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Prophets and Kings
yearly a stated sum for the service of the sanctuary. “We cast the lots,”
Nehemiah writes, “to bring the first fruits of our ground, and the first
fruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the Lord:
also the first-born of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the
law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks.”
Israel had returned to God with deep sorrow for backsliding. They
had made confession with mourning and lamentation. They had ac-
knowledged the righteousness of God’s dealings with them, and had
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covenanted to obey His law. Now they must manifest faith in His
promises. God had accepted their repentance; they were now to rejoice
in the assurance of sins forgiven and their restoration to divine favor.
Nehemiah’s efforts to restore the worship of the true God had been
crowned with success. As long as the people were true to the oath they
had taken, as long as they were obedient to God’s word, so long would
the Lord fulfill His promise by pouring rich blessings upon them.
For those who are convicted of sin and weighed down with a sense
of their unworthiness, there are lessons of faith and encouragement in
this record. The Bible faithfully presents the result of Israel’s apostasy;
but it portrays also the deep humiliation and repentance, the earnest
devotion and generous sacrifice, that marked their seasons of return to
the Lord.
Every true turning to the Lord brings abiding joy into the life.
When a sinner yields to the influence of the Holy Spirit, he sees his
own guilt and defilement in contrast with the holiness of the great
Searcher of hearts. He sees himself condemned as a transgressor. But
he is not, because of this, to give way to despair; for his pardon has
already been secured. He may rejoice in the sense of sins forgiven, in
the love of a pardoning heavenly Father. It is God’s glory to encircle
sinful, repentant human beings in the arms of His love, to bind up
their wounds, to cleanse them from sin, and to clothe them with the
garments of salvation.
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