God's Resultant Full Provision For His People (Nehemiah 9:12-15).
Having delivered them so wonderfully and powerfully God had made full provision for His people in the wilderness:
· He had made His presence with them known in the form of the pillars of cloud and fire, pillars which led them forward by day and night. For even the darkness was made light before them, so that they could travel by both day and night (Nehemiah 9:12; compare Exodus 13:20-21).
· He had guided them in their way of living by providing His commandments, statutes and laws (Nehemiah 9:13-14).
· He had supplied them with God-provided food and drink to satisfy their hunger and thirst (Nehemiah 9:15 a).
· And He had given them the encouragement of knowing that a promised land lay before them (Nehemiah 9:15 b).
Note the personal nature of His activity. ‘You led them -- You came down and spoke with them -- You made known to them -- You gave them bread from heaven -- and brought forth water -- You commanded them to possess the land.' They should have been more than grateful, and more than fully satisfied. And the same pattern will be repeated in Nehemiah 9:19-24 a, protection (Nehemiah 9:19), instruction (Nehemiah 9:20), sustenance (Nehemiah 9:21) and possession of the land (Nehemiah 9:22-24 a), and this after they had rebelled against Him (Nehemiah 9:18). Their rebellion did not cause Him to cease from providing fully for them. (This makes even more poignant the fact that at the end they will make clear that at that present time there was such a lack. They were in the land but they did not possess it (Nehemiah 9:36-37). They were living in relative poverty. There is in this a blatant hint to God).
“Moreover in a pillar of cloud you led them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go.”
The pillars of cloud and fire are constantly referred to in the tradition. They represented YHWH in His glorious hiddenness, as surrounded by cloud, and in His more open glory as revealed in fire, veiled by the night. The pillar of cloud had hidden them from the Egyptian army, delaying the Egyptians until Israel had crossed the river bed (Exodus 14:19-20). It also manifested the veiled glory of YHWH (Exodus 16:10). Fire was regularly the means through which God manifested Himself (Exodus 19:18; Exodus 24:17). Cloud and fire were the indications of God's presence, indicating that ‘You led them' (Exodus 14:24; Exodus 16:10). And they would be a regular occurrence in the future journeying (Numbers 14:14; Deuteronomy 1:33), a guarantee that YHWH was continually with them. Furthermore the descent of the pillar of cloud regularly indicated His presence in the Tabernacle (Exodus 33:9-10; Numbers 12:5; Numbers 14:14; Deuteronomy 31:15). God was personally shepherding His people.
“You came down also on mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,”
Note the repetition of the words from Exodus 19:20, although personalised, ‘and YHWH came down on Mount Sinai', but there God spoke from the top of the mount. ‘From heaven' might therefore be seen as simply indicating that God spoke from on high (the top of the mount), but it is apparent from Nehemiah 9:15, where the bread was also ‘from heaven', that Nehemiah is taking us one step further and reminding us that the source of all that we receive is ‘heavenly'. Thus in Nehemiah 9:15 the manna is ‘bread from Heaven' (cited by Jesus in John 6:31). In both cases the source was other-worldly.
They acknowledged to YHWH that in speaking to them from heaven He had given them ‘right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments'. Note the adjectives. They were right and true and good. They were not seen as a burden, which was what the Scribes would later make them, but as morally uplifting and coming from the truly righteous and good One. ‘Ordinances, laws, statutes and commandments' were regular ways of describing God instruction (His Torah). See Leviticus 18:4-5; Leviticus 18:26; Leviticus 26:15; Leviticus 26:46; Deuteronomy 4:45; Deuteronomy 5:31; Deuteronomy 6:1; Deuteronomy 6:20; Deuteronomy 7:11; Deuteronomy 8:11; Deuteronomy 11:1; Deuteronomy 26:17; Deuteronomy 30:16. But in no previous case are all these four words used together. The constant emphasis on the reception of God's Instruction by the people (Nehemiah 9:13-14; Nehemiah 9:20; Nehemiah 9:29) was a reminder that as the people they had recently received this Instruction. But the inference was that they were to respond to it differently from their fathers.
“And made known to them your holy sabbath, and commanded them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses your servant,”
They reminded God that He had also made known to them His holy Sabbath (for ‘holy Sabbath' see Exodus 16:23). This description contains a hint that the Sabbath was made known as a separate requirement before the giving of the Law, which was in fact true (compare Exodus 16 with 20)
The emphasis on the Sabbath reflects the Exilic period. It was then that the Sabbath had become the unique outward expression of what it meant to be a Jew, as they lived among non-Jews. It was through the observance of the Sabbath that men around them knew that they were distinctive, and it was a symbol of both YHWH as sole Creator (Exodus 20:8-10) and YHWH as Redeemer and Deliverer of His people (Deuteronomy 5:14-15). It was initially instituted for all Israel at the first giving of the manna (Exodus 16:23-26), in other words when God ‘gave them bread from heaven to eat', something immediately mentioned in Nehemiah 9:15.
Note the repetition concerning the giving of the Law, it was something prominent in their minds at this time (Nehemiah 8:1-18), and this prayer was part of their response to it.
“And you gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst,'
They reminded Him of how He had led them, protected them, and guided them in how to ‘live', and now He fed and watered them. There was no need that He had overlooked. They had received bread from heaven in order to satisfy their hunger, and water from the rock to satisfy their thirst. There is a constant emphasis throughout the passage on the material good things that God gave to His people (Nehemiah 9:15; Nehemiah 9:19; Nehemiah 9:21; Nehemiah 9:25). In the period of want that they were enduring after the return (Nehemiah 1:3) it was no doubt an intentional reminder to God of what they were no longer receiving. They humbly and without their openly telling Him, wanted Him to notice the gap in His present provision for them. We too have partaken of this bread and water, for Jesus likened Himself to the bread from heaven (John 6:33), and the water of life (John 4:10) and Paul likened Him to the thirst-quenching rock (1 Corinthians 10:4). For we have entered into His Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4).
‘And commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.”
And finally He had assured them of possession of the land which He had sworn to give them, something which was later accomplished (Nehemiah 9:23-24 a). And this was of prime importance, for land on which to dwell, and which could be farmed, and which they could call their own, was the dream of every man. He wanted to live ‘every man under his own vine and under his own fig tree' (1 Kings 4:25). Again there is the unspoken hint (although only openly expressed later - Nehemiah 9:36-37) that at this present time, while it was true that they now dwelt in the land, they had not received full possession of the land that He had sworn to give to their fathers.