Responding to the Word

Introduction

Have you ever been in a situation where you were absolutely dreading something coming up ahead? Maybe it was an upcoming trip or an awkward situation that you would have to endure in the future? We can think of several examples of this throughout Scripture, can we not? Whether it be Cain killing Abel and being confronted by God later or Adam and Eve eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and later being confronted by God. We see examples of this in the New Testament as well as Peter denied Jesus 3 times after His arrest and was ashamed of his actions, but was forgiven by Christ after the Resurrection.

A great godly leader can completely change our outlook during a dreadful situation. A godly parent can bring in joy to their children even in a season of chaos and change. A godly leader in the church can help provide leadership and stability even in a season of uncertainty. Have you ever been around someone who convinced you that they cared for you and that everything would be alright? Do you think that God loves His people like that? You’d better believe He does. Even whenever we go through difficult times, as the Israelites had thus far in Nehemiah, they knew that their God loved them and was on their side. Because of this, they were about to experience a season of restoration now that the wall had finally been rebuilt.

Nehemiah 8 NASB95

1 And all the people gathered as one man at the 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 He read from it before the 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 hand; and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam on his left hand. 5 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!” while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low 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, 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. 9 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 of the fat, drink of the sweet, 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 strength.” 11 So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.” 12 All the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions and to celebrate a great festival, because they understood the words which had been made known to them. 13 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 that they might gain insight into the words of the law. 14 They found written in the law how the Lord had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month. 15 So they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.” 16 So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. 17 The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing. 18 He read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance.

Nehemiah8

This passage of Scripture is a celebration of sorts as Ezra reads the law and the people repent. The Festival of Booths is mentioned and celebrates God sustaining His people while they were journeying through the wilderness. The Israelites celebrate this feast in and they have been a people who have been sustained by God and have been led back to the promised land and have completed the rebuilding project in Jerusalem. Ezra and Nehemiah put the Word of God in the life of the city. What we see in the second half of this chapter and in chapter 9, is the response of the people. If God is going to work through His people, then His people must respond positively to His Word and this chapter gives us a good outline as to how we are to respond to His Word today: first there must be understanding, then rejoicing and finally obeying.

This passage of Scripture is a celebration of sorts as Ezra reads the law and the people repent. The Festival of Booths is mentioned and celebrates God sustaining His people while they were journeying through the wilderness. The Israelites celebrate this feast in and they have been a people who have been sustained by God and have been led back to the promised land and have completed the rebuilding project in Jerusalem.

Understanding the Word (1-8)

The Bible is not a “magic” book or a “fairy-tale”. It is a book that changes people, however it can only do that after the reader understands the power of God’s Word! The word “understand” occurs 6 times in this chapter. We see in verse 2 that only people who could understand the Word were brought into the assembly. We know that many people will hear the Gospel message during their lifetime, however not everyone will “understand” or “accept” that message. As we looked at this morning, some people will hear the Gospel and experience an emotional response but it will not be a permanent change. Others will see the cross of Christ and be confused because it does not make sense to them. Others, though, will hear the message and they will be changed completely because of the Word of God.

We see that Ezra is the person who opens this reading of the Word of God. This is appropriate because he had come to Jerusalem about 14 years before Nehemiah and was a priest/scribe who had been preparing his heart to teach the nation (as we see in ). Ezra did a couple of interesting things during this reading. First he brought the book of the law of Moses:

This transpired during the 1st day of the 7th month - essentially New Year’s Day. This was a day in which the Jews celebrated the Feast of Trumpets on the 1st day, the day of atonement on the 10th day and the Feast of tabernacles from the 15-25th day. This was a perfect time for the nation of Israel to read the law and renew their relationship with the Lord. It says that Ezra brought the book of the law of Moses - this is probably the entire scroll of the Torah - the first 5 books of the Bible. If you ever think that I preach for a long time, then you need to look up how long preachers preached in the 1800s, if you think that they preached for a long time, then you need to think about how long Ezra preached through these 5 books! Now he probably did not read and explain EVERYTHING in these books, but he at least read a good chunk of it from morning until midday. We think that this means that he preached for about 6 hours.

