Many times when people find out I’m a pastor, one of the first questions they ask is “What kind of church is it?” I’ve also had quite a few people who have visited our church ask the same thing. In most cases, I think what people want to know is if our church belongs to a particular denomination. So perhaps they are surprised when my answer to them is something like this: “We are a church that values the Bible as the Word of God and attempts to operate the best we know how according to the Scriptures.”
I think that based on what we’ll see in Nehemiah chapter 8, we could conclude that Nehemiah and his fellow Jews would say something similar. They valued the Bible as the Word of God and were attempting to operate the very best they knew how according to the Scriptures.
In the first six chapters of Nehemiah we’ve seen how Nehemiah led the people to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. And, as we’ve pointed out frequently, what looked like merely a construction project on the surface was being used by God as part of the process of God rebuilding His people. But in chapter 7 there is a transition to the last six chapters of Nehemiah where the rebuilding of God’s people takes place in a more direct manner. Now that the walls have been completed the people can shift their focus from just protecting themselves from their enemies to their own spiritual development.
We’re not going to spend a lot of time on chapter 7, not because it isn’t important or not because of the long names of people that I don’t want have to read but because it is primarily a chapter of how the people were accounted for and organized in preparation for what is going to happen in the last six chapters of Nehemiah. But go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Nehemiah 7 as I make a few brief comments about that chapter.
First, as we’ve pointed out previously, the fact that God causes all these names to be recorded in His Word and to be preserved is a testimony to God’s love and care for individuals and families.
This chapter also gives us a feel for how many people are involved in the corporate gathering of worshipers that we’re going to read about in chapter 8. According to the summary in verse 66, there were nearly 50,000 people included in the enrollment when the slaves were included. And, according to verse 4, the people had apparently been so busy rebuilding the walls they hadn’t had time yet to attend to the rebuilding of their own houses.
Finally we see in verses 70-72 that many of the people had given generously to the work of rebuilding the walls. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to take the time to read that entire chapter this week.
That brings us to chapter 8. Since the elders read the first part of that chapter at the beginning of this gathering of worshipers, I won’t read that entire passage again, but you will want to have your Bibles handy as I refer to portions of that passage.
When I look at chapter 8 as a whole, here is what I would suggest is the main message we find there:
Worship that pleases God loves God’s Word
and lives God’s Word
I sure know I would have loved to be part of the worship service that day. The entire community gathered together as one before the Water Gate to worship together. We know that those gathered there included both men as women as well as children who were old enough to understand what they heard. So, like TFC, this was truly a family church where the entire family worshipped together. We don’t know exactly how many people attended but a substantial portion of the nearly 50,000 Jews who lived in Jerusalem would have been there. And somehow they pulled this off with no sound system, no microphones, no lighting and no projectors or TV screens with PowerPoint slides.
But what they did have is the one thing that is still absolutely essential for our corporate worship – God’s Word. Everything they did as they gathered that day was centered in God’s Word. And with their words and their actions the people demonstrated a love for God’s Word and a commitment to live according to His Word. In particular they did seven things that we can learn from as we seek to love and live God’s Word.
HOW TO LOVE AND LIVE GOD’S WORD
1. Relish God’s Word
As far as we can tell this was a spontaneous worship event. It hadn’t been advertised on the marquee at the Temple or on radio or TV. No one had gone to the website to find out when to come. The people all just gathered at the Water Gate, which was quite appropriate, since as we learned several weeks ago, water is often used as a symbol for God’s Word in the Bible.
It was the first day of Tishri, the seventh month of the year on the Jewish calendar. This is only a few days after the people had finished building the wall on the 25th day of the month of Elul (Nehemiah 6:15), which is the sixth month on the Jewish calendar. Although this is the seventh month of the year on the Jewish calendar, it is actually the time of the Jewish New Year which is ushered in with the Feast of Trumpets, also known as Rosh Hashanah, which literally means “head of the year.” That feast was then followed closely by the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, also called the Feast of Booths. So it was certainly an appropriate time for the people to make a fresh start and get things right with God.
But as they gathered something unusual happened. The people didn’t wait for someone to show up and preach the sermon. They actually told Ezra to bring the Book of the Law of Moses so that they could hear it. These people relished God’s Word so much that they couldn’t wait to hear it read and explained to them.
And Ezra was certainly the right person for that task. He had come to Jerusalem about 13 years before Nehemiah arrived there. He was a priest, Bible scholar and teacher:
For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
(Ezra 7:10 ESV)
These people stood and listened to God’s Word from early morning to midday, probably about 6 hours. And in verse 3, we see that they weren’t just sleeping through the sermon; they listened attentively. They weren’t constantly looking at their watches or checking out their cellphones. They were so engaged in God’s Word that they didn’t feel the need to go get a cup of coffee or head to the bathroom in the middle of the sermon.
And that wasn’t because Ezra was a great preacher. It is clear from this passage that it was God’s Word itself and not Ezra’s oratorical skills that held the people’s attention.
