This morning, we are continuing in our series on Ezra and Nehemiah. I've got a few weeks left here. Hope y'all will pardon me for just one minute. I wanted to make a little tea this morning, so just give me a minute. My wife's not here, so that ought to be pretty good.
Alright, let's put a little more water in there. That looks kind of thick, doesn't it? There we go, let's get it stirred up good. Alright, that ought to be done maybe about the time I'm getting halfway done with my sermon. There we go. We'll let that brew for a little bit and see how good that is.
Yes, and see if the spoon stands up or not in there. Oh, use the spoon to get the tea bag in? Is that what? Okay, okay, there we go. Thank you. I was just going to let it do a little bit anyway.
This morning, I want to talk to you about something. I want to talk to you about the importance of the Word of God. You know, there are certain things that are important in our lives that we may not realize are important until later in life, such as exercise. When we're young and healthy, we are active, playing basketball or running or whatever, and we may not be focused on exercise. But later in life, we learn that maybe we should have exercised a little more.
It's one of those things that are important, but we don't realize it when we're younger. Like eating right. Who knew that you really should eat your peas and carrots? Those things are important in getting the nutrients we need. Education, maybe when we're younger, we really don't think it's that important. As we get older, we realize, man, I should have stayed in school, should have studied harder.
Car maintenance, right? It really does matter whether you change your oil or not. I grew up in a home where my dad didn't teach me a lot of things that maybe are normal. So making sure that you're keeping up with the maintenance of your car and all those kinds of things are important.
And then, you know, I was trying to brainstorm some of these things. Last but definitely not least, and I don't know if you're like me, you learn these things as you get older—flossing. Maybe you're like me and you go to the dentist, and the hygienist asks you, "Do you floss every day?" For those of you who have heard him, like Jeff Foxworthy, I look at her and I say, "Not every day." You learn as you get older that flossing can actually help your dental health.
There are things that are very important in our lives, but a lot of times we don't realize how important they are until later in life. Well, friends, there is something else that we often neglect that is very, very, very important in our lives and can affect everything we do, but we often neglect it, and that is the Word of God. In fact, I would tend to say it is the most important thing in our lives after we have a relationship with Christ. Even in coming to that, it will help us to become who God wants us to be. Amen?
So this morning, I want to talk to you about the importance of the Word of God and how we ought to treat it, how we ought to respond to it. I believe we see some of those things in our text today. We come to Nehemiah chapter 8, and we find in Nehemiah chapter 8 a text that is probably one of the most familiar from Nehemiah. If you aren't familiar with the whole story, there are parts of it I'm sure that maybe will ring a bell a little bit.
In our text today, I believe we see from Nehemiah and from the Israelites how we ought to respond to the Word of God. The Word of God is so important that it calls out of us these responses. So take your outline, if you will, and let's talk about this a little bit this morning.
Number one, friends, the Word of God is so important that I believe we need to cultivate a desire to hear God's Word. The Word of God is so important that I believe we need to cultivate a desire to hear the Word of God. Now, let me just say off the bat here, when I'm talking about hearing the Word of God, I'm going to lump into that reading the Word of God and studying the Word of God. So we're just kind of lumping all that together.
But it is so important that we need to cultivate a desire for that in our lives. You know, we are so very blessed here in the 21st century in a lot of ways. We're so very blessed to be able to have the Bible at our fingertips. Do you know there was a time just a little over 500 years ago when you couldn't have your own Bible? It wasn't possible. Before the printing press was invented, people didn't have access to the Scriptures.
But now, you know, and then the printing press came, and they started printing Bibles. I imagine everybody here has multiple Bibles in your home, right? Probably several sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust. We are so very blessed to be able to have unencumbered, free, and unlimited access to God's Word today. At any moment, friends, you can either pick up a Bible or your phone and the Bible app or Google whatever you want in Scripture. You can pull up Bible Gateway or Blue Letter Bible or whatever your favorite Bible software is, and you can read the Word of God on your computer, on your phone, on your tablet.
We have so much access to the Word of God, yet we simply many times just don't take advantage of it. Amen? We just don't take advantage of it. In Bible times, they didn't have that opportunity. If they were going to hear the Word of God, they had to rely on public readings of Scripture or what they were able to memorize.
