In this enlightening session, Pastor John Kyle takes us through a detailed exposition of God’s steadfastness amidst the Israelites’ journey. We’ll revisit historical moments where God provided for His people miraculously with manna and water and learn about His disciplined care. This episode also reflects on the moral lessons from the Canaanites’ downfall and the imperative to delight in God’s goodness, moving beyond mere material abundance to genuine spiritual trust and reliance.
Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we are called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know the truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, powerful, and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Let’s join Pastor Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the book of Nehemiah, an incredible book showing us how God sovereignly used the faithfulness of Nehemiah to lead the people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in the midst of many mighty and powerful enemies.
SPEAKER 02 :
Don’t please turn to me in your Bible. It’s in Nehemiah chapter 9, verses 18 through 25. Nehemiah 9, 18 through 25. This prayer that we’ve been looking at in chapter 9 is a penitent prayer of confession that offers an amazing survey of Old Testament history. Up to this point, the prayer shows us some of the many reasons that we, the people of God, can praise Him. And look, even as the people rebel against Him, God is still a God of amazing love and goodness and mercy and kindness and patience. Absolutely incredible. Don’t we know that? Don’t we know that for ourselves? The prayer continues to show us more about God and about the people of Israel. Let’s look. Verse 18. even when they made a molded calf for themselves and said, this is your God that brought you up out of Egypt and worked great provocations. Stop right there. Now here again, we see that God did not forsake Israel, the end of verse 17 and also in verse 19. But here, note again, the glaring fact that Israel greatly provoked the Lord again and again and again, over and over and over again. Throughout Israel’s history, beginning in the wilderness, she turned away from God to false idols. And so God destroyed them, right? Nope. Look what it says. Four truths about God. Verse 19. Yet in your manifold mercies you did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light and the way they should go. You also gave your good spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. How incredible is that? So look, they provoke God greatly by worshiping and following everything but Him. And yet even so, look, He did not forsake them. Look at how good God was to Israel. He gave them a pillar of cloud and of fire. Now, the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night guided the Israelites during their 40-year exodus from Egyptian bondage. Exodus 13, 21 through 22 explains that God gave them a pillar of cloud by day to lead them in the way that they wanted to go, that He wanted them to go, and the pillar of fire by night to give them light. You imagine, think about that, imagine being there and actually seeing that incredible and very real phenomenon. this cloud and this fire represented the glory of God. And not only was it a testimony to other nations about God’s involvement with and protection of His people, Israel, but it was a living picture of God’s unrelenting faithfulness towards His people and how He really won’t, really truly won’t ever leave us nor forsake us. I mean, for them, they could see that fact very clearly every single day. And while we don’t have an actual pillar of cloud or fire leading us everywhere we go, look, God’s Word, which is true, tells us very clearly that He is indeed with us, His children, everywhere we go. In fact, He lives in us. Not only that, look, He gave them His good spirit to instruct them, verse 20. God the Spirit was indeed working in the Old Testament… and in the midst of the children of Israel, as He instructed them. Which speaks of giving them understanding, leading, insight, and success. I mean, clearly God was with the children of Israel in the wilderness, and His Spirit specifically was the one who gave them instruction and success, giving them His law, guiding Moses, guiding others, giving them many great victories, leading them, and so on. I mean, they would have been nothing without the Spirit of God instructing them and leading them, just as we today would be nothing without the Spirit of God working, helping, empowering, and living in us. Note how the Spirit is good. His good Spirit. Supremely good. She has God. He is good essentially. He’s unmixed purity, truth, and grace. He’s patient and faithful and benevolent and tender and generous and oh so forgiving. Think about this. Again, this should blow us away. He lives in us. He knows everything that we do and everything that we think. We take Him with us everywhere we go, and yet He still loves us, lives in us, and helps us. He doesn’t get disgusted by us. No, He loves us with fervor, continuing to help us along for the glory of God. Therefore, as one said, let’s then act towards so good a person according to the dictates of gratitude. Let’s revere His person and adore Him as God over all, blessed forever. Let’s hourly seek His aid and never grieve Him. And let us speak to His praise whenever occasion occurs. Amen to that. He’s good. God the Spirit. Oh, so very good to us. Our divine helper who indwells us. What else did God do