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- [Nancy Guthrie] When we left Nehemiah in
the last session the great work of the rebuilding of the
wall was complete. But Nehemiah's ambition in returning Jerusalem, wasn't simply
to reconstruct the city's defenses but to rebuild the people of God for the glory
of God. Nehemiah was at work to restore a community of people whose hearts were
given over to Yahweh living in the land, loving and obeying and worshipping
the Lord. Demonstrating and declaring God's goodness to the nations around them.
Waiting expectantly for God's promised one, the Messiah to come.
Nehemiah draws a picture for us of what Jerusalem looked like at this point
when he tells us in verse 4 of Chapter 7, "The city was wide and large but the
people within it were few and no houses had been rebuilt." Exiles who had returned
over the previous 90 years had settled all around Jerusalem but few had made their
homes inside the burned-out abandoned city. Now that the temple had been rebuilt
and the walls were in place it was time for God's people to once again inhabit
God's great city. But who exactly should live within those walls?
Over the years all kinds of people had come to live around Jerusalem many of whom
had no interest in Israel's God. If Jerusalem was going to be a city that
radiated the glory of God it would need to be filled with people who were devoted
to him. So Nehemiah records in Chapter 7 verse 5, "Then my God put it into my heart
to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled
by genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of those who came
up at the first. And I found written in it these were the people of the province who
came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar,
the king of Babylon, had carried into exile.
They returned to Jerusalem and Judah each to his own town." What follows are the
kinds of verses we tend to skip through when we're reading through the Bible.
It's a list of names and numbers of the various families who returned from exile
when they were first free to do so about 90 years earlier. So why would Nehemiah
bring out this old list of their ancestors who were the first ones who came back
to Jerusalem? Well, these were the Israelites who had the most passion
for restoration of Jerusalem. They rushed back as soon as Cyrus opened
the door for them to return home. Nehemiah wasn't interested in populating
the city with those who had alternate allegiances to other gods but with those
who had a singular passion for the Lord's honour and the Lord's people.
In Chapter 8 we discover these people do have a passion for the Lord.
When we read in verse 1, "And all the people gathered as one man
into the square before the Watergate. And they told Ezra, the scribe,
to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel."
They're not gathered at the temple where only certain people could enter but at the
busiest intersection of the city. And we can almost hear them begin to chant
for Ezra to bring out the book. They didn't have their own copies of the
scriptures to read like we do. All they had was stories passed down.
They were hungry to hear God's written word. So in verse 2 we read,
"Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly both men and women and all
who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month.
And he read from it facing the square before the Watergate from early morning
until midday in the presence of the men and the women and those who
could understand." Sometimes the Bible can seem like such an ancient book to us.
Interestingly, it was already an ancient book to these people gathered at the
Watergate in Jerusalem that day. The Book of the Law, the Book of Moses,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy it was already a thousand
years old and yet they were hungry for it. They were confident it would speak to them
and challenge them and satisfy them. The end of verse 3 in Chapter 8 says,
"And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law."
They weren't merely going through the motions of showing up while their thoughts
were elsewhere which can we admit is the case for us sometimes when we gather
to hear the word read and taught? They were taking in God's word,
thinking it through, seeking to understand and apply it.
So picture the scene, Ezra standing on a wooden platform flanked
by 13 Levites and surrounded by 50,000 men, women and children.
And from dawn until about noon they listened to Ezra read from the scrolls
which were written in Hebrew. Now the people coming back from exile
spoke Aramaic so it had to be translated but more than that it had to be explained.
Ezra was surrounded by 13 Levites and the text says that "the Levites helped the
people to understand the law while the people remained in their places.
They read from the book, from the Law of God clearly and they gave the sense so
that the people understood the reading." The Levites moved among the crowd helping
them to understand the meaning and the implications of what was being read.
We can imagine that they helped the people grasp the tragedy of the curse
from Genesis 3 and the promise of a seed of a woman who had come to crush the seed
of the serpent. Perhaps they explained God's promise to make Abraham into a great
nation and Abraham's coming to the very mountain on which they stood that day
to offer his son Isaac. They must have traced the history and
implications of God's deliverance of his people from Egypt. Their wandering in the
wilderness and entrance into and taking possession of the promised land.
The Levites helped those gathered to understand the substitutionary sacrifices
prescribed in Leviticus and the call to love the Lord with all of their heart,
soul, and might in Deuteronomy. And how did the people gathered there that
day respond? Verse 6 of Chapter 8 says, "All the people answered, 'Amen,
Amen,' lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshipped
the Lord with their faces to the ground." This wasn't a token Amen.
With their lips and with their whole bodies they expressed submission to what
they had heard. In verse 9 we read, "And Nehemiah who was the governor and
Ezra the priest and scribe and the Levites who taught the people said to all
the people, 'This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.'
For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law." You know some people
hear the word of God read and explained and feel nothing. There's a hardness
toward it, a lack of response to it but not on this day. Not these people.
As they took in all that God had done for their people, all of the promises he had
made to them, all that he commanded them to do and be, all of the patience he
had shown, it penetrated them so deeply they were moved to tears.
The word of God, the book of Hebrews tells us, is "sharper than any two-edged sword
piercing to the division of soul and of spirit of joints and of marrow and
discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Clearly, the word of God cut
deeply into the hearts of the people gathered there that day exposing all
of the ways they had fallen short of the glory of God. They were able to see the
incongruity of their lives in relation to God's law and they wept.
But this wasn't the time for weeping. The day for mourning over their sin is
going to come as we'll see in the next session in Chapter 9. But not on this day.
Ezra and Nehemiah urged those who were weeping to dry their tears saying,
"'This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.'
For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law. Go your way.
Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready
for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved for the joy of the
Lord is your strength." When we hear God's word read and taught it
does much more than reveal to us our sin, it reveals our saviour. God's good word,
his Gospel to his people is that our sin will not get the final word in our lives.
His grace and mercy will get the final word. The joy of the Lord is this word
of grace towards sinners. Knowing that it is his joy to extend grace
to sinners is what gives us strength to live for him and love him rather than run
from him. On this day Ezra and Nehemiah wanted the wonder of God saving purposes
for his people. His patience toward them. His presence with them,
his provision for them to prompt celebration, not tears.
Verse 13 says that "on the second day the heads of fathers' houses of all the people
with the priests and the Levites came together to Ezra the scribe in order
to study the words of the law. And they found it written in the law that
the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths
during the Feast of the seventh month." On the second day just the men returned
to study the words of the law and as they studied they discovered that God required
something of his people that they and their ancestors had not been doing
for centuries. They discovered that on the 15th day of the seventh month they were
to make booths out of branches and live outdoors in them for a week.
As they slept outside in their makeshift shelters they would be reminded of God's
provision for their ancestors when they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years
after being released from their slavery. They would be reminded that they too had
been released from their exile and brought back by God's good hand.
They would also be reminded that they were still pilgrim people in the world
dependent upon God's provision and presence even though they were now living
in the land. A week spent living this way would prompt them to be looking forward
to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God.
We read in verse 16, "So the people went out and brought them
and made booths for themselves." They read in the law of God that they
should do it and they just did it. How many times have we read something
in the Bible or been at church and had the word taught clearly to us showing us
something we ought to do and we think, "Yeah. I ought to do that."
But then we sing the closing hymn and we walk away and we put it out of our minds.
But what happens here is completely different. They read about the forgotten
festival of Tabernacles and they immediately went home and made booths
for themselves and they lived in them for 10 days. Oh, that the joy of the Lord, his
grace toward us, and Christ would provide you and me with strength to respond to his
word with just this kind of prompt glad-hearted obedience.
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