Nehemiah 1:9 But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from thence, and I will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
Nehemiah recounts in his prayer the words and promises of the Lord through Moses. He repents for the people and confesses their sin. He begs forgiveness and restoration and asks the Lord to bring them back from Babylon. Nehemiah reminded God of His conditional promise: if we turn to God and keep the commandments, then He will gather us and bring us back. This conditional promise runs through the Scriptures from Moses to John. He turned and God gathered.
The story of Ezra and Nehemiah is the story of the Return from Exile. They led the people in Repenting and Turning to the Lord, in Returning to and Restoring the land and the city, and in Rebuilding the temple and Repairing the walls. And God gathered the people and brought them back the place He chose, Jerusalem.
The Lord promises to do the same for us. We were born in sin with a rebellious and disobedient soul. And we live in exile in a far country (the world) away from our heavenly home where we belong, the place God chose for us. But the Lord grants repentance through the Law and faith through the Gospel. The Holy Spirit gathers us from where we have strayed or from the place where our sin has driven us, separated from God; and He brings us back to God and places the kingdom in our hearts. Surprisingly, we need to repent and return every day, for we still live in the world and with our sinful flesh all the time. By faith we firmly live in the Kingdom of God, in Christ, in the new man, but the kingdom of darkness, the world, and the sinful old man still clings to us. Thus, “turning” is a daily and weekly occurrence.