As we come to our text today, that's exactly what they did. They relied on the public reading of God's Word. Let's look at the tail end of chapter 7, verse 73b. You realize that the chapters and verses were not in the original manuscripts, right? Those were put in later on.
So let's begin there. When the seventh month came, that's the month of Tishri, the children of Israel were in their cities. Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Watergate, and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel.
So they rebuilt the wall, and at this point here in chapter 8, less than a week after they finished the wall and the gates, all that stuff, it wasn't like a lot of time had passed. But they came to the month of Tishri, the seventh month, and so they rebuilt the wall. Now it was time for celebration, and we'll talk a little bit more about that. But it was time to now rebuild their lives—not just the protections in the wall in the city, but now to rebuild their lives on the Word of God.
So they called an assembly, they called a gathering. "Let's come together." One of the places they often met was outside the gate, and so they called out in front of the Watergate, "Let's all meet there together."
Now, it doesn't say who called that meeting. Was it Nehemiah? Was it Ezra? You kind of get a little bit of an inkling here that it was just the people. "Hey, you know, potluck at the Watergate," I don't know. But here they come together and call an assembly. They had done a similar type thing about 100 years before in Ezra chapter 3. If you remember way back when we started the series, at that point they had rebuilt the temple, and so they called an assembly for the purpose of restoring sacrificial worship and reinstituting that and restoring the altar in the temple.
Here again, just as they built the temple, then they worked on restoring their lives. Here again, they've built the walls, and now they're working on rebuilding their lives. The first day of the seventh month, the month of Tishri, was the beginning of their civil year. It was their New Year's Day. There was supposed to be an annual assembly on that day celebrated as something known as the Feast of Trumpets.
But we don't hear anything of that because they had evidently been neglecting that, as we're going to see a lot of other things. So they called everybody together to celebrate, probably just to celebrate the finishing of the walls.
Now, we'll see in a few chapters the dedication of the wall. This is not the dedication, but they come together to celebrate. I believe they've probably come together just to worship and thank God for what He's allowed them to do.
In the process, Ezra, you remember, had gone back about 13 years before this and began studying and teaching and preaching the law of God. They told Ezra, "Ezra, bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord God commanded—not just gave, but commanded—Israel."
So Ezra brought the book of the law. Now, what is that book of the law? Probably, we don't know for sure, but everything we read here appears to be the Pentateuch, those first five books of the Old Testament, which was known as the law. Of course, we know it encompasses a good bit more than that, but that's kind of how they refer to it.
According to Deuteronomy chapter 31, it was supposed to be read every seven years at the Feast of Tabernacles. However, they had neglected that too, all the way back since the Babylonian exile when they had been carried off into captivity. It had been neglected.
Okay, so even though they were supposed to read the whole law every seven years, it had been neglected for how long? They had been back in rebuilding the temple. Anybody remember? A little more than 50? About 90 years or so? Okay, and then they'd been in exile for 70 years. So 160, 170 years, the law had not been read or heard.
Look at verse 2. It says, "So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month." Normally, ordinary assemblies only included men, but this was, listen, I believe they were so hungry for the Word that they just wanted everybody who could come. It was men, it was women, it was teenagers, it was boys and girls. In fact, it tells us here all who could understand came to listen to God's Word.
Look at verse 3. It says, "Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Watergate from morning until midday." Now, some of your translations may have something a little different. It may say from daybreak. Does anybody have that? The word is actually a word that means "the light." It refers to the first light before sunrise. So not even sunrise, but when it begins to become light, you know, before the sun actually pops up over the horizon in the east, right?
That would have been probably 6 a.m. or maybe even before that first light. And how long does it say that he read? He read it in the open square from that, would have been daybreak, from the first light until midday.
Okay, so you think 10:30 is early? We could start at 6 a.m. Amen? Can I get a witness? Oh, I see a lot of shaking of heads in the negative direction.
Okay, so from 6 a.m. till midday, at least probably six hours straight. And look at what it says here: "Before the men and women and those who could understand, and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law."
So while he read, six hours. Okay, can I repeat that? Six hours. So when you think that my sermon this morning is a tad bit too long—which honestly it may be—it's not six hours. Amen? Amen? I could go six hours, and I would be biblical in that according to the Scriptures. I'm just saying.
But all that whole time, it says the people were attentive to the book of the law. Now remember, this is men and women and teens and all those who were old enough to understand. We're attentive to the Word of God.
