All right, here we go. All right, let’s pray. All right, Father God, thank you so much for our class. We’ve said it before, but it’s a blessing to pause in the middle of our week and to slow down and to reflect on your word.
So God, help us tonight as we look into two chapters, but one that I am particularly excited about. Help us to understand more fully how to love your word, how to respond to your word. Let us see the character of Nehemiah, the character of Ezra, and of the people. God, thank you for tonight, and thank you for this time. We ask all this in your name. Amen.
All right, so tonight is a good night. I’ve been looking forward to Nehemiah 8 for a long time. We have to do 7 first. And Sandy’s going to read all the names in Chapter 7. Jim probably can pronounce most of them. He’s taking the languages.
Are you recording? I am recording. Thank you. We are not going to attempt them. They are great and they are important. And that is a lot of really great information that we do not have to read every name tonight.
Well, why don’t we just skip 7 and go to 8 now? Well, I want to read a little bit of 7. I want to read a little bit of 7. There’s some good little bits there.
Almost every commentary or book I saw, they separate the first 3 to 5 verses of 7, and then the rest of it is 5 through 53, which is entertaining. Or 73, I’m sorry. It’s a lot of verses. But we’re going to read the first 5 verses, and then 6 verses.
Okay, chapter 7, verse 1. Now it happened when the wall was rebuilt, and I had made the doors to stand, and the gatekeepers and singers and Levites were appointed, that I commanded Hanani, my brother, and Hananiah, the commander of the fortress, to be over Jerusalem. For he was a faithful man and feared God more than many.
Then I said to them, The gates of Jerusalem must not be open until the sun is hot, and until they are standing guard. They may shut and bolt the doors. Also have guards from the inhabitants of Jerusalem stand, each at his post, and each in front of his own house.
Now the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few, and the houses were not rebuilt.
Then my God put it into my heart, and I gathered the nobles, the officials, and the people to be recorded by genealogies. And it goes on from verse 7. All the way through verse 73. And it is genuinely wonderful. It is wonderful that these names are here. We will talk about them a bit.
But before we do, on your paper, there’s a couple of initial questions. And I really like these. And they’re kind of setting it up for where we’re going with chapter 8. Even though we’re going to talk about 7.
When was the last time a passage of scripture really landed on you? Think about that. Maybe it was studying scripture. Maybe it was in a sermon. Maybe it was in a class. Maybe you listened to podcast sermons. But sometimes a passage of scripture just captured you. And you couldn’t stop thinking about it for a while. It just kept churning or mulling within you.
I’ve got my answer, but I’m curious. Does anybody have a moment recently where you couldn’t let go of a section of scripture?
You’re going to let me answer my own question? I’m doing a part of the study on Tuesday nights, and we’re going through Titus. Ooh. And just last night, one of the things that stuck out was it talks about godliness versus godlessness. Ooh, that’s a good, yeah. And just the two terms being so similar and being together in their… Yeah. Like that gentle contrast between the two. Yeah. That’s good. I like that a lot.
Any others recently that just… Scripture that’s just ruminated in your heart? We’re studying Joshua on Wednesday mornings in the ladies’ group. And time and again, with the Israelites, but especially in this passage, I’m reminded of obedience and how… The lack of obedience gets you into trouble. So quickly. So quickly.
I was listening. I think I was listening to a podcast today. I actually don’t know. It’s kind of sad. I clearly listen to too many things, I guess.
And he was talking about that idea of how the Israelites had… deluded themselves over and over again. And we see it in the minor prophets and major prophets. They’re like, oh, we’re doing the things Yahweh said to do. But they’re also going off. It’s very syncretistic. Kind of like you see in some of the South American countries that are Catholic-ish. They’re loosely Catholic. I mean, they’re in theory Catholic, but also practice… lots of paganism mixed in.
And the Israelites were just as guilty of doing that. And they kept doing it over and over again. And they would defend themselves and be like, oh, but we’re going to temple. We’re doing the Yahweh things. No, you missed the point. Part of doing the Yahweh thing was you don’t go worship the other things, but they kept doing it over and over again. I love that. Kind of like today. I was just going to say that. That’s a sad truth.
My other church down south, we made these for our kids, and I carry one in my purse. It’s Joshua 9. I like that. Yep. You know, and I carry other verses, too, in my purse, but we made these for the kids at grade school. Yeah, I love that. And I thought it was a beautiful verse, and it meant so much. Yeah, I love that.
There was a chapel speaker a couple weeks ago, I think I even mentioned, and he referenced 2 Corinthians 3.18. Which is, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as an emir the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. And he built it out really beautifully and came back to it.
But like, I just haven’t, I’ve had my book or my Bible at school, I’ve had my bookmark there for weeks because I just keep, churning on it have the way for whatever reason, but again, that’s the beauty of of God’s word, is that you know, the Holy Spirit continually reveals things to you as you read, helps us to understand, helps us to make the connections, helps us to to see all the the narrative arcs and types leading to to Jesus.
So the second question there, when when God’s word is read plainly, what’s your first instinct? I know our first instinct, we would read that little list of three and go, well, obviously it’s to lean in. Because we know that’s the right answer.
But, again, I work in a high school. I’ve worked with kids for 20-something years. They would tell you, obviously, we should lean in and listen to God’s word.
But I can tell you it’s easy to watch them when there’s a thousand of them sitting in a chapel service that they just tune out. That happens.
Or at worst, if they’re actually listening and it ruffles them wrong because God’s word is revealing something to them, they get defensive. And you can tell they’re like. And they kids can’t hide it. Like adults aren’t great at hiding it, but they’ve adapted some. Hiding their emotions, faces. Kids don’t. Kids are pretty matter-of-fact, especially when they don’t think anyone’s watching, which is funny because they’re in a giant well-lit room where you can see all of their faces lined up. Kids are funny, just like us.
So we’re going to come back to those. This is where we’re going to look at seven. And there’s some really neat stuff about Nehemiah’s character, the way he leads, the fear of God shows up. There’s some great things.
But we’re going to eventually get to eight. And we’re going to try to get to eight a little quicker than normal tonight. We tend to always, I try to watch the clock and divide it evenly between the two chapters and fail miserably every single time.
But this week, this week, we’re moving on by five after. It’s happening. And if you look at the clock, and I forgot, you can say something.
So when we look at 7, I wrote this in the notes here, so we kind of had a breakup between the two. The first four verses… We see that the wall has now been rebuilt and Nehemiah is putting in place the guards, the singers, the gatekeepers, the Levites have been appointed. Order is coming. They’re preparing and getting organized. And we see that all happening here. Hanani and Hananiah are put in charge.
But… The city is, it’s funny, verse four, the city was large and spacious, but the people in it were few and the houses were not rebuilt, which is so interesting. Again, like it’s nice.
