Adult Bible Fellowship: Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6-8, Jeff Kliewer)

about Nehemiah's. Okay, we're in Nehemiah chapter six, verse 16, if you could find that.

And so far in Nehemiah, remember that Ezra, Nehemiah are really one book in the

Hebrew Bible. The first six chapters, we found that there was a lot of adversity facing

Nehemiah. He was opposed, anybody remember the names of those, those scoundrels? Nehemiah and Sanballah.

Yes, and their little buddy Geshon. Yeah, the Arab. Yeah, so these guys kept popping up, kept opposing, their opposition got stronger and stronger, and yet Nehemiah consistently trusted the

Lord, prayed, and knew that there was a spiritual force that was behind this opposition, and so turned to the

Lord and was able to overcome each of the rising tide of opposition.

Nehemiah continued to trust in God, and now we're going to see a great victory recounted beginning in verse 15.

So we'll go around the room, and would you guys mind, if you don't want to read this, pass, and the next person will take over.

But let's just read the end of chapter six, verses 15 through 19.

So the wall was finished on the 25th day of the month, a wall in 52 days, and when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and felt greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our

God. Moreover, in those days, with the help of our

God, the noble Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters came to them, for many of Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son -in -law of Jeconiah, the son of Arah, and his son

Jehonim, had taken the daughter of Meshulam, the son of Rechah, as his wife.

Also, they spoke of his good deeds in my presence, and reported my words to him.

Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid. Okay, so here we see a great victory.

How long did it take for them to build the wall? Remember, last time we noticed they built a half its height, now it's completed, and how long did it take?

52 days, isn't that amazing? To rebuild the entire wall around Jerusalem in 52 days.

And what spiritual implication did that have? Notice in verse 16. Very good,

Emily, yes, notice that verse 16, they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our

God. Ordinary human effort could not account for this kind of power, this kind of victory, and the surrounding nations noticed that Yahweh, Jehovah, was behind this work.

And that was good, that was for the glory of God. Now, you would assume with that, that the enemies would finally give up, right?

The wall's rebuilt. Shouldn't they throw in the towel at this point? Wouldn't you think?

You would hope. In our lives, will the enemy ever give up?

No. 1 Peter 5, 8, anybody know it? He's like a roaring lion, seeking him in and about.

Yes, the enemy is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He's constantly on the prowl, he's constantly looking to attack, even though he's defeated.

So I wanted to draw a parallel between this great victory that we see Nehemiah, one time after another, overcoming opposition, and yet the opposition will keep coming, and he'll keep overcoming.

Look in the New Testament at 2 Corinthians 2, 14 to 16.

And, Emily, if you don't mind reading that.

Okay, so 2 Corinthians 2, 14 through 16.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphant procession, and uses us to spread the aroma for the knowledge of him everywhere.

For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved, and those who are perishing.

To the one, we are the aroma that brings death. To the other, an aroma that brings life. And two is equal to such a task.

Paul uses the expression triumphal procession, that Christ leads us in triumphal procession.

Picture an army that goes out and wins a great victory, and now is coming home.

What does the city do as the army returns to the city? Cheers, has a big party.

The army comes marching through the gates of the city, and they're coming in in triumphal procession, marching in lines and ranks and perhaps stomping, and the crowds around them are cheering because they've won a victory.

That's the picture that we have of our walk with Christ. Now, does anybody here feel kind of like me?

Sometimes you don't feel that triumphal procession, right? In all of our lives, there's times we don't feel it.

But isn't this a neat description of how we really are? And in the life of Paul, was it all sunshine and roses?

Part of this thing, right? Five times I received the 40 lashes minus one. Once I was shipwrecked,

I was stoned and left for dead. And everywhere he faces the pressure of the churches that he was concerned for, he talks about his sufferings, and he even delights in those weaknesses, and yet, it's all part of a triumphal procession.

Ultimately, Christ is already the victor, and Paul is moving from victory to victory, even though there's suffering and pain along the way.

