Nehemiah 1:7 Commentary and Bible Study

Verse seven: ‘We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the judgements, which thou commanded thy servant Moses.’ Well in our day, we put this differently. Nehemiah says, we haven't obeyed the moral law, we haven't obeyed the ceremonial law, and we haven't obeyed the judicial case laws given to Moses. He has got three sections of law which he believes the nation has broken. And we today pray along similar lines. We are Bible believers; we are evangelicals. We have neglected the moral law, yes. We have neglected the instructions about how we should properly run the churches and evangelise and serve God, and we have forgotten the duties of the Christian walk: separation from worldliness and sin, and so on. So we can make categories too, just as Nehemiah did. Verse 7: ‘We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgements, which thou commandest thy servant Moses.’ I looked at this article in vain for anything like that. ‘What have we done? It's our fault.’ No, none of that at all. ‘Remember, I beseech thee the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying’ – now you have got to keep reading quickly to get the point of this. ‘Remember the word thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, if you transgress I will scatter you abroad among the nations, but if you turn unto me …’ You see, this is going to be the point. Nehemiah is going to plead the promise of God in Deuteronomy 30 that if the people return, then he will renew the blessing and revive them. And that statement that he makes in prayer in verse 9 of chapter 1 is pivotal for the whole of this book. On what grounds does Nehemiah proceed to petition the king and do everything he does? On what grounds does he think that he is going to be successful? The promise of God. God has promised that if there is return and repentance and a new effort, then he will bless it, and he will prosper it. Everything in this book is going to hang not on Nehemiah's personal hope, but on his appropriation of this promise, which he quotes in prayer and which comes from Deuteronomy 30.