After the completion of the wall the people of God had been summoned back into the city of Jerusalem.
And you remember for an entire morning, perhaps four or five hours, they stood in a square in Jerusalem and heard Ezra read the scriptures.
For many people the only time they deal with the Word of God is when it is preached to them. But just to read the scriptures there is great benefit in reading the Word of God.
Illus: You see, when you hear the preaching of God’s Word you are being SPOON FED!!! But when you read the Word of God for yourself God will speak to you through His Word also.
The Bible tells us they had built Ezra a tall pulpit of wood so that he could look over the large crowd and project his voice over them as he read the scriptures to them.
But since his voice could not reach all of them he had placed through out the crowd thirteen men to read what he read.
We take for granted today the loud speakers that we are blessed to have a preacher can preach to thousands.
It is believed that once he read the scriptures these thirteen men were strategically placed among the crowd and they would get their groups assigned to them and ask them, DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT EZRA READ FROM THE SCRIPTURES.
• Some would nod their heads they understood.
• Some would say no we do not understand, can you clearify what he just read and these men would clearify what they had heard from the scriptures.
Also, these thirteen men translated from the Hebrew text into the Aramaic language, which after the exile was the predominant language that the Jews, including those who lived in Jerusalem, spoke.
One gets the impression that perhaps they even applied those Scriptures to their lives.
What a day it was!
You remember that as they gathered that day and they heard the Law of God being read, it was a revival. It was an extraordinary act of the Holy Spirit bringing these people in Jerusalem and the towns and villages round about, bringing them back to a sense of God and of the majesty of His word.
When they heard the Word of God read the Bible tells us they began to weep.
But this out pouring of God’s Spirit this was not a time for weeping but a time of rejoicing.
Nehemiah exhorts them not to weep, but to rejoice.
In verse 10,Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
What a tremendous day this was among God’s people.
Look at Nehemiah 8: 11-12, So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved. And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.
They went home but now let us look at what happens the next day.
Now all the people have gone home, and it is the next day…and the heads of households, including priests and Levites, are going to be summoned back into the city for more Bible study.
What they discover as they read the book of Leviticus, the book of Deuteronomy, the book of Exodus — all three books make mention of the Feast of Booths which is commonly translated to English as Feast of Tabernacles, sometimes also as Feast of the Ingathering.
What is confusing to many when they read about this feast days it actually have four names:
1) Feast of booths
2) Feast of tabernacles
3) Feast of sukok
4) Feast of gathering
Look at Nehemiah 8:13-15 And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law. And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month: And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.
WHAT IS THE FEAST OF BOOTHS OR THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES?
The Feast of Tabernacles, the Lord commanded Israel to observe and one of the three feasts that Jews were to observe each year according to Deuteronomy 16:16 they were to “appear before the Lord your God in the place which He shall choose”.
One of the reason we find in the scriptures that the Lord repeats something over and over again is because REPETION IS A MEANS OF TEACHING!
That is, we might read something one time in the scriptures and we read over it. But when we read it again all of a sudden it begans to sink in.
When Ezra read from the scriptures he read a number of times about the FEAST OF BOOTHS and it dawned on him this was something THEY WERE NOT DOING!!!
“For since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so.”
The importance of the Feast of Tabernacles can be seen in how many places it is mentioned in the Scripture.
For one thing, it was at this time that Solomon’s Temple was dedicated to the Lord in I Kings 8:2.
Like all feasts, it begins with a “holy convocation” or Sabbath day when the Israelites were to stop working to set aside the day for worshiping God. On each day of the feast they were to offer an “offering made by fire to the Lord” and then after seven days of feasting, again the eighth day was to be “a holy convocation” when they were to cease from work and offer another sacrifice to God according to Lev. 23. Lasting eight days, the Feast of Booths begins and ends with a Sabbath day of rest.
WHY WAS IT CALL THE FEAST OF BOOTHS?
During the eight days of the feast, the Israelites would dwell in booths or tabernacles that were made from the branches of trees according to Lev. 23:40-42.
WHY WAS IT IMPORTANT THAT THEY OBSERVE THIS FEAST OF BOOTHS.
The Feast of Tabernacles, like all the feasts, was instituted by God as a way of reminding Israelites in every generation of their deliverance by God from Egypt.
After Ezra read the scriptures God spoke to their heart they were not doing this and now they are talking about it the next day.
It had been a long time since they had celebrated the Feast of Booths. God speaks to us through the scriptures.
This was a collective experience of the people of God that God was requiring something of them that they had not been doing.
After God spoke to them through His Word now let us look at…
I. THE ACT OF OBEDIENCE.
And that's the first thing I want us to see: an act of obedience.
Nehemiah 8:15-18 And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.
They heard the Word and now they are DOERS OF THE WORD.
The Bible says we have to be doers as well as hearers of Scriptures.
They discovered in the book of Leviticus, in the book of Deuteronomy, in the book of Exodus…And they immediately obeyed.
Now, there are two ways you can respond to a commandment in Scripture.
(1) The first is you can throw up your hands and say, “Legalism!”
What is legalism?