Picture that in Nehemiah. Every time the opposition comes against him, he trusts in God, he prays, and they move forward.

And now the victory is going on, but the enemy's not giving up. So how then, what is the parallel that you see between this,

Israel's victory, and the church's triumphal procession? And Romans 8 .37

is another clue along that. I've already said it, but Rick, would you mind reading that? Romans 8 .37.

No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Does that well describe

Nehemiah's day? Yeah, more than conquerors.

52 days overcoming through Christ. Oh, what's interesting, these words today are loaded with conflict and victory.

Not just being in victory. Right, right. There's an overcoming of something.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Jeff, how would you define the more? In terms of the spiritual war or the physical?

The more than conquerors. Oh, more, more than conquerors. Well, I think there's an,

I don't know, I'm not sure you guys can chime in on that. What do you guys think? I think it's not only just an earthly victory, but it's an eternal and spiritual one that's, you can't be defeated.

You're utterly victorious. I would think more is just stressing the fact you're victory.

Anybody have a different opinion on that or studied that more? More than conquerors.

Yeah, I think it's just a picture of, we are utterly triumphant in Christ. And I think it could be more than just what you see now, but future, ultimate, ultimate victories.

Right, right. Very good. The Holy Spirit is just the pledge now for what it will get in the eternity, in the future.

Yeah. And in Romans chapter eight there, we see that golden chain of redemption that God has done it all and we are redeemed.

And then it says, this being the case, who can bring any charge against us? So we are more than conquerors in the sense that his love is sure and steadfast.

It's absolute and certain. And we're justified because of that. So it's kind of like unshakable.

God has given us that victory. So how is the church like Israel prone to inappropriate relationships with the world?

The reason I asked that question, look at verse 17. We're back to Nehemiah six. Moreover, in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah.

Hmm. Nobles of Judah, whose side are they on? Good guys, right?

Supposed to be. Supposed to be. Apparently not. Yeah, apparently not. But Judah here, now this is the people of God, sent letters to who?

Okay, red flag, right? Not a nice guy. And Tobiah's letters came to them.

For many in Judah were bound by oath to him. Bound by oath to Tobiah.

Does that happen in our government? Yeah, I think so. Do you think there's people who are bound by oath to Satan?

That's scary. Do you think there's people who have made pacts and promises and become involved in spiritual work?

I think it's a lot more common than we would think. Bound by oath to Tobiah because he was the son -in -law of Shekiniah, the son of Ara.

Okay, so remember the problem that Ezra dealt with? The cleansing, the last chapter, chapter 10 of Ezra, what was the problem?

Intermarrying. Intermarrying, right, which was strictly forbidden according to the holiness code, right, in the

Torah. And yet it had become the common practice in Israel. And so now we're seeing more of that fruit of the flesh, more of that, what came of that, his son

Jehonah, Jehohanan, had taken the daughter of Meshulam, the son of Berechiah, as his wife.

This is why we question inappropriate relationships, right? So how is the church, like Israel, prone to inappropriate relationships?

You get worldly, let the world in. Yeah. Well, a lot of times it's a quest for perceived relevance.

Compromise. Hmm. Compromising with the world in order to be relevant. Yeah. So I can go to this

R -rated movie because I want to be able to hang out with my friends. Or, I guess even more extremely, we could show an

R -rated movie at the church. Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the emerging dialogue started out as a good thing.

Let's get outside of our walls. Let's get to the people, became the emergent church, which became a bad thing because it became comfortable to the outside world.

Yeah, I think that's right. There was compromise. Yeah. Friendship with the world is?

Enmity. Enmity towards God, right? Do not be yoked together with unbelievers, right?

In that particular case in 1 Corinthians 7, it's talking about what? Marriage. Marriage, but that's a direct application to the church as well, right?

In marriage, we should marry believers. As a pastor, I will marry an unbeliever if they're marrying another unbeliever, or a believer to a believer, but I wouldn't marry a believer to an unbeliever.

