Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 185 - Nehemiah, God's Builder - Part 8 Sometimes we forget how much of the word of God we have today - since the printing press and now the Internet have come along. In Nehemiah's day there were probably just a few hundred scrolls of the Law in existence carefully hand-copied by the scribes. In fact at one point, in Josiah's revival the "book of the Law" was discovered in the Temple. Some estimates are that the book of the Law had been lost for between sixty and two hundred years! Generations had come and gone without hearing God's Word! When Ezra reads the Law to people who have returned from 70 years of exile, the impact is incredible: Neh 8:1 By the seventh month the people of Israel were all settled in their towns. On the first day of that month they all assembled in Jerusalem, in the square just inside the Water Gate. They asked Ezra, the priest and scholar of the Law which the LORD had given Israel through Moses, to get the book of the Law. Neh 8:2 So Ezra brought it to the place where the people had gathered---men, women, and the children who were old enough to understand. Neh 8:3 There in the square by the gate he read the Law to them from dawn until noon, and they all listened attentively. Neh 8:4 Ezra was standing on a wooden platform that had been built for the occasion. The following men stood at his right: Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah; and the following stood at his left: Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam. Neh 8:5 As Ezra stood there on the platform high above the people, they all kept their eyes fixed on him. As soon as he opened the book, they all stood up. Neh 8:6 Ezra said, "Praise the LORD, the great God!" All the people raised their arms in the air and answered, "Amen! Amen!" They knelt in worship, with their faces to the ground. Neh 8:7 Then they rose and stood in their places, and the following Levites explained the Law to them: Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah. Neh 8:8 They gave an oral translation of God's Law and explained it so that the people could understand it. Neh 8:9 When the people heard what the Law required, they were so moved that they began to cry. So Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra, the priest and scholar of the Law, and the Levites who were explaining the Law told all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God, so you are not to mourn or cry. Neh 8:10 Now go home and have a feast. Share your food and wine with those who don't have enough. Today is holy to our Lord, so don't be sad. The joy that the LORD gives you will make you strong." Neh 8:11 The Levites went around calming the people and telling them not to be sad on such a holy day. Neh 8:12 So all the people went home and ate and drank joyfully and shared what they had with others, because they understood what had been read to them. The Law was translated out of the original biblical Hebrew into Aramaic (which was then becoming common) and possibly also into Babylonian as many would have grown up in that country. Not only was it translated but it was explained in clear terms so people could understand it. And it was done with reverence and authority for the word. Ezra the scribe, venerated as a scholar of the Bible, and possibly responsible for much of the shape of the present Old Testament was in charge. There are two principles here. Firstly theological experts who knew the exact interpretations expounded the Bible from the original languages. Secondly the Law was then made accessible to the ordinary people through careful explanation. We need to hold to BOTH accuracy and accessibility. We need people who can be experts in theology, original languages and translations. We also need people who can take their findings and make them clear to ordinary people without changing the meaning. The reaction to the Law was weeping. Why they wept is not stated, perhaps repentance, perhaps just the reaffirmation of all that they believed in. The weeping was such that the leadership decided they had to calm the people. So they said a few things that we should note: "This day is holy to the LORD your God, so you are not to mourn or cry." That is holiness is happiness - not mourning and misery. Holy days are to be holidays. "Now go home and have a feast. Share your food and wine with those who don't have enough." Holiness involves eating food and drinking wine and having a feast - and sharing with others in the process. Holiness is a lot like Christmas. "Today is holy to our Lord, so don't be sad. The joy that the LORD gives you will make you strong." The joy of the Lord is your strength! God gives us joy to make us strong. Joy is God's gift to us to strengthen us in the midst of life. Joy is God's notion and God's holy emotion. Neh 8:13 The next day the heads of the clans, together with the priests and the Levites, went to Ezra to study the teachings of the Law. Neh 8:14 They discovered that the Law, which the LORD gave through Moses, ordered the people of Israel to live in temporary shelters during the Festival of Shelters. Neh 8:15 So they gave the following instructions and sent them all through Jerusalem and the other cities and towns: "Go out to the hills and get branches from pines, olives, myrtles, palms, and other trees to make shelters according to the instructions written in the Law." Neh 8:16 So the people got branches and built shelters on the flat roofs of their houses, in their yards, in the Temple courtyard, and in the public squares by the Water Gate and by the Ephraim Gate. Neh 8:17 All the people who had come back from captivity built shelters and lived in them. This was the first time it had been done since the days of Joshua son of Nun, and everybody was excited and happy. Neh 8:18 From the first day of the festival to the last they read a part of God's Law every day. They celebrated for seven days, and on the eighth day there was a closing ceremony, as required in the Law. The leaders went to Ezra for a big bible study, probably on the book of Deuteronomy. They discovered the Feast of Booths and went out and made what we in Australia call "cubby houses", houses made of branches. They made them on rooftops and in their yards and even in public places like the Temple courtyard. Then they went to camp and had a week of Bible studies! This reminds me of the Scripture Union Christian camping movement (which I was involved with for 15 years) and similar times of fellowship in the word while camping outdoors. It's a great way to learn the Word. The result "everybody was excited and happy." (Consider Christian camping as a program in your church - and not just for young people.) A comment in passing sheds great light - "This was the first time it had been done since the days of Joshua son of Nun". From the days of Joshua the son of Nun around 1300BC to Nehemiah 444 BC this feast had not been observed. That's about 900 years! The notion of the nation of Israel faithfully observing all the major and regular feasts throughout its history crashes! A similar comment is made about Josiah and the Passover "2Ki 23:21 King Josiah ordered the people to celebrate the Passover in honor of the LORD their God, as written in the book of the covenant. 2Ki 23:22 No Passover like this one had ever been celebrated by any of the kings of Israel or of Judah, since the time when judges ruled the nation. " It seems from the time of the Judges onward that the feasts became irregular, perhaps observed by a faithful few and the priests but rarely by the nation as a whole. Here is a record of individual faith, the few observe the feasts while the many neglect them. The replacement of corporate faith with individual faith inevitably led to decline when the many slack inobservant Jews became idolatrous and were joined in this by the princes, so the nation became wicked, and judgment fell. If we stand for nothing, we fall for everything. Blessings, John Edmiston Were you blessed by Eternity Daily Bible Study? To subscribe just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org Visit the Eternity Daily Bible Study Archives - http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ Study at the Asian Internet Bible Institute- Free online non-formal, in-service, bible and ministry training: http://www.aibi.ph