Nehemiah 9:26-31

Repeated Cycles of Rebellion, Deliverance Into The Hands Of Enemies, Fervent Intercession, Divine Intervention (Nehemiah 9:26-31 ).

They now described to God how they had behaved as a nation, the constantly repeated cycles of rebellion, deliverance into the hands of enemies, fervent pleas to God, followed by divine intervention. See Nehemiah 9:26-28 (‘many times’); Nehemiah 9:29-31. As we have already seen this very much follows the pattern of the book of Judges (Judges 2:11-19).

Note the threefold description of their deliverances into the hands of their enemies, ‘you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries’ (Nehemiah 9:27); ‘you left them in the hands of their enemies so that they had dominion over them’ (Nehemiah 9:28); ‘you gave them into the hands of the peoples of the lands’ (Nehemiah 9:30). And note the increase in intensity of the descriptions, ‘delivered into the hands of their enemies’; ‘left in their hands so that they had dominion over them’ (albeit in their own country); ‘given into the hands of the peoples of the lands’, because they were exiled.

And note the threefold interventions of God. ‘You gave them saviours who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries’ (Nehemiah 9:27); ‘many times you delivered them according to your mercies’ (Nehemiah 9:28); ‘in your manifold mercies you did not make a full end of them’ (Nehemiah 9:31). In the last case there is no description of deliverance. Their deliverance was still pending. And it still was at the time of this prayer, being only partially completed by their return. They had returned to the land but they had not fully been delivered. And it was their intention that God should note this. Their hope was that by entering into the covenant, and observing it, they would achieve this full deliverance, although that hope is not spelled out.