning shows the tendency is in us. Today the idol is anything that outranks Christ in the heart.
yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud departed not from over them by day, to lead them on the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.
This verse sits inside a long public confession. The people retell their history in God's presence, and they find nothing good to say about themselves. The golden calf comes one line before it. Then comes God's answer: His great mercies did not stop. The cloud and the fire kept moving ahead of the people who had just insulted Him.
The prayer walks through Israel's past stage by stage. This verse falls in the wilderness section.
The people first give God His place. Then they review their own path in the light of all that God is, and that leads them to confess their complete failure. They find no good thing to say of themselves. They review their history in the wilderness (16-21); in the Land (22-27); and in captivity to their enemies (28-31). Their failure grew as time went on, and it showed itself in different forms of evil. But one failure was common to every position — their constant disobedience to the word of God.
The point of the verse is not that God guided a grateful people. He guided the people who had just credited a metal image with their rescue from Egypt.
Even when they made a golden calf, worshiping it as the god who brought them out of Egypt, God still bore with their evil in His manifold mercy (vv. 18-19). He continued to lead them by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The evidence was everywhere that God was holding them up and leading them. That wilderness would have swallowed them up if God had not kept them by His power.
Another writer sets their rebellion and God's care side by side.
Their rebellion had put a stop to all God's ways of grace toward them, and still the Lord watched over them.
The verse names two things the pillar did: lead the way, and light the way. Both answer a real problem — the desert had no roads.
They were about to enter a desert with no paths. No one lived where Israel was soon to travel. There were no landmarks and no signposts there. Its barrenness would call for bread from heaven. Its drought would call for water from the Rock. And its lack of any path would just as surely call for a Leader. The One who would open the angels' storehouses to them, and rivers in rocks, would raise up a Pillar for them — cloud by day and fire by night — so that they could keep on their way, whether by night or day.
Israel brought a forty-year journey on themselves. Their guide stayed with them for the whole of it.
The Lord is present; He proves His resources and His grace. He feeds, He disciplines, He rebukes, and yet pardons. Whatever they demand of Him, and however often they demand it, He never leaves them. If Israel bring a forty-year journey on themselves, the Lord will be in the wilderness with them for forty years... The God of the camp is the Guide and Companion of the camp. They may grieve Him, and He may have to show His displeasure, but He never leaves them.
A cloud that leads only helps people who watch it and move when it moves.
This pillar of cloud stood for the presence of God Himself. It protected them from the burning heat by day, and from the countless dangers and terrors of the darkness by night. It guided vast crowds of wayward and ignorant people through the wild, empty wilderness, home to the promised land. But to do this, the people had to follow the movements of the cloud through every stage of the journey. Here we have the two great essential principles of protection and subjection.
One writer reads the pillar as a picture of how God leads now.
God gave a further miracle just as great: a pillar of cloud led Israel by day, and a pillar of fire by night. This pictures the leading hand of God by His Spirit for believers today. Israel did not depend on their own knowledge of the ground they had to cross. They simply followed God's direction. The believer does not need to know in advance where he should travel. He may depend on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, however little he understands it.
- Sin named — The prayer looks back at the wilderness and finds one failure at every stage: constant disobedience to God's word.
- Yet kept — The calf did not cancel the guidance. God bore with their evil in His great mercies and kept leading them.
- Guide given — The desert had no landmarks and no signposts, so God raised up a Pillar for them: cloud by day, fire by night.
- Never withdrawn — Israel brought a forty-year journey on themselves. God stayed in the wilderness with them for all forty years. They may grieve Him, but He does not leave.
- Follow closely — The cloud gave protection, but only to those who moved when it moved. Writers see the same leading today in the Spirit, a step at a time.
Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.
In this chapter the Levites pray through Israel's history out loud. This verse comes at its darkest point. What God hands a rebellious people at that moment is not judgment but a Teacher, food, and drink.
The confession is not vague regret. The people retrace their record era by era.
Having given God His place, the people review their path in the light of all that God is. This leads them to confess their utter failure. They find no good thing to say of themselves. They review their history in the wilderness (16-21); in the Land (22-27); and in captivity to their enemies (28-31). Their failure grew as time passed, and showed itself in different forms of evil. But one failure was common to every position — their constant disobedience to the word of God.
God gives these three gifts in the face of great provocation. His kindness meets His people where they had earned the opposite.
It is a remarkable and truly blessed fact that the Old Testament writings speak of God's kindness at times when His people failed and turned away. The graciousness of God shines like a brilliant jewel against the dark background of sin. … Pride; stubbornness; disobedience; no thanks for what God had shown among them; rebellion, wanting to throw away all that God had done and go back to slavery in Egypt! "But" — says the word — "You are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and You did not forsake them." In the face of "great provocation" God in His "great kindness" gave them "manifold mercies." He protected and guided them by night and by day. He gave them "His good Spirit to instruct them." He gave them the manna and the flowing well to feed them, "so that they lacked nothing." Truly the kindness of God is without compare!
This verse shows God's Spirit at work among Israel. Discipline did not cancel that gift.
God had never withdrawn His Spirit from His people, although He had judged and punished them (Neh. 9:20). The Spirit instructed and directed the people still.
That instruction came through people. Its worth was clearer to a later generation than to the one that received it.
More than this, God gave them His Spirit to instruct them through Moses and Aaron. This was a wonderful provision of grace, though Israel showed little appreciation of it at the time. Looking back, these Levites in Nehemiah's time could clearly see it.
The manna kept them alive. Writers see more in it than food.