Make sense? How would you counsel them? To get saved, you know, for the believer to obey.

You know, 1 Corinthians 7, not to be yoked with an unbeliever. Now, pray for that person to get saved and then you can be yoked together.

But if someone, if both are not believers, then marriage is still a universal command, right?

That's part of God's creation design. And so for unbelievers to get married, I think the church should encourage and not stand opposed to that, but it's the yoking together of believer with unbeliever that the scripture forbids it.

So anyway, let's move on. Also, how is God glorified and how is he dishonored in 16 through 19?

So notice this great victory and notice this compromise.

What does that say about the glory of God? What is the glory of God? What does it mean to glorify

God? Describe his greatness in situations.

Wow, yeah, and that's right. Ascribe his greatness. You don't make him great. You spotlight his greatness, right?

To glorify God means that you put the spotlight on his glory. He's already glorious, but you are demonstrating, you are shining the light on that, proclaiming that.

So when Israel victoriously overcomes through the power of God, through prayer, and they're more than conquerors, this glorifies

God. And when they compromise and they fall back into worldliness, this doesn't glorify

God. See that? And that is the chief end of man, isn't it? This is what we're here for.

Hallowed be thy name. Yeah, it shows his name is hallowed or holy. Yes, very good.

Okay. There are earlier sections in the conflict section where it's recorded that the enemies acknowledged and recognized that it was the

Yahweh who was doing the work. Yes, yeah. And that's an amazing thing. Yeah.

And then we get down to this point here. The people are no longer demonstrating or giving witness to a life that's different because they're compromising back to them.

Yeah, well, it's almost like separation. Like some within Israel are compromised, but the leadership and many of the people who are following that are victorious.

So you have both. And that's, you see that in America today, right? There's really a separating between the righteous and the unrighteous.

You know, and that's why we have culture wars. That's why we have so much going on. Those who follow

Christ need to represent him purely and well, but it's not gonna be everybody, right?

Those who are seeking a church perhaps that get this illusion because of hypocrisy within the church are now, what's the difference?

Why should I spend my time there? That might just be the biggest problem in why people don't come to church, right?

They see hypocrisy here. They don't believe that we're really living what we're saying, and it turns people away.

Yeah, it doesn't glorify God. And John, you're right. For they perceive that this work had been accomplished with the help of our

God. That's glorifying to God. They see that it was God at work in the midst of Israel.

And that's how it should be in our church. The world around looking in should see God is with them. The things that they're doing can only be explained by a supernatural

God. So whenever I'd write newsletters as a missionary, I would always wanna highlight something that wasn't just explainable by math.

Wasn't explainable by this plus this equals that. That we did this and therefore that happened.

But no, God must have worked because this person repented and trusted Christ and was born again.

And they were transformed. A supernatural work. Like last week, we had an atheist, 14 -year -old, whose dad is atheist, raise his hand to accept the

Lord. Someone who's been indoctrinated in atheism for years turned to Christ. That's God who can do that.

We can't do that. So we focus on those things and we spotlight those things because only

God can do that. Amen. And they realized Nehemiah could not have built the walls in 52 days in his own strength and had to be

God. Exactly, that's the point. Sometimes that's why God lets us get to that point where we know we can't do it in our own strength.

Like Paul says, when I am weak, then I am strong. Because it's the Holy Spirit that takes over. Right. All right.

We're gonna move very quickly through chapter seven. I do wanna spotlight a couple things, but I wanna get to chapter eight.

We have 30 minutes left. And chapter eight is one of my favorite chapters in this book, this whole book.

So let's not cruise through it. All right, so the seventh chapter is a listing of genealogy.

But notice before we get there, seven, one to four. We'll read that and then we're gonna skip through that.

So I think Ryan, you're up, right? Oh, cool. Seven, one to four. Now, when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors and the gatekeepers and singers and the

Levites had been appointed, I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah, the governor of the castle, charge over Jerusalem.