Think of the situation that the people were in. They finally complete the building of the wall and they have some free time for a change. With this free time, though, they read the law and they strive to understand it. Whenever you receive free time, do you fill it with things that will bring you closer to or further away from Christ? Make no mistake about it, it is great to have hobbies and things that we enjoy that are not reading Scripture and staying in our prayer room 24/7 - it is healthy to do things that get us outside and active! With that said, do you view your free time to drink from the living Water of the Word? Do you ever read God’s Word whenever you have these moments? God’s people love God’s Word!

It says that the people listened attentively to the Word. Do you do this? Do you study God’s Word attentively or do you simply take what someone says for truth and never study it for yourself? This is a caution for us. We must pay attention to the Word and study it and apply it to our lives. If we fail to do this then we run the risk of falling victim to false ideas and doctrines - this is what we will be looking at on October 20th as we watch the American Gospel.

Next we see that Ezra opened the book in verses 5-6. This might seem like a very basic point, but Ezra opened the Bible and read from it. Do we do this? Do we pick up our copy of God’s Word on Sunday morning and place it on the bookshelf when we get home to collect dust all week long until next Sunday? I pray that this is not the case! As followers of Christ we are quick to defend the Word of God and stand up for Scripture and the fact that Jesus is real, however sometimes we fail to treat the Bible as the Word of God. We see in verse 6 the response of the people to the blessing or the opening of the worship service. In verses 7-8 we see that Ezra finally reads from the book and this is significant. Most people did not have a copy of Scripture in their own possession at this time period. In fact this was not common place until the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s! We take it for granted so often that we have multiple copies of God’s Word in multiple translations and we have dozens of more copies in digital form in our phones and computers! Back then, though, this could have been one of just a couple copies that the entire people of Israel had.

Verse 8 is interesting to me because it says that Ezra translated the book so that the people could understand it. This is difficult because we must remain faithful to the Word of God but we also must apply it to our local context - this is why preaching and teaching through the Bible is a great responsibility. You must be careful to not introduce an idea that is not founded in Scripture but you also can’t read the original manuscript of Scripture and hope that people understand it. If we read from the original Hebrew language, it would not be profitable for us, right? We wouldn’t understand it! Have you ever tried to read from John Wycliffe’s original English translation of the Bible? Here is a taste of it, see if you can guess what verse it is. Wycliffe’s translation is about 600 years old and we can only make sense of some of the words, now imagine the situation that the Israelites were in. The book of the law was 1000 years old! It would have probably been very difficult for them to understand, making this translation process necessary and very helpful for the people.

The importance in these opening verses is that we must understand the Word of God. We must open up our Bibles. We must be open to teaching and preaching and we must faithfully study the Word whenever we can. Sometimes that means reading the Scripture. Other times it means praying for understanding. Other times it might mean opening up a commentary to help you understand a difficult passage of Scripture. What matters to a follower of God is knowing His Word deeply.

Rejoice in His Word (9-12)

In verse 9 we see a great picture of leaders working together rather than tearing one another apart. Nehemiah and Ezra come together to instruct the people. This is a great picture of what Christian leaders are to do today as well. We see in verse 9 that the people were convicted of their sin and they experienced grief and wept. This is a natural response to the law, is it not? The law says that you are guilty because you have broken the law numerous times. says that the law is the knowledge of sin. The law cannot save us! We know this because of . We have all fallen short and we desperately need saving. What the law does is tell us in flashing lights that we are not good enough and point us towards a better Sacrifice in the person of Jesus Christ. Whenever we hear the Word of God and we see our sin, we should certainly feel convicted and repent of our sin - but it should also bring in joy to our lives! This is something that we experienced last week with our testimonies. We talked about how we were dead in our sin before Christ made us alive. We talked about what Christ has done and taught us. Even in the difficult times, there is joy because of the Gospel - we cannot forget the joy and hope of Scripture.