Sadly, I’m not sure that we consistently relish the Bible like that. I know that it’s been long time since I’ve had anyone come to me and say, “Pat, bring the book” or indicate that they are really excited about hearing God’s Word preached. And I can’t remember ever having someone tell me that they would like me to preach longer because they want to hear more of God’s Word. I’m pretty sure that if I got up here and read and expounded on God’s Word for six hours, I’d be preaching to myself long before I got to the end.
And because the people relished God’s Word so much, the next thing they did was to…
2. Receive God’s Word
As I already mentioned, the people listened attentively to God’s Word being read and explained for six hours that day. But that wasn’t the full extent of how they received God’s Word. As we see in verse 13, the next day, the head of the families came together with Ezra and the priests and the Levites for a Bible study. And although we aren’t given a specific time frame there, my guess is that this probably lasted more than an hour or two. Finally we see in verse 18 that on each of the eight days of the Feast of Tabernacles, the people gathered again and listened as Ezra read from God’s Word.
In Nehemiah’s day, the people didn’t have a Bible on their bookshelves. It may very well have been that Ezra had the only copy of the Scriptures in that entire community. So by necessity, the people had to gather together to receive God’s Word.
Today, where most of us have multiple copies of the Bible and where it is readily available in all different translations on the internet, we don’t necessarily have to gather as a body to receive God’s Word. And maybe that’s not entirely a good thing.
I’m really thankful that I can read, listen to and study the Bible on my own. That is a privilege that many people around the word still don’t experience in our day because they don’t have the Bible in their own language.
But that should not be a substitute for receiving God’s Word together as a community of believers, whether that be in a large group like this or in smaller groups that meet throughout the week. I’m certainly grateful that each week the preparation for my sermon begins by sitting down with a group of men and studying the passage I’m going to preach on that week together with those other men. Through that experience I get insights into God’s Word every single week that could never be developed on my own.
The people relished God’s Word which led to them receiving God’s Word. We also find that they…
3. Revere God’s Word
When Ezra read the Word of God, the people expressed their reverence toward God through their physical actions. They stood together when Ezra read it. And when Ezra prayed to God the people added their own hearty “Amen, amen”. They lifted up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped with their faces to the ground.
While many churches today still employ some of these practices, especially the practice of standing while the Bible is read, the real issue here is not the practices themselves, but the underlying heart attitude. What we see here is that a reverence for God’s Word will naturally overflow into physical expressions in worship when His Word is a focal point in our corporate worship. As we’ll see in a few minutes some of those physical expressions flow out of rejoicing in God’s Word as well.
I understand that many of us are reluctant to shout “amen” or raise or hands or physically bow down when we gather together with other believers in corporate worship. There are a lot of reasons we might be uncomfortable with those practices. Many of us come from a tradition where those kind of physical expressions in worship were not permitted or where they were at least frowned upon. Some of us are worried about what other people are going to think when we engage in those forms of worship.
But the more important issue is whether we really revere God’s Word. I’m certainly not suggesting that we worship the Bible itself. I’ve observed some people who do that in some really strange ways.
There are some who do that by claiming that only some specific English translation of the Bible is really God’s Word and that all other translations are inferior or even that they are not the inspired Word of God.
Some people revere the paper and binding itself rather than the words contained therein. So they are very careful not to physically damage their Bible or to make notes or write in their Bible.
Revering God’s Word means that we value what is written on the pages of Scripture because that is God’s revelation of Himself to us. So we worship the God who is the author of His Word and not the Bible itself.
The people relished God’s Word, they received God’s Word, and they revered God’s Word. The next thing they did was to…
4. Reflect on God’s Word
The people gathered together because they were deeply aware of their ignorance of God’s Word and His ways. And in that corporate gathering they were able to get the kind of understanding of God’s Word that they needed. You need to remember that these people had lived under the influence of the Babylonians and the Persians for well over 100 years and in many ways they had lost their ability to see things from God’s perspective. It is quite likely that most of them no longer spoke Hebrew, but rather Aramaic or Chaldee.
So when Ezra got up and began to read the Scriptures, which were in Hebrew, the people needed someone to help them understand the meaning of those words. In verses 7-8, we see the method that Ezra used to facilitate that process. It appears that as Ezra would read the Scriptures, he would occasionally pause and the Levites who were among the crowd would instruct the people in smaller groups, right where they were in the crowd. They probably translated the Scriptures from Hebrew into a language the people understood and then explained the meaning of the Scriptures so that the people could apply them in their lives.
So we see God’s Word being taught both in the entire corporate gathering as well as in smaller groups where people could ask questions and discuss the Scriptures face-to-face. It was only as people participated in both the large and the smaller groups that they were able to get a full understanding of God’s Word.
That ought to be very instructive for us. It is great that you’re here right now listening to this sermon and hopefully getting a better understanding of God’s Word. But I can guarantee you that the people who will get the most out of this message are the men who studied this passage together on Monday morning and those who will stay for the “Connections” time this morning where we will have a further opportunity to ask questions and discuss how to apply this passage in our lives.