For he was a more faithful and God -hearing man than many.

And I said to them, let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they are still standing guard, let them shut and bar the doors.

Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes.

Okay, the city was wide and large. Oh, sorry. The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few and no houses had been rebuilt.

Good. Three things I wanna point out. Maybe you caught all these. Number one, if you'll notice, in the sixth chapter, in the sixth verse,

Nehemiah was accused by his enemies of a certain thing. You're doing this because you want to be king, right?

They accused him of being power hungry, that he's trying to raise himself up and he's building the wall so he can be enclosed and be the king.

What is the first thing he does? Was Nehemiah power hungry? Once it's rebuilt, he hands over the keys.

Notice, I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor, the castle charge over Jerusalem.

Nehemiah was not a power hungry man. He wasn't doing this for his own benefit or to elevate his own name.

He was doing this for the kingdom of God. Kingdom of Israel representing the kingdom of God on earth. This was his concern.

So number one, that accusation of his motive, and hence his motive about being power hungry was unfounded.

Number two, notice, where did we first see Hanani? Second verse, I gave my brother

Hanani charge. Where have we seen him before? Anybody recall?

Well, no, I don't think so. He's at the very beginning of chapter one.

Wow, he's the one that brought the news of the destroyed temple. He came to the right guy, didn't he?

He came to Nehemiah and God used him. Nehemiah was a man of God. And now just look how that comes first full circle.

Hanani sees this city in desolation. He comes to the cupbearer of the king and now everything's come full circle.

He's seeing the walls are rebuilt. Praise God. But it's neat that it just comes all the way around.

Hanani got to see the devastation and now he sees it rebuilding. He gets charge over Jerusalem.

That's his brother, same guy. Okay, and then finally, the third thing, notice how

Nehemiah demonstrates concern for others. He's handing over charge.

He's not power hungry. He's done this great work. Notice what he does.

He's still appointing guards. He's instructing them how to shut and bar the doors.

He's appointing guards, some at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes.

Nehemiah is constantly interested in the welfare of the people. Isn't that a great lesson about his leadership?

In church, the same should apply to all of us. Constantly concerned about the welfare of one another.

Not seeking our own, but seeking the benefit of the other. My favorite New Testament example of that heart is

Timothy. Remember Paul in the book of Philippians? He says, I have no one else like Timothy who takes a genuine interest in your welfare.

He's constantly praying for you. He loves you. Timothy's heart was just for people.

That should be us. We should be like Timothy. We should be like Nehemiah. Just really, truly concerned about people.

Okay, so now moving on from five to 73, I said we're going to skim through it. We're not going to read it now.

You can go back and read through those names. What basically happens is Nehemiah is told by God to make a list, a genealogical list of who was in Israel.

And I just wanted to point it out. In the New Testament, are we to make genealogical lists of who's who and where we come from and our pedigree?

You know, in India, they have whole caste systems of your genealogy. Should we as Christians be concerned about the pedigree of our genealogy?

Not necessarily. No, in fact, the New Testament only says in, I think I listed it here, 1

Timothy 1 .4, do not devote yourself to endless genealogies. So what was different here?

God put it in his heart. God put it in his heart. And this was for, under that dispensation, Israel was organized by tribes.

And only a certain tribe could serve as priests and had to show that they were priests. Who was that? The Levites. The Levites.

So under that structure that God had for Israel, this was correct.

There's nothing in the text that indicates this is inappropriate. This is proper and inappropriate. So you look for clues in the text.

And verse five is the clue that we have. God put it into my heart. That's what the text is telling us.

And there's nothing that indicates that's not the case. So he's doing right here. It's not like David numbering the mighty men, where his pride put it into his own heart, right?

But here, God puts it into his heart and so he makes this genealogy, listing who's who.

But ultimately it was, if you notice verse five, to assemble the people. He wants everybody there.

He wants a list of who's who and what tribe they're from. Because look, put it in my heart to assemble the nobles.