Nehemiah tells the people to stop grieving and start celebrating. Why does he do this? The sinner has no reason for rejoicing and the forgiven child of God has no reason for mourning (). As God children we certainly have burdens and scars, however we also experience a supernatural power that transforms our burdens and suffering into joy. We have a responsibility to rejoice in that fact!

The secret of Christian joy is to believe what God says in His Word and act upon it. Joy is not a “good feeling” that you get around the holidays. Joy is something that is a result of our faith in God - it surpasses all understanding. Faith upon the Word of God that produces joy will weather every storm of life. Again, it is not enough to just read the Word or attend service, we must rejoice in the Word. There are great treasures in Scripture and we must unearth them and rejoice whenever we do!

Do you delight in God’s Word? Do you rejoice whenever you study it? Do you see what God has done for you? We read of our sin and we weep, but we also see what God has done for us! God loves His people. God takes delight in His people! The people rejoice here because they know Scripture. Do you? Praise God for the opportunity that we have today to read Scripture from our own copy of God’s Word and the ability that we have to study it in depth through a variety of resources that nearly no other generation or people group has ever had access to. We should praise God for that today!

Obeying the Word (13-18)

Whenever we understand God’s Word deeply and intimately, we serve Him because we rejoice in Him. Whenever this happens, we obey His Word not out of obligation or appreciation, but celebration! Matthew Henry, the great theologian, said that, “Holy joy will be oil to the wheels of our obedience.” The will of God is punishment to a Believer without joy, however to a believer with joy the will of God is nourishment. Ask yourself, am I being nourished whenever I come to church and study His Word, or is this a time of punishment or a time that I attend simply to check off my list?

The Feast of Tabernacles (or booths) lasted from the 15-21st day of this month. There were only a couple of days that they celebrated this. Because of this, the people had to get the word out to the surrounding areas! During this time, the people of Israel celebrated God’s blessings and remembered the time in the wilderness where their ancestors had wandered for 40 years. They looked back, looked around and also looked ahead to the promises of God. This was a week-long celebration regarding the goodness and faithfulness of God. The purpose of this was not just enjoyment, but also encouragement and enrichment. The joy of the world is temporary, but the joy of the Lord is eternal and enriches our lives. God does not give us joy instead of sorrow, or joy in spite of sorrow, He gives joy in the midst of sorrow.

We see in verse 18 that Ezra was reading from the book daily. This Bible conference of sorts continued during this entire week! Sounds kind of like our upcoming revival, does it not? The people heard the Word, they had fellowship and they ate some food! They were good Baptists. The week concluded on the 8th day with a solemn assembly and the people returned to their regular schedules after.

Conclusion

This is the height of the book of Nehemiah! The people had rebuilt the wall, they had celebrated the feast of tabernacles and had confessed their sin before God. This is a good season of life for the people - but would it last? For a time. However, as we know, the people would return to their idolatrous ways and stray away from God. Because this season of life did not last, people might ask, “Is it worth while to have a Bible Conference or a revival?” Billy Sunday was asked if revivals lasted and said, “No, neither does a bath, but its good to have one occasionally.”

We have seen in the history of the church times in which people have been burdened by their sin and they have repented of their sin, prayed to God and sought His will to be done. There have been times where God has showed up in mighty ways and the Spirit has harvested and completely transformed communities. That is what we pray will happen on September 15-18. It happened in Nehemiah’s day. It happened in Peter and Paul’s day. We pray that it will happen with us as well.

The only way that this will happen, though, is if we understand, rejoice and obey the Word of God. As says:

2 Chronicles 7:14 NASB95

14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

That is our prayer tonight.