Nehemiah 9:1-38

The People Mourn Over Their Sins, Confess Them, And Are Led By The Levites In A Prayer Of Contrition And Remembrance Of God's Grace Continually Revealed Towards Them In The Past, In Hope That In The Future He Will Again Restore His People (Nehemiah 9:1).

On the second day following ‘the eighth day' of the Feast (the twenty second day of the moon period), the people again gathered in what would appear to have been a spontaneous and informal gathering, although having said that it does climax with the sealing of the renewal of the covenant by all; by Nehemiah and the chiefs of the priests, by the chiefs of the Levites and by the chiefs of the people. But the emphasis is on the fact that the move was instigated by the people and carried through by the Levites. It was a ‘popular' movement. The priests were seemingly not initially involved until the end when they responded to the peoples' wishes.

It probably occurred in the outer court of the Temple (the ‘stairs of the Levites' may well have been the steps leading up to the court of the priests), for ‘they stood in their place', which probably signifies the court which the men of Israel were allowed to enter. By entering there they would necessarily ‘separate themselves from all foreigners (non-pure Yahwists)' for such were not allowed to enter there. And there for about three hours they read a carefully selected portion of the Law of YHWH their God, following it with three hours of confession and worship offered to YHWH their God Himself, a period of worship led by the Levites who were responsible for the people's spiritual well-being. It would appear to have been totally spontaneous.

In the history of spiritual revivals such spontaneous movements of the people in response to the word of God are well documented. The Spirit of God takes over and the people spontaneously gather for worship and confession. And that is what appears to have happened here. This was no ordinary time. It was a time resulting in a special movement of God. God was at work within His people. Far from the reading of the Law during the Feast having been merely formal, it had moved the hearts of the people deeply. And this was the consequence.

It should be noted that this method of confession and worship by reiterating the history of Israel, followed by a petition for deliverance (the latter implied here in Nehemiah), is also found in Psalms 106 (compare also in general Deuteronomy 26:5; Joshua 24:2 (where it leads up to a covenant); Psalms 105; Psalms 135; Psalms 136), and can be compared with Stephen's speech in Acts 7 and the words of the writer to the Hebrews in Hebrews 11. For in all cases they saw what they were talking about as being the culmination of their whole history. They were looking to God on the basis of what He had always been to them, a compassionate, but continual, chastiser.