for the children of Israel? Well, He gave them manna and water. Verse 20. Verse 20. God didn’t withhold manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. And here again, we see the amazing goodness of God towards His erring people. They were hungry, so He fed them. They were thirsty, so He gave them water miraculously. Remember, during the 40 years between the time the Israelites left Egypt and entered into the Promised Land, they faced very harsh conditions, including a scarcity of food. To alleviate that problem, God miraculously provided the Israelites with bread from heaven or manna. The manna appeared each morning and the Israelites were given specific instructions on gathering it up. What was manna? We don’t know for sure. All we’re told is that it was like coriander seed, it was white, and it tasted like wafers made with honey. Numbers 11.7 says that manna’s appearance was like bdellium or transparent like resin. Psalm 78.24 refers to manna as grain from heaven, and the next verse calls it the bread of angels. So manna seems to have been literal bread that God caused to miraculously appear each morning during the Israelites’ wilderness wanderings. The miracle of manna ceased shortly after the Israelites entered into the promised land. God also gave them water out of a rock. It was at Meribah that the Israelites were extremely thirsty, and so they grumbled and quarreled with Moses about their lack of water, Exodus 17, 2. Why did you bring us out of Egypt to make us and our children and our livestock die of thirst? Well, they’re crybabies. Moses then brought up this problem to the Lord, and the Lord enabled Moses to strike the rock so that the Israelites would have water and know that God was with them, as if they didn’t already know that God was with them. Because of their grumblings and testings of God, Moses called the place Meribah, which means quarreling, and Massah, which means testing. God did that for Israel more than once, and clearly we see God’s great love and mercy towards His grumbling people. He fed them. He gave them water. He took care of them. And that’s a good reason to praise Him. Note that both of these things point us to Christ. Jesus is the true bread of life. Jesus is the true living water. And whoever comes to Him shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Him shall never thirst. And so, just as God provided manna to the Israelites to save them from starvation, so has He provided Jesus for the salvation of our souls. The literal manna temporarily saved the Israelites from physical death. The spiritual manna saves us from eternal death. And so, just as the people of Nehemiah’s day could praise God for feeding them and giving them water out of a rock, how much more us today who have the bread of life and who have the living water, who truly, truly satisfies. The only one who could. The only one who does. So clearly, God didn’t forsake rebellious Israel. In fact, God sustained them for 40 years. Verse 21, 40 years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. Can you imagine? Think about this. Wearing the same shirt and shoes every day for 30 or 40 years and they haven’t worn out. John, you’ve been wearing that same shirt every day for 30 years. When are you going to get another shirt, John? I’ll get a new one when I need it. But this one’s still got ten good years left. It’s true. Think about that. Not only did their clothes not wear out, but their feet didn’t swell. And that means that God took care of them physically as well. The word sustain means to provide for, to protect, and to defend. And here we find that God provided for His people in the wilderness in every, every way. You say, but some bad things happened to them. True. Why? Because they rebelled against Him. And the bad things happened to them as a form of God’s good discipline in order to drive them back to Him. And so even the bad was a provision from God. One said, grace grows best in winter. That’s true. And a part of God sustaining His people and caring for them was His disciplining them when they began to veer away from Him. I mean, that’s a very loving act that any good parent can understand. And we’re going to look at that again more next week. Think about this. We love our kids. So we teach them and we discipline them so they don’t burn their fingers in the fire or run out onto that busy road or wander off with a stranger. I mean, we discipline them so they don’t do that. That’s love. It disciplines wrongdoing and it teaches them, sometimes painfully, yes, but it teaches them to not do it again for their own good. God does the same for us, His children, and it proves His care and love and protection over us. God also gave them kingdoms and nations, verses 22 through 25. Let’s read that. Moreover, you gave them kingdoms and nations and divided them into districts. So they took possession of the land of Sihon and the land of the king of Heshbon and the land of Og, king of Bashan. You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land which you had told their fathers to go in and possess. So the people went in and possessed the land. You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands with their kings and the people of the land that they might… do with them as they wished. And they took strong cities and a rich land and possessed houses full of all goods, cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and grew fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. Now in all that, we