And now we come to chapter eight, verse one. One of my favorite chapters. And I think we have

Sandy Laskin. If you don't mind reading, let's do one through five to begin with.

Then Ezra the priest brought the women and bonders standing on the first day of the seventh month.

He ran from it before the square, which was in front of the water gate, from early morning until midday.

In the presence of men and women, those who could understand and all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium, which they had made for the purpose, and beside him stood

Medahia, Sheena, Ananiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Messiah.

On his right hand, and Udiah, Mishael, Melchiel.

Wow. Hashom. Thank goodness we've got children like that. Hashboda, somebody.

Oh stop it. Zechariah and Meshulam. On the left hand,

Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up.

Okay, this passage of scripture is not my favorite because of those awesome names. That's just a side benefit.

It's the hunger. Remember, you don't have to turn now, because we'll fly through now. Amos 8 11, anybody know that verse?

When the prophet was crying out against Israel, he speaks judgment over them, and he says, a time is coming of famine, but not a famine for food or a thirst for water, a famine for hearing the word of the

Lord. That was a judgment from God. The people had no hunger for God's word, they had neglected

God's word, they didn't obey God's word. There was a command that they were to let their fields lie fallow every seventh year.

Did they ever do that? No. They were supposed to celebrate a jubilee. I don't know that they ever did that.

I'm not sure if they did. Maybe once or twice every 50th year or 49th year, but they didn't.

They were not obeying the law of God, and God says, you won't hear the word of the Lord. And now, all of a sudden, the word is brought and lifted up, and Ezra is standing on a high wooden platform, and they open the book, so it's elevating this book before them, and the people stand in attention.

Here's the point. They've grown hungry. They've been in famine, and now they're hungry.

And that is such a picture of spiritual life or them coming to life spiritually, because now they're gonna receive nourishment, something that nourishes the soul.

And that connection between our hunger and our health and what we eat, this is what motivates me.

I know a healthy Christian. I know I'm healthy when I have a hunger for God's word, when

I want to read the text. I'm not forced to. It's because I'm hungry for it. That's a good indicator for you.

When you want the word of God, that's a good sign of health. When your body is shutting down, when a person is dying, often they'll lose their appetite altogether.

They can't eat before they die. But when you're hungry, that's a sign that your body wants something.

It's alive. It wants to go. It wants to live spiritually. Now the people are coming alive, and it's according to their hunger for the word.

Now notice another thing. How important is the public reading of the word? When did

Ezra start reading? Verse three.

What time? Very good, Emily. Very early in the morning.

And when did he stop this just straight up reading of the Bible? Midday. Good six hours of just straight public reading of the word and the people standing in attention.

Isn't that a great picture? Steve, you're preaching today.

Six hours. Six hours. No expositing. And we stand. Just read the

Torah. The Torah. You can do Leviticus if you want. How well would that go over? Not too well.

Not too well, right? Well, except you get Genesis and Exodus. That's narrative, and that's pretty exciting.

It is, actually, yeah. Actually, yeah, and we're doing that right now. Anybody in the group with Michael Stockland? You are.

You're always there, little guy. So Brendan's in there. He's always listening. We're just reading through the Torah. Big chunks of it at a time.

And it's an exciting study. We actually are using a book that takes the verses and the chapters out, and you just read it as it was, as narrative.

And it's exciting to do. But this is the people's hunger right now. This is a great picture. Okay, now, eight, six.

I think John's up. I have a quick question. Yes. So the people that are standing to his right and his left,

I'm assuming that they're of a high pedigree, if they're standing up there next to him. But I thought that we were saying

Tobiah was related to Meshulam. And to me, that seemed like a negative thing. So is that, am

I misunderstanding what the people up next to him, or am I misunderstanding the relationship with Tobiah?

This could be a compromised Meshulam, or this could be a different Meshulam. Okay. I don't know. I think that there's often common names in Israel, and it could very well just be a common name.

