September 28: Nehemiah 8-10

September 28, Nehemiah 8-10

Nehemiah continued…

Nehemiah 8 All the people gathered together - united - to wholeheartedly listen to God’s Word as Ezra read the Law of Moses to them. This took about 1/2 a day to do! Ezra stood up on a podium that they had made for just the occasion. The people joined Ezra in blessing the Lord. The people recognize their guilt as they hear what was expected of them and how they had fallen so short of what God had called them to. “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” That is how it should be… They people were overwhelmed and Ezra and Nehemiah reminded them to not mourn any longer but to celebrate and rejoice in God. They discovered that they were supposed to be celebrating the Feast of booths (in essence, it is temporarily living in ‘booths’ that were located outside their houses. They had learned this as they read about the law) - so they obeyed and went and found branches to build booths to live in order to obey. This had not been observed for many years, so this is a big deal. Ezra kept on teaching them during the 7 day festival. 

Nehemiah 9 All the people were fasting and mourning and praying in assembly. “And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.” This entire chapter is about remembering what God had done for them and also how sinful their fathers were - but they owned the sins too, they didn't blame shift. It is a great summary chapter of the journey that God had brought them on. Still, even though they sinned continuously and were idolatrous, God never abandoned or forgot them. They made a covenant promising to be obedient this time around and had all the leaders and priests and officials sign it. 

Nehemiah 10 This chapter starts out with a long list of the officials that signed the covenant. The covenant promised to obey God’s laws, including sacrifices, offerings, and not intermarrying with foreigners. Remember this: “join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes.” They were so serious that they said they would be cursed if they did not obey. That is true commitment to faith. 

To sum it all up: 

• Faith. Is your faith being lived out or just sometimes talked about? Do you mourn over your sins when God reveals them to you?
• We serve a Holy God who is not ‘playing’ around when it comes to sin against Him.
• Today would be a great time to put your faith in action…