(5) В¶ And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: (6) Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned. (7) We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. (8) Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: (9) But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. (10) Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. (11) O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer.
Reader! look out for Jesus, and see whether in the several parts of this most fervent prayer, the plainest allusions be not made to him, and the plainest intimations of seeking mercy in him, and through him. Mark how Nehemiah opens his devotion with an eye to the Lord in his covenant character. And what was this but the covenant of redemption in Jesus? The first branch of God's covenant with Abraham, with whom the promise was made, was, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed. And that none might mistake, the Holy Ghost explains this with a direct reference to Christ: Galatians 3:16. Observe, moreover, that blessed gospel feature of confessing iniquity, and accepting the punishment of it; and all this not with an eye to the merit of repentance, but to God's promises of acceptance. Leviticus 26:41-42. Add another precious consideration in this view of Nehemiah's prayer, and remark that he puts God in mind of his covenant engagements. If when Israel for sin was scattered, still having an eye in their sorrow to Jesus by faith in a covenant God, they were to expect deliverance, Solomon was commissioned to hold forth a yet stronger representation of Jesus in his temple, to which Israel when scattered in distant countries, was to look by faith when brought acquainted with the plague of their own hearts. And this more fully held forth a covenant God in Christ. 1 Kings 8:29-30. I think these are sweet things in the prayer of Nehemiah in allusion to the Lord Jesus. The particular petition of the Lord's giving Nehemiah favor with the king his master, that he might be the Lord's instrument for good, is a noble example of the loveliness of Nehemiah's faith. Surely the Holy Ghost consulted the comfort and encouragement of the church when he caused this prayer to be recorded!