Just a different person. Yeah, it could be a different person altogether, or it could be indicating the same

Meshulam. But I love that. That's a great way to study the Bible. When you make observations and connections, that's how things begin to unlock.

So that's not something I've caught, but let's look into that more later. But yeah, the daughter of Meshulam in 618 is compromised.

Is the Zechariah that's mentioned? I don't think so.

No, because that's 520 BC, and now we're at about 445

BC. So he would be like 100 plus, which this is not the days of Noah, that wouldn't have been a problem.

Now that would be a problem. So John, verse six. I like to ask you to add the Bible as my favorite.

Yeah. Verse, just verse six. And Ezra blessed the

Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, amen, amen. With lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped the

Lord with their faces to the ground. Okay. Anybody ever looked across the sanctuary and thought, why is that guy doing that?

Why is he lifting his hands while we're singing? Or why is he yelling amen while somebody's preaching?

Any biblical precedent to raise your hands and worship? Any biblical precedent to say amen?

Amen. There is, there is. It's not saying that you have to do that that way, but I think it's noticeable here because worship should come from the heart.

And by the way, why would you raise your hand? What would that indicate? If you just lifted your hands while you're worshiping, what would that indicate to you as the worshiper?

What would you be saying by that? Your allegiance to God. Yeah. Could be, I picture it as almost like a surrender, just like this lifting up your hands.

In first Timothy two, it says, and I command men to pray with lifted hands. Why? I think it's just sort of like,

I can't do this. You know, it's not just standing like, okay, I got this. It's I'm helpless. God, I need you.

I'm lifting my hands to you. But I just thought it was interesting that when this was happening, they started lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads.

I like that posture. You know, when we worship to bow our heads like that a little bit, when we sing, I think the posture could speak something to what we think of God.

I've always thought. Hitler co -opted it with his Nazi salute. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because that was directed at him, right?

Kind of like lifting him up. Like Heil Hitler. Yeah. I always thought of the lifting of the hands.

I need you to pick me up. I just need you to pick me up.

Like that kind of thing. I like that. That's how I go. Just kind of open this. Yeah. Yeah, the

Psalms talk about this, not just here, but the Psalms talk about lift your hands in worship. Yeah, I think it's appropriate.

Shouldn't be outlawed, but it shouldn't be prescribed either. It should be something that comes from the heart if you feel like doing that.

Next on to verse seven and eight. Rich, would you mind? Also, Jeshua, Bonnie, Shurahbiah, Jamin, Jacob, Shabbatai, Hodiah, Messiah, Kalita, Azariah, Jehozabod, Hanan, Pelaiah.

The Levites explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place.

They read from a book from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.

Okay, notice a couple of things. You don't need the names, but there are people. These are leaders and Levites, pretty spread out among the people who are what?

Helping the people to understand. They are giving the sense.

You catch that in verse eight? They're repeating the law. Maybe you can't hear Ezra. There's a million people, maybe not that many, but there's hundreds of thousands of people.

So they're spread out. They don't have a big multiplying amplification system. They're relaying what's being said, but they're also giving the sense.

Here's my question. What is expository preaching? And why is

Ezra often referred to as the father of expository preaching? Very important question.

Literal speaking, literal explaining, explaining literally what it means.

Right, so when we study the Bible, we're reading it through a historical, grammatical, literal lens.

We're not trying to import meaning to it. So that's what you do when it's you and the text. But a preacher stands between two worlds, right?

The world of the text, the world of Nehemiah, and the world of the people, right?

And connects this world with that world, making application from this to that.

Now, is it his job to take from this world and read what he wants to say back into the text?

No. What's that called? Eisegesis. Very good, eisegesis. Eis means into in the Greek, and that's reading into the text.

What is the preacher's job? Exegesis. Exegesis, right? To draw out from the text.

So an expositor is to read what the text says and clearly explain the meaning of the text.

You see that in verse eight? This is why Nehemiah, I mean Ezra, is a father of expository preaching, right?

