Recounting God's Faithfulness - Nehemiah 12-13

God is faithful.  Never forget that.  No matter what you are dealing with today, remember that God is faithful.  This is the message that comes across in Nehemiah 12-13.  These chapters begin with another list of names, this time of Priests and Levites.  These were the group of people that had been set aside by God to be the mediators of God's covenant with His people.  They were to represent the people before God and God before the people.  And though they failed in their duties throughout their history, God kept a remnant of them faithful to Him.  And, as Ezra and Nehemiah completed the reforms to Jewish society and worship that were needed after they came back from captivity in Babylon, we are given this list of names to show us that God keeps His covenant even when we don't.

The proper response to this is worship...worship which brings about a change in heart and life.  This is exactly what happened in these two chapters.  They have a huge worship service when they complete building the wall around Jerusalem and then they set about finishing up some of the societal reforms - confession of sin and promises to live righteously.

This should feel very familiar to us.  This is like the cycle of the week that God has designed for us.  In some sense, the Christian Sabbath (Sunday) is there for us to be recharged and commissioned to go out the rest of the week and live holy lives.  But in a very real sense, it is also designed by God to be a rest, a shelter of safety, a time when we lay our burdens down and feel and see the grace of God in action.  This is what drives us to worship as we gather.  We are reminded of the faithfulness of our God even though we are often unfaithful.  We are told, over and over, about the grace of our God as displayed in the cross.  We are driven to our knees in confession of sin and told of God's forgiveness.  And we worship Him because of all of this.  All of this is why it is so important that we gather together as the church.  It is because we desperately need it.  And God graciously provides it.