Let's keep going. Verse 4: "So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood." You wonder where we get platforms? Here we go, right? Which they had made for the purpose. Now, maybe not specifically for this purpose, but probably for this type of setting.
Beside him at his right hand stood Maiah, Shema, Ananiah, Uah, Hilkiah, and Maiah—something like that. At his left hand, Padah, Mishel, Malijah, Hashum, Hashbadana, Zachariah, and Mula. Thirteen guys. Thank you. Thirteen men standing with him on the platform, probably priests. But it at least gives us the indication that the platform he was standing on wasn't makeshift. This was a substantial platform that he was on for this purpose.
Verse 5: "And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people." Now, it calls it a book here. Most likely, it was a scroll or scrolls. And so, nevertheless, either way, he opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people because he was on the platform.
When he opened it, all the people stood up, probably out of respect for God's Word. Now just think about this. We take God's Word for granted, don't we? I mean, we have access to it anytime we want. I can pull up my phone at any moment, and I can pull up whatever Scripture I want or all the Scripture I want.
So we take it for granted. They could not. They didn't have access to read it personally. They probably couldn't have read it personally even if they had it sitting in front of them, educationally. And they hadn't heard it many of them probably their whole life.
So they have this awe and this respect for the Word of God, and they stand up. Verse 6: "And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God." Now, does that mean he prayed to God? He began to read? Probably both.
Then all the people answered, "Amen, amen." What did we say last week? "Amen, amen" means what? So be it. So be it. Here they give him their approval. "Amen, amen." So when I preach and you say "Amen," you're being biblical.
I had a professor in seminary. When people would preach, I mean, he was very interactive with the preachers. He would elaborate on that quite a bit. So that's kind of what I imagine some of what's going on here. "Amen, amen," while lifting up their hands. It was common for Jews in worship. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
So kind of a little bit of all kinds of responses as they are praying and as they are hearing the Word of God. Verse 7: "Also, Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbatai, Hodiah, Messiah, K. Azariah, Jebad Hanan, Pah, and the Levites."
Now, whether they were all Levites or not, it appears probably helped the people to understand the law, and the people stood in their place. So while Ezra was up on the platform reading the Word of God, reading the law, the Pentateuch, those first five books of the Bible to the people, he had other men who were on the platform, probably other priests, other Levites here, who while he read, it says helped the people to understand the law.
Now, it doesn't say exactly how they did that. Did these men—remember, we're talking about probably 50,000 people here—did they go out in the crowd and have small group meetings while this was going on? Maybe. Did they go out and answer people's questions? "Hey, what does that mean?" And a group of people gather around? Or I was kind of reading this. I mean, what could it be? What it could be saying here is Ezra would read a part, then somebody would come up and explain it or expound it and help them to understand it, and kind of back and forth there.
We don't know exactly how that happened, but these men, along with Ezra, read the Word of God and then helped the people to understand it and how it applies to their life. Friends, that's exactly what I try to do every week. I don't know that I always do a great job at that. When Pastor Brandon preaches, when Pastor John preaches, when Chris or whomever else, we believe that the Word of God is what is important.
It is not what comes out from between my two ears that really matters; it is what comes from here that matters. Okay? This is God's Word. This is what has authority for our lives. Now, are we as human beings, as men who've been called by God, supposed to study the Scriptures and explain it? Yes, that's exactly what's being talked about here.
That's what the word "exposit" means. It simply means to expound or to explain what you're reading. Okay? So when you hear something called expository preaching, there's a lot of people who don't understand what that word means. Here's all it means: it means to explain the text, to explain what it means.
In other words, I don't come at it with my ideas, and we don't read into the text what we want and proof text. Now, there are preachers who take that, and they'll start talking about something, and then they'll grab a couple of Scriptures here and there to kind of take those Scriptures to enforce an idea that they have. No, what we should do is let the Scriptures speak for themselves, right? And let the text speak to us what we need to hear.
Friends, that allows us and helps us to cultivate a desire to hear God's Word. Amen?
Now, as we look at these first eight verses, on your outline, you notice I believe there are at least four observations that we can make here about the Israelites that I believe are helpful to us. So let's do that before we move on here.
Number one, first of all, the first observation I believe we can make here is this: friends, the people wanted to hear God's Word. The people wanted to hear God's Word. If you notice in verse one, Ezra didn't say, "I'm bringing the law, and everybody's going to sit down and listen to this." What does it say? It says they told Ezra to bring the book of the law.