again see God’s incredible goodness towards Israel, do we not? He gave them kingdoms, and He gave them nations, and He can do that because it all belongs to Him in the first place. The land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, or better said, the land of Sihon, king of Heshbon, and the land of Og, king of Bashan, is just to the east of Canaan, the promised land. See, as Israel was making their way to the promised land, Moses had requested that Sihon allow the Israelites to pass through his land. But instead of granting permission, Sihon mustered his forces and attacked the Israelites. That was a big mistake because God was with Israel. And so God enabled Moses and the people of Israel to defeat them and to take their land. The Israelites then made their way toward Bashan. And that’s when King Og came out to confront him. Note that the Israelites were frightened because Og’s reputation had preceded him. I mean, Og was a massive man. And many believe that he was one of the last of the Rephaites. The term Rephaites literally means terrible ones. These Rephaites were giants and they were fierce fighters. And it seems that Og, king of Bashan, was one of this race of giants and that Goliath was likely another. And this is no myth. And while they weren’t 20 feet tall, they probably had some sort of genetic mutation that made them very big or something else bigger than those around them. So the Israelites were frightened, but God reassured Moses saying, don’t be afraid of him. I’ve delivered him into your hands along with his whole army and his land. And so Israel defeated Og. In Deuteronomy 3, we read how that happened. And there we read that Og was king over 60 fortified cities, all of which the Israelites captured. There’s no way that should have happened. Absolutely no way. But God was with them, see? And if God is for you, then who can be against you? Seriously. Verses 23-25 go and tell us that fourth, God multiplied their children and He brought them into the land, the land of Canaan, the promised land, the land of Israel. This is the good land that God had promised to give them. And this is indeed the land that they took possession of over 40 years later. And so God multiplied their children. He kept all His promises to them. They possessed that land. They subdued it. And then, look, verse 25. Verse 25. They took strong cities and a rich land and possessed houses full of all goods, cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. Isn’t that amazing? How do you feel about that? I mean, the people basically came in and butchered the poor Canaanites, wreaking havoc and misery upon them, grabbing their land and dwelling in their houses. How do you feel about that? Flip back to Deuteronomy chapter 9, if you will. Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 4. Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 4. Look what God says to the people before they entered into the promised land. Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 4. He said this. Do not think in your heart after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, because of my righteousness, the Lord has brought me in to possess this land. But it’s because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It’s not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness because you are a stiff-necked people see They were indeed a stiff-necked people. But the Canaanites were a stiff-necked, wicked, rebellious people, so much so that God’s going to drive them out because of their wretched wickedness. So this is indeed a form of God’s judgment on the people of Canaan. And Israel was the instrument of that just judgment upon a corrupt and very perverted people. See, the Canaanites were seriously wicked. They turned their women into temple prostitutes, and they sacrificed their children to pagan gods. They were deep into idolatry, incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality, and they reveled in those sinful practices. And now God is going to make them pay. Note that mercy and patience… The incredible mercy and patience of God in the fact that God had promised the land to Abraham 400 years earlier and yet God waited. Archaeologist Hurth writes this. To the Canaanite, fertility was of major importance in worship and both male and female temple prostitution was prevalent. And finally, God had had enough. The people of Canaan were wicked in Abraham’s day, but God showed mercy. The Canaanites had the witness of Abraham and his altars, and they recognized the power of the patriarch’s God, but they did not forsake their own imitations. There were other opportunities and signs of the truth, but the Canaanites ignored them as well. Finally, God’s mercy turned into judgment. Punishment was meted out to the Canaanites for their sins and also to prevent them from leading Israel astray. And so God acted. Note also that God demanded this for the good of His people. See, God wants His people to be separate from the world, and while we are to be in the world, we are to also not be of the world. While we are to be lights and evangelists to the ungodly around us, look, we are not to partake of their wicked ways. And so for the people of Israel, God wanted them to drive out the inhabitants of the land completely as a form of God’s judgment, yes, but also so the people of Israel wouldn’t Have sin so very close to them. Look, before they entered the land, God commanded them to deface all the Canaanite pictures and images