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“⁷ 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. ⁸ They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.” NIV

It struck me this morning, as I was reading chapter 8, that Ezra has suddenly appeared on the scene, and I haven’t specifically noted it. Just to say that the ministries of Nehemiah and Ezra overlap, and their books should be read together to get a bigger picture of the time, and the circumstances they were facing. Warren Wiersbe explains: ‘When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem in 444 B.C., Ezra was already there, instructing the people in God’s law. When the work of rebuilding was completed, Ezra held a great ‘’Bible conference’’ during the Feast of Tabernacles.’ ‘With the Word’, p.268.

With regard to today’s reading, I have also found this quote helpful:‘Passages like this give scriptural confirmation of the need for preachers and teachers of God’s word, and for books to help explain it…Some Christians have the idea that they don’t need to read books about the Bible, such as commentaries. They say that only the Holy Spirit is needed to help one understand the Bible. Ezra certainly would not have agreed. After all, the Holy Spirit also helps writers write commentaries. It is pride that keeps people from wanting to learn from others.’ Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.761.

PRAYER: Lord, please give understanding to  your preachers, and through your preachers.

“⁵ Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. ⁶ Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, ‘Amen! Amen!’ Then they bowed down and worshipped the Lordwith their faces to the ground.“NIV

Sometimes, just the sight of my Bible on the desk next to me, or the feel of it in my hands, ignites a sense of joy which goes right through me and causes me to say inwardly, ‘I love this Book.’ I don’t report this to generate admiration in others, but simply to give testimony to the joy the Scriptures can bring to one heart. Of course, it is more than the sight, or the feel, of the Bible that should stoke the flames of gratitude and gladness; it is rather its contents that are the fuel for the flames. But that is why I regularly feel excited when I see my Bible – because it’s overall message is so overwhelmingly thrilling.

In today’s reading the response to God’s Word is joyful reverence. As you read your Bible, with an open heart, asking God to speak to you, at times you will want to lift up your hands in praise. At other times you may want to fall on your knees, and even on your face. Christian worship combines awe and intimacy.

Notice the people took their cue from Ezra. He led in praise, and they all ‘’responded’’. Leaders may well need to ‘eat last’ (as in a recent book title). But they must also go first – and others will follow.

PRAYER: Lord God, teach me to love your wonderful Book more and more. Indeed, teach me to love you, its Author, more and more. In its pages let me meet with you.

“⁵ Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up.“NIV

When I went ‘up’ from Junior school to Secondary modern, I felt certain differences in the atmosphere. One was that you had to stand up whenever the head, or head of year, walked into the room. Then there were certain other teachers who told us, ‘You stand up when I walk into the room too.’ One of them was a science teacher called Mr Little (who happened, ironically, to be quite big!) I found him scary. The early weeks at my new school were, at times, quite intimidating, although I soon got used to it. But I can still now feel the respect engendered (or demanded) by certain staff members, for whom we used to stand upon their entry. There was respect in the air.

Yet even more than this, I remember the impact of P.S.Brewster. Percy Brewster was the Secretary General (what would now call the General Superintendent) of the ‘Elim’ movement when I was in my teens. He carried about him a certain glow, an aura, a sense of the presence of God. I remember the first time he came to preach at my home church in Wigan one Saturday night, many moons ago. Still now I can feel something of what went through me when he asked the packed house to stand for the reading of God’s Word. This was not any old book, or a casual moment. This mattered. We were in the presence of God and His Holy Word, and we knew it. The air crackled with Spiritual power. I sensed ‘anointing’.

When I was a young boy, my old pastor (who may have been younger than I am now, so I’d better be careful) showed me the spine of a Bible, and pointing to each letter of the words ‘Holy Bible’ he said to me, ‘Honour, Obey, Love Your Bible. It Brings Life Everlasting.’

PRAYER: Teach us Lord to honour you and honour your Book.

‘⁴ Ezra the teacher of the Law stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. Beside him on his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; and on his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam.‘ NIV

First, a general comment on what we have looked at thus far in chapter 8. It comes from F.B.Meyer, and his book ‘Devotional Commentary’, pages 206, 207: ‘Surely this was the first public Bible-reading! When will the people be again as hungry for the Word of God as those Jews who stood in the open space from early dawn till the scorching noon?’

But then more specifically on verse 4, I note that Ezra is the big name; one of the names to go down in Biblical history. However, to his right and left there were other people alongside him. Their names are not necessarily well-known, but I want to say it takes a team. It seems to me that the kind of leadership we see repeatedly in the pages of the Bible is mainly of the shared variety. You can think of ‘famous’ pastors of widely-known churches across the world today, and I can pretty much guarantee you this: the ‘success’ of such churches will be partly because of a whole lot of other effective and faithful people who never get the limelight, but they are happy to serve. That is not to diminish the part played by the strongly gifted senior leader, but they could not do what they do alone.PRAYER: Lord, we praise you for all who lead in your church. Some are given a high profile, but many are not. However, may they all glorify you in humble service, and desire only ‘to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds..to labour and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that they do your will.

“¹ all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel. So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Lawbefore the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. ³ He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.” NIV

For effective preaching to happen two things have to synchronise. There must be ‘priests’ (leaders), like Ezra, who have a heart to set the Lord’s Word before the people; and there must be a people who have hearts to heed what God says. This was a long service by any standards, but the people were alert and attentive. It caused me to remember Luke’s statement about the first Christian church in Jerusalem: ‘’They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…’’ (Acts 2:42a). (By the way, the Bible reading was probably the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Old Testament. If Ezra did not read all of it, he no doubt read large chunks. The Pentateuch, it has to be confessed, contains large sections of Scripture we may find difficult to digest. So it’s good to be reminded that this is God’s Word and it is all important).