So the people said, "Ezra, we want to hear this. We want to hear what God has to say to us." And so they told Ezra to bring the Word in order to read, and that he did. Friends, the Bible talks about it this way: it says that we need to desire the pure milk of the Word. Amen? We need to cultivate a desire in our lives, a thirst and a hunger for the Word of God.
Now, if we were like them and hadn't heard the Word of God our whole lives, we would probably be a lot more interested in seeing what it says to us, right? But we allow other things to keep and squash the desire for God's Word in our lives. I would say for most Christians, I would say it's probably many times maybe an intimidation. Many Christians, especially maybe if you're new in the faith and so forth, come to the Bible and get overwhelmed by it and say, "Wow, where do I start?" That's the biggest question I hear from new believers: "Where in the world do I start?"
Well, let me give you—this is not new—let me give you two places to start. Either start in the Gospel of John. Great place to start, the Gospel of John. Read it through. Okay? Or First John, the letter of First John talks a lot about salvation and God's love and what that means and so forth. So start there.
But here's what I want to encourage you: so how do you learn more about God's Word? You study it, right? We get into the Word. And so if we get into the Word, and as you begin to learn—and we begin to learn—we did a class about a little over a year ago. I think it was called "30 Days to Understanding the Bible," and we talked about it. It was kind of a survey of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
I have some of those books, by the way, if you weren't a part of that class but you're interested in that. You're going to have to come to me personally and talk to me. Ask me about that. But it's a great book for just kind of understanding an overview of the Bible.
But as we understand God's Word, we begin to understand some basics about God's Word, then it helps unlock and open our further understanding. So as we grow and we read the Word and we understand some things, then it kind of—we begin to peel back layers, and we understand more and more about God's Word.
So the whole point of that is, can I just say, don't be intimidated by God's Word? Okay? You don't have to have a seminary degree to understand the Word of God. Alright? There are some principles of understanding that will help you. But listen, as we sit down and we read God's Word, there is so much in God's Word, and God gave you the Holy Spirit of God to live inside of you to say to you exactly what He wants you to say.
Now, it doesn't mean that the Word—here's what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that the Word of God can mean whatever somebody else, whatever somebody reads, thinks it means. Okay? We want to come to it and read it and understand the plain meaning of the text.
Okay? Here's what that means: we want to understand the Scriptures in the context, the historical, literary, grammatical context in which it was written. Alright? So yes, there are parts of Scripture that are metaphors. Jesus loves to use hyperbole. Read it as such.
And so as we read it and understand it in the context of what the Holy Spirit through these men of God wrote and said, then God speaks to us. Amen? And it cultivates more of a hunger for God's Word.
So as we read and understand, it will cultivate more reading and understanding. Just don't be intimidated. Yeah, there may be times that you read or things that you read, and you're like, "I have no idea what I just read." Right? That's okay. Read it again. Okay? Study it.
You know, I would encourage you to have just in your back pocket a couple of commentaries that are trustworthy, that maybe just general commentaries that you can trust that will help you to do that. A good study Bible will do that.
Okay? And so if you need help with any of those things, come. I'll be glad to point you in the right direction with that. But friends, we need to, like the people here, they wanted to hear God's Word. We need to have a desire to want to hear God's Word.
The second observation I believe we can make here is this: that they were attentive and respectful. Attentive and respectful. Let's deal with the first one. Okay? Look at verse 3. At the very end of verse 3, we've already read this, but it says, "And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law." This is when he read from sunrise to midday, right? They were attentive.
They wanted to hear. So my question to you is, are you attentive to God's Word? I would like to commend you. I believe as a whole, our church is very attentive to what God's Word has to say when I preach. So I commend you for that.
But what do you do to facilitate that even in your own personal Bible study? Do you give God the best time of your day? Now, I know a lot of times we think that we have to read the Bible first thing in the morning. Okay? But let's be honest. If you're not a morning person, then those quiet times become really, really quiet until you snore.
Okay? And so maybe that's not your best time of day. But whatever your most alert, best time of day is—maybe it's at lunchtime. Okay? When you have lunch at work, you pull out your Bible and you read God's Word. Maybe for you, it's in the evening or at nighttime. But give God the best time, your most alert time of your day.
