“But as soon as they were at peace, your people again committed evil in your sight, and once more you let their enemies conquer them. Yet whenever your people turned and cried to you again for help, you listened once more from heaven. In your wonderful mercy, you rescued them many times!” Nehemiah 9:28 NLT
This chapter provides us with an excellent recap of the history of the Israelites. Particularly in their sin, their promise to sin no more, the continuation in their sinful behaviour, their captivity due to sin, their crying out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showing mercy upon them time and time again. But if we’re honest, this recap is just as much about ourselves as it is the story of the Israelites.
The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 5:20 that, “God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.” Thankfully the Lord is merciful. It does not matter what we have done or how often we have done it, the Lord’s grace is greater than our sin and He will always come to our rescue when we cry out to Him in forgiveness.
Lock Your Wings 
This stood out for me: “Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners as they confessed their own sins and the sins of their ancestors.”
Nehemiah 9:2 NLT
Not exactly the same situation but I couldn’t help but notice the parallels to today; we have to repent for the sins of those who came before us.
While this chapter illustrates the fall away from God’s plan and the punishment the Israelites faced and endured because of that, the message is clear: our current actions affect more than just us. The children and children’s children suffered because of the disobedience of the generations before them. They weren’t responsible for the initial disobedience but they continued to disobey even despite warnings to turn from their evil ways.
Today, we see a parallel to the Indigenous people; the actions of the generations before us caused irreparable damage to those who endured the residential schools. Although we were not directly responsible for the harmful effects of those schools, we are responsible for how we move forward knowing what we know now. Our current actions must affect more than just us or what it means for us. Children and their children’s children will and have suffered because of the in humaneness of the generations before us. Many of us weren’t even born, or certainly weren’t in a position to fix, when the residential schools attempted to destroy the culture, language, and families. However, when we continue to ignore the deaths of hundreds of indigenous children and what residential schools did to their families even despite evidence to turn from our racist and white privilege mindset we are setting future generations up to confess the sins of our generation. When we know better we have to do better.
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Great thoughts!
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