They built the wall in the temple first, but interesting. If you’ve ever been to Jerusalem or you’ve seen the city, it’s interesting.
We live in St. Louis, which is not New York City or L.A., but it’s not small. So it’s weird because I technically live in Concord Village proper, like what’s left of it. It’s not really officially anything anymore. And Jerusalem is much smaller than Concord Village, which is… Not big.
But consider the context of their culture. This is a big walled city that is relatively empty. You have this beautiful temple mount. You have this lovely wall. You have everybody in place, but it hasn’t filled with life yet. We haven’t put back the life into the city, which is interesting.
Um, and then in verse five, um, which I put in the notes there, like kind of, this is the second half where God puts it on Nehemiah’s heart to, to actually register the people. Like who came back? Who were those that came back from exile? Who were those that were sent off?
Um, and, and he, at the end of seven, um, which we can, we can read this part cause it’s, it’s a little less hard with the, with the names. Um, verse, let’s see, verse 66 says, The whole assembly together was 42,360, beside their male and female slaves, of whom there were 7,337, and they had 245 male and female singers. Their horses were 736, their mules 245, their camels 435, their donkeys 6,720.
Some among the heads of fathers’ households gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury 1,000 gold drachmas, 50 bowls, and 530 priest tunics. Some of the heads of fathers’ households gave to the treasury of the work 20,000 gold drachmas and 2,200 silver minas. That which the rest of the people gave was 20,000 gold drachmas and 2,000 silver minas and 67 priesthoods.
So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel lived in their cities. Then the seventh month came and the sons of Israel were in their cities.
So there’s… I would argue, a very neat change that’s happening among the people. Like they’re realizing there’s something about counting the people that seems to draw them into realizing how special this is, which is very cool. So we see that.
There’s a few questions, and I’m going to pull back up my notes because there was a thought that I had in here.
Do you ever love how you go to use your device and, like, nothing happens? And it doesn’t make any sense. Why it’s not working? Technology is so neat until it doesn’t work. 50-0 for tech support.
One of our tech support guys at school was, he started out, we don’t have student teachers since we’re not a public school, but we have faculty fellows, where it’s basically someone who wants to get an education, may or may not have the education degree yet, so we put them with a teacher for a year to be trained one-on-one, like apprenticeship style. It’s very cool. My guy was one of the first. He was the first we ever did this faculty fellow with.
But now he’s part business teacher in my department, part tech support. So whenever something doesn’t work, we just yell at Colton. Be like, dang it, Colton. It usually has nothing to do with Colton. But it’s really fun to blame him. And usually because he’s somewhere nearby. Maybe my iPad will work eventually.
But we see a few things. And before we really talk to the end of seven, we have to look at the first few verses again. So Nehemiah, all this has happened. He’s getting things in order. He commands Hananiah and Hananiah to have jobs to be over Jerusalem.
But I love verse 2. Verse 2 is an easy one to gloss over, especially when you see that big list of names coming and you’re like, whoa. It’s easy to skip over verse 2. But verse 2 says… I commanded Hanani, my brother, and Hananiah, the commander of the fortress, to be over Jerusalem, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many. That was why he was placed in charge over Jerusalem. Because he feared God more than he feared men. He feared God. He was faithful.
What a great way to be remembered in Scripture. That you were faithful and you feared God more than many. Like, I hope someday, I don’t think I’ll ever be in a book, but if I was in a book, I would hope that would be written. That’s a huge blessing.
But it also tells us what kind of heart Nehemiah wanted for the leadership of Jerusalem, for the protection and the order. Because that’s what Hananiah and Hananiah are over Jerusalem, and these people who were just mentioned before, the gatekeepers and singers and Levites, they’re keeping the order of the city. So, It’s awesome. I love that.
Oh, I just stole question one. I do that a lot. It’s a it’s a character flaw. You know, it’s a character flaw.
Number one was who doesn’t. Yeah, you’ve noticed this. Yeah, it’s. Oh, you haven’t. Oh, that’s even funnier. Maybe it’s endearing. We’ll call it endearing.
You know, this is easy. I hope you can answer it. Who does Nehemiah put in charge of Jerusalem? You kind of answered your own question. I know. That’s why it was an easy one. I figured you guys would get it so fast. I did. I know.
Okay. And I answered what’s said about Hananiah. It’s still important because the question two, who would you trust with responsibility in your church or family? And why do the qualities in verse two matter?
We live in a world. I was talking to a good friend today. We don’t actually, let me rephrase. I don’t often have time to talk to friends on the phone because
But I have a few friends because our schedules are so different. We send audio like texts back and forth. We’re like we’ll record a message and shoot it off. Partly one lives in Germany and one lives in the East Coast. So like schedules are just hard, different kid things. It’s easy. It’s like on the phone, but slow. And we were talking about that. I remember how it came up.
We live in a world that’s pretty fear based. Like we watch the news and we get afraid. We watch the stock market and we get afraid. We watch the health report and we get afraid. And we react out of fear more often than not, which is a shame because that’s not the life that God envisioned for us. And we see it as such a simple thing.
I mean, this is about the leadership of Jerusalem. But the qualities that matter the most to Nehemiah are that he’s faithful and he fears God. Like, that tells me something. He doesn’t fear all the bad news that’s happening outside Jerusalem. We’ve read that the last few weeks. They’re still trying to mess with him, both inside the city and outside the city. There’s still the enemy working, unlike today, where the enemy is still working, just different.
But the things that mattered the most weren’t responding to that fear, but the fear of the Lord. I love it. I can’t say that one enough because that one’s a big deal.
And we need that, but not just in spiritual leadership, in families, in schools, in offices and everywhere. Like that’s an important thing everywhere that we fear. And again, we don’t naturally do that. And we don’t naturally do that.
You can look at Genesis. We don’t naturally do that. They didn’t fear God. They feared what might not happen if they didn’t take the fruit. Like fear drove a decision. And yes, it’s also pride. Yes, it was also wanting to be like God.
But we naturally find things to be afraid or to fear or to worry about. And we fail when we need reminders to fear God.
Yeah, Terry. The church is there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. And you see it overwhelmingly so. When you watch LifeWay’s… I keep hitting the TV. LifeWay, it literally happens the whole time.
I don’t know why I keep doing it. I know, I could scoot out, but sometimes the solutions are too easy, guys. It’s just… You need to get shorter. I wish. You don’t have your mom here to adjust the podium for you. She’s never adjusted anything for me. She lets me suffer so I can learn the hard way. God love her.
But we… I lost my tramp thought because I got goofy.
We were talking about the churches. Oh, yeah. Lifeway is pretty good. Ligonier is another one. There’s a few ministries, like bigger church ministries that do good research every year. And it’s always interesting.
