What does a society need to thrive? It’s a question we ask ourselves a lot nowadays. Despite rapid advances in technology, medicine and global infrastructure, many cultures seem stuck in a slow but steady downward spiral. It’s a question which also lies at the heart of Nehemiah’s great work. As we have observed, this was always about more than a wall. It was the renewal of a nation.
By the start of chapter 8, a huge amount has been achieved – the defences are more or less secure, leaders have been appointed, and a great programme of resettlement has been started… but something crucial is missing. It is this that Nehemiah and the Jews’ spiritual leaders attend to next, and it forms the heart of the next section of this remarkable book.
For centuries, Israel had a pattern of festivals: centred in Jerusalem, these were designed for the whole people to spend time worshipping the Lord together. Since the exile more than a century previously, such festivals had been largely abandoned. However, about fourteen years before Nehemiah, Ezra the priest had arrived in Jerusalem and begun the process of spiritual renewal. (We haven’t mentioned Ezra much, but it’s worth noting that these two books belong together – and rightly so, as Ezra means ‘help’ and Nehemiah means ‘comfort’. Nehemiah is effectively the second half of the ‘renewal story’.) Ezra’s work was groundbreaking, but without a secure city its scope was limited. Now it was possible to be more ambitious: so, come the autumn of Nehemiah’s first year (‘the seventh month’ is roughly September), the first great gathering took place.
The heart of this gathering was the public reading of scripture to the whole assembly (v3). Ezra the priest read from daybreak until noon, while the people listened. There are some key details which should not escape us: first the initiative came from the people. This is not ‘religion imposed from above’ – the people ‘told Ezra’ to read the bible to them! Our engagement with scripture begins with enthusiasm to hear and receive it.
Second, there is something special about studying the bible together, corporately. Of course, there is great value in personal study – I wouldn’t be writing these reflections otherwise! – but the word of God also needs to be read publicly, to reach a whole people.
Third, this study takes place best in an environment of worship and adoration (see v6). It is not just an exercise of the head – though our minds must be similarly devoted – it is an exercise of the heart: ‘Amen! Amen!’
Alongside this reading came explanation: (v8) ‘making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.’ The task of Israel’s spiritual leaders was not just to read scripture but to teach it – to bring clarity. How we need this today! To return to our initial question, many have wondered if we have become like the people of Amos’ time: a culture which suffers a ‘famine of hearing the words of the Lord’ (Amos 8:11). Into this vacuum comes not only secular worldviews, but – perhaps more dangerously – distortions of a truly biblical worldview, where the word of God is distorted to serve a purpose. The only ‘cure’ for this is to immerse ourselves in scripture again: to sit under it in humility, rather than over it in judgement, and to experience the true renovation of the heart which comes as a result.
Today, let’s finish with the great prayer for the Second Sunday in Advent – written by Cranmer in the 1540s but just as needed today: ‘Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.’