After the Father had thoroughly “cleaned my clock” regarding my personal sins of the past and dealing with every vestige of sin that I was currently (at that time) dealing with (still haven’t reached that state of perfection this side of heaven . . . . sigh!), He began driving me deeper into repentance by turning my attention to another source of my sins and the sins of our nation and the sins of the Body of Christ as a whole.
John Donne said, “No man is an island.” The Bible says that when we sin we impact the generations that follow us ~ a sad and costly legacy at best, a curse and a yoke of satanic bondage at the worst. When the Father gave the 10 Commandments to Moses at Mt. Sinai, He said, “. . . I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me” (Exodus 20:5). The context of this verse is that wherein the LORD has forbidden us to have any other gods before Him and His prohibition against any form of idolatry.
This was the “besetting sin” of the Israelites, and, unfortunately, we as the Body of Christ today continue to follow them in their egregious ways. Our God is a jealous husband of His Bride, just as any man would be of his earthly bride, and this is why the LORD spoke of this sin as “spiritual adultery.” Hosea, in particular, bore this message in its ultimate expression. We have all seen evidence of this pattern of generational churches, and in our society the sociologists, psychologists and the experts in jurisprudence have finally come to the realization of this truth, even if they don’t know or refuse to give credit to the Word of God as the source of this truth.
Nehemiah and Daniel are two classic examples in the Old Testament of prophets of God who knew of the truth of God’s Word and incorporated its truth in their prayers of repentance. The Lord dealt with me in these areas of repentance in two distinct phases.
You may read about Daniel’s prayer in Chapter nine. For now, let us focus on Nehemiah 1. When Nehemiah heard the discouraging report regarding those Jews who had escaped the captivity and survived and about Jerusalem, he “wept and mourned for days, praying and fasting before the God of heaven” (1:4). In verse 5 Nehemiah addresses God with reverence and with faith in Him as the “LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandment.”
Nehemiah associates himself with his people, Israel, as he prayed “. . . on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned” (v.6).
Notice, Nehemiah made no excuses, no justification, no rationalizations, no finger-pointing or blaming anyone else! As David confessed when the prophet Nathan confronting him with David’s adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite, he said, “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that you are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge” (Psalm 51:4). David accepted the responsibility for his sins, and he was aware of the fact that although others around him were impacted, that this was a very personal and intimate matter between him and His Creator to whom he was ultimately account for his every word and deed!
Notice, Nehemiah made no excuses, no justification, no rationalizations, no finger-pointing or blaming anyone else! As David confessed when the prophet Nathan confronting him with David’s adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite, he said, “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that you are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge” (Psalm 51:4). David accepted the responsibility for his sins, and he was aware of the fact that although others around him were impacted, that this was a very personal and intimate matter between him and His Creator to whom he was ultimately account for his every word and deed!
So, too, we hear Nehemiah ~ a clean confession with no embellishments, no excuses or whining ~ just pure, true and deep repentance. “We have acted corruptly against You and have not dept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses” (v. 7).
This was the next step of repentance the Lord brought me to during the “trip of tears.” I spent nights agonizing over the sins of the Church in America ~ for our apathy and luke-warmness, for our greed and for our idolatry with so many aspects of our society. You know them as well as I, so I will not recount here a litany of all of our offenses; Nehemiah did not do so, I noticed. Yet one sin in particular must be addressed before and above all others and that is our murder of the innocents ~ more than 50 million “legal” abortions, and counting, to our shame ~ and now inroads into infanticide!
Unless, and until, we, as a Church, travail before the Lord in true, deep, persistent repentance, revival, ture and lasting Revival(!) will not come. The choice is ours.
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