And there’s one, I don’t remember the guy’s name, but he tries to analyze the research. And I actually think he probably belongs to a denomination that’s a little… less faithful to God’s word, but he still tries to assess the info and figure out what’s going on in the church.
And the churches that have over and over again bent to what culture would prefer them teach are the ones that have shrunk dramatic. I mean, gone from millions of faithful congregants to hundreds of thousands. And it’s heartbreaking. I may not agree theologically with everything they would have believed, but it still breaks your heart to see denominations that 70 years ago were considered faithful that have just dwindled. And there’s very few that are still holding fast to Scripture. That is a foreshadow to chapter 8 that I’m very excited about.
Okay, so I like question 3 because I think it’s easy to forget about this. Do I let up spiritually once something is finished? So the context we just read was that the wall’s dumped. The wall’s done. They’ve got the doors up. Like, it’s all completed. The job they set out to do has been done.
I know it is very easy when we go through hard seasons to get to the end of that hard season and go, whew. Glad it’s over. I’m going to go sit down. And unfortunately, like, that is often where we’re most vulnerable.
I mean, I’ve even heard it with medical things. I am not a doctor. If you are a nurse or a doctor, please correct me. But oftentimes, going through something difficult medically, we get to a spot that we’re like, “Better.” And we kind of ease up on the therapy or the plan or whatever it is that the doctor told us after the fact to do because we feel better. And then all of a sudden, we’re more susceptible because we felt better and we weren’t careful anymore. It’s crazy. But we do it over and over again. We do it physically. We do it spiritually.
But we see an example here with Nehemiah that they don’t. He’s very quick to, like, the wall has been done. We are not letting up. Position all these people. You guys are in charge. I need you to do this. You are doing this because you’re faithful and you fear God. Please make sure the doors are shut even when the sun is up. Like, have a guard. Have people involved. I mean, there’s no easing up just because all of a sudden we’re done. And that is a big, big deal.
But I think the world we live in, it’s really hard to let up once the thing happens. You see it in businesses. You see it in politics. You see it in schools. It’s like, we got it done. Now we can move on to the next thing. No, no, no. The maintenance of that is…
My first co-teacher, he was my department chair when I started teaching at Westminster. And the coffee house was his idea. That was his class. It was not my idea. He he wanted something that was very hands on for kids. Business classes are already pretty inherently hands on and very projects. And he wanted something for the seniors to have an actual business to run.
Well, he did it the first year, and it was right before I came. And then my first year was his second year doing this, and he got so frustrated with it. And to be fair, the kids that year were not getting it, that he just closed it down at Christmas and said, we’re not doing it.
And then he came to me in May, and I think… I recall he wanted to keep it going. He just didn’t want to be the one to run with it. And he was like, it’s yours now. You figure it out. Which, as a second year teacher, I wasn’t particularly thrilled about. You’re still getting your sea legs. And all of a sudden, now you have a capstone class to go and reconfigure and figure out.
But I’ve realized since then, there are some who are really good at building an idea. Like creating the idea, like getting all the people organized.
And then there are others that are better to put in next and say, now you figure it out and maintain it and build all the details. I don’t know if that was Jonathan’s plan, but it worked well. Like he had a phenomenal foundation set up. He just needed me to kind of swoop in and be the detail, figure it out guy.
And I think when I read this, that’s a little bit the heart that’s important in this idea of not letting up.
It’s like I teach entrepreneurship, which is starting businesses. There’s a lot of kids who love that idea. Most of them are going to be really great entrepreneurs who are really good at starting new businesses, but they’ll be terrible managers. So they need to be the entrepreneur who goes and gets it off the ground, gets it running, takes the risk. And then finds a great manager to swoop in and make sure it happens well. And neither one is better. It’s just an important cap.
You don’t let up just because entrepreneurs get bored. Like when they’re not building the next thing, they get bored. That’s why I switch my classes around every year because I get kind of bored. It keeps me from getting stagnant. That was the word. I was going to say sedentary, but that’s a rock. No, that’s sedimentary.
Wednesdays are my longest day. All classes, it’s super long. Today I actually had a field trip with Bayer to the zoo, which is not as fun as it sounds.
I love him so much, but they put you in charge of other kids too. And inevitably, and the zoo is terrifying because they can disappear around a corner like that. And man, he was with the sweetest, squirreliest kid in the world. I knew him from soccer. I knew he was squirrely and I had a bad feeling. The reason it was just me and Bear and his buddy was because I knew him from soccer.
Anyway, we survived.
But by the time I got back to school at like two, I was just like, I can’t believe there’s more today. I’m getting old, but that’s okay.
So this one, you don’t have to answer out loud, but I’m putting it out here. If you have a pen, underline it.
Number four, do I fear God more than I fear people or consequences or criticism? Because it’s easy. I think often, and I’m guilty of this. I’ve said it in class before. It’s easy to fall into the category of, well, I don’t fear God. People more than God, okay. But maybe I fear the consequences or I fear the criticism or I fear what it might cost me more than I fear God. Yeah, Terry.
If we considered the consequences of our actions before we did the action, we would be a lot better off. So much better off.
No one loves criticism. Yeah. No one loves criticism. It violates human nature to enjoy criticism. Yes. I… I had a kid once who actually told me, I love constructive criticism. And I was like, you might appreciate it after the fact, but no one really loves being told to their face, these are the eight things you did wrong. Here’s the one thing you did right. Go fix it. No one loves that. I mean, you might get used to it and not take it personal, but no one goes looking for that.
But that’s such an important question. Maybe you don’t fear people more than you fear God. But when you extend that to the consequences or to the criticism or to the fears, maybe I fear the fears more than I fear God.
You’ve got to grow into that, though. Yeah. That’s a good point. You do have to grow into that. Yeah. And it takes a lot of time.
I used to say, oh, gosh, how did I say it to kids? Holiness doesn’t happen on accident. Like, it takes time. Even when the Holy Spirit’s working in you, you don’t just wake up one day and it’s like, wow, I’m so much more like Jesus. It’s crazy. You wouldn’t say that. Yeah, you wouldn’t say that.
Terry, save me. Would I reverence God be a more appropriate word than fear? That might be it, yeah. There’s terror in my heart. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’ve heard it said awe, too. Awe or reverence is a good expansion of the word fear. And we talked about it last week.
I think that’s what happens a lot of times is people hear the word fear and they think being scared or something. Yeah. Where… The fear of God is reference. Yeah, which is so much more important. And it’s a bigger, richer idea than just I am afraid of spiders, which is true.
I am afraid of some spiders, not most, but there are some spiders like, my gosh, the guys that I know who have had tours of duty in the Middle East who have come back, I don’t know if you ever saw these things. Oh, spiders. Like, I know they’re not poisonous, but it doesn’t matter. It’s the size of a cat. Like, it’s wrong. Yes. I’ve just seen pictures, and it just makes my skin crawl.
