A Study of Grace Part 2

Nehemiah 9:16-31

¹⁶ “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. ¹⁷ They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.^[c] But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. ¹⁸ Even when they had made for themselves a golden^[d] calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, ¹⁹ you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. ²⁰ You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. ²¹ Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

²² “And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. ²³ You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess. ²⁴ So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. ²⁵ And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

²⁶ “Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. ²⁷ Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. ²⁸ But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies. ²⁹ And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. ³⁰ Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. ³¹ Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.”

Rejection. It hurts, stings. Most of us respond rather negatively to rejection and have a hard time forgiving it. Over and over again, God’s people rejected Him, turned their backs on Him. Yet, in His grace, He called them back to Himself. God did not abandon them in the desert but guided them, cared for them, and sustained them. He gave them kingdoms and nations and fertile lands. “But they were disobedient and rebelled” (Nehemiah 9:26). Instead of heeding the many warnings He sent through the prophets, they killed God’s prophets. In His grace, He gave them over to their enemies. He called them back to Himself time and again. Those who repent and turn back to Him are graciously forgiven. God’s amazing grace is there for anyone, regardless of background or personal history. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). 

Sometimes grace looks different than what we imagine. Sometimes, grace is the hardship you go through that causes you to repent and turn back to God. There is no sin that He doesn’t forgive, except for not believing in God’s gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. When you feel overwhelmed by sin or the problems in this life, turn to His word. Isaiah 30:18-20 says, “Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as He hears it, He answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide Himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.”

We are sinners. So often we fall into sinful patterns and habits, yet every time we turn to God, asking for forgiveness, He graciously forgives us. In Matthew 18, Peter questioned Jesus, asking how many times we are to forgive those who sin against us. As sinful people, we put limitations on the grace we give others, but God does not. C.H. Spurgeon once said, “To sum up all in one, the riches of the grace of God are infinite; beyond all limit; they are inexhaustible, they can never be drained; they are all-sufficient; they are enough for every soul that ere shall come to take of them; there shall be enough for ever while earth endureth, until the last vessel of mercy shall be brought home safely.” As John 1:16 says, “For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” There are no limits on the grace of God. Do not let Satan convince you that you are too great a sinner to be forgiven; continue to go to God, asking for forgiveness and believing in His word. “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:10-12). By grace, through the working of the Holy Spirit, we are called back to faith; He works in our hearts that which we need to respond in faith. We may not understand it, but God’s grace is limitless to those who repent and believe, so repent and believe and cling to the grace of God.