Second, what do you do to be alert here on Sunday morning? Okay? I don't very rarely get a chance to say things like this, so I'm going to say it. My wife is watching online, and she's saying right now, "Oh, I don't like it when he says that because I don't know what's about to come out next." I know, honey, that's exactly what you're thinking right now, and there's nothing you can do about it. I'm sorry.
And I may have forgotten what I was going to say. No, here's what I was going to say. So here's what that means: it's probably not a good idea to start a three-hour movie at 11:30 on Saturday night if you want to be alert in church on Sunday morning.
Okay? It's just probably not. Your routine for Saturday night ought to reflect, I believe, a willingness and a desire to be alert and to come and study God's Word. Are you eager to hear what it says, or are you sluggish and distracted and about to fall asleep?
Get a good night's sleep, friends. Come to church with an attitude in which you are eager to hear God's Word. Listen, I know this is not the only time you should hear God's Word or read God's Word. It should not be the only time you hear God's Word or read God's Word. But we need to be alert. Give God your best. Amen?
Look at verse 5. We need to be attentive. Verse 5, we also need to be respectful. It says, "When he opened it, all the people stood up." Now, does this mean, "Pastor, that we should stand when the Word of God is read?" Maybe. I know churches that do that. Maybe you do too. That whenever the Word of God is read, they stand in honor of the Word of God.
And there's absolutely—there's nothing wrong with that. I think it's a good thing to do. However, my style of preaching, while I've talked about is it expository, as you've experienced some this morning, my style of preaching is very interactive with the text.
So if every time we read, yeah, we're going to stand up, it's going to be stand up, sit down. Hey, maybe that'll keep you all awake better. Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. Maybe that's good. Or we could stand up the whole time. Yeah, and it's not even six hours.
Okay? Listen, I don't mind. I'm standing up anyway, so I'm good with that, whatever y'all decide. But anyway, I like what commentator James Hamilton said about this. Okay? I want you to listen to this very carefully. Here's what he said: "The point is not the external action." Okay?
He's not the external act. And he goes on a little bit about this and says that people can stand up on the outside and be sitting down on the inside. Okay? If you don't believe that, just go back to when your kids were little. Alright? Happens.
He says the point is not the external action, but the point is that we must recognize the importance of God's Word, respect it, listen closely to it, and most importantly, be attentive to what it says. That's the point. I believe they stood up because they hadn't heard it for 170 years. They were excited about it, which they should have been.
Doesn't mean we can't be excited and do something like that too. But friends, it has more to do with our attitude of how we come to the Word of God. Are we attentive to it, and are we respectful of it, and do we desire to hear it?
Third observation: they were responsive. We need to respond to the Word of God. Verse 6 says it gives us several different ways. When Ezra blessed the Lord, it says, "Then all the people answered, 'Amen, amen,' while lifting up their hands."
And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. What we're going to find out is that they respond in other ways here in a few minutes as well and next week as well, that they are responding to the Word of God.
And so, listen, reading God's Word is not just an intellectual exercise. It is something that should move us in many different ways. Okay? And so we need to be ready and willing to be responsive to the Word of God.
And the last observation I believe we see here is this, friends: that the leaders did their best to explain. I kind of already talked about this or exposit what was read. Verse 8 says, "They read distinctly from the book, the law of God, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading."
So just as we try to do, friends, I believe we should do the same. They explained the text. They exposited the text. How do we come to faith, and how does our faith grow? Just want you to think about that for just a minute.
How do we come to faith, and how does our faith grow? Here's how I believe it happens. Next, here we go. Romans 10:17. You know this verse, especially if you're in Awana, W.A. leader. So then, what? Say it with me: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the what? By the Word of God."
So faith comes by hearing, okay? And hearing by the Word of God. So, friends, the Word of God is so, so, so important to our faith. I believe, first of all, to us coming to faith in Christ. Okay? The Word of God is the very words of God. It's the words of the Holy Spirit of God.
And so I believe it's important in—we can share the gospel without sharing the Scripture specifically, but I believe when we share Scripture, it brings even more power to it, right? Because it is from the Word of God. It is the very words of God.
But it is so important to our faith, friends, that we need to cultivate a desire to hear God's Word so that our faith will continue to grow. It is by studying the Word of God and hearing the Word of God and reading the Word of God that God works on us.
And so if you're not doing that, then guess what? It's probably not happening.