Do not go Google it. Like, don’t look it up. It’s a terrible idea. No, no, no, no, no, no. I’ve seen pictures. I’m good. They’re forever, unfortunately, trapped in my mind.
Anyway.
If we look at this big list, though, why would God record all of these names? Why would he have Nehemiah take this, not census, but create this list of all of these families? Why would he go about doing that? Why would that matter? To demonstrate how much he loves each one of us. Yeah. That was my first thought, was these people mattered to God.
They are not the most important people in their world. They are an unimportant little backwater corner of the greatest empire on earth at that point. But they matter to God.
And sometimes I feel that way even, this is such a silly example, but I feel that way even sometimes working at a school along 40, you get a lot of kids who live off of 40. So you have lots of Chesterfield kids, which is no better than 40. You have lots of Town and Country and Ladue and Clayton.
And then you have the kids who live way out that I’m like, they’ll judge us for like living in South. They’re like, you drive so far to school, Mr. Malloy. And you’re like, I drive 15 minutes. You live in Wentzville. Like you drive 45 minutes with no traffic. And like, well, yeah. But not being along 40 sometimes, you feel kind of like you’re the outskirts of the city, which is weird.
I don’t feel like we live on the outskirts. I mean, I guess technically right here we’re on the edge. But, like, we’re in town, and this is an unimportant corner of the world.
But these people matter to God. We might be an unimportant corner of St. Louis, but we matter to God, which is really cool. Right.
I cheated. I looked up in Google the sons of… Because, man, that’s a lot of sons. Seriously. Seriously. But it’s descendants. Yeah, the descendants of… Oh, Jericho. That one I couldn’t pronounce.
I think it also shows… Like a dedication to the people who were taken from Jerusalem. I think so too. And they’re in other parts of the world where they could stay.
But they’re choosing to come back. So by documenting that, you’re seeing who was faithful. A huge amount of trust to go back. And I love that. I think that it is. It’s the people who were faithful to come back. When it would have been easier just to stay in the comfort and life that they had created somewhere else. But yet they came back anyway.
Not only that, they had to leave family because they’d been there so long. There were generations. When Shirley had intermarried and it had spread, I mean, that’s thousands of people. There’s no way it was just this one family who moved back. It would have been connected and you’re missing your family. They didn’t have to leave their families. Yeah, yeah.
Question five says, Ordinary names. There is no ordinary name when you’re a son of God. That’s a good reminder. That’s a good reminder. That’s a really, really good reminder.
Which leads really well into question six that I forgot that I typed. Do I believe my name is known to God even if no one else remembers it? Yeah. It does us well to remember. Remember. Like it is easy in the world in 2026.
Gosh, pray for young people. They’re so afraid of being forgotten and not important. But they don’t understand. Their importance doesn’t come from how many clicks they get on.
I call it Snapgram just to mess with them. I combine Instagram and Snapchat and make it Snapgram. And it just makes them squirt more face page.
Anyway, but they’re so afraid if they aren’t known there, then they’re not known. And we all have that potential to fear. If we’re not well known in the grand sphere, does anyone really remember? God knows. And God remembers. And that’s the thing of the utmost importance. Yeah, it’s easy to forget.
But last question there before we, and we’re like, we’re doing it. 704. Do I serve and give? Because God put it into my heart, or because duty or pressure?
I know there are times I have said yes to things because the right boss came to ask me at work, and I didn’t know how to tell them no because they don’t know me very well. And part of it too is age. I’m better now at when someone asks me, I’m like, “I have five questions then.” Because at least you understand better what you’re committing to.
But How often can we genuinely say we serve because God put it into my heart? God put it into my heart. I love it. That should be that should be something we almost ask ourselves when we make decisions like, is this am I doing this out of obligation or am I doing this because God put it into my heart?
You know, I wrote I wrote pretty regularly. online during like foster care years when our kids were pre-adopted—that’s a funny word, pre-adopted—um, before we adopted them. And we were asked, actually, by the ministry we did our foster classes through, they wanted us to write the perspective, like just blog it out, like share what it’s like going through foster care, so that potential foster families can actually maybe relate to something versus just hearing it’s hard but worth it, because that’s mostly what they tell you.
And it was really neat, but there were multiple times that it was kind of written almost as like an open letter to my kids. And they’re little. They still don’t really understand adoption. They kind of get it, but they just don’t because they were so little when they came. It’s a foreign concept to them. And someday it will make sense, and we can share and explain more to them.
But multiple places, I remember writing an open letter to them and explaining like, This was not because I felt guilted into this. Like you were not a backup plan. You were not because we couldn’t have kids. You weren’t because we felt guilty or we we had an extra bedroom like you. God put you on our hearts. We didn’t know it was you, but like God put you on our hearts. And that’s why we did this thing. So then someday I can genuinely tell them that’s the truth.
Like, and when we talk about adoption, because again, they don’t get it. Like, we talk about how God knit our family together in a really special way, guys.
Every blue moon it happens at school, someone will say something to them and say something kind of mean because they don’t get it. And that’s when we go back to like, guys, they don’t understand. They don’t understand how God knit something. Like, we’re all adopted in God’s family, but God adopted you into your regular family too. Like, this is…
Anyway, I say that. I… Cannot say that about everything I’ve done, that God put it on my heart, but that one I can. And that would be the hope, is that as we continue to serve the Lord, we say yes to the things because God put it in our heart, not because we felt obligated or pressured or coerced into something.
Okay, no one stopped me. So it’s on. It’s on. Okay, that’s fair.
Okay, we’re going to look at eight now. So excited. I’ve been excited all day about this. Okay. When I say all day, I mean all week. Okay.
So chapter 8, before we read it, here’s kind of the high level. So on the bottom of that page, you’ve got the first eight verses where the people actually ask.
Ezra comes back into the story, which I think is pretty cool. And they ask him to read the book, the scriptures. And so he gets up, starts to read, and the people just worship. And then the Levites help them understand. They exposit what’s happening.
Then, oh, I mistyped. That’s supposed to be 9 through 12. Sorry. Verses 9 through 12, people actually weep at the words of God. I mean, they are genuinely weeping, but then Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites ask them, like, don’t weep because of the word. Like, rejoice because now you know. Like, rejoice because you’ve been given the word of God.
And then the last five verses, the leaders study the law, and then they actually go and build booths to practice and… respect the Passover, which is very cool.
So we’re going to read chapter 8, only 18 verses.
And I forgot to tell you, because it’s Reformation Week, in our house, I’m a dork. So we celebrate Reformation Day on Halloween. You’re a dork everywhere. I know, everywhere I go.
