“Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.”
Nehemiah 9:1-2 ESV
Last time we saw the final day of our gathered folk’s festival turn into a solemn assembly, in accordance with misphat: what is just and right. Today we see the group’s next steps in repentance.
“Now on the twenty fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled (asaph – to gather, remove, amass) with fasting (tsom – fast) and in sackcloth (saq – sackcloth), and with earth (adamah – ground, earth) on (al – hovering over) their heads.”
Our narrative continues during the same month (Tishri) as the Festival of Tabernacles. Once again, our group gathers back together, the assumption being each returned to their homes after their week-long party with marvelous mirth. However, in keeping with their solemn assembly, this time the group gathers with fasting. The primitive root of this Hebrew word for fast (tsom) means “to cover over the mouth.” Ah yes. Have we not all been here?
When was the last time you opened your mouth but should not have? Was it to put something in there which was not best? Or to let a snide remark out, revealing the contents of your heart? What about to blame someone else or shame another’s situation? How about gossiping about someone’s failures to quiet your conscience about your own?
“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways...
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.“
Isaiah 58: 1-4
Indeed, times of covering our mouths are necessary. And our gathered folk did it in the traditional sense: abstaining from food. At the same time they dressed in sackcloth. The point of wearing a garment made of scratchy goat hair was the discomfort. To remind oneself of the need for repentance:
“Very simply, sackcloth and ashes were used as an outward sign of one’s inward condition. Such a symbol made one’s change of heart visible and demonstrated the sincerity of one’s…repentance.” (Source)
The word for sackcloth is saq which comes from shaqaq meaning “to run, rush wildly, thirsty, have appetite, seek greedily, justle one against another.” Talk about something being an outward sign of one’s inward condition. It is fairly easy to see this greedy rushing everywhere in our day, in my own heart. The lack of trust in God having His best for me, including enough to eat and drink, point to my unbelief. I must trample others to make sure I am taken care of. I have to secure for myself because no one else will.
This is scarcity mentality and it is everywhere. Fortunately, it is also a lie. Indeed, we will reap what we have sown in the treatment of our earth. But even in this situation, we often discount a benevolent Creator Who lacks no resources.
Are you thirsty? Do you hunger and have an appetite for more? Of course you do. We all have legitimate needs and further desires. Let’s take these to our Father. To choose to believe, no matter what the circumstances scream, He is for us and only withholds that which harms.
And what about our spiritual hunger? That void nothing fills?
Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.
Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
John 6:35 NLT
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.”
Isaiah 55:1-2
It is poignant to me the returned exiles also put dirt, earth on their heads. The word used here is different from dust, implying more moisture. Pointing to a God who sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Still a sign of repentance and grief, a reminder that man is made from the dust of the earth and the breath of Elohim.
“The seed of Israel (zera – offspring, descendant, nation, grain, race, prosperity) separated themselves (badal – to be divided, separate, exclude, sever) from sons of foreigners (nekar – that which is foreign, strange, alien) and they stood (amad – take one’s stand, arise, abide, present, stand firm) and confessed (yadah – to throw, cast, give thanks, make confession) the sins (chatta’ah – sin, an offense and its penalty, often habitual; from chata – to miss, go wrong, offend) and iniquities (avon – guilt and its punishment, from avah – perversity, amiss, bent, twisted, crooked, do wickedly) of their fathers hovering over (al) them.”
So much here. Those of direct lineage of Jacob separated themselves from those who were not and stood. Not to be exclusive, but to be inclusive of the generational sins in their line. They rose up and took their stand to make thankful confession of their offenses. Please note, they would have no need to separate themselves from those who worshipped Israel’s God but were not of the direct line of Jacob if they were not only taking ownership of their own sins, but also those of their ancestors.
Oh my friends. So instructive for us in our day, yes? If we genuinely believe our God is One of Reconciliation, this will be of paramount importance in our cooperation with Him. Never had a single ill thought toward indigenous people groups who originally populated the continent you call home? Wonderful. But if you are currently a house or land owner, you benefit from their past and present oppression, making confession necessary for reconciliation.
Never owned a slave or had family who did? I’m so glad. But that does nothing to change the fact the people stolen from another continent and sold for profit built the nation from which we thrive. Acknowledgement of that is vital in the reconciliation process as we move forward.
“All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.
God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (MSG)
Reconciliation is the process of:
- Acknowledging what is broken, figuring out how those systems operate, and then
- Setting things right
The beauty of our passage today is the word for confession also means “give thanks.” The example set before us in Scripture is taking a stand on offenses, ways we’ve missed the mark, and accepting how we have responsibility in what is still bent, twisted, perverted and wicked. But giving thanks even as we stand firm in the ugliness. Because we have a God Who took it all on.
Some days I’m not sure how we keep on doing it. Humanity, us, created for life now dealing daily with death. And all the ways we hurt and hurt one another, the grief and brokenness. Some days only remembering He came down to experience it Himself can keep us focused. And knowing this heart is what moves the mission of Love forward:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.”
Isaiah 58:6-10
True fasting, genuine repentance, will show up in the way we treat one another. Thankful confession, admission of failure in the same breath as gratitude for the Cross, will yield liberated reconcilers of this Baby King we celebrate.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.