“Behold, we are servants this day… and we are in great distress.”

Nehemiah 9.37

I never noticed these verses before.  Sin had made the people of Israel slaves in their own land!  “Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it: And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.”

Like I said, sin had made the people of Israel slaves in their own land.  All the good things their land produced did not enrich them, it made the kings that ruled over them rich because they took it! 

It’s so sad when Christians, who were made free from the bondage of sin by the blood of Jesus, yield themselves to serve sin again.

Sin robs them of all the joy and peace and blessings that ought to be theirs in Christ! 

Romans 6:12 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.”

Don’t let sin rule your life!

Romans 6:16 “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey…?”

Be careful what and who you yield, or give in, or give way to!

Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

By the grace of God, stand, and avoid being in “great distress”!  The next verse tells us that these people made a promise to God that they were going to change and do the right thing; that’s the attitude of repentance!  “And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.” Nehemiah 9.38