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Intro
Intro
Working our way through Ezra-Nehemiah
This week and next are all that we have left
Looking at how God rebuilds the temple, the walls, and most importantly the people after exile
Exiled for their failures to follow God and do his will and work.
Important to remember why, exactly, it was that the temple, walls, and people had to be rebuilt.
all the people gathered together at the square in front of the Water Gate. They asked the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had given Israel. On the first day of the seventh month, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding. While he was facing the square in front of the Water Gate, he read out of it from daybreak until noon before the men, the women, and those who could understand. All the people listened attentively to the book of the law. The scribe Ezra stood on a high wooden platform made for this purpose. Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah stood beside him on his right; to his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam. Ezra opened the book in full view of all the people, since he was elevated above everyone. As he opened it, all the people stood up. Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and with their hands uplifted all the people said, “Amen, Amen!” Then they knelt low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah, who were Levites, explained the law to the people as they stood in their places. They read out of the book of the law of God, translating and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was read. Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all of them, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, because the joy of the Lord is your strength.” And the Levites quieted all the people, saying, “Be still, since today is holy. Don’t grieve.” Then all the people began to eat and drink, send portions, and have a great celebration, because they had understood the words that were explained to them.
On the second day, the family heads of all the people, along with the priests and Levites, assembled before the scribe Ezra to study the words of the law. They found written in the law how the Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelites should dwell in shelters during the festival of the seventh month. So they proclaimed and spread this news throughout their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hill country and bring back branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make shelters, just as it is written.” The people went out, brought back branches, and made shelters for themselves on each of their rooftops and courtyards, the court of the house of God, the square by the Water Gate, and the square by the Ephraim Gate. The whole community that had returned from exile made shelters and lived in them. The Israelites had not celebrated like this from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day. And there was tremendous joy. Ezra read out of the book of the law of God every day, from the first day to the last. The Israelites celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the ordinance.
Context
Context
After the completion of the walls and gates of Jerusalem
Ezra, a priest and teacher of the Law who had led the second rebuilding efforts in Jerusalem approximately thirteen years earlier, brings out the scrolls of the Law of Moses (the Pentateuch or first five books of the Old Testament).
The Temple has been rebuilt and the walls and gates are done.
Now the people have to be rebuilt.
How is that going to happen?
The only way that it can
Through the Word of God!
As we look at our own lives and the rebuilding that God need to do in this congregation and in this community, it is only going to come through his Word
No other way
No quick fix
No easy solution
Simply his word and immersing ourselves in it.
So, what happens?
So, what happens?
Ezra stands on a specially constructed wooden platform and reads to the huge crowd of men and women
(possibly as large as forty to fifty thousand; see Nehemiah 7:66–67) from daylight till noon (Nehemiah 8:2–4).
All the people stood and listened attentively.
BTW, this is why we stand when we read scripture
The people responded by saying, “Amen! Amen!” and they lifted their hands to heaven.
They bowed their faces to the ground and worshiped the Lord (Nehemiah 8:6).
This scene is a powerful reminder that the proclaiming and hearing the Word of God is a form of corporate worship.
It appears that after Ezra would read from the Law, a group of people, including Levites, would then go into the crowds and help the people understand what they heard read.
It is highly likely that while the people were in exile in Babylon, the teaching and reading of the Law of Moses may have been neglected—or at least not done among the majority of Jews.
This cycle of Ezra teaching and others helping the people understand the Law continued till noon (Nehemiah 8:7–8).
As the people heard the Law being read to them, they wept (Nehemiah 8:9).
We are not told why they were weeping, but it is probably because they were remorseful over their past sins and how they had broken their covenant with God.
Yet Nehemiah and Ezra declared that the day was holy to the Lord; rather than being grieved and weeping, they were instructed to eat, drink, and celebrate “for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
The phrase “for the joy of the Lord is your strength” is very familiar among Christians, yet the verse could be translated a bit differently.
What is interesting is that the English word that is translated in our Bibles as “strength” is from the Hebrew word mā·ʿôz, and it appears thirty-four times in the Old Testament.
It means “mountain stronghold, place of refuge, or fortress” (William Lee Holladay and Ludwig Köhler, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament [Leiden: Brill, 2000], 205).
The only time the Hebrew word is translated as “strength” is in Nehemiah 8:10.
Another interpretation question is does “the joy of the LORD” mean (1) the Lord’s joy over his people or (2) the people’s joy in the Lord?
Option 1 is more likely, given other verses, such as Zephaniah 3:17.
So, despite the people’s sin and failure to keep the covenant, their refuge was in the Lord’s joy of restoring his people.
Likewise, when we fail, sin, and disobey God, our sorrow and can be eclipsed by taking refuge and protection in God’s joy over us.
God delights in his people and rejoices over us! This is a powerful picture of the gospel and God’s posture over his people.
After the people ate and celebrated, they returned the second day to continue to listen to Ezra read the Law (Nehemiah 8:13).
From the reading, the people rediscovered that God had commanded his people to celebrate certain festivals, including the Feast of Booths (Nehemiah 8:14–15),
which they now reinstituted and celebrated with tremendous joy (Nehemiah 8:16–17).
Through these festivals and the Law, the people were reading and experiencing their story as God’s people.
Their identity was being rebuilt and renewed.
Knowing what the Scriptures proclaim about our identity as sons and daughters of God is vital to our Christian life.
When we know the story of what God has done for us and the truth of our spiritual identity, our lives should overflow with tremendous joy.
In chapter 9, the people gather together to respond to all that they have heard and understood from the reading of the Law.
The spiritual renewal among the people continues as they set aside a time of corporate fasting, a time for praising God, confessing their sin, and petitioning God for his favor.
They conclude their time by pledging their future faithfulness to God’s law by signing a document (Nehemiah 9:38).
Chapter 10 is a list of all who signed and sealed it. In modern terms, this could be understood as a corporate dedication service.
What about us?
What about us?
We experience spiritual renewal by living in the joy and delight of God, knowing our identity as God’s people, and repenting of our sins.
For all three of these, we must know, read, and understand the word of God.
We are called to live in joy and delight of God.
John 10:10
God isn’t trying to keep stuff from you, He’s wants you to live abundantly.
Sin hurts us, even when we don’t understand that in the moment
Want to keep us from harm isn’t about being mean, it is about loving us.
Also, there is nothing in scripture that tells us that we aren’t to laugh, have a good time, spend time with people, and enjoy the life we’ve been given.
We need to know who we are and what our relationship to God is.
There is a lot these days about identity.
It seems to be consuming us.
But it isn’t new.
What scripture teaches us is that the most important identity that we can have is the one we have in relationship to God through Christ.
Gal 3:28
There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Until we we get this portion right, literally nothing else matters.
When we get it right, we’ll see how we are to interact with the world, our neighbors, our friends and family, even our enemies differently.
John Lewis and the Civil Rights movement?
Finally, as we rebuild ourselves, our congregations, and our communities, we have to repent.
For us, as those who are part of God’s new covenant through Christ, the Spirit of God dwells in us.
One of the Spirit’s roles is to convict us of our sin. When we realize we have sinned and have not been living according to God’s desires and commands, we have the opportunity to repent of our sins.
Jesus’s invitation to people has always been to repent and believe (Matthew 11:20; Revelation 3:19).
Repentance means “to change one’s way of life as the result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness” (Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains [New York: United Bible Societies, 1996], 509).
Repentance is not just expressing sorrow over our sins.
Repentance is changing our mind toward sin, which leads to a change of behavior.
Repentance can be viewed by some as a negative event, yet it is the beautiful process of renewing our faithfulness to God and experiencing spiritual renewal.