I actually asked my wife the other day, I was like, did you know I was kind of nerdy and dorky about this stuff in college? She goes, yeah. Like, we all knew. But it was endearing and sweet, and everyone still liked it. It was okay. I’m like, okay.
But because it’s Reformation Week, I brought my most, like, Reformation-y Bible. I have the five solos, and I’m so very dorky.
Anyway, chapter 8, verse 1. I appreciate you tolerating me. Okay. And all the people gathered as one man at the square, which was in front of the water gate. And they said to Ezra the scribe to bring out the book of the law of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded to Israel.
Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could understand when listening on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it for before the square, which was in front of the water gate, from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women and those who could understand. And all the ears of the people were attentive to the book of the law.
Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden podium, which they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mathathiah, Shema, Ananiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Masiah on his right hand, and Pediah, Mishael, Malchishan, Hashem, Oh, gosh. Hash, bed, then… Zechariah and Meshulam on his left hand.
And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed Yahweh with a great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, while lifting up their hands. Then they bowed low and worshipped Yahweh with their faces to the ground.
Also, Jeshua, Benai, Sherebiah, Jamin, Aqab… Shabbatai, Hodiah, Massaiah, Kelitiah, Azariah, Josabath. You guys are all so happy you’re not the one reading these names.
Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites were providing understanding of the law to the people while the people stood in their place. They read from the book from the law of God, explaining and giving insight, and they provided understanding of the reading. Verse 9.
Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites, who provided the people with understanding, said to all the people, This day is holy to Yahweh your God. Do not mourn or weep, for all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law.
Then he said to them, go eat of the fat, drink of the sweet and send portions to him who has nothing prepared for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved for the joy of Yahweh is your strength. So the Levites quieted all the people saying, be still for the day is holy. Do not be grieved.
Then all the people went out to drink. I’m sorry to eat, to drink and send portions and celebrate with great gladness because they understood the words which had been made known to them. Verse 13.
Then on the second day, the heads of father’s households of all the people, the priests and the Levites who were gathered to Ezra the scribe, that they might gain insight into the words of the law. They found written in the law of how Yahweh had commanded the hand by the hand of Moses.
The sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month, that they should make the report heard and make proclamation of it passed throughout their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, Go out to the hills and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of 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 their courts of the house of God and in the square at the water gate and in the square at the gate of Ephraim. The entire assembly of those who had returned from captivity made booths and lived in the booths. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was exceedingly great gladness.
And he read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days.
And on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the legal judgment. Okay. Aside from the names.
This is a really neat section of scripture. And it’s really neat because they’re doing what we’re doing. We are sitting down and hearing and studying the word of God. There’s so much cool stuff. So praise the Lord.
We have 30 minutes. Okay. Does that overwhelm you? Good. Okay. So when we look at this, they gather, it says, as one man in the square in front of the water. What is it actually trying to explain when it says they gathered as one man? They all had a common purpose. Yeah, that common purpose completely united and like we are going together and we’re doing this thing, which is very neat.
Like how rare does that happen in 2026? I mean, anyone uniting on anything. But yet they go as one man and they gather the square by the water gate side of the city.
And then they ask Ezra, the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded to Israel. Like what? What a neat thing.
Like they’ve rebuilt the temple. They’ve rebuilt the city. Years have gone by. Levites and gatekeepers and musicians have all been prepared and put in place.
But now, and it actually does feel a little weird, like why is it just now chapter 8 and we’re asking for the law of God to be brought out? But at least it happens. And they ask Ezra to bring it out. Before the assembly of men, women, and all who could understand.
I don’t remember what version of the Bible I was reading. And I’m not going to look it up. But it said, with the men, women, and all who could understand. Whatever version it was, it phrased it, and children who could understand. So this was not just men and women. This was everyone. Minus the little bitties that maybe could not understand.
Which is incredible because then we read verse 3 and we see what they do. He read from it before the square, which is in front of the water gate, from early morning until midday. I think, Terry, you told me it was seven hours. One book I read said it was five to six hours of standing and listening to the Word of God.
My question is, was it significant that this was on the first day of the Jewish New Year? I think so because when you look at the festival schedule and their calendar.
It was, I don’t know if they planned that though, now that I say that, but it’s significant when we read it now because they realize, oh wow, we’re at the point where we should be celebrating the festival at Booth’s. But I don’t know if they meant it. So I don’t know. I have half the answer.
I also read that this was a separate event. That’s why the women and children were invited. Yeah. Yeah. Like they would have gone back to their families, yeah.
I mean, that blows your mind. Think about the last time you stood for five to seven hours. I mean, that’s…
Now, I’m a little quirky. I don’t have a chair at school. I just have… I have one of those standing desks. So, like… But I’m also, like, physically moving all day, if you can imagine that. I don’t sit well. But… to stand still. I don’t stand still. I’m moving all day long.
They’re standing still, listening for five hours or more, five to six hours. They’re standing still. And we can assume if you have been outside, early morning starts out nice. By midday, it is not nice outside. I mean, it is hot. Sun is in the top of the sky.
But all of these people and their ears, the ears of the people were attentive to the book of the law. Like, Man, to be so hungry for God’s word.
And they also don’t talk about, you know, they didn’t break for meal. There wasn’t, you know, people going to get something to drink. Yeah. They stayed put. Yeah.
Which is just, again, I don’t remember the last class I had that everyone, not you all, high school kids, that almost half the class didn’t ask to go to the bathroom at some point. Like they can’t even make it 45 minutes without, can I go get some water? Can I go to the bathroom? You’re like, you just are bored. Like you just need to sit still for three minutes.
The worst is when they ask you to go to the bathroom and there’s like one minute before the bell and you’re like, no, just go in a minute.
Anyway, kids are funny. To be attentive for that amount of time, to stay put for that much time, it just blows your mind.
So there’s many neat things, and my iPad still isn’t working. I don’t know what happened. It’s the weirdest thing. Reboot it. Turn it off and turn it back on. Yeah, I did. I was sneaky.
I think another thing about this is these people had been outside of Jerusalem and other parts of the world, so they didn’t have the book of Moses. Yeah. To reference or have read to them.
So I think this is the first time the walls built, the doors closed, they’re safe. And I think they’re all so eager and hungry for the word that they can just enrapture with. It’s that interesting dynamic. And I’ve seen it a lot.
You hear about it with missions a lot, where like even this past year at school, we’ve done the last two years, we’ve tried to gather 2,000 Bibles to send to the Philippines because often pastors there, like five or six guys are sharing one Bible. So when they’re teaching, they’re teaching from what they’ve memorized. They don’t own their own Bible.
And it’s such a funny thing because a school of 1,000 kids, every year that we’ve done this to, we come up with 2,000 Bibles within a week. Because more than likely, they have a random old paperback copy on the shelf, or their mom got them a new one. And the folks there are so hungry for it. To them, it’s this massive gift.
