A Solemn Assembly

Nehemiah 9:1-37

• The people come prepared for an encounter with God.
• The people came to do business with God, they dressed in sackcloth with dust on their heads & empty belly’s. 9:1
• The people came to deal with their own sin and the sin of their mothers and fathers. 9:2
• For a quarter of the day they focused on God by reading the Book of the Law. 9:3
• For a quarter of the day they confessed their sin and worshiped God. 9:3
• The Levites called the people to Praise God. 9:5
• Nehemiah 9:5-8 Recounts God’s mighty acts ending with the stirring call “You have kept your promise because you are righteous.”
• Praise God for he is the God who is, 9:7 who sees. 9:9 who came 9:13 who makes known. 9:14 who supplies bread and water and land. 9:15
• Praise God for he is a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. 9:17
• Even under tremendous provocation God did not abandon his people. 9:18-19
• The people Cry out, “We are in great distress.” 9:37
• From 9:19-31 the cycle of the people turning their backs on God, and then crying out to Him for mercy play themselves out three more times!
• God is gracious and merciful 9:31, he waits to hear us cry out to him in our distress. 9:37
• Joshua 24:14-15 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers, worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”