Nehemiah 7 & 8 (NASB)
Last week’s sermon was about the first 6 chapters of the book of Nehemiah, and how Nehemiah was used by God to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. To recap, in case you haven’t read part 1 or don’t know the history of the Israelites, they had broken the covenant that God had made with them and were exiled from their land and scattered when captured by the Babylonians. A result of that was the temple had been destroyed, and the walls had been torn down around Jerusalem. God had promised the people, though, that after 70 years He would bring a remnant back to Jerusalem. The book of Ezra tells the story of how this remnant was brought back, and the book of Nehemiah continues that story. At the time of this chapter, Nehemiah has finished rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. Now the city could be protected from invading armies.
Nehemiah 7:1-2 tells us, “Now when the wall was rebuilt and I had installed the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites were appointed, then I put Hanani my brother, and Hananiah the commander of the citadel, in charge of Jerusalem, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many.”
After the wall is completed, the first thing Nehemiah does is to place his brother Hanani, and another man named Hananiah, in charge of the city. Then, led to do so by God, he registers everyone into a genealogy. Chapter 7 lists all the people who were in the city so they could make plans for rebuilding the houses. And, this way, they would know who was eligible to be a priest or not. Verses 66 & 67 say, “The whole assembly together totaled 42,360, besides their male slaves and their female slaves, of whom there were 7,337; and they had 245 male and female singers.”
According to the Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testament, “When all the business before mentioned was finished, the people were sent back, by Nehemiah’s direction, to the several cities to which they belonged; where they remained till the seventh month came, which was five days after the wall was finished, that being on the twenty-fifth day of the sixth month.”
The people were sent to their homes, and then only five days later, all the people gathered together again. Nehemiah 8:1-8 says, “And all the people gathered as one person at the public square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel. 2 Then Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. 3 And he read from it before the public square which was in front of the Water Gate, from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. 4 Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right; and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left. 5 Then Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. 6 Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen!’ with the raising of their hands; then they kneeled down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. 7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites explained the Law to the people while the people remained in their place. 8 They read from the book, from the Law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.”
The text doesn’t tell us when Ezra showed up or if he had been there all along. He had to be very old by this time. The text also doesn’t tell us why they erected the podium and gathered in the public square instead of the temple, but I think it is significant that the reading of the word of God took place outside the temple. This is actually a big deal. It meant that all the people who had assembled: men, women, and children were able to hear the word of God being read.
And they stood listening for six hours! That is a long time to stand, listening. In some churches today, whenever the Gospel is read, the congregation stands up to show respect for the word of the Lord. It’s been a very long time since I attended a church that practices this. I think it has largely faded from practice except in denominations that are more liturgical. Even a lot of traditionally formal churches have dropped this in order to become more casual, but when the people listening to Ezra stood up, it shows us they respected God’s law, and they wanted to pay careful attention. Plus, standing would keep them from falling asleep, and they would have been able to see Ezra better, too.
Picking back up in verse 9 through 12 it tells us, “Then 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 were weeping when they heard the words of the Law. 10 Then he said to them, ‘Go, eat the festival foods, drink the sweet drinks, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your refuge.’ 11 So the Levites silenced all the people, saying, ‘Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.’ 12 Then all the people went away to eat, drink, to send portions, and to celebrate a great feast, because they understood the words which had been made known to them.”
All the people started weeping when they heard the words of the Law, for God’s Word was at work within their hearts, leading them to repentance. Just like 2 Timothy 3:16 says that, “All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness.” This is true for us today. The more we hear or read God’s word, the more the Holy Spirit will work repentance into our hearts as well. Spiritual revival always involves repentance. For the more that God’s Word shines into our hearts, the more we will see areas where we do not measure up to His perfect righteousness. The closer we grow to God, the more repentance will happen.
Not only did Jerusalem need to be restored physically, but the people of Jerusalem needed to be restored spiritually. We see this same scenario take place in 2 Chronicles 34. Roughly 200 years earlier, before the exile to Babylon, when Judah was being ruled by the evil reigns of King Manasseh and his equally awful son, Amon, then Josiah became king. Then Hilkiah the priest found a copy of God’s law and Josiah tore his clothes and wept at the reading of it (2 Chron. 34:14). Like Nehemiah does, Josiah called all the people together so they, too, could hear the Word of the Lord. Upon hearing God’s word, 2 Kings 23:3b says, “all the people entered into the covenant.” Both of those situations give proof of how vital it is that people hear the Word of God. If we don’t hear the word of God, we cannot follow Him.
In Nehemiah’s time, all the people started weeping, just like King Josiah did. It must have been a lot of wailing and crying, for the leaders had to tell the people to stop weeping and to rejoice. Verse 10 says, “Then he said to them, ‘Go, eat the festival foods, drink the sweet drinks, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your refuge.’”
Just like the people of Nehemiah’s time were told to cease weeping, after we have repented, we, too, should rejoice in our forgiveness. The people were told to eat and celebrate. They were sent away with joy, for repentance ultimately leads us to joy, for repentance leads to salvation. 2 Corinthians 7:9&10 says, “I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
When the people heard God’s law, they saw their sin, and they repented. The leaders saw their repentance and now wanted them to rejoice in their forgiveness. They didn’t need to stay in that place of grief and sorrow over their sin any longer. They could find joy, for now they could experience the joy of the Lord which is their strength, as verse 10 stated.
But please note: we should not think that we can proclaim, “the joy of the Lord is my strength” if we have not gone through repentance.
