Nehemiah 1:6-7 “I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.”

What jumps out about Nehemiah, as it does about Daniel, is the matter of substitutionary repentance. He was personally a very straight-up guy, earning a position of great trust in the Persian court, even though he was a Jew. However, he includes himself and his family as he confesses that the Jews have not been faithful to the laws laid out by Moses. Hearing the situation in Jerusalem from his brother Hana­ni he was very upset, but he attributed it all to the sins of the Jews, not accusing God of being unjust in the slightest. I’m reminded of the situation in Gaza right now. As multiple people have said, every death on both sides can be laid directly at the feet of Hamas, because they not only attacked Israeli civilians, they have consistently placed their own civilians in harm’s way, hoping for mass casualties to turn international opinion against Israel. There is no evidence of Nehemiah’s sort of repentance there! Society today doesn’t like to attribute anything to Divine action, but that is more willful blindness than anything else. We would do well to examine our circumstances and the world around us in the light of God’s clear instructions and our own lifestyle. We might not have contributed directly to things as they are, but at the least our own inactivity has failed to restrain the negative influences. That can certainly be said of America today, because if the Church had consistently stood up for Biblical standards and morality over the past century, we would live in a very different world indeed. The thing is, none of us is innocent; we all need to keep our repentance up-to-date. We also need to do as Nehemiah did, and acknowledge the sins of our extended family, our social grouping, and our nation. We tend not to allow our hearts to be broken over sin, when even Jesus wept over Jerusalem. (Luke 13:34-35) We say we desire revival, but then we try to avoid the repentance that is essential for it, thinking we are personally OK. How foolish! We need to learn from Nehemiah and Daniel. If we will do so, I believe we will see God act as dramatically on our behalf as He did for them.

I have had the huge blessing of generations of forebears who loved and served God, but they were no more perfect than I am. I have relatives who are stuck in intellectual pride and treat religion as a desirable accessory. I’ve been that way myself! Personally, I have taken God’s grace for granted, thinking I was entitled to it instead of living in grateful obedience. And I certainly haven’t spent time agonizing over the sins of my nation, whether that be the US or Japan. I need to delight in the joy of the Lord, certainly, but I am also not to run from heartbroken repentance, on every level the Lord directs. I don’t yet have a sufficient grasp of the holiness of the Lord, to be appropriately horrified and disgusted at sin. I’ve still got a lot of growing to do!

Father, thank You for this Word. Thank You for Your recent call to regular fasting, and that I’ve gotten started on that in a small way. May I be Your agent to do Your will in Your way, exactly as You desire, so that Your plans may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!