Okay, let's move on to number two. The Word of God is so important that we need to cultivate a desire to hear God's Word. Number two, not only that, friends, but the Word of God is so important that we must learn to rejoice in all that it says.
We must learn to rejoice in everything it says. Here's the deal: we tend to like the parts that encourage us. Amen? You know, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; lean not on your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy paths."
We love those verses that encourage us, but maybe we don't like so much the parts that convict us. "You have heard that it was said, but I say to you," right? The parts that rebuke us, the parts that tell us things that we maybe don't like to hear.
Look at verse 9. Let's see what happens next. Verse 9 says, "And Nehemiah, who was the governor—we know that—Ezra the priest and scribe, hey, we know that too—and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, 'This day is holy to the Lord your God.'"
So we don't know the exact reason for this, but we get an inkling here that they called all the people to celebrate on this day, to be a day they can set aside to God, probably in thankfulness and gratefulness for how He brought them back into the land and helped them to rebuild the walls.
This was a time of praise and thanksgiving to God. It was set aside to the Lord. "So do not mourn nor weep," for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.
So it appears that what has happened here is that as Ezra was reading the Word and they were explaining the Word, and the people heard the Word, that what they were reading—whatever parts of the Pentateuch, whatever parts of the law they were reading—the people were convicted about and felt bad about, which, let's just be honest, right? They probably should have, right?
And it brought a deep conviction and even a brokenness among the people. It says that they mourned and wept when they heard the words of the law. Now, you may be saying, "But Pastor, isn't that good?" Well, normally I would say yes.
However, look at what Nehemiah says in verse 10. "Then he said to them, 'Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet.'" Man, I wish somebody would tell me that. You know? Amen? "And send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared."
So go and celebrate. What he's telling them, right? Eat the good stuff. Give that to those who don't have anything as well and celebrate together. For what does he say? "For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."
You say, "But Pastor, you know, we're supposed to feel convicted at certain times from parts of—yes, we are. Okay? But even in the conviction that we often feel, there is and can be joy in that if we respond in the right way. Amen?
And so I believe that's kind of what he's getting at. Not to mention, okay, not to mention that there would be a time for that. Alright? We'll see that and stuff. But he says, "The joy of the Lord is your strength."
Think about what God has done for you, that He has not destroyed you. Right? God could have destroyed the Israelites for their idolatry and their intermarriage with peoples who were idolatrous, right? But He didn't. Instead, He just sent them to exile.
And because He loved them so much, He brought them back. And so what I believe they're telling them is celebrate that. That God didn't destroy you, but He brought you back into the land and has allowed you to rebuild your city and is now allowing you to rebuild your lives.
So focus on that right now, not your sin and not even what caused it. So verse 11: "The Levites quieted all the people, saying, 'Be still, for the day is holy. Do not be grieved.'"
Okay? This day was a day of celebration. It was supposed to be the day of the Feast of Trumpets. Okay? And so it was supposed to be a happy day of celebration.
Verse 12: "And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly because they understood the words that were declared to them."
So there would be a time for mourning and sorrow and weeping over sin. In fact, we'll see that in chapter 9 next week. Okay? But not this day. Not this day. This day was the Feast of Trumpets. This day was a celebration and a praise and thankful to the Lord.
As they didn't know this, Nehemiah probably did. They were about to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, okay? Which remembered how God had brought them out of Egypt, and now they were celebrating how God had brought them back into the land.
Friends, it was a time to rejoice. As we read God's Word, there are parts of Scripture that are encouraging. Amen? There are parts of Scripture that are uplifting, that are inspiring. And in those, as I've already said, it is easy to rejoice. Amen?
But there are other parts of Scripture that are convicting, that tell us things that we don't like or are things that we don't want to do. "I'd rather do this, but Scripture is telling me to do that." Things that admonish us or things that reprimand us or sometimes even scold us or take us to task.
Friends, here's the deal: we need to learn to rejoice even in that too. You say, "But Pastor, how do I do that? Why should I do that?" Here's how we do that, friends. I believe we rejoice even in the scoldings and the whippings. Okay? I'm exaggerating there.
But in the discipline, we rejoice even in that, friends, understanding that God's way is best. Amen? Understand that God's way is best, whether we agree with it or not. That even conviction and reprimand from one who loves us is for our good. Amen?