I get emails from a few different Bible publishers who purposefully, like when you buy a Bible from them, they give away five or six Bibles that are the simpler version, but in whatever languages that they’re trying to focus on that month. And it’s what an incredible thing.
But it just goes to show how easy it is for us to take it for granted. I mean, I can pull it up on my phone. I have it on my Kindle. Sometimes when my iPad works, I have it on there. I have way too many actual Bibles at home because I enjoy having them and learning and reading different. Never too many Bibles. Never too many Bibles.
My iPad works now. Okay, sorry. It was waiting. It was just waiting.
But we’re so blessed that we can saturate ourselves with God’s word. But when you have abundance, sometimes that’s really hard to do. Well, let’s say a version of supply and demand. Absolutely. That we have such an overwhelming supply. Right. It’s so easy to just take it. Right. It’s always there.
I’ll look at it tomorrow. I’ll read it later. I’ll do that Bible read through next time. Because it’s just so plentiful. I mean, there’s so much of it.
But yet you read this and they’re just desperate.
I love my children. My children can’t sing. They can barely make it through evening prayer. And when I say barely make it, they don’t. Someone’s going to kick somebody. Someone’s going to look up and be like, Rissa doesn’t have her eyes closed. And you’re like, why do you have your eyes open? Children. But we don’t do long devos because they’re little. We’re talking five minutes. And they’re out the door.
These folks stand for hours. Like to imagine such hunger for the word just makes me giddy. I love it.
Um, so when we look at this, the attentiveness, all the things there’s, um, oh man, I answered my own question again. Okay. I tried to break up the questions, but I had to do it small because there wasn’t enough space. Classic.
Um, but the first few, the first four questions are verses one through eight. So we can kind of chunk this up. So we do it with some method methodology.
Um, So who asks for the book to be read? The assembly does. Like the people ask for this to be read. This isn’t just one. This isn’t just a few Levites who think it’s a good idea. The whole assembly wants to hear the word of God.
But let’s notice, what do the people do when Ezra opens the book? They stand. I did not make anyone stand tonight.
But the church I went to in college, I loved that they did this. Before the sermon, we typically would read whatever passage in totality, I guess. Like if we’re reading chapter eight, we would read all chapter eight at the beginning of service. And then later we’d talk about it. And they would always say like, all right, let’s stand for the reading of God’s word. And I just loved it. Like it was such a cool thing.
Like a little country church and, you know, outside Springfield, Missouri. And that was what they did. Like young and old, everyone stood up and listened for the reading of the word. And I just… I loved it. It made me so happy.
And that’s what the people do out of out of respect, out of admiration, out of out of a deep desire to understand.
But I also think standing sometimes changes. It’s a posture. Right. When I’m I don’t have a recliner anymore. But when you’re, you know, if you have like a big lazy boy and a big arm, or if you have a fancy electric one, like it’s a very different posture that you’re engaging in something.
You can see it in the way classrooms are set up. This is more casual than like lecture hall, you know, where it’s like everyone has little desks in front of them and it changes your posture. Well, standing also changes our posture. And all of a sudden it… wakes up and you can see it even in kids when they’re feeling antsy in class.
I was like, guys, stand up and stretch. Just everybody stand up where you are. Do something with your arms like stretch. It gets them going a little.
So this is a neat thing about the posture. And so question three kind of leans out of that. What does it look like to listen attentively in a world of distraction? And I say this constantly. With the kindest heart because I am a big listener of audio Bibles while I’m driving.
But I know when I’m driving, I’m not a hundred percent like I am listening, but it’s not the same as me like holding it, reading and slowing down and going backwards because I’m driving like two seventies terrifying. Like you can’t, you cannot be totally engaged in listening to I’m in Luke right now. You cannot totally listen. When there’s something happening on 270. And it’s terrible. Terrible.
So what does it look like? What does it look like to really be attentive? Our world is a very distracting world. What does it look like to be attentive? You narrow your focus. You have to focus intently on what you’re doing. Yeah. I love that. I am the rabbit chaser of all rabbits. Seriously.
I have, and everybody’s in different seasons of life, but I have found when I’m doing deep work, whether it’s for like Westminster school prep stuff, whether it’s seminary stuff or Sunday school, Wednesdays, like I have to, my laptop usually is not the right thing to use. Because my laptop is going to have like a ping of a text message comes up or an email or or something, and there’s also the internet, so like it’s really easy to rabbit trail or like, oh, I forgot to look up that one thing, then before you know it you’ve watched eight YouTube videos and you don’t know what you came to the internet for.
But alas, um, I have found grabbing paper something And I have a, it’s not with me in my bag, but I have a Kindle that’s like the write-on Kindle. So it looks like an e-ink screen. I mean, it is an e-ink screen, but it has a pencil so you can…
I have found that when I need to really focus and, like, the kids call it locking in. So you learned a high school phrase today. When I need to lock in, that’s the way I go grab. And I don’t sit at my desk where my computer is at home. I go find somewhere else, and I just sit with that. And my phone goes somewhere else. And it’s… I can work.
Clara occasionally over the summer, my class was very homework intense. She would send me to Starbucks over there by Ronnie’s. And it was good. Like I would leave my phone in the car and like just take it. And I could really focus in for like two hours. And it was great because it wasn’t distracting. Like I could be attentive to the task at hand. Yeah. It’s that quiet spot where you can… Yeah. Yeah. Because there’s too much in my den to distract me from what I’m supposed to be doing in there. So I go somewhere where I don’t have anything. That’s awesome.
Arneal, you have a thought. The best way to pray is to write it. Yes. And you stay focused. Yes. And it keeps you going. It’s amazing to sit and write your prayer. In your head, you’re praying, but the next thing you know, you’re thinking of all these other things when you’re Writing your prayer is very focused. Yep. It’s awesome.
And I think that is the delicate danger. I dearly love that my iPad can have 20 versions of the Bible. And I don’t want to buy. I mean, once you lose all your books in a fire, you really don’t want to buy a lot of them again. You kind of simplify and pick the things you like. These are the favorites. I don’t need all the others. I like that I can have a massive library hidden right on there.
But also, there’s the danger of it can be the very thing that, especially if I’m using my iPad or my phone as my Bible, it’s great on the go when I need to look up a verse and the kids are like, Dad, can you pull up Psalm 100? And I’m like, sure, here you go.
But when I really need to be attentive, it is not the right device. It is the absolute wrong device. It should be turned off and put away. My TV should be turned off. The computer, because they’re the thing that will keep me. From actually being attentive to God’s word.
