Confession
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Confession of sin is imperative if we are to have the fellowship with the Lord, and the grace we need to walk in the light (1 John 1:7) from the Lord.
Our confession should be as soon as we recognize we have sinned. “Forgive me, Lord for my anger….letting my frustration come out my mouth,…..my own way of doing this, not relying on You as I should….not speaking up for You.” Whatever our sin is, we can confess it to Him to remove the deading influence it has on our life, with Christ Jesus.
Confession is getting honest with the Lord about our sin, and letting His mercy and grace work in us to cleanse us from it’s stain in our thoughts and hearts….and remove the desire….or the reason for it.
Psalm 85:8 “I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for He will speak peace unto His people, and to His saints: but let them not return again to folly.”
The confessions in the books of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, are three of the most heartfelt confessions for the people of Israel.
I have always been amazed at the confessions in prayer in these three books.
(They are all in the ninth chapter of each book…where they pour their heart out to God, to once again forgive the iniquity and sin of His people.
They are all concerning the people who are in, or came out of the captivity.
In “the captivity”, God sent His people to be taken and carried to foreign lands…slaves to foreign kings….to chasten them for their sin.
Taking them out of the land He gave them, to show them the seriousness of their idolatry and their forgetting of the Law He had given them.)
But these who pray, do not put the sinners in a far off place from themselves….no, they include themselves in their prayers for forgiveness.
Let us take a look at forgiveness from God.
Psalm 130:3-4 “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But with You there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”
Col. 1:13-14 “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
(Forgiveness of God is seen as a fountain….washing away our sins and cleansing us, from it’s defilement (from it’s influence, in our hearts and conscience)
forgiveness means pardon , deliverance (no longer under the rule of it), liberty, remission (to release from guilt and it’s penalty).
Daniel in Babylon,…..high, in what we would call, influential circles…..yet a man so in love with God and His purpose….he lays everything aside three times a day to seek God for Israel. A man who read the scriptures….so when the time was coming close for Jeremiah’s prophecy of a return to Israel for the captives,….he prayed that it would come to pass, and God would help those willing to return.
Then, (and here comes the confession part)…..Daniel came to the Lord in confession for his nation, who had forsaken the covenant of God and after many times of calling Israel to repent, had been driven into captivity. He was one of the captives as well….knowing the subjection to a foreign king….in a foreign land….away from the Temple and the sacrifices.
Daniel prays, confessing the sins of Israel…and seeks the Lord…..that He, in mercy, might act for Jerusalem and the Temple…and for His people…
….but in his confession, he includes himself.
Daniel 9:9-10, 17-18 ” To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him
And have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.
Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.
O my God, incline your ear and hear. …for we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.”
At the appointed time (Jeremiah had prophesied the captivity would be for seventy years)…under Cyrus, king of Persia, all the willing captives were allowed to go back to Israel….but they were also given liberty to seek a free will offering from the other Israelites that did not want to return….and Cyrus gave the vessels of the House of the Lord, and returned them. (Ezra 1:2,5,7,11 “all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400….)
Years later, Ezra was of the priestly family…who was returning to Jerusalem with more of these vessels and quite a few families….years after the first went back.
Yet after having come to Jerusalem, having a victorious trip through enemy country to bring people and supplies to those in Israel, without a guard from the king(Ezra 8:21-23)….
….. where there should have been joy….there is shock and sadness, as the people tell him of the sin of mixed marriages.
So, after he delivers the supplies….he falls down, in sackcloth and in mourning for the sinful state that his people were in.
He didn’t try a pep talk….he took his sorrow to the Lord and confessed for Israel….including himself.
Ezra 9:3,5-6,9-11, 14 “As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled.
And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God,
Saying: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens
For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us….but has extended to us His steadfast love….to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God…
And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments,
Which You commanded…saying, the land that you are entering….is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands,….
Shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations?…”
Under Ezra’s guidance, the people who had done this, put away these….and made a covenant with the Lord, not to do this any more.
Under Nehemiah, governor…appointed by the Persian king, the people confessed how all through their history, they had set aside God’s Word and sinned….leading to the captivity that they had been through…the fact that their nation was a subject to other kings.
Nehemiah 9:32-33, 36-38 “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us,….
Yet You have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.
Behold, we are slaves this day: in the land You gave to our fathers to enjoy it’s fruit and it’s good gifts,…
And it’s rich yield goes to the kings whom You have set over us because of our sins…..and we are in great distress.
Because of all this we make a firm covenant….”
This covenant was made with all their priests and leaders….to follow the law of Moses….to do all the commandments of the Lord, His rules and statues….to honor their God, the Lord.
These confessed, trusting God for answers to the sin, to the rebellion, to what they could not do themselves….which was…..move the heart of others to repentance.
But each confessed…..and from that confession….God heard and answered in correction and then in peace for His people.
God will hear and answer our confessions as well….for in these times, we need His peace and fellowship, to keep us.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 