May 23, 2025 - Nehemiah 9:17 - "A God Ready to Pardon"

Nehemiah 9:17

"And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not."

If salvation were based on fairness, no one would be saved. What's fair, in terms of what we deserve, is that God would send each of us into eternal condemnation. In understanding the message of God's sovereignty and salvation, we see that God is a just God, but He's also a merciful God. If it were not for God's mercy, none of us would be saved.

In Nehemiah 9:17, we have the prayer of the Levites in confession to God for the people, as God was pleased to do a work of grace among them and bring them back into the land and settle them back. They confessed their sin before God and the sin of their fathers.

God, as He has revealed Himself in the scriptures, delights to show mercy and to pardon guilty sinners. He said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” (Expdus 33:19). He has not left us to guess about His character. David said of Him, "Thou, LORD art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee" (Psalm 86:5). His readiness to pardon is seen in His longsuffering toward that nation of Israel. God's dealings with national Israel were very typical of His dealings with His church, though we are no more deserving of mercy than they were. Yet, God in Christ Jesus has been pleased to choose, to justify, and to pardon His elect. Why? Not for anything in them, but for Christ's sake. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:" (Romans 3:24,25).

First, He's a God ready to pardon in His eternal purpose. God is eternal, He is without beginning from all eternity, so all that takes place we know and understand from the scriptures that it was settled in the mind of God, in the purpose of God, from all eternity. There's no time with God with regard to His eternality, and certainly in talking about a God ready to pardon, this is where we need to begin.

What took place in eternity? He's a God ready to pardon in His eternal purpose. "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our LORD: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him" (Ephesians 3:8-12).

Second, God is a God ready to pardon in His gracious provision in the working out of salvation. It's not just that in all eternity He purposed to save sinners. The truth of Scripture is that in time He has accomplished the salvation of those that He purposed to save. He didn't just purpose to save sinners and say, "well now, I hope that they'll do what's necessary to be saved." If that were the case then no one would be saved. None of us could ever even think of doing what is necessary. It requires providing a perfect righteousness before God. But God is the One Who has accomplished this. He's ready to pardon in His gracious provision of all that's necessary for sinners such as we are to be saved and be pardoned. "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Galatians 4:4,5).

Third, in that He has satisfied His justice by propitiation. The word “propitiation” means an appeasement. It means to satisfy the justice and holiness of God. And so we see that God is a God ready to pardon in the LORD Jesus Christ by that satisfaction that He provided for His people to God the Father. In Hebrews 2:16-18, we read, "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." God is ready to pardon through that satisfaction that the LORD Jesus Christ has obtained for His people.

Fourth, we see that He's a God ready to pardon in the preaching of the Gospel. Not many people want to hear it. Why? Because it gives God all the glory, and because sinners do not want to admit to what they are. They are sinners, depraved, condemnable before God, and yet man still thinks that somehow his salvation has something to do with what he does or doesn’t do as a sinner. No, it has everything to do with God and what God has purposed to do in Christ. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:17-20, " For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?"

Nehemiah 9:17 reminds us of God’s enduring mercy and faithfulness, even in the face of our sin, rebellion and forgetfulness. Though as elected sinners we have hardened our hearts and turned away, God has not nor ever will abandon any that He has chosen, and for whom the LORD Jesus Christ came to pay their sin debt. Instead, He remains “a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” This verse directs us to reflect on the constancy of God’s character — a powerful encouragement to continue to look to Him with confidence, knowing that His grace is greater than all our sins.

“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our LORD,” Romans 5:20,21.