But I’m also reminded of Paul’s words to Timothy:

‘’Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.’’ (1 Timothy 4:13 New Living Translation).

The public reading of Scripture is very important. This is where the more liturgical churches may have an advantage over the ‘free’ congregations at times. The reading of both Old and New Testament passages is embedded in their services.

 If you get the opportunity to read the Bible out loud in a service, approach your task with reverence, care, thought and prayer. It is God’s Word you are handling, and you want people to understand’’ what He is saying.

PRAYER: Thank you Lord for the fact that your Word is so freely available to us. Thank you for those who have given their lives to put it in our hands. Give us hearts to sit at your feet and listen attentively.

^“1 all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.“NIV

I confess, I look at this verse with not a little sadness, as well as longing. I miss the days when we could assemble in this way. (But let’s be honest, we often took it for granted, did we not?).

I am grateful, of course, that we can still gather as one on-line, and I commend you for the loving, caring unity you have continued to display throughout this long and difficult season. It’s wonderful to see.

The undeniable (and indestructible) truth is that we are ‘’one’’ people in Jesus (Ephesians 2:15) whether or not we can meet in one place.

By the way, I couldn’t help but think it significant that this great Bible ‘convention’ took place ‘’in the square before the Water Gate.’’ Paul, in Ephesians 5:26, writes about ‘’the washing with water through the word…’’

A friend, who had been a backslider from the faith, and came home to Christ in his 50’s, bemoaned the fact that he couldn’t remember as much of the Bible as he wanted to. He read it greedily, but couldn’t retain it. ‘But I suppose it’s like water going through a sieve,’ he said. ‘It cleanses as it goes.’

PRAYER: Lord, may your Word continue to have its cleansing effect in our lives, and may we put ourselves repeatedly in ‘the shower’ – in the place where its waters can pour over us.

“¹ all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.” NIV

‘’They told Ezra…to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses…’’

‘About a week after the wall was finished, all the people assembled in Jerusalem. The physical restoration of the city’s defences had been completed; now the time had come to focus on the spiritual restoration of the people.’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied OT Commentary, p.761.

God’s Word lay at the centre of this renewal.

I have set myself to not only read Nehemiah, but pray through the book. It’s not always easy to turn what you’re reading into prayer, but I have found it a powerful thing to do, and it is also an aid to meditation. I believe it helps to get the Word of God into your heart – and that’s where you want it, as a safeguard against sin (Ps.119:11).

As I read this verse, it prompted me to pray, with some conviction, for spiritual hunger among us. Here the people were asking for God’s Word (‘’…which the LORD had commanded for Israel’’). I think the implication is that they both wanted to hear and do what God said.

How much do you want God’s Book? How keen are you to hear it, read it, study it, and live under its authority?

The psalmist wrote: ‘’Oh how I love your law!’’ (Psalm 119:97). A practical implication of such love has already been stated in verse 16: ‘’I delight in your decrees: I will not neglect your word.’’

PRAYER: Lord, please forgive us for any complacency, or lukewarmness towards your Word. May we love it as we should, and give our attention to it in order to obey it.

“⁶ These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town, ⁷ in company with Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum and Baanah):The list of the men of Israel:…………(please see list in your Bible) …..⁶³ And from among the priests:the descendants of Hobaiah, Hakkoz and Barzillai (a man who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by that name). ⁶⁴ These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. ⁶⁵ The governor, therefore, ordered them not to eat any of the most sacred food until there should be a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim.⁶⁶ The whole company numbered 42,360, ⁶⁷ besides their 7,337 male and female slaves; and they also had 245 male and female singers. ⁶⁸ There were 736 horses, 245 mules,^[ 69 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys.” NIV

Reading this chapter caused me to think of a Christian lady who said she loved to do ‘boring’ jobs. By this she meant that she was happy to work behind the scenes, doing certain things some people might regard as ‘boring’. But such work is always important in the church, and certain vital things that need to get done won’t be achieved without it.

As I indicated yesterday, you may not find this to be the most inspiring part of Nehemiah, but it underlines for me the importance of lists, of names, of numbers, of record keeping and book keeping (financial recording) – of administration and organisation. Church life would be chaotic without it. Everything should be done ‘’decently and in order.’’

PRAYER: Thank you Lord for all the work done faithfully behind the scenes to make the public ministry of the church possible. Thank you for those who do it.

“⁴ Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt. ⁵ So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the common people for registration by families. I found the genealogical record of those who had been the first to return. This is what I found written there:” NIV

You may not find what comes next in Nehemiah 7 to be the most inspiring part of the book. (On the other hand, some people might). But remember, Nehemiah was carrying out what His God had put into His heart. So it’s important; it matters.

I simply want to say that God still speaks to the hearts of His people, and I wonder, what has God put into your heart? Also, what are you going to do with it? It may well be wise, in some cases, to keep on praying about it, if you’re not quite sure it is God’s voice you are hearing. It’s nearly always a good and prudent thing to talk it over with another mature Christian (or leader), but I do know God does drop things into His people’s hearts, and what an adventure life can become when we respond to His promptings.

I am in Boston Spa today because of something God ‘’God put…into my heart…’’ as I prayed and walked around an empty church building in Leeds 30 years ago. God’s promptings can alter the whole course of your life.

PRAYER: Lord God, I long for such a relationship with you that I can feel your tiniest nudges, and hear your faintest whispers. Help me, Lord, to respond with full obedience.