Nehemiah 9:26 Commentary and Bible Study

But then more lament. Israel repeatedly proved itself unworthy of the blessing of God. It provoked him by doing the very thing he had commanded them not to do. They knew what God wanted them to do, but put his commandments behind their backs, where they would not be reminded of them, and set themselves free from God’s law to sin uninhibitedly. They murdered the prophets sent to correct them, and refused to return to God who had created their nation in the first place. This was testimony to their great ingratitude and rebelliousness. This rehearsal of the history of the nation is always careful to justify God and to acknowledge that all the blame for the evils and disciplines which the nation experienced lay with themselves. God’s patience however was unfailing. Gradually the passage comes right up to date and records the release from Babylon and the present situation, and the moves into the great plea, which is made at the end of the chapter. We are going all the way down to the Babylonian captivity. They were given rest, yet even after they had rest they rebelled again.‘Nevertheless, for thy great mercy's sake, thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them, for thou art a gracious and merciful God.’ God is going to save a remnant and preserve a people, and they will return. In order to do so, he is going to bear with their repeated lapses to an extent that is extraordinary. Who that knew all these details could think that God would go on pardoning the nation? But for the sake of the elect he did so. He is going to keep his promise to Abraham that a seed would come forth from him, which is Christ.