There’s an ad that’s on Instagram that talks about, it’s part of a Bible app, but it talks about you’ve just spent 15 minutes reading the Bible, doing a devotional, and now you’re on your phone scrolling through all the things that you’re… The exact opposite things, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so they’re talking about how this app… Was it the Scroll the Bible app? Yeah. Okay, I’ve seen that, yeah. And that reminded me of that.
It’s like you’ve done this, but now you’re going to spend hours undoing it. Undoing all the good attentiveness that you’ve just done, putting God’s word into your heart. Gosh.
Question five. We have to skip a few questions to stay on track. But when scripture is opened, do I come ready to be taught or ready to evaluate? And I say this. We absolutely know the right answer. The answer should be to be taught.
I know plenty of Bible studies I’ve been in or Bible studies I’ve led where, and I vividly have, I’m not going into the examples, but I vividly remember there were too many who came in to shred it to pieces. To just shred it to pieces. They didn’t want to come in And let it be something that reads their heart and exposes the sin and points them back to Jesus.
They wanted to nitpick all the details. They wanted to be like, well, that technically contradicts this. And you’re like, that’s not the point right now. You’re missing the goal.
So again, I think… There’s something beautiful and special about chapter 8, and to me it’s the fact that God’s word is enormously central to this chapter. I mean, they want to read God’s word. They want God’s word to read their hearts and to point them back to what’s right, which is what leads them, and the next little section we’ll reread, that they were weeping because they realized, they understood now.
So to that point, let’s go ahead and reread chapter 8. Oh gosh, there’s so much good stuff. Okay, verse 9.
Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites, who provided the people with understanding, said to all the people, This day is holy to Yahweh your God. Do not mourn or weep, for all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law.
And then he said to them, Go eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength. So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, Be still, for the day is holy. Do not be grieved.
Then all the people went away to eat, to drink, and to send portions, and celebrate with great gladness, because they understood the words which had been made known to them.
So because they understand the words made known to them, what’s their reaction? They went to celebrate. They were worshiping and celebrating and praising. The joy of Yahweh became their strength because they understood the words which had been made known to them. Like, not just are they hearing the Word of God, but now they understand the Word of God. And it was in verse 8 that they actually said that.
They read from the book, from the law of God, explaining and giving insight, and they provided understanding of the reading.
I mean, this is an amazing moment for God’s people because they’ve been starved of His Word. For decades, hundreds of years.
But now, not only do they get to hear God’s word, but they get understanding of the reading. And when they have really solid understanding, it leads them to joy and praise and celebration. So, goodness.
Question seven. Question six is a biggie. Yeah, let’s start there. Tell the difference between conviction that leads to repentance and shame that leads to despair. Yes.
The Bible commands us to test the spirits. Yep. And that’s the right answer. I mean, the only way to tell the difference between real conviction that points us toward repentance or that shame that leads to despair is testing the spirits. And, quite frankly, the end result. If the conviction leads us to despair… Not great.
But if the conviction leads us to repent, it’s, that’s, I mean, we, oh gosh, was it here or was it in Sunday school? That’s bad news when they, like, they mix up in your head and you don’t actually remember which thing you were teaching. I think it was actually Romans. I think it’s in Romans.
The beauty of the law is it showed us the sin and the power of sin so that that would show us that we needed a savior because we couldn’t do it on our own. So repentance is the only way. That’s why we’re considered a confessional religion. Or a confessional denomination. Because we understand that Scripture tells us that repenting is the only way. Yeah, Terry. And we can ask God to show us in His Word what we’re doing. Yeah. He will do that. Amen.
And then sometimes when we don’t want him to. Often, especially when we don’t want him to. That’s one of my favorites.
So I don’t have the right water bottle, but my other water bottle, I have the logo from seminary. And I love that it’s just, it’s obviously the Bible, but it’s a book opened up and has a dove descending over it. And I love it because it’s that… subtle reminder that that is exactly like the Holy Spirit is what’s revealing and helping us understand Scripture to search our hearts. It’s just the best. Hard, but the best. And oftentimes the hard things are some of the best things.
Okay.
Question eight, actually, because I realized what time it was. Do I treat joy as optional? Or do I believe joy The joy of the Lord is strength. So I like this question, but I will also ask you to pray for me on this.
I think I am supposed to speak in chapel at school, like for Christmas chapel, I think. So it’s like mid-December. And I think it’s on that topic. The idea of joy entering the world through Jesus. And that when we look at the difference between happiness and joy, they’re very different things. I can be sad and still be full of joy. And that’s the beauty of the dichotomy of our faith, that I can hold sorrow in one hand and joy in the other hand.
My gosh, we’re home in the house now, but the goofy year and a half we spent in the tower house was so full of joy. Like so, I mean, sure, a lot of heartache. Like you can’t say that losing everything isn’t sad. Like losing your kid’s dog. I mean, all these are terrible things.
But that’s circumstantial. Our joy doesn’t come from the circumstances. Our joy is found in the Lord. And we see that with God’s people here. What verse? It was verse 10. Don’t be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength. Yes. It’s that…
That’s why I love, like, when they sometimes will call, like, services like Celebrations of Life, it’s that subtle reminder of, like, of course it’s sad. But, like, we know.
And it’s… horrible and beautiful and mixed together, and there was a—I think it’s in one of our prayer books that we have at home with the kids—and I think it’s, it’s something to the effect of like sorrow mingled with joy, or maybe sorrow. But it’s a beautiful prayer because it’s that whole—it’s wrestling with that idea.
And we’re humans, we wrestle with that because we—we want to say, yes, I believe the joy of the Lord is my strength. We want, but we still have to live life here And it’s broken, and there’s sin, and there’s pain, and there’s suffering. So we have to continually go back and wrestle with that idea over and over again. And it’s hard.
I have a friend, Linda O’Hara, who has stage 1 ovarian cancer. Oh, goodness. Her favorite Bible verses are Philippians 4, 6-7. Don’t worry. Pray. Thank Him for the answers. He’s given me a peace that is astounding. He with me.
I didn’t know that about Linda, but that sounds like Linda, though. I mean, that’s the kind of faith that you see in so much of her life. Wow.
Okay, we have to look at the last few verses because we’re at it. We’ve read it, so we’re going to summarize. 13 through 18.
This is when they look back and they realize there’s a command to celebrate the festival of the booths. That they have not done this since… I think it was verse 16. No, 17. They had not done this since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun. I mean, that’s hard to believe. You read that and you’re like, wait, really? Even in David’s time? It’s just bizarre. But it didn’t happen. So…
Not only do they go and do this, they go out and they get the olive branches and wild myrtle and palm branches and they build their booths, some out in their courtyards, some on their roofs, but they build them all over.
And then I love verse 18. And he read from the book of the law of God daily from the first day to the last. And they celebrated the feast for seven days. So for seven days, they continued to read the word of God. That’s amazing.