The manna is a picture of Christ Himself, the vessel of God's good pleasure. It is also a picture of heavenly grace here on earth — the heavenly One in the middle of earthly circumstances. He is this heavenly grace now for His own, so that they receive grace for the wilderness journey… The Christian whose heart is not set on God's purpose gets tired of the manna. He sadly longs for other food, as the Israelites did.
The water has its own meaning. Scripture itself gives it.
The children of Israel ate material bread from heaven. They drank material water from the hard rock. But what do these things mean for us in a spiritual sense?… As for the meaning of the water from the rock, we are not left to the unreliable and misleading guesses of men. The Spirit Himself has clearly and distinctly interpreted it for us: "they drank of a spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ."
The next verse adds forty years of provision with nothing lacking. Writers apply the whole stretch to the Christian's own road.
God made the wilderness experience a blessing to them. It taught them the blessed lessons of humility and brought out all that was in their hearts. And this matches our own experience… They had to learn dependence on God in the wilderness. He supplied their need… And He still deals this way with His people. He loves them and has redeemed them in His Son. He is leading them home to Himself through the wilderness.
- Confession — the Levites retell their own history and find nothing good to say of themselves. One sin runs through every era: disobedience to God's word.
- Given — the three gifts come in the face of great provocation. God's kindness shines against the dark background of sin, not in place of it.
- Guided — the good Spirit instructed and directed the people. Judgment and punishment never made God withdraw Him.
- Fed — manna pictures Christ in the middle of earthly circumstances. Hearts not set on God's purpose grow tired of Him. Scripture says the Rock they drank from was Christ.
- Formed — lacking nothing taught them dependence and humility. God still leads His redeemed people home the same way.
Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing; their clothes grew not old, and their feet swelled not.
In Nehemiah 9 the Levites — the men who led Israel's worship — lead a long public confession. They retrace the nation's whole history in front of God. This verse comes at the end of the wilderness part of that story, and it raises a hard question. Why would God keep a people fed, clothed and unhurt for forty years, when those same forty years were their punishment for unbelief?
The verse belongs to a deliberate survey. One writer traces how the people move through their history stage by stage, and finds a single thread running through all of it.
Having given God His place, the people review their path in the light of all that God is, and this leads to the confession of their utter failure. They find no good thing to say of themselves. They review their history in the wilderness (16-21); in the Land (22-27); and in captivity to their enemies (28-31). Their failure increased with the passing of time, expressing itself in different forms of evil. But one failure was common to every position — their constant disobedience to the word of God.
The wilderness years were not neutral time. God sentenced Israel to them. What makes this verse striking is that His care went on anyway.
Last of all, they had crowned their contempt for the Lord with the golden calf, and had provoked God greatly. So God sentenced them to forty years in the wilderness. Even then God had shown Himself to be a God of mercy toward them, as far as His holy law allowed Him to show that character (v. 17). Their rebellion had stopped every way of grace God had toward them, and still (v. 21) the Lord had watched over them.
Another writer widens the point. Across the Old Testament, God shows kindness where the record is worst.
Here is a remarkable and blessed fact. In the Old Testament writings, God's kindness is shown in the very circumstances where His people fail and turn away. The graciousness of God shines like a brilliant jewel against the dark background of sin.
The word "sustained" is not vague. One writer sets out the scale of it, then asks whether Israel appreciated any of it.
At this time too the Lord did not at all withhold the manna from them, and supplied water as they needed it. This continued for the entire wilderness journey (forty years), so that they lacked nothing. Think how often thousands of people fleeing as refugees die for lack of food and water! Yet God sustained between two and three million Israelites for 40 years of wilderness wandering! In that time too their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. Were they so unfeeling that they failed to appreciate this?
The verse ends with two small details: clothes and feet. One writer marvels that God stooped to them.
Only think, reader, of the LORD looking after His people like this, making sure their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell! He not only fed them, but clothed them and cared for them in every way. He even stooped to look after their feet, that the sand of the desert might not injure them! So for forty years He watched over them, with all the exquisite tenderness of a father's heart.
Such care is easy to walk straight past. One writer turns that into a warning.
But it was not only in great things that God took care of them, or that He does so for us in the wilderness; we have to admire His precious care in the smallest things, and in our tiniest wants. God's providence is not only general but particular. "Your clothing did not wear out on you." It may be that the Israelites had taken but little notice of the fact, and so it is with us. How many details of God's care for us pass unobserved by us!
Why a wilderness at all? Because the hard road is what gives God the occasion to show what He is.
Here the blessed God finds a place suited to display His heart as equal to it all. The difficulties, the trials and the sorrows His people pass through only give Him the occasion to show how He can care for His own. The blessed God charged Himself with the clothes and feet of His people these forty years! How wonderful! It is the greatness of His love that enables Him to enter into it all — nothing too great and nothing too small for His care and interest. We on our side need the wilderness. It is the place that tests our dependence and our submission to God.
One writer sees the unworn clothes and unhurt feet as a picture of what the Christian is given.
If there was trial, how God's tenderness was shown! Clothing never growing old; feet never swelling as they trod that flinty soil. We too have a robe of beauty that stays fresh for ever. We have feet fitted with the readiness given by the gospel of peace, and the rough places only prove how lasting that comfort is. Discipline — yes! but the tender discipline of a father for the son in whom he delights.
- Cause. The forty years were a sentence for rebellion, yet the Lord kept watching over them all the way through.
- Gift. He fed them, gave them water and led them. Millions crossed a desert and lacked nothing.
- Reach. His care reached down to clothes and feet — small things a Father notices and His people can miss.
- Purpose. The wilderness is the place that tests dependence and gives God room to show His heart.
- Result. His kindness shines brightest against failure, and it does not spoil them. It ends in the tender discipline of a Father.