Legalism is trying to earn the favor of God, trying to do something, trying to obey, trying to comply with the commandments of God in order that God may look more favorably upon me.
We’re not here this evening in order to try and win the favor of God.
I can't win the favor of God by…
• Reading more Bible
• Praying more
• Attending church more. See?
Legalism is adding to the commandments of God.
• The Pharisees were adept at doing that. It's part of the encounter of Jesus with the Pharisees. They were adding to the commandments of God.
• The Judaisers that Paul is addressing in Galatia were trying to win the favor of God. They half believed in gospel and in grace, but they also believed in trying to obey in order to win the favor of God. Now, the Pharisees were adept at adding to the commandments of God. That's legalism.
Now there's another error that's the opposite error.
(2) It's what we call antinomianism. (anti-nomian-ism)
Antinomianism loves to use the word “grace.” And because it uses the word grace, it sounds right. It sounds orthodox. It sounds very gospel: “Don't you be demanding anything of me, because I live under the umbrella of grace.”
It is equally a plague, because grace gives a new heart — a new heart that doesn't say, “I don't have to obey God anymore, because I'm under the umbrella of grace. I'm a child of God. I'm a son. I'm an adopted heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, and I don't need to obey anymore. So don't you force your ethical imperatives upon me.”
No, grace changes. It gives me a new heart, a new desire, a new will, a new resolve.
Because I'm a believer, I love God, because He loves me, I want to obey.
That's what you see here.
What you see here is the evidence of true grace.
What's the evidence of true grace? That they have a desire to obey.
They read a law, they read a command, they read an imperative, they read an ethic…in this case, it's the Feast of Booths, it could be anything, but in this case it's the Feast of Booths.
And God is saying, ‘You are to do this. This is a command that I'm making to all the people and they obeyed. It's a beautiful thing.
• They obeyed.
• They obeyed instantly.
• They obeyed willingly.
We see an act of obedience but also…
II. II.THE ACT OF CELEBRATION
III. Look at Nehemiah 8:17 And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.
Secondly, it was an act of celebration. I want to say something about the Feast of Booths.
The modern Jews celebrate Sukkot (Feast of Booths) in late September or early October — it changes. It was the fifteenth day. It began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar.
They were to bring branches. You know, children — boys, girls, this was great fun!
You’d gather branches — olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches. You’d bring them to Jerusalem and you’d build.
Those who lived in the city would build on the roof of their house. Those who did not live in the city would build elsewhere.
Some of them built in the square, next to a wall…perhaps in the corner…that would mean you’d only need two walls and something by way of a roof. It was like camping, camping out for the night.
I can only imagine that children loved Booths or Tabernacles — to camp out for seven days, to cook out, to have roast lamb cooked outside on a barbecue for seven days, it was enormous fun. It was a joyful, joyous celebration.
Tabernacles commemorated two things.
(1) It was a reminder, of course, of the wilderness era. ‘Remember how your forefathers lived for forty years in the wilderness, camping out with the stars of the Sinai Peninsula as their roof, eating manna and quail,’ it said in a very forceful way. It was a vivid reminder of God's protection during a time of great hardship. God had protected them. God had led them all the way.
They needed to remember that.
(2) But Tabernacles was also of course a harvest celebration. It's called in Exodus the Feast of Ingathering.
You know, it's late September or early October. It's when all the fruit and all the cereal and all the crops have come in.
It's …well, some churches have Harvest Thanksgivings. It's partly based on that Old Testament ritual of the Feast of Ingathering. It was a reminder that God provides, and whatever blessings you have, remember God has given them.
What better a way to be reminded than to have to camp out for seven days under some myrtle branches in the wind and rain? Then you’ll be grateful for that bed and a nice hot meal!
Tabernacles and Booths was a reminder of all those things.
III. THE ACT OF REJOICING.
But you notice a third thing here. It's an extraordinary statement. We read at the end of verse 17, “And there was very great rejoicing.”
There was great joy. They had obeyed the commandment of God to celebrate the Feast of Booths, and they experienced great joy.
It is always this way when we obey God…
(1) When a new believer accept the Lord and follow Him in Believers Baptism they will tell you they feel good afwards.
(2) When a person attends church obeying the command not to forsake the assembling of themselves together they always feel good.
(3) When a person obey the command to tithe they feel good.
Anytime we obey God we are bless with feeling good.
You know what that's saying? That joy comes through obedience.
There's nothing like being at the center of the will of God. There's nothing like it.
Illus: The song writer had it right when he wrote these words, “There is no other way to be happy than to TRUST AND OBEY”
The Bible tells us after they obeyed the Lord they were rejoicing.
Illus: There's a rabbinical saying that says that you've never seen joy until you've been to the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem.
Some of the saddest people in our church are those who half heartedly obey the Lord. But some of the most happiest people are those who found out there is joy in serving the Lord.
Please stand; receive the Lord's benediction.
Conclusion: In Nehemiah 8: 11-18 we have looked at:
I. THE ACT OF OBEDIENCE
II. THE ACT OF CELEBRATION
III. THE ACT OF REJOICING
