Read Nehemiah 7:4-5
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:
(Before we move on, I must point out that yes, there was a point to the next four chapters, and Nehemiah’s concern in verse 4 would eventually be settled in chapter 11!)
We won’t be reading the rest of this chapter – it is basically Ezra’s list (Ezra 2). Having obtained this list, it now seems Nehemiah encouraged Ezra in what happened next.
Read Nehemiah 7 (last sentence of v 73) and Nehemiah 8:1-3
When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, 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.
2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before 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.
This sounds like a spontaneous gathering, but as we read on we will find that it was a well-organised meeting, with a platform for the speaker and interpreters who could explain the Law – and it carried on all week! (Nehemiah 8:18) Public reading of the law then seemed to be a regular practice (Nehemiah 9:3).
But what was the response of the people, many of whom had never known the law?
Read Nehemiah 8:1-12
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.
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 Lord with their faces to the ground.
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.
(The Law was written in Hebrew, but most people by now spoke Aramaic – the common Persian language.)
9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, ‘This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.’ For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.
10 Nehemiah said, ‘Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’
11 The Levites calmed all the people, saying, ‘Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve.’
12 Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.
It seems obvious that the Holy Spirit was at work in the hearts and minds of the people. Their response in verses 6 and 9 indicated that their collective response was to turn back to the Lord.
Read Nehemiah 8:13-15
13 On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered round Ezra the teacher of the Law to give attention to the words of the Law. 14 They found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month 15 and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: ‘Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles, palms and other leafy trees, to make temporary shelters’ – as it is written. (In Leviticus 23:37-44)
We read at the start of this study that this was the seventh month – so people keen to obey the Law were eager to comply.
The festival of Booths or Tabernacles, ‘Sukkot’ is still an important festival in Israel. It is a harvest or ‘ingathering’ festival, but also is a week in which people live outside in temporary shelters, reminiscent of the temporary nature of their dwellings during the 40 years of travel during the Exodus from Egypt.
Read Nehemiah 8:16-18
16 So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves temporary shelters on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim. 17 The whole company that had returned from exile built temporary shelters and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great.
18 Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.
I’m tempted to write ‘Party Time’ – it had been a long hard struggle for the people of God, but now it was truly a time of rejoicing ‘And their joy was very great.’
But they didn’t stop there:
Read Nehemiah 9:1-5
1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshipping the Lord their God. 4 Standing on the stairs of the Levites were Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani. They cried out with loud voices to the Lord their God. 5 And the Levites – Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah – said: ‘Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.’
The Festival of Booths lasted from the 15th to the 22nd. Two days later the joyful interlude was again replaced with sadness, confession, and prayer.
(Now I will be skipping over several passages, and being selective in the next few chapters in order to keep the narrative going. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t read them!)
We will pick up at the end of Ezra’s prayer:
Read Nehemiah 9:32-38
32 ‘Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes – the hardship that has come on us, on our kings and leaders, on our priests and prophets, on our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. 33 In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly.
34 Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep. 35 Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.
36 ‘But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so that they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. 37 Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.
38 ‘In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.’
We mentioned that the Holy Spirit had been at work, and the revival continued, starting at the top:
From Nehemiah 10:1,9,14,28-29
1 Those who sealed it were:
Nehemiah the governor,
9 The Levites:
14 The leaders of the people:
28 ‘The rest of the people – priests, Levites, gatekeepers, musicians, temple servants and all who separated themselves from the neighbouring peoples for the sake of the Law of God, together with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand – 29 all these now join their fellow Israelites the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord.
Having agreed to ‘obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord.’ the next section (Nehemiah 10:30-39) repeats a list of particular things that they were committing themselves to do, with specific reminders that the new Temple and the priests relied on the generosity of the people. ‘We will not neglect the house of our God.’ (v39)
But something was still niggling Nehemiah which we first saw in Nehemiah 7:4 Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt.
Before the exile Jerusalem had been mainly inhabited by the nobility, and senior army officers. But much of Jerusalem had then been reduced to rubble so when they returned, many chose to live in the surrounding towns and villages. It would appear now that a major rebuilding project had been organised by Nehemiah.
The NIV Study Bible mentions that Josephus (Antiquities, 11.5.8) wrote: ‘Nehemiah, seeing that the city had a small population urged the priests and Levites to leave the countryside and move to the city and remain there, for he had prepared houses for them at his own expense’.
So we read Nehemiah 11:1-2
1 Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten of them to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns. 2 The people commended all who volunteered to live in Jerusalem.
That almost sounds like ‘I want three volunteers – you, you and you.’ But probably others volunteered to live in Jerusalem as well as those chosen by lot.
Three thousand people moved in, with others deciding to stay in the towns and villages that had long ago been assigned to their ancestors (Nehemiah 11:20).
Chapters 11 and 12 contain long lists of people – which I will skip, but within it are some interesting details:
Read Nehemiah 11:23 The musicians were under the king’s orders, which regulated their daily activity.
King Artaxerxes had demonstrated particular interest in the Temple and its services (Ezra 7:24) and at this time the chief officer of the Levites was Uzzi, a descendant of Asaph (a psalm-writer) and had been made responsible for the singers.
Read Nehemiah 12:8-9
8 The Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and also Mattaniah, who, together with his associates, was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving. 9 Bakbukiah and Unni, their associates, stood opposite them in the services.
Read Nehemiah 12:24
And the leaders of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua son of Kadmiel, and their associates, who stood opposite them to give praise and thanksgiving, one section responding to the other, as prescribed by David the man of God.
Still practiced – it’s known as Antiphonal singing
The completed wall was no longer needed to keep out attackers, but it was more a sign of the restoration of God’s people. So a dedication service would be appropriate.
Read Nehemiah 12:27- 30
27 At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres. 28 The musicians also were brought together from the region around Jerusalem – from the villages of the Netophathites, 29 from Beth Gilgal, and from the area of Geba and Azmaveth, for the musicians had built villages for themselves around Jerusalem. 30 When the priests and Levites had purified themselves ceremonially, they purified the people, the gates and the wall.
They were now standing at the far southwest of the city, outside the wall, looking in towards the east.
Read Nehemiah 12:31- 39
31 I had the leaders of Judah go up on top of the wall. I also assigned two large choirs to give thanks. One was to proceed on top of the wall to the right, towards the Dung Gate. 32 Hoshaiah and half the leaders of Judah followed them, 33 along with Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, 34 Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, Jeremiah, 35 as well as some priests with trumpets, and also Zechariah son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zakkur, the son of Asaph, 36 and his associates – Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah and Hanani – with musical instruments prescribed by David the man of God.
Ezra the teacher of the Law led the procession. 37 At the Fountain Gate they continued directly up the steps of the City of David on the ascent to the wall and passed above the site of David’s palace to the Water Gate on the east.
38 The second choir proceeded in the opposite direction. I followed them on top of the wall, together with half the people – past the Tower of the Ovens to the Broad Wall, 39 over the Gate of Ephraim, the Jeshanah Gate, the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Sheep Gate. At the Gate of the Guard they stopped.
(The 'Gate of the Guard' is the one labelled 'Inspection Gate' on the map)
Having circled the city, the two choirs met at the gate nearest to the Temple and from there the whole procession left the wall and moved inside.
Read Nehemiah 12:40-43
40 The two choirs that gave thanks then took their places in the house of God; so did I, together with half the officials, 41 as well as the priests – Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah and Hananiah with their trumpets – 42 and also Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malkijah, Elam and Ezer. The choirs sang under the direction of Jezrahiah. 43 And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.