and pull down all their high places of pagan worship. Why? As a token of their hatred of idolatry and also to prevent their being tempted to worship those images and the false gods that were represented by them. So how do we reconcile this? Here’s how. This is all a form of judgment for the Canaanites, which was right for God to do. Also, to give the Israelites a promised land, which was God’s land to give out. And finally, to protect His people from the utterly wicked ways of the Canaanites. Now, you can struggle with that, but please don’t sit in judgment of holy God regarding this. If we all got what we deserved, we’d all be long gone and we’d all be in hell right now. The thing that stands out to me is the patience and mercy of God in all this. The same mercy that He has shown towards us. But sometimes, when the time is right for God’s perfect perspective, He chooses to bring judgment upon a sinful people and that’s what He did here. America would do well to learn from the Canaanites and their wretched love for sin because God has every right to judge our nation. for its wickedness today. And I think He is. That’s why we need to stand up and stand out and be very bright lights in a dark world, preaching the truth and living the truth for the glory of God. But in all this, we see God’s good hand on His rebellious people. I’m so glad He’s like that. Anybody? I’m so glad He’s like that. Note this closing fact. Israel delighted in God’s great goodness. That sounds really good. Is it good? Is it good? So they ate and were filled and grew fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. Think of all that God did for them. From slavery to the promised land with houses and vineyards and fruit trees and so much more. Absolutely incredible. All because of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working for the good of these undeserving and ungrateful sinners. Look, their cities that were given to them are strong and well fortified. Their fine houses that they didn’t build were well furnished and they were filled with all sorts of rich goods. Their land is a rich and fertile land with vineyards and olive groves. And all of it was given to them by a good and gracious God. And so they delighted themselves in God’s great goodness. What does that mean? It means that they were happy with their present circumstances after coming out of Egypt, wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, and then coming into the promised land to all these great and incredible blessings. But here was the problem. There is a problem with this. We’re going to see that next week. While Israel delighted themselves in God’s great goodness, they didn’t delight themselves in God. Clearly. Clearly. And the next verse shows us that. Their thought, we have everything we need, therefore we don’t need God. That’s a massive mistake. We are safe, we are full, life is good, all is well. What need is there to cling to God when all is well? Every need. Every need. Every need. But as is often the sad case, we often put our confidence in our money and our things and our earthly treasures instead of in God when all is so very well. Look, when do people pray the most? And when do they cling the most tightly to the Lord? When things are hard. When they’re struggling. And the tendency is to become mediocre and lukewarm when all is well. Take heed. What do you think is going to happen next for Israel? Don’t read ahead. You already did. You already know. Are they going to exalt the Lord as their all in all? Are they going to cling to Him and worship Him with passion and fervor now that all is well? Are they going to honor and obey Him? Are they going to love Him from the heart? And are they going to put Him first in their lives? Or are they going to push Him aside because all is well? Become calloused and hardened to Him because all is well? Are they going to revel in mediocrity and sin because all is well? What do you think? It’s very clear what’s coming. That’s why we must take heed to ourselves. All has been well for Christians in America for a long time. Result? Mediocrity and compromise as a whole. We delight ourselves in all these blessings that God has given to us and we don’t take those blessings for granted at all. No. But not many today really delight in God. What sin? Sin. Lord, help us to see God clearly and delight in Him. He’s all that matters. Come on, anybody? He’s all that matters. That’s it. Knowing Him as Lord and Savior by grace through faith in Christ alone, and then living for His glory and loving obedience until you die and go to heaven. That’s it. All else is rubbish. And we forget that when all is well. Who else loves you enough to brutally suffer hell a million times over and die on a cross to rescue your desperate soul? That drug doesn’t care for you like that, so why do you love it so? Your money won’t save you, neither will your house or your car or your spouse or your child or the government or anything else. Only Christ. Lord, help us to not waste our lives away on other fading and foolish things, but to only delight in Christ.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the Book of Nehemiah on Expository Truths with Dr. John Kyle. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep and reaching message of the gospel. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join for services at Faith Community Church Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s 707-451-2026. Or visit vacavillefaith.org.
