Nehemiah 9:18
Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations; Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;
Nehemiah 9:18 belongs to a chapter recounting the Lord's works for His people and their sins in turning from Him, a history of God's goodness and the people's ingratitude. It is part of the people's confession of sins and plea for pardon, in which the leaders humbled themselves before God, confessing both their own sins and the sins of the people and asking forgiveness as though they themselves had committed them. It recalls that even after deliverance from Egypt, Israel rebelled by making a molten calf and crediting it with bringing them up out of Egypt, an act of rebellion and great provocation against God.
Yet in His manifold mercies God did not forsake them altogether in the wilderness. Christ Himself, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, was their Redeemer, Protector, and wonder-working God, and the pillar did not depart but continued to lead them in the way and to show them light and the way wherein they should go. He kept leading them, kept giving His good Spirit to instruct them, and kept giving manna and water, sustaining them forty years so that they lacked nothing, their clothes not wearing out and their feet not swelling.
His mighty acts and miracles did not save them when they were proud, hardened their necks, refused to obey, and were not willing to walk in obedience to His will. Their sins separated them from God, and He permitted them to come under the control of heathen nations. The same rebellious spirit without the love of God was found in their children when Christ came in person.
The account of that history leads its hearers to acknowledge the justice of God's punishment and to pledge obedience to His law in a written covenant, meant to remind them of their duty and guard them against temptation. That ingratitude, failing to give God the glory due His name, is a warning to a people richly favored by God. This representation is to be presented to the people as occasion requires, to stand boldly in defense of the truth, which will be perverted more and more into strong representations of evil unless there is a decided reformation among those in positions of influence.