[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

This is going to be a hard one…I’m still working on the idea and can’t say that I’ve put it into practice, but I want to share it with you. Maybe some of you can provide some additional guidance in the comments.

I was reading Nehemiah and while I had always noted that his first action after hearing about the problem with the broken down wall (Nehemiah 1.4) was to go to prayer. But I never paid much attention to the prayer itself. After opening with a few sentences of praise, he goes to confession:

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. (Nehemiah 1.6, 7)

This appears to be a different from of confession than we’re used to. You may have been taught the ACTS acrostic as a good way to structure your prayers: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication, and Nehemiah seems to be following this pattern. However, and it’s a big however, Nehemiah is confessing sins of the nation. Daniel did the same thing in Daniel 9.5 – 15 which ends:

And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly. (Daniel 9.15)

Daniel and Nehemiah are confessing sins they didn’t commit! Sins that occurred before they were born. I don’t remember hearing any teaching on this kind of confession. Sometimes in a worship service there is a corporate confession using “we,” but it’s almost always sins that we committed or could have committed, like the standard, “We have done things we ought not to have done, and we haven’t done things we ought to have done.” Or, “We haven’t loved you or others as we should have; we’ve been selfish; etc.”

Many of us, for example, are opposed to abortion, at least to the seemingly unlimited access to abortion that’s happening today. However, I don’t think I’ve ever heard, “Lord forgive us for killing all those babies.” We more often seem to have the attitude of the Pharisee in Luke 18: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” (verse 11)

Maybe our confession, if it were to be more like Nehemiah’s might sound more like this:

• We have cheated to get our kids into certain colleges.
• We have aborted millions of babies.
• We have failed to come up with a compassionate, sensible immigration policy.
• We have failed to balance the budget.
• We imported black African slaves and then when we freed them kept them second class.

As I said, this is a new idea for me. However, the kind of sins that Nehemiah confessed to is inescapable. Perhaps it’s worth considering as we obey Paul’s command to pray for our leaders. Maybe we add confession to his list! And maybe, if we own and confess national sins, we’ll be more motivated to do what we can to eradicate them.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. (1 Timothy 1.1, 2)