What are they doing here under Ezra's leadership? Giving the sense, the clear meaning of what the text says.

Okay? So that the people understood the reading. That's what expository

Bible teaching is. Giving the sense of it and helping people understand what is already there in the text.

Amen. The meaning of it, right? Something that's lost in our culture because we don't have a lot of expository

Bible preaching anymore, right? But I'm fully committed to it. I believe in it with all my heart. I think it allows a number of things.

Number one, that whatever the issue is in the text will determine what we're talking about. So a preacher can't get on a pet topic and preach that every week.

Rather, there's a million topics. As we go through the New Testament, whatever the author is talking about, that's what we're talking about.

That's what drives us and we stay balanced that way. And then most importantly, we're saying what God says.

Not what we bring into the text. The danger with Isaac Jesus, if you read into it, you can basically make the

Bible say anything you want it to say. And your mind becomes the authority and not the word. Absolutely true.

Yeah, very true. Thank you. So this, I love this because it reminds me, it calls me to expository

Bible preaching. To say, let the text drive. And let me just ride in the passenger seat. And that's true, not only of the preacher and the pulpit, that's every one of you who teaches a

Bible study. Every one of you who leads a small group, let the text drive.

And we explain the sense of it. We don't import our own stuff to the text. Okay, so moving on to verses nine through 12.

Steve. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the

Levites who taught the people said to all the people, this day is holy to the Lord our

God. To Lord your God, do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law.

Then he said to them, go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready.

For this day is holy to our Lord and do not be grieved for the joy of the

Lord is your strength. So the Levites calmed all the people saying, be quiet.

For this is a day holy, do not be grieved. And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

Isn't that profound? The reaction of the people when they hear it is to grieve, is to cry.

Why? Because when they're hearing the Torah, they're comparing that like a mirror to their own life.

And they're saying, I am falling so far short. We're doomed. Look at the curses of Deuteronomy 28.

We're utterly ruined. We are breaking this law at so many points, it's outrageous.

And so they're weeping because the mirror is showing them who they really are. But then the priests come through and say, don't weep.

This is joyful to be shown who you are because there's salvation in this book too. They don't know the

Savior yet, but all of this points to Jesus. And they were repentant. All of this points, yeah, to redemption and salvation for a sinful people.

And so they come along and you guys have heard this voice. The joy of the Lord is our strength. And I want to tell you, memorize that verse, but then try to remember this context because this is the joy.

This is the rejoicing of our gospel. The joy of the Lord is our strength. Our life and our joy is in this word.

And why were they rejoicing at the end? Look at verse 12. Why, why are they so happy now?

Their mourning has turned to rejoicing. They understood. Because they understood.

Isn't that something? When you begin to understand the word of God and these treasures of this text unlocked to us, it's life to us.

It's joy to us. It changes our whole life. The word of God is good and joyful.

So read it, delight in it. That's what we're being told. The joy of the Lord is our strength. The joy comes through the text here as we understand the meaning of it and we delight in that meaning.

So this is some awesome stuff right here. I'm glad we have time just a little bit longer. Five minutes left, 13 to 18.

Carol, right? On the second day, the heads of father's 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 Yeshua 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, 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.

Wow. So in verses not eight through 12, we saw this preaching and all the people are hearing and they're to delight in this word and they go home with joy.

Now question, do they end there or do they take it to a deeper level? It's called obedience.

Obedience, they need to obey this law as well. It's prescriptive to them. Notice in verse 13, the heads of the father's houses, leaders in the community, they don't stop there.

Here's the key word, study. They go back and begin to study

Torah, study law. And now we have the New Testament, we have the gospel.

We start, we as leaders, we as people in God's church, we go and we study and look what happens.

By the studying of the word, they begin to be conformed to the word and their joy is multiplied even more.

What had they been neglecting? The feast of booths, prescribed for them, right?

Ever since they came out of the Passover, they were each year to celebrate the feast of booths.