Why do I say that? Because repentance puts us in right standing with God. It is in repentance that He forgives us our sins and cleanses us from unrighteousness. We then have right standing with God, through the blood of Jesus, which He shed on the cross for us. I am worried that some people want to skip over repentance and go straight to the joy of the Lord. As we see from our text, that’s not an option.
If we have repented, then knowing that He has forgiven all of our sins and that we are His people should fill our hearts with joy, too. If we have been forgiven of sin, then we do not need to stay in the place of sorrow and grief over our sin. We can exchange that sorrow for the joy of the Lord. We can rejoice in the God of our salvation. But only after we have repented.
Did you note, too, that the people were also told to share what they had with those in need? Back in chapter 5, we saw that a lot of people were suffering under heavy tax payments, and Nehemiah had to help them by ending the unlawful interest charges. If this gathering of the people happened only a few days after the completion of the wall, then there would have been a lot of people who still needed financial help. That must be why the people were encouraged to not only to go with joy and eat, but to also give food to those who didn’t have any.
Part of how we know this revival at Nehemiah’s time was true, is it is consistent with the gospel message of Jesus. Jesus’ message of salvation is that we must repent and follow Him. When we follow Him, we will keep His commandants. Jesus summed up the commandants in Mark 12:30-31 when He said, “and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Not only did the people repent of their sin, but they were instructed to look beyond just their own needs, and to help those around them. We are to do the same if we want to follow God’s law. As Jesus so beautifully summarized, we must love God and others if we want to follow Him. Our lives can't revolve only around us.
Nehemiah 8:13 says, “Then on the second day the heads of fathers’ households of all the people, the priests, and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe so that they might gain insight into the words of the Law.” The leaders all gathered together again the next day to study the book of the law again. They needed to do this, for how else could they accurately explain what they haven’t studied? They needed to know the law so they could teach others the law. They knew the only way to do this was by reading it and hearing it again.
If we want to follow God, we must spend time in His word. Reading excerpts from scripture is not enough. We have to spend time. The people listened for at least six hours that first day.
Not only must we read it, but for it to be effective in our lives, we must understand it. I am sure we have all sat through sermons and heard God’s word read to us, yet we didn’t fully understand what was being said. Our ears were hearing the words, but we were not really listening. Maybe we’re wondering when the sermon will be over, or thinking about what we want to eat for lunch. Maybe we’re thinking about work starting on Monday again. Or a paper we need to finish writing for school. It’s easy to be distracted and lose focus. When we hear God’s word, we must discipline ourselves to actually listen to it. The same with reading God’s word, when we sit down to read it, we should be careful to read it when we have the time to not rush through it. We should read it with comprehension.
That amazing thing about living at this time in history is there is an abundance of translations of the Bible that are available. One positive benefit of the internet is that the Bible is free to read on website likes biblegateway.com or biblehub.com. On both of those websites, a person can choose which translation to read from or even choose a different language to read it in https://www.biblegateway.com/Versions/ There is everything from the original Greek or Hebrew, to simplified language like the Easy-to-read (ERV) which, just like its name states, makes the Bible easy to read.
The word of God is alive. It changes us as we read it. In Nehemiah’s day, it was working repentance into those listeners’ hearts. The same thing happens to us when we read it today. What would happen if all Christians approached the Word of God with the same amount of respect that the people of this text showed to it?
I am afraid that, for many of us, we are so used to hearing God’s word that we take it for granted. We’ve heard it before. We’ve read it before, and so we think we know what it is going to say before we read it. If this is you, I want to challenge you to change your thinking. Hebrews 4:12 tells us, “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” That means when we read the word of God, it has the supernatural ability to cut into our inner being and bring about change inside of us. God’s word is like the sharpest sword. It cuts into our hearts and shows us who we are- good and bad.
But we don’t have to be afraid of this sword. Like the most competent and skilled surgeon cutting out a life-ending cancer, God’s word can cut into us and show us what needs removing. Like any surgery, the procedure can be extremely painful. Look at the people as Ezra read the word of God. They started weeping and wailing. It was uncomfortable. It was painful. Repentance is awful. It doesn’t feel good to realize we have failed and fallen short. But what happens after a successful surgery? Healing begins to take place.
When healing begins, then we know that joy is just around the corner. Soon we will be whole.
Allowing God's word to reveal our sins, and then letting Him remove them, results in forgiveness and healing. But sin is just like cancer. What if we don’t get the surgery? What if we think the cancer is no big deal and we don’t need to remove it? That cancer will grow and grow and kill us. Sin, left unconfessed and unforgiven, will grow and grow and eventually kill our faith. We must read the word of God so the Holy Spirit, like a skilled surgeon, can point out the sin we need to repent from and remove it from us.
God’s word has the power to heal and change lives. When we read God’s word, it comes alive inside of us. The Holy Spirit uses it to shape us and mold us. That is why we should never take it for granted or dishonor it when we hear it or read it.
If only there was a way for us to summon everyone in our cities and read God's word to them. I know many people would weep and wail, realizing their need for a Savior to forgive them and heal them and make them whole in Christ Jesus. Then our cities would see revival as people repent and find salvation. Let us pray together that God’s word will go out to all the nations so all the world may come to Christ.
For those of who know Christ, let us never take God’s word for granted. Let us do as Hebrews 10:22-25 tells us, “let’s approach God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
Pray: Heavenly Father, we praise You for Your great love for us. Thank You for sending us Jesus so we can be forgiven of our sin. Please help us by Your Holy Spirit to be faithful in reading Your word so you can use it to work repentance into our hearts. Please help us to never take Your word for granted. We pray that Your word would go out to all the nations so that peoples could hear your message of love and grace, and repent and find salvation. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
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