While they’re living in their booths because they so deeply wanted to be obedient. They didn’t want to miss the opportunity to obey God. I mean, think about that. They didn’t want to miss the opportunity to obey.
I can’t even get high schoolers to obey when they have consequences like vividly in front of them. And they didn’t want to miss that chance to obey.
So the first question, number nine, what obedience has God’s word asked of you that’s inconvenient? Think about the things in God’s word that are just not necessarily fun to obey. There’s plenty. But we see an example of people who not only obey, but they were eager to obey.
No one said, you guys need to go do this. Get it together. They heard God’s word and they’re like, well, we got to do this. Like it’s in God’s word. Like we got to do it now. They didn’t miss a beat. It’s amazing.
So this is where having a high view of Scripture is really important. And what I mean by that, like a high versus low view of Scripture, a high view of Scripture genuinely places Scripture in ultimate authority. Like, yes, I have authority to speed limits, and I have authority to pay my taxes, and authority to my boss. But in the end, my ultimate authority… The authority that trumps everything else is God’s word.
And for them, they were willing to say, like, yes, it’s inconvenient. I just rebuilt my house. And now I’m going to go live on the roof in a hut for a bit. That’s not convenient. But unless you’re weird like my family and you camp a bunch. But most people don’t want to.
They still believed that it was better to be obedient, even as inconvenient. And that has a high view of scripture. Yeah. Used at this time. They basically were open-air means that provided really no protection from the elements or anything. So you’re giving up the comfort of a home that you just rebuilt to live in this. To basically sleep outside in some brush.
So last question, then we have to kind of pivot to the wrap-up stuff. Am I willing, this is question 11, am I willing to be corrected by scripture even when I think I already know it? I mean, it probably depends on the moment. Probably depends on what scripture. Probably depends on our mood that day and how recently we ate.
But That’s hard. Even when we know it shouldn’t be hard, we’re humans. It is hard to be corrected by scripture. It is hard to be told, much like wanting critique. We don’t necessarily love it, but we deeply need it.
So, because we’re almost out of time, let’s look at the bottom half of that page. A few wrap-up thoughts. And if we go too fast, you have the paper, so you can look. At the end of this, we see… Gosh, we see so much good stuff.
We see in chapter 7 that Nehemiah is purposefully placing people in leadership who fear God above all else, that they are faithful, faithful leaders.
But then when we get to chapter 8, we see everyone gathering with one heart, wanting to hear the word of God, wanting to understand, not just hear it and cross it off their list. I know that I’ve probably been guilty of that even doing my Bible read-throughs every year. There’s just days that you read it and you’re like, okay, I’m caught up today. I’m good.
Verses like, I want to understand. And they wanted to understand. And then when they understood it, they wept because they realized that they hadn’t been obedient. They realized they had been very sinful. They had not understood and they had wandered far from God.
But they’re encouraged then in verse, I guess it was in, 11, 12, 10 that the joy of Yahweh was their strength. And it’s, and it’s incredible.
It’s such a neat story because it shows how God uses regular, everyday, flawed people to do great things in the kingdom. Ezra and Nehemiah were, were good leaders, but they were ordinary, flawed people. They weren’t… I mean, yes, one was a scribe, one was the cupbearer, but they were still humans. And they still needed a Savior too. Yeah, Terry.
I always wondered about David. God said he was a man after his own heart. Yeah. He committed all kinds. Right. So many sins. One of the giving God he had. Yes. I mean, that even King David, who was, like Terry said, regarded as a man after God’s own heart, but yet… was an adulterer, was a murderer, was a liar.
I mean, but yet still, again, the beautiful nuance in David’s life is in Psalm 51, when he’s confronted by Nathan, confronted by Nathan, that he repents. That he knows he has sinned. And he has sinned before God. Which should be our response too. Our sin should drive us to repentance.
So the questions that I always write this. I like it. I don’t know why. Questions to consider as you head home and ponder God’s word.
When you open the scriptures, what are you actually seeking? Only you know, you and the Holy Spirit. But when you open the scriptures, what are you seeking? Is it a, I’m crossing my spiritual Jesus thing off my list today? Or am I seeking God? Do I want the Holy Spirit to breathe life into me in a new way?
And then I guess I kind of had a couple answers here. Do we come like Israel, dependent on God to open his word and our hearts? Or are we finding Jesus there?
I think there’s some people who are so good at reading the whole of Scripture, and they see Jesus everywhere. Some people, that’s a unique blessing that they have. Hopefully, it’s somewhere in that realm.
But as we sit with this section of Nehemiah, we’re in 7 and 8 next week, 9 and 10, we have to keep asking God to help make us like the Hebrews here, to make us a people that are hungry for his word, that long to not just hear it, but to understand it, And be moved to repentance and obey. Because change is everything.
So, any thoughts before we pray? It’s so good having someone to challenge you to look deeper in the Word of Christ. You have done that for me. Thank you for that.
There’s some good patterns that we can glean from this on how our perspective is bordered You know, you can argue it’s an example of a congregational polity. The people are calling for revival, basically. The priests didn’t get the spirit to do that first, but the people did. And then they were obedient, right? And turning to the word, it’s founding the word. Yeah, expositionary. Expositional preaching in verse 8.
And then you have also a wooden platform, which some have used as a reason for a pulpit. But it’s really to get the speaker, the reader, elevated so they can see and hear.
And then you hear the guidance to turn from grief and sorrow to joy, which is interesting. That’s a very interesting point. Not to wallow in our sin, but to move toward the joy. That’s interesting. Really interesting guidance, I think.
I agree because it’s, it’s easy to see, um, if you’ve, if you’ve never read, you should, but The Pilgrim’s Progress, when Christian is carrying his load and, and he feels just so weighed down by, by the load that he’s carrying and, and I don’t remember, it’s been long enough since I’ve read it and I’ve, I’ve read the kid version too many times with the kids, um, so the real version is lost on me now because the kid version’s tainted it, but he eventually, it’s like, well, Why are you still carrying this burden? You’ve been set free from this. And the moment is beautiful in the kid book and the real one. But that’s a good word. I love that.
Okay, let’s pray. Father God, thank you. Man, I’ve been excited for chapter 8 for a while, so thank you for a great night. Thank you for good discussion.
Thank you for giving us a moment in our small little way on a Wednesday to be like the Israelites here in chapter 8 who are hungry for your word. Who not only want to hear, but they want to understand and we want to obey. So God, help us do those things. Help us to understand. We can only fully grasp this through the Holy Spirit. So help us to understand as we walk away and ask the hard questions and search our hearts and point us to repentance, God.
We love you so much and we’re so thankful for nights like this. We ask all this in your name. Amen.
Alright, thank you all.