That it ultimately does one of two things. You see, when God is telling us something that's going to keep us from harm or keep us from stuff or reprimand us or rebuke us or whatever, it either keeps us from harm—has that intent—or it helps bring us back to Him and into safety.
And either one of those is better than the alternative. Friends, it is not loving to let someone continue in their sin when you know where that road leads. Only someone who hates us would allow us to continue down a road that they knew goes off a cliff. That's not loving at all.
Friends, so we can rejoice even in the rebuke, even in the repentance that is brought about from God's Word, whether we like it or not, knowing that it is for our good. Amen?
So friends, the Word of God is so important that it leads us right to number three. The Word of God is so important that we need to cultivate a desire to hear God's Word, that we need to learn to rejoice in everything it says. And the third response I believe we see here is that the Word of God is so important that we must learn to do all it says enthusiastically.
We must learn to do all that it says enthusiastically. Alright, look at verse 13. Verse 13 says, "Now on the second day, the heads of the father's houses of all the people with the priests and Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe in order to understand the words of the law."
So they loved hearing the Word of God so much that they came back the next day for more. How wonderful is that? Amen? They came back for more. They loved hearing what it said, hearing it applied to their lives, and so they came back for more.
Verse 14: "And they found written in the law which the Lord God had commanded by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the Feast of the seventh month."
Now, it needs a little bit of explanation, alright? Because it's not saying that they all need to get into a telephone booth. Alright? So what does it mean here? Well, the word "booth" is the Hebrew word "sukkah," and it means really temporary shelters.
Okay? A booth was a temporary shelter made out of tree branches with real leafy leaves. Okay? So think you and your buddies were making a fort in the woods when you were a kid. Okay? And we kind of actually did this. We'd take limbs, you know, put it up against a tree, and then take leaves and put over the top of it. That's what really a booth is.
Okay? It is called—in fact, the Feast of Booths, which is a more accurate name, is called the Feast of Tabernacles. Tabernacle is a tent, so you can kind of see where they get the tent from. Because they had never seen this before, they read this, and they said, "Hey, we should dwell in booths like it says here in the Word. That's what we're supposed to do in this festival."
So look at verse 15. It says that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the mountain and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees to make booths, as it is written."
So here they were in Jerusalem, probably not enough trees around. Okay? So they send the people back to their towns and villages and go to the mountains and go to the forest, wherever you can find, you know, and find branches and bring them back so we can do this.
Verse 16: "Then the people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house if they lived there, or in their courtyards or the courts of the house of God, in the open square of the Watergate and in the open square of the Gate of Ephraim."
Okay? So they made these booths, these temporary shelters, wherever they could. Verse 17: "So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths, for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day, the children of Israel had not done so."
So here they were. They read that they were supposed to be celebrating the Feast of Booths, which—why were they to make these in the first place? It was simply as a remembrance of that God delivered them from Egypt.
When they were delivered from Egypt and living out in the wilderness, they made booths, these types of things to live in. And so the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Booths, is about that. It is about helping them to remember what their ancestors did when God delivered them from slavery in Egypt.
And so now they get the opportunity. They make booths, and they make it all around. And here they are celebrating. It says they hadn't done this since the days of Joshua.
Now, it doesn't mean they hadn't celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. We see back in Ezra chapter 3 that they actually did do that. I believe what it's talking about here is they hadn't actually celebrated it like this or to this extent where everybody got tree branches and made booths.
And it just kind of sounds like everybody did that. They were excited about this because they'd never done it before, and this is what God's Word said to do. And it says, "And there was very great gladness."
And so they celebrated. Here's the key thing: not begrudgingly. They obeyed the Word of God not out of obligation, but enthusiastically. Right? They wanted to do—they read it, and they wanted to do what God's Word told them to do.
Verse 18: "And day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the book of the law of God, and they kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day, there was a sacred assembly according to the prescribed manner."
So they read it, they sought to do it, everything they did was according to—they obeyed and did exactly what God's Word told them to do enthusiastically because I believe they were hungry for God's Word, and they wanted to obey what God told them to do.
Oh, that we would do the same. Amen?
Let me just say this real quick: being obedient to God's Word and doing all that doesn't save us. Amen? It's not by what we do. It's not by doing certain things that saves us. It is by being obedient to the gospel. What that means is believing and trusting that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that we are saved, trusting that as our Savior.
But it's not by being—once we are saved, God's Word is given to us for life and godliness. Amen? It is given to us to show us how to live because God knows what's best for us.
