The Seed of Israel Separating - Nehemiah 9:2

In the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah said, “Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sack-clothes, and earth upon them”, and in chapter nine and verse two of Nehemiah, Nehemiah said, “the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers” where we read,

And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, 

and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

The verse reads, “And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, ...” Nehemiah began with the words, “and the seed” which means “and the offspring and descendants” “of Israel” or “belonging to Israel whose name means God prevails and is the name of the descendants and nation of the descendants of Jacob” “separated themselves” which means “severed, set apart and made a distinction of their own selves” “from all strangers” or “apart from each, every, the whole and everyone of the foreigners, aliens and non-Hebrew people”. Nehemiah shared how the offspring and descendants of “Israel” set themselves apart from every foreign and non-Hebrew people. 

The verse continues, “... and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.” Nehemiah added the words, “and stood” or “and arose upon their feet” “and confessed their sins” which means “and shot forth, made confession and admission of their, the people of Israel's, errors, wrongs, mistakes and missing of the mark”, “and the iniquities of their fathers” or “and the perversities, depravities and guilt belonging to their, the people of Israel's, male progenitors and ancestors”. Nehemiah shared how the people of “Israel” rose to their feet and admitted their own errors and wrongs as well as the perversities belonging to their male progenitors. 

When we think through the words in this verse, we learn through Nehemiah more about the time of “fasting” carried out by the people of Israel. They used that time to rise to their feet and admit their errors and wrongs, and they “confessed” to the perversities of their forefathers. In addition, they set themselves apart from the foreign people in the world, and made themselves distinct from all other nations. Israel is God's chosen nation to the world, and they were God's people so they could bring salvation to everyone. (See Deuteronomy 7:6) Anyone who puts their faith and trust in God's Son Jesus who came through the lineage of Israel and died on the cross for the sins of all mankind and was raised from the dead three days later will be forgiven of their sins, granted everlasting life and “chosen” in His Kingdom to be a “peculiar” people to the world. (See 1 Peter 2:4,9) 

Next time Nehemiah shares about the people of Israel, “reading, confessing and worshiping”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

See more devotionals on the website "thewordfortodaywithray.com" or look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance".