Hungry for Scripture

Preached 21 January 2019

Reading: Nehemiah 8v1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Luke 4v14-21

The book of Nehemiah

I’ve always loved the book of Nehemiah. The story of how a minor official in the Babylonian empire persuades the king to allow him to return to his home city, and the struggles he has to get the walls rebuilt. The image of building the wall with a sword in one hand and material for the wall in the other shows the struggles they went through defending themselves from the surrounding cities, who definitely did not want to see Jerusalem become a strong city again.

My View of Nehemiah

I’ve tended to think of the book as the story of what can happen when one man understands what God wants, and will go to any length to achieve it. For me, Nehemiah is a hero of the faith. He has a clear vision, and he works in many ways to make it happen. He carefully plans his approaches to the king, so that when he finally leaves, he not only has permission to go, but the king's backing for what he wants to do. When he gets back to Jerusalem, he sees the city and tries to get the people organised. He faces opposition from his own people, but eventually the building starts. Then there’s the surrounding cities trying to prevent the work taking place. Nehemiah organises the people so that they can build and defend themselves. Eventually, the wall is completed in just 52 days! Then there is a big celebration.

It’s an excellent story and would make a great Hollywood blockbuster – I’m surprised it isn’t up there with the films about Moses and the promised land.

Today’s Reading

Today’s reading shows that there is a lot more going on than just a simple “Hero rebuilds city” story. So let’s take a look at some of the detail and see if we can work out what is really going on here.

Background – Exile

In 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took many from Jerusalem into exile. This followed a long siege and the kings of Judah paying tribute for 3 years. The city was destroyed, but resistance continued and further groups of people were rounded up and taken into exile. Babylon was defeated by Persia under king Cyrus in 539 BC. After that, the people were allowed to return. As with being taken into exile, the return was a slow process with many phases.

Background – Return

Some had returned with Ezra the priest, before Nehemiah arrived. The exile is reckoned to have lasted 70 years. The important thing to note here is that none of those exiles could have returned. Those who returned would be their children or grandchildren.

Ezra Reads the Law on the Feast of Trumpets

The first day of the seventh month (which was in early October), was also the civil new year. It was celebrated with the feast of Trumpets (Nu 29:1 On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets.) So the practices of the Jews are beginning to be restarted. The people have gathered in the square in front of the Water Gate – one of the repaired gates of the city.

Ezra Reads

The people have told Ezra the scribe to bring out the book of the law of Moses. This is presumably the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. So we know that the reading of it is going to take a long time. All the people were there – men, women and older children, anyone who was old enough to understand, and they all listened attentively for about 5 hours. Of course that’s not enough time to read the whole of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

People Hungry for Scripture

Most of those listening had never heard the law read before. Their belief in God had been passed to them from their parents and grandparents. No doubt they had heard the story of Abraham and his first encounters with God and the story of Moses and the Exodus, and the giving of the commandments. They had been told about the laws that God had made for them, but they had never heard them read from the actual book. It would have been a time of enormous excitement that they would have been eagerly anticipating.

Excitement at God's Word

I have to say that I didn’t notice an atmosphere of excitement today as the service started. There didn’t appear to be a great amount of anticipation of the hearing of scripture. To us, it has become routine. We have a nice three-year pattern in the Lectionary which takes us through what some people somewhere have decided is a good sub-set of our scriptures, so that Sunday by Sunday we cover the high lights and follow the seasons. If you read the passages in the Lectionary every day, you will eventually get most of the Bible, but I haven’t checked to see that every verse is covered. If you have a Bible reading plan and are conscientious, you will cover the whole Bible in however long the plan lasts. But the question is how excited do you get in your readings?

Familiarity breeds contempt

Perhaps we are suffering from familiarity breeding contempt? Unlike the assembly in front of the water gate, we’ve heard the readings before – probably more than once. It becomes a bit of the same old thing. It’s always available. I have Bibles all over the house and on every piece of computer hardware I own – my phone, my tablets, my PCs – it's always available. I read small passages quite frequently, but longer ones require a special occasion. For me, that would be part of my preparation for home group or preaching, or for some other study that I am involved in. I remember reading each of the four gospels straight through on successive weeks for the Course in Christian Studies. This approach give a different view and helps get across the overall picture of what’s happening.

Hearing is better than Reading

Perhaps hearing God’s word read to us, as Marion did a few minutes ago, is better than sitting and reading it ourselves. Certainly, someone who reads well can help the passage come to life. I wonder how many of us would be prepared to stand and listen for 5 hours, though – that’s how long it is from first light until noon in Jerusalem in October.

Interpretation

Maybe we need a little more than just hearing, though. Look at verses 7 & 8.

The Levites — Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read. The explanations may have been interpretation, or simply translation, as the language may have been unfamiliar to the returnees, or the book may have been very old. Imagine how hard it would be if the only scriptures we had were in the original Greek.

Response

So, the Levites had made the meaning clear. The people understood, and were upset by what they heard. After generations of ignoring God and being unfaithful to Him, this generation has heard what He has to say, and is happily turning back to Him.

Ezra reminds them that this is not the right time because today they are supposed to be celebrating. Nehemiah sends them away to enjoy the party that some have prepared, and reminds them to share with those who have nothing prepared.

The next day, if we read on a few verses, we find that the heads of families have begun to understand more about the festival they are celebrating and have learnt more from Ezra and the Levites.

Excited by God's Word

The returnees have been excited to hear God's words as recorded in the book of the Law. As a result, they are already changing the way they have been living their life. That is our challenge too. Each of us have heard the gospel – the good news about Jesus, the son of God who gave His life for our sins, so that we can have eternal life with God. It’s nothing we have done, it’s the grace of God. Even if we’ve heard it many times, it is still amazing news that we should get excited about. If we do, we will want to respond, just as the Returnees to Jerusalem did. We will be sorrowful for our old ways, and want to live as he directs.

And this is what He wants from us:

Mic 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Or as Jesus says in John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

References

http://www.textweek.com/yearc/epiphc3.htm
http://www.textweek.com/history/neh8.htm
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/rebuilding-the-walls-michael-deutsch-sermon-on-faith-161427?page=1&wc=800
https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/2060-when-he-opened-the-book
https://www.sermonwriter.com/biblical-commentary/nehemiah-81-10/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_captivity