What would happen if all of us who believe and fear G-D were
to come together every day for prayer and confession before G-D? I’m not talking
just confessions of our own sins before G-D, but the sins of our ancestors as
well? What do you think would happen? What if we took it even further than that
and not only confessed their sins, but took them upon ourselves, as if we had
participated in those sins of our ancestors and confessed them as if we were
the ones guilty of those sins? What would happen?
The book of Nehemiah gives us an idea.
Nehemiah was one of the exiles of Israel living in Babylon,
there is not much said about him personally except that he was the kings’
cupbearer, but in the beginning of the book you get an idea of the kind of man
that he is. He hears a report of a badly destroyed Jerusalem and is upset to
the point of mourning, fasting and prayer before G-D. Starting with verse 4 of
chapter one you read his first prayer but its verse 6 that I want you to pay
attention to “….. I am praying to you now, day and night, on behalf of the Israelites,
Your servants, confessing the sins that WE Israelites have committed against
you, sins that I and my father’s house have committed.” Verse 7 starts off with
the word WE, again confessing that they had not been faithful to G-D. He was so
visibly upset and so full of grief that even the king noticed and asked him
what was wrong, He told the king about the condition of Jerusalem, after saying
a quick prayer to G-D, and in the end the king granted that he be able to go
back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls and the temple. There were those that
tried to stop them and those that tried to intimidate and threaten them but
through his persistence and much prayer he was able to complete the building in
52 days and even their enemies realized that G-D was with them.
In Chapter 9, after the people celebrated the feast of
tabernacles, they came together again fasting and in sack cloth, with dirt upon
them, and they confessed their sins and the sins of their fathers just as
Nehemiah had. Verse 2: “Those of the stock of Israel separated themselves from
all the foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their
fathers.” Verse three says they did this for a quarter of the day! Can you
imagine praying and confession on such a large scale for 6 hours?
The bottom line for them is that the city was rebuilt, as
well as the walls and the temple, and all because one man prayed for
forgiveness of not only his sins but the sins of his nation and his ancestors.
G-D honored his prayer and later all of the people followed his example and did
the same and they, once again, were blessed by G-D.
So what would happen if we did that here? What if all of us,
who are followers of G-D, no matter the denomination or religion, took time every
day to do the same as Nehemiah did? I am not talking about some halfhearted
confession of our own sins or pointing out, what we believe to be, the sins of
our brothers and sisters. No I am talking about true confession were we pour
our hearts out to G-D for forgiveness of our sins and the sins of our ancestors
and plead with G-D to bless this nation once again as He has done in the past.
We, as a nation, have much to seek forgiveness for, but especially for ignoring
and disregarding Him. What makes us think that we are any more special than
Israel? Israel is G-Ds chosen, make no
mistake about that, but we are also G-Ds children so doesn’t it stand to reason
that just as he punished Israel, that he would punish us as well, when our sins
are just as bad?
Some of you will disagree with this, that’s OK, in my world
you have that right, but I humbly submit to you that unless we confess our sins,
and the sins of our ancestors, the same way that Nehemiah and the people of
Israel did, we will never be blessed again. We might have some shining moments,
but nothing like we could have with the blessings of G-D.
Shalom