You know, we are supposed to obey the Lord because of what Christ has done for us. We're supposed to do what He says and what His Word tells us to do. But we can do that either legalistically—in other words, out of obligation. "I just got to do this because God's Word says it."
Or we can do it enthusiastically, out of joy, out of joy for what Christ has done for us and out of a desire to please Him. What helps us to go from obeying legalistically to obeying enthusiastically? What do you just think about that?
What helps us? What helps us go from that, obeying legalistically to obeying enthusiastically? Friends, I believe it is understanding, number one, the depth of our sin. Understanding that without Jesus and without what God has done for me, I deserve to spend eternity in hell.
And out of a gratefulness that Jesus was willing to step out of heaven and die on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins. So when I understand that, I understand the goodness of God towards me, and it changes my attitude from a "have to" to a "want to." Amen?
Understanding that what He has done is out of love for me. Understanding that what He tells me in His Word is because He loves me, that He truly has our best interest at heart in everything it is that He tells us.
Friends, that God is not a fuddy-duddy just trying to squash every fun thing that we want to do. That's what a lot of people think. In fact, let me just tell you, the things that God tells us will actually bring you greater, longer, more lasting joy than anything the devil or the world tells you.
God really, Father, really does know best. Amen?
Now, let me go back to just for a minute to our analogy at the beginning. You know, talking about the things that are important in our lives but that we often don't do because we don't think they're important. That flossing thing just never can get away from me.
You know, we avoid flossing, and maybe when we're real, real little, we avoid even brushing our teeth. I've had times I've had to tell my kids, "You got to brush your teeth. You got to brush your teeth." Okay? Little gargle with some heavy Listerine or something too.
But we avoid those things, friends, until the point at which we realize and learn that the benefits of doing those things outweigh the trouble, right? We avoid flossing until we realize that the benefit of flossing outweighs having no teeth.
We avoid exercise until we learn that the benefits of exercise help us to stay healthy. Amen?
And friends, the same thing is true with God's Word. We have to learn that the benefits of obeying outweigh the trouble and the difficulty of doing it. And of course, as I've already said, the greatest benefit of all is that we get eternity when we trust Him and His Son. Amen?
You know, this morning, at the beginning, I started making some tea, and I really haven't even stirred it. But you know, when I put this tea bag in here, I did it for a reason. Did you notice how when I first put it in here, the tea just slowly began to seep?
But it was mostly still water, right? As it sat here the whole service, the tea in the bag has—as the tea steeped, the tea has permeated that whole water. Not bad. But the tea has permeated the water, and the longer I let this tea bag sit in here, the stronger it gets, doesn't it?
Yes, the stronger it gets. And so I did this this morning not just so I would have something to drink, but really for this purpose, friends. No analogy is perfect, but I believe this can illustrate the Word of God in our lives.
You know, if we just dip in the Word of God, there's not going to be much there, is there? There's not going to be much tea flavor there. But when we get in the Word of God—and I love what Max Anders says: he says we need to get into the Word of God so the Word of God can get into us.
And let me just say this, friends: it is those—that relationship is directly proportional. Okay? In other words, the more you get into the Word of God, the more the Word of God can get into you and permeate your life.
Just like this tea has this water. We want to know how we become more godly. Do you want to know how we begin to display more fruits of the Spirit? You see, the opposite is also true.
I guarantee you—now listen, we all can mess up and lose our cool at any time, alright? But in general, if you find somebody who loses their cool all the time and has anger problems and all of that, my guess is they're not spending much time, if any, in the Word of God.
The more time we spend in the Word of God, the more the Word of God gets into us, and the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to transform our hearts and our souls. He saves us through the gospel contained in the Word of God. Amen?
What Christ has done for us, and then He sanctifies us through this process. But friends, we need to get in the Word of God. Amen?
Let me challenge you this morning. Let me just simply challenge you that it's not just about reading your Bible. Yes, it's about reading your Bible, but it's not just about reading your Bible.
It is about allowing the Holy Spirit of God to work in your life to transform you into who He has made you to be. And when you're not in your Bible, when you're not in the Word of God—we are so blessed with this, right? When you're not in here, you're not allowing Him to do His work in you.
What step do you need to take today? I don't think I even need to tell you. I think you know. So let's do it. Amen?
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on Feb 07, 2024
