The Need for Review

OT: Nehemiah 9-10
NT: Acts 7

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Nehemiah 9:5-7 — And the Levites said: “Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous."

I love church history. But I know of some who find it to be rather uninteresting. I love to study about the saints of old, about Clement, Polycarp, Athanasius, Augustine and Francis. Of Benedict and Boniface, of Patrick and Luther, Calvin and Zwingli. All of these men made monumental impacts in the history of the church. There were many women, like Theresa of Avila, who did the same. There were theological controversies and councils, movements and revolutions, mistakes and splits. The Church of God has been through a lot over the last 2,000 years and what she has experienced has shaped her into what she is today. There were lessons to be learned, mistakes to avoid, and patterns to be followed. Above all, what has happened over the past 2,000 years has had impact on where the church is presently and where it may go in the future.

Let's step back 2,500 years to the time of 500-480 B.C. Governor Nehemiah has just led a remarkable rebuilding project to reconstruct the walls of Jerusalem and, along with Ezra the priest, has led the nation of Israel back into covenant with God. The festivals have been celebrated once again and the people are ready to make the holy sacrifice of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. But before they make that sacrifice, the Levites speak up in the assembly of Israel and remind the people of where they were 2,000 years ago. And they recount for them the journey the Lord has brought the nation on for the past 2,000 years. They recounted the stories of saints of old, like Abraham, Moses and Joshua. About God's faithfulness and Israel's disobedience. About the just exile and the present enslavement to the kings of Persia. They look back and review for the sake of looking ahead. Do not follow the mistakes of the past, they said, because those mistakes got us in trouble with God and our neighbors. Rest in God's faithfulness from this day forward and keep His Law. With the past in mind, the elders of Jerusalem, the Levites and the priests signed their names to a renewed Mosaic Covenant with God. Their future would include this Law and the God who gave it. No more were they to roam like those in the past. Israel had one God. And this time they were sticking to it.

Be God's.


Be God's.