Nehemiah 9:20

Nehemiah 9:20 says, Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.  The priests said that it was recorded that God never withheld His Spirit from the people of Israel and gave them food to eat and water to drink.  The Book, the Bible, does not promise us fine houses and rich food and drink, but it does promise us if we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we will continually be filled with the Holy Spirit to guide us, and our needs will be met.  Yet too often we confuse our needs with our wants and our disappointed when God doesn’t fulfill our wants. 

Verse twenty-one adds, Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.  The priests said that God sustained the people of Israel for forty years in the wilderness and that they lacked nothing and that their clothes didn’t even wear out nor did their feet swell from their marching around.  They were only wandering around because of their disobedience and their lack of faith, but God still sustained them until they died.  If we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, God will still allow us to wander around in the wilderness of sin if we fail to put our faith in Him, but He has already sealed us as His, not only until our death but forever.  God meets the needs of His people and as Christians we need to live by that promise and never doubt Him when things aren’t going our way in life.

Verse twenty-two continues, Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide them into corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.  Still reading from the Book they found, I believe, the priests reminded the people of Israel that God gave them the victory over all the people who occupied the promised land.  What we need to understand is that God has already given the followers of Christ the victory over all their enemies, even though we will never get to the promised land, heaven, in this lifetime.  The victory had already been won, and we just need to praise God for it and be obedient to His commandments to show our love for Him. 

Verse twenty-three states, Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.  God had promised Abraham years before that He would make a great nation out of His descendants, and He was fulfilling His promise, even as the people disobeyed Him.  God will always fulfill His promises, and as Christians, we need to be reaching out to the lost people of the world with the gospel so that if they put their faith in Jesus Christ, His kingdom will continue to grow, 

Verse twenty-four adds, So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would.  The people were reminded that the children of those who came out of Egypt went in and possessed the promised land, since their rebellion and disbelief kept the parents from going in.  The disobedience of the parents didn’t stop God from fulfilling His promise to Abraham.  God has promised an everlasting home with Him to those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, and He will never break that promise.  If our parents never accept that promise, that does not keep us from becoming a part of it.  We simply have to accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord to claim that promise. 

Verse twenty-five continues, And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.  The people of Israel took the promised land and had their needs met in abundance.  They then grew fat in the promised land. I believe this means they were seeing their blessings from God as something to benefit them alone and not to share with those in need.  We need to be careful that we don’t begin to think that when God blesses us with an abundance in life that we don’t start to believe that we deserve it more than other people and hoard God’s blessings for ourselves.