A Story of Grace

On the twenty-fourth day of the month, the people assembled with fasting, sackcloth, and dirt on their heads. They separated themselves from foreigners for this time of confession, and stood confessing their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. They read from the law for a fourth part of the day and confessed and worshiped Yahweh for another fourth.

The Levites' prayer is one of the longest in the Bible. It opens with praise: You are Yahweh, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, and you preserve them all. Then it walks through Israel's history: the call of Abraham and the covenant, the deliverance from Egypt, the pillar of cloud and fire, the law at Sinai, manna and water from the rock, and the gift of the land.

Woven through the story is a sad refrain. Israel acted proudly, stiffened their necks, and would not listen. Yet God is a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness. Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you didn't make a full end of them, nor forsake them. The prayer ends with honest confession of their present distress and a sure covenant in writing. In the New Testament, John writes that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive us (1 John 1:9).