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Bible Study Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (19-2-2002 Framsden Baptist Church)
Nehemiah 6 gave an account of Nehemiah’s great
achievement. The walls of Jerusalem were completed at last, despite the
opposition, threats, discontent and difficulties. But Nehemiah was not out of
the woods. There were still dangers and intrigues. Tobiah was still a threat. He
had sent letters to intimidate Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:19), and so Nehemiah made
arrangements to guard and protect the city. Rules were drawn up about the
opening and the shutting of the gates (Nehemiah 7:3). The residents of Jerusalem
were to guard the gates and the wall near their houses. Nehemiah placed his
brother Hanani in charge, together with Hananiah the citadel commander. These
were men after Nehemiah’s own heart, men of integrity who feared God.
Now there is a change in the book of Nehemiah. The walls had been rebuilt, the city fortified and protected. The next stage was to reorder and establish the Jews as the people of God, to ensure their lives and new nation as God’s separated people conformed to His law. They were to be marked off by purity – moral, ritual and racial – from other nations. Chapters 7-12 are full of lists of names, over 250 of which are otherwise unknown. In 7:4-73 there are lists of exiles who returned to Jerusalem – men of Israel, priests, Levites, gatekeepers, temple servants, servants of Solomon’s descendants; a list of gifts (7:70); a list of those who made agreement to obey God’s law (10:1ff); a list of new residents of Jerusalem (11:1); a list of priests and Levites (12:1).
There is another change in the book. Nehemiah drops out
of the picture. There are only three mentions of him from this point, and they
are all in the third person, i.e. no longer “I” but “Nehemiah” or “the
Governor”. Instead, the scene is dominated by Ezra the priest, scholar,
teacher of the law. Ezra led the people to honour and obey the law of God and
make the changes in their lives in obedience to that law.
Nehemiah was a true leader. We know his strengths and
weaknesses. He was a leader, builder, organiser and administrator. But he was
not a teacher or scholar, so in that area he gave way to Ezra. He knew he was
not omni-competent, so allowed the person who had the best gifts fitted to the
task to deal with this area of the work.
We need to be realists about what we can do and cannot do, just as Nehemiah realized his limitations and appreciated Ezra’s expertise. In this situation God was pleased to work through the two men in order to establish His people once again as a nation and to order their lives as people of God. It is a wonderful picture of a team working in harmony and good will under leadership. If the whole task had been left to one, the job would have been imperfectly done. Through the ministry of Ezra, revival came as God visited His people.
In the Seventh month the people assembled before the
Water Gate and told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses. A
high wooden platform had been built in readiness for Ezra to read the Book to
the people. There was a great need for the people to know again God’s
revelation of His will and ways. Since the exile there had been no attempt on a
large scale to teach the Law. It would have been written in Hebrew, and the
people spoke Aramaic. Their deep ignorance of God’s Law would have made it
impossible for them to know God, and how to serve and please Him.
There was a time when the people of England were known as
“People of the Book”. The Protestant Reformation in England and the
Continent in the sixteenth century began and spread because of the spread in the
knowledge of the Word of God. William Tyndale went back to the original Hebrew
and Greek and translated the Bible into English. His was the first of many
translations in the sixteenth century. Archbishop Cranmer had a Bible put in
every parish church during the reign of Edward VI, and preachers went up and
down England expounding the Bible and preaching the Gospel. The Geneva Bible was
produced in 1560 by English exiles in Switzerland, and this translation became
the household Bible of English speaking Protestants, the only Bible used in
Scotland for many years, and it fashioned the words of Shakespeare and Bunyan.
Cromwell’s soldiers carried a pocket version of the Geneva bible. In all there
were 160 editions of the Geneva Bible. It was bought everywhere, read eagerly,
and it helped the English to become “People of the Book”.