Had they ever been, had they been doing it? Had this since the return, since the exile's return, had they been practicing that? No. Since after Joshua, they had been.

Since after Joshua, correct, yeah. And so, well, was that Joshua?

I thought it might've been Joshua the high priest there that came back. He says yes with son of Nun. Oh, son of Nun, yeah, you're right.

Yeah, so that had been a long drought on the feast of booths, right? And now they're studying the word and they're being changed, they're being transformed.

And look at verse, the end of verse 17, what comes of that? Great rejoicing.

Right, Clare. Joy. Again, it's like multiplying now. Joy is coming from the study of the word, of being conformed.

We don't think of obedience and holiness as words connected with joy, do we?

It's almost words that we think of as law. Don't do this, don't be stained.

Come out and be pure. We think of those kinds of commands as being stifling to our fun, but no.

This obedience, this holiness, this being conformed by the word of God results in joy.

It is a joyful thing for them. So day by day, this is verse 18, from the first day to the last day, he read from the book of the law of God.

What a place to live. Wouldn't you love to live in that community at that time? Day by day, reading of the word, the people are studying it themselves, it's changing them.

There's an excitement, there's a joy. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule.

So in closing, how central is the word of God in your own life? Just think about that for a minute.

How would elevating the importance of the word in your life increase your joy?

You don't have to answer out loud. It's more of a rhetorical question. But that's the lesson, isn't it?

So from Nehemiah chapter eight, we see the word of God going from somewhere down here, where it's trampled on by Israel, right?

They don't even obey the Feast of Booths. They don't regard the law of God to be elevated way up here.

In fact, so much that Ezra, Nehemiah, they build a platform, a high wooden platform, and they go up there to elevate this book.

And it becomes what they study and think about. And they hear it preached, and they hear the sense of it, and they understand.

And it comes alive to them. The word of God is elevated in Nehemiah chapter eight.

Let it be elevated in your life. Let you find your joy in it. Yeah, Ryan. Okay, so I found some clarification on this

Joshua son of Nun. So they are referring to Joshua the son of Nun who led them over the Jordan River into the promised land. But the point of, and it not being done so since the days of Joshua is referring to all the assembly of those who returned.

So, and it gives examples. Solomon did it in first Kings. Also in second Chronicles, it's the same event.

So the point is that not all the assembly had gathered since the days of Joshua. So, and that might go back to chapter seven, which we breezed through.

They took a genealogy and found out who's who, who's where. And in chapter eight, verse one, notice, and all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate.

So this is like everybody in Israel doing it the right way. And this is about a thousand years after Joshua.

Yeah, that's about right, yeah. Even more, yeah, because Joshua would have been about 1400 BC and this is 440, yeah, so.

I think. Oh, actually no, it's a thousand, good math, Jeff. More than that. I think too that in this era, maybe 3 % of the people could read.

And so they were supposed to come together three times a year, all to assemble together.

And I think that's where they missed it, as you were saying, they hadn't been doing that, just bits and pieces of people, but not all.

And I believe the idea that coming together like that was so that they could hear the word because not everybody could read the word.

And they. They might have been rightly the Levites. Yeah, the Levites were right. That's why they're here.

I think that's why they're explaining it. Yep. Because they haven't heard it in years.

Haven't heard it. We're gonna close because we're out of time. So I'm gonna close in a word of prayer and I'm gonna leave you with this thought.

It happened again in the 1530s in the city of Geneva, when it was a dark place, the motto of that city became after darkness, light.

The reformation broke out when people were allowed to read the Bible for the first time and it changed all of Europe.

After darkness, light. And the difference was the word of God going to the people. Open up in your own language, you can read it.

Let's pray. So Father God, we thank you that we live after darkness in this light, in the light of your word,

Lord, that we can hold this text in our hand and elevate it in our lives. Lord, I pray that we would take advantage of this incredible, indescribable gift.

We have salvation in Christ. We have the word of God, the light to bring us joy.