Seventh Day Baptist
Christian Education Council
PO BOX 1678
Janesville, WI 53547
—Nehemiah 9:1-5a
by: Tabatha Pethtel.
The people of Israel had come together in order to confess all their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. It was a day of great humbling before God. It is also of importance how they separated themselves from all foreigners. God called Israel to be set apart from the world and to be a nation like no other. Here they were, dressed in sackcloth and having dust on their heads, confessing all they had done wrong in the eyes of the Lord. They were not concerned what others thought of them—their focus was on the Lord. As believers, we, too, are called to be set apart, to confess our sins to God, and to ask for mercy.