The Abundant Compassion of God

Today I read in Nehemiah. My quiet times this semester have mostly consisted of scripture reading in the first 17 books of the Old Testament. Why? Because I had the awesome privilege of being assigned to read Genesis thru Esther this semester in my Old Testament I class.

Back to Nehemiah. I came across a BEAUTIFUL passage in chapter nine. The Israelites spent at least 12 hours that 24th day of seventh month reading from the book of the law of the LORD for a 1/4 of the day (6 hours) and another 1/4 of the day (6 hours) in confession and worship of the LORD. Wow - can you imagine? How beautiful that time must have been. When I read that, I thought, "LORD, I'd love to do that, but could I? 12 hours - just reading, just confessing, just worshiping. Could I do that?" I'm challenged.

Verses 5-6 record exultations of the LORD - He is everlasting to everlasting. His name is glorious. He created the heavens...

Verses 7-31 record the history of God's activity in Israel's life. I've found this to be the case in much of the OT - there are regular recordings of remembrance of God's active hand in the lives of Israel. I have often thought, "God must want us to revisit His activity in our lives over and over. To be thankful for His constant presence in our lives. To recognize that presence. He must want us to revisit our experiences of Him, in the way the Israelites revisited their experiences of Him."

I will highlight a few verses in this latter text:

9:26a But they were disobedient and rebelled against You...
9:27a So You handed them over to their enemies who oppressed them.
9:27b In their time of distress, they cried out to You,
9:27b And You heard from heaven. In Your abundant compassion You gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the power of their enemies.

9:28a But as soon as they had relief, they again did what was evil in Your sight.
9:28b So You abandoned them to the power of their enemies, who dominated them.
9:28c When they cried out to You again,
9:28c You heard from heaven and rescued them many times in Your compassion.

9:29 You warned them to turn back to Your law, but they acted arrogantly and would not obey Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances...
9:30a You were patient with them for many years, and Your Spirit warned them through Your prophets, but they would not listen.
9:30b Therefore, You handed them over to the surrounding peoples.
9:31 However, in Your abundant compassion, You did not destroy them or abandon them, for You are a gracious and compassionate God.

The cycle was one of Israel's disobedience which led to God's giving the Israelites over to their enemies, their crying out to God for help, and His compassion to give them deliverers in the hands of their enemies to rescue them. However, soon, Israel fell again to their own desires. Yet we see in verse 33:

9:33b You have acted faithfully, while we have acted wickedly.

I was convicted as I read this passage and saw the repeated cycle. I know that cycle has been a pattern in my life. Choosing what I want rather than what He wants, being miserable in my sin, crying out to Him, finding Him faithful in my unfaithfulness, and on down the road, choosing sin, yet again.

BREAK THE CYCLE, OH GOD!!! Refine me into Your image.