The people relished God’s Word, they received God’s Word, they revered God’s Word, and they reflected on God’s Word. As a result, they were also…
5. Be reproved by God’s Law
As the people reflected on God’s Word, we see in verse 9 that their first response was to mourn and weep. Undoubtedly as the people heard and understood God’s Word they realized that they had been neglecting God and His Word both individually and as a nation.
God’s Word still serves that purpose today. As we spend time in the Scriptures we begin to know God better and understand His holiness. And that inevitably leads to the realization of how far our lives fall short from that holiness. When we hold our lives up to the light of Scripture we see that we as individuals and as a nation have turned our backs on God’s ways and God’s wisdom. We have ignored His commands and disregarded His ways. And that certainly ought to cause us to mourn and to weep.
But you’ll notice that Ezra and Nehemiah didn’t want the people to wallow in that sorrow for too long. It was important for the people to recognize their sin, but they also needed to understand that there was a reality that was greater that their sin. That is the message that Jesus proclaimed near the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
(Matthew 5:4 ESV)
As God’s Word reproves us and cause us to mourn over sin, that is good as long as we let it lead us to the place where we can…
6. Rejoice in God’s Word
Although God’s Word does serve to show us our sin, it is also a source of rejoicing because it also shows us that God is a redeemer who delights in restoring us through His grace. Although the people certainly didn’t have a full understanding of God’s grace made available to us through His Son, even the Scriptures that Ezra read that day revealed God as a redeemer of His people.
The text tells us that Ezra read from the Book of the Law of Moses. That would have consisted of the first five books of the Bible that the Jews call the Torah and which we often refer to as the Pentateuch. And those five books are filled with pictures of God’s grace, from the clothing of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 to the entire sacrificial system which pictured how God would one day provide salvation through the sacrifice of His own Son, the Lamb of God.
Therefore God’s Word was to be a source of great joy for the people. So Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites instructed the people to celebrate – to go back to their homes and continue their worship with a great feast.
The purpose of God’s Word is never to paralyze us by keeping us focused on how bad we’ve messed up. Some of you are crippled by guilt, fear and shame. But the same Word that reveals your sin also promises that there is a Savior and that if you’ve confessed your sin and trusted that Jesus has paid the penalty for your sin that you are forgiven and free. As the words of Isaiah remind us:
I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud
and your sins like mist;
return to me, for I have redeemed you.
(Isaiah 44:22 ESV)
So rejoice!
We began this morning with this overall theme:
Worship that pleases God loves God’s Word
and lives God’s Word
So far we’ve primarily focused on the first part of that them – the love of God’s Word. We demonstrate our love for God’s word as we relish it, receive it, revere it, reflect on it, are reproved by it and rejoice in it. But ultimately our love for God’s Word is either confirmed or denied based on whether or not we live it out. So not surprisingly this passage ends by revealing that I must…
7. Reconcile my life with God’s Word
Once the people had heard God’s Word and had it explained to them they had a choice. They could either ignore it and go on living their lives like they had been doing all along or they could take the steps they needs to take to get their lives in line with what they learned in God’s Word. Fortunately they chose the latter.
We see this first in verse 12 when the people heeded the instructions of Ezra, Nehemiah and the Levites and returned to their homes to rejoice in God’s Word as they feasted together, and by sending provisions to those who had nothing ready. But that obedience to God’s Word is even more apparent in the last part of the chapter. Since that was not part of our Scripture reading earlier go ahead and follow along as I read beginning in verse 13:
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, and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and in Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.” 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. And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule.
(Nehemiah 8:13-18 ESV)
As I mentioned earlier, the day after the corporate worship gathering the heads of the families got together with Ezra and the Levites for a Bible study. As they studied God’s Word together they probably studied Leviticus 23 where God had given instructions for the observance for the Feast of Booths. That feast was to begin on the 15th day of the seventh month, which was less than two weeks away. So the people were faced with another choice about whether they were going to live according to what they had learned.
And I love the response of the people here. They didn’t form a committee to study this issue further. They didn’t postpone their obedience. It certainly would have made sense for them to conclude that it was too late to make all the necessary preparations for this year, so they would just get started earlier next year and observe the feast then. They didn’t even need to pray about whether or not to obey God’s Word since His Word was very clear here. Instead there was an immediate, joyful, almost child-like obedience. “God said to build booths and live in them for a week. Let’s do it.” It seemed that they understood the words of the Psalmist:
I will run in the way of your commandments
when you enlarge my heart!
(Psalm 119:32 ESV)
If you read that verse in the ESV you’ll notice a footnote that indicates that the phrase “when you enlarge my heart” can also be translated “for you set my heart free.” But in either case, the idea is that when God really gets a hold of our hearts, we will run, not walk to run on His path. That kind of obedience is not drudgery or hardship, but joy and blessing.
Worship that pleases God loves God’s Word
and lives God’s Word
That is something that we all do imperfectly. But my prayer for all of us, both as individuals and as a body is that God will develop in us a deep, deep love for His Word and an unquenchable thirst to live according to His Word. Will you join me in that prayer?
[Prayer time]
