Strength & Direction for Life – Nehemiah 9:1–38

God Supplies My Needs

Nehemiah 9:9–15

Paul J. Bucknell

How God supplies our needs (Nehemiah 9:9–15)

God sees our affliction and hears our cry (Nehemiah 9:9–10) – He is not distant from our suffering.
God delivers in ways we cannot imagine (Nehemiah 9:11–12) – Opening the sea and leading by cloud and fire.
God provides law, bread, and water (Nehemiah 9:13–15) – Guidance, daily provision, and a promised inheritance.

Description: Intersecting Paths of Grace, the second of three scenes describing how God begins His powerful work in a person's life, is an exposition of Nehemiah 9:9–15.

This is the second scene (see first, third) in Israel's history to help us understand what triggered God's marvelous intervention.

B) How did He do it? (Nehemiah 9:9–15)

God supplies my needs even when impossible

God not only chooses to work in our lives but to wonderfully provide for our needs. Look how He provided for His people after He brought them out from under the power of what then was the world’s most powerful nation.

9 “Thou didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, And didst hear their cry by the Red Sea. 10 “Then Thou didst perform signs and wonders against Pharaoh, Against all his servants and all the people of his land; For Thou didst know that they acted arrogantly toward them, And didst make a name for Thyself as it is this day.

11 “And Thou didst divide the sea before them, So they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground; And their pursuers Thou didst hurl into the depths, Like a stone into raging waters. 12 “And with a pillar of cloud Thou didst lead them by day, And with a pillar of fire by night To light for them the way In which they were to go."

13“Then Thou didst come down on Mount Sinai, And didst speak with them from heaven; Thou didst give to them just ordinances and true laws, Good statutes and commandments.

14“So Thou didst make known to them Thy holy sabbath, And didst lay down for them commandments, statutes, and law, Through Thy servant Moses. 15“Thou didst provide bread from heaven for them for their hunger, Thou didst bring forth water from a rock for them for their thirst, And Thou didst tell them to enter in order to possess The land which Thou didst swear to give them” (Nehemiah 9:9–15).

God heard their cry (Nehemiah 9:9–10)

God saw their affliction and heard their cry. God is just this kind of God. History might have moved on, but God is there looking for the cries of His people. We might struggle with the way God allows His people to struggle, but we must go deeper than our questions on whether God is just. God is unquestionably more just than any of us could ever think. This is what makes hell’s fire so fearful.

Worship begins when we find we have no other resources and put our hope in God.

Worship increases as we see day by day how God provides for our needs.

We need to see that it is God’s people however and their lack of crying out that is the real problem. Do you ever complain? Whine? Whimper? Say ‘poor me’? That is not the same as crying out. We can complain all day in a very secular way, but God is shaping a nation and wants that nation to be built on faith not whining.

God our Maker above all wants His people to know that there is no other way but God. Only when they have reached that point of desperation and they finally turn to Him, does God send a prophet Moses to lead them out from the oppression of Egypt around 1500 BC.

God marvelously delivered them (Nehemiah 9:11–15)

Once the Israelites cried out, see how God took notice, “Thou didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and didst hear their cry by the Red Sea” (Nehemiah 9:9). That was all that was needed. Everything else came together in a powerful way.

The most powerful nation in the world started crawling on all fours since then because it dared to challenge the purpose of the God of heavens. God opened the seas and made a way for the families of the Israelites to cross the sea and to be birthed into a new nation unto Himself. God revealed His Law to them and took miraculous care of them by providing bread from heaven and water through rocks.

Application

Are you going through a rough time right now? Has Satan got you to question God? Well, your troubles will not be solved as long as you fuss. God wants to bring a new trust experience into your lives. Don’t fear the great enemies threatening your life, family or career. God is allowing your circumstances to deteriorate so that all other potential resources are of no avail. Sometimes it takes such dramatic steps to bring us to our knees to cry out to Him. Only then will you or I cry out to Him and see how He will work. God works the same way today as long ago.

God works this way with nations, with churches, families and individuals in the same way. The reason is easy. God wants to be magnified in our lives and in this world. Are you complaining about things or has your faith developed to the point where you are watching Him how He has heard your cry?

We want things more convenient, but He will strip away the blessings in our land until we cry out to Him in a sense of desperation. Why not stop complaining and seeking a comfortable life. Remember you were saved for His purposes. Cry out now and see the purpose of God come about through His power! God supplies our needs even when things seem impossible.

Continue reading the third way God intervenes in His people's life: God guides and helps me to accomplish His work (Nehemiah 9:19-25)