Hearing God Series

When the 7th month came, the people gathered as “one man in the square” before the Water Gate.

• 3 festivals take place in the 7th month of the Jewish calendar – the Feast of the Trumpets (1st), the Day of Atonement (10th) and Feast of the Tabernacles (15th-21st).

• We are going to see all 3 of them in chapter 8. On the first day, they gathered as one big assembly.

What exactly are they expected to do on this Feast of Trumpets? We have little information.

• We read of this assembly only in two places - Lev 23:24 and Num 29:1-6. Neither passage gives us much information except that they made sacrifices to God.

• Lev 23:23-25 The LORD said to Moses, 24"Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. 25Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the LORD by fire.'"

• They are to seek the Lord on this day and it is a memorial, something to commemorate, with the blowing of trumpets.

Jewish scholars looked at significant events that involved the blowing of trumpets and it could point to their first encounter with God at Mount Sinai after their deliverance.

• Exo 19:10 And the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes 11 and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

• Exo 19:16-19 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 17Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, 19and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

God manifested His presence with the sound of the trumpet. God spoke and entered into a covenant with the people of Israel by giving of Law, His commandments.

• Every year, at the Feast of Trumpets, the blowing of the ram’s horns reminded the people the covenant they had with God and their promise to obey His commandments.

• By doing so, the nation prepares herself for the Day of Atonement 9 days later.

It was therefore very appropriate for the people to assemble as one man to hear God’s voice again, so to speak. And have Ezra read to them the Book of the Law.

• The Law of Moses refers to the Pentateuch, the Torah, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

• The Law which the Lord had commanded for Israel, since the day at Mount Sinai.

• We are going to see in this chapter that the reading of God’s Word brings about conviction and repentance. The people heard God’s voice and understood His will.

• God’s Word remained true and relevant, to this generation in Nehemiah’s time (444BC) as it was to the generation at Mount Sinai (1312BC), almost 900 years ago.

God’s Word needs no updating, it needs no changing. It is the eternal truth of God.

• Psalm 119:89 “Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.”

• Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

We see a hunger for the Word of God. The people wanted to hear the Word.

• The ground was prepared, in a sense, by Ezra. Ezra had returned to Jerusalem 14 years before Nehemiah and we read about him in Ezra 7.

• Ezra 7:10 “For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.”

• In Ezra 9-10 he confronted the people about their intermarriages and led them to repentance.

The people would have been hearing from Ezra and this was probably a resumption of that after the rebuilding of the walls.

Notice the POSTURE of their heart.

• They came with a thirst for God’s Word. They came believing it to be that which God has commanded for Israel.

• When the book was opened, they stood up. They honoured God’s Word and recognised it as the Word from God.

• 8:6 “Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, "Amen! Amen!" Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.”