One of the most basic needs of our country today is
elementary Bible knowledge. People have no knowledge of Bible truth, Bible
characters and stories. In popular quizzes, men can be experts on science,
sport, arts, films, current events – but completely ignorant when they get a
Bible question. The Bible is often not taught at home or school, and only church
families send their children to Sunday School. In many churches, the Bible is
not opened, and the preaching is just the minister’s opinions on current
affairs.
Even among Christians the habit of daily Bible reading is
in decline, and with it goes fervent and effectual prayer. Many rely on being
spoon-fed twice on a Sunday, but do not study the Bible on their own. Sometimes
the reason why people do not make sense of old hymns is that they do not
recognise the Biblical allusions within them. There is a mammoth task awaiting
the Christian church to encourage believers to become Biblically literate.
The enthusiasm for the Word of God in the chapters we
read is notable. The people asked (they were not forced to listen) for Ezra and
the Book of the Law. They listened as it was read aloud from daybreak till noon
– that was 5 or 6 hours without a coffee break. They listened attentively, and
then the Levites at different points in the crowd instructed the people on what
it meant. They made the Law clear so that the people understood. Presumably Ezra
read a section and then paused while the Levites explained to small groups where
they were standing.
We do not often find such zeal and enthusiasm. In the
early days of the Keswick convention it was known for there to be shouts of
“Go on” when the speaker indicated that he ought to close because it was
getting dark. In crowded churches in China, people have stood outside in the
rain listening to the message coming through the microphone. Sadly, our
experience is people complaining that a sermon or a service went on too long!
We need to pray for an appetite for the Word, for ourselves and for all those at our church and on people generally. One of the marks of God at work in power is that He gives people an appetite and longing for the Word.
In this instance, the effect of the message was weeping
– the people became aware of sin and failure, and they were convicted. Revival
always brings awareness of God’s holiness and mercy, together with man’s
perversity and folly. Having faced and confessed their sin, Nehemiah bids the
people to cease grieving and to rejoice and celebrate and feast. Do not
grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
So today, when there is grief for sin, joy in God’s
forgiveness and assurance of His love is never far away. They are two sides of
the same coin. God who convicts of sin is the God of mercy who saves. Our
response is also two-fold. We repent of our sins and trust Christ for
forgiveness. This double aspect of our relationship to God remains the basic
discipline of daily Christian living.
The reality of this revival was also seen the next day.
The appetite for God’s Word and a desire to obey Him continued. The heads of
the families with the priests and the Levites heard again the Word of the Lord.
They were required to keep the Feast of the Tabernacles. It was both a harvest
festival and memorial to their wilderness wanderings. They collected tree
branches to construct booths, and lived in them for a week in the streets,
gardens, housetops and squares. In obedience and celebration, their joy was
very great (Nehemiah 8:17).
Nothing brings such joy as walking in obedience to
God’s will. Here again is a pattern of spiritual life as authentic now as it
was 2500 years ago. When a person finds Christ, and when the half-hearted
Christian gives himself wholly to the Lord, obeying God is no longer a drudgery
but a delight. Pleasing God becomes their chief joy in life. It is no longer a
grim duty that has to be done. “God’s will is a song, not a sigh” (F.R.Havergal).
“Act out of choice, not duty” (John Newton). “Tis joy, not duty, to speak
of His beauty” (Andrew Bonar). “Where there is full sympathy with Christ,
obedience as obedience does not enter the mind. It is the desire and joy of the
heart to serve and glorify” (H.Moule).
Burdens and duties are the sign of a divided heart. A continuing passion to please God was a sign of the genuineness of the Jerusalem revival, and it is an indication of our own spiritual health, or lack of it.
We need to invoke the Holy Spirit to work in our hard hearts. This is so often neglected by preachers and congregations. Indeed, rather than asking the Spirit’s help, we more often quench and obstruct the Spirit’s leading by being too self-absorbed, or by a lack of concern over pleasing Him. We must be willing to make the changes in our lives that He calls for, and ask His help to revive us.
