Nehemiah 8:5-12 • Back to the Word

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  (This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

  So, I'll ask that you look in your Bibles this morning at Nehemiah chapter 8, Nehemiah chapter 8, as we'll be looking at verses 5 through 12.

  Nehemiah may be hard to find. Go to the Psalms in the middle of your Bible and turn left, okay? So page 401 in your Grace Bibles.

  And to prepare you just a little bit for what this chapter of Nehemiah is about, a quick reminder that people of God had been in the promised land but turned to idols.

  The consequence was enemies came, overwhelmed them, took them to captivity. But as Daniel has now promised, they have been let go. God has been faithful to a faithless people. They are back in the promised land. But strangely enough, they don't remember what God has said. They don't even remember the language that they spoke prior to their Babylonian captivity. If you were in that situation, what would you do to help God's people? Just maybe a quick reference of something we discerned this week that will help us think about this passage. Got a text this week from the mother of one of our grandkids.

  Here's the text.

  "Went to a preschool friend's birthday party this morning.

  It was a princess party where they hired a princess to entertain the kids.

  The princess greeted the kids. They all gathered together and sang. The princess had a beautiful voice and she began taking requests.

  They sang, "Let it go!" from the movie Frozen.

  Our little girl evangelist requested...wait for it...

  Amazing Grace!

  What followed was a collective, "Huh?

  What's that?"

  And after a little more polite confusion, the princess accepted another request and the party went on.

  So in the suburbs of a major American city, in a nation established by pilgrims who wanted to worship Jesus freely, nobody knows Amazing Grace.

  So much to teach.

  And Nehemiah has taken the people of God back to the Promised Land where nobody knows the original message anymore.

  They have to be taught. Let's see how they are taught. Let's stand and honor God's Word. Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 5, "And Ezra," that is the high priest, "opened the book inside of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it, all the people stood.

  And Ezra blessed the Lord the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen! Amen!" Lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

  Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherobiah, Jaimin, Akub, Shabbatah, Hodeiah, Ma'asiah, Kallaita, Azariah, Jossabed, Hanon, Paliah, and aren't you glad you didn't have to read those names?

  The Levites helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep, for all the people wept as they heard the words of the law."

  Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, and drink sweet wine, and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord, and do not be grieved,

  for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

  So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be quiet, for this day is holy, do not be grieved." And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions, and to make great rejoicing because they had understood the words that were declared to them. Let's pray together. Father, help us to understand words of truth that speak to our hearts and give us your light in this world. The darkness can seem to overwhelm at times, but in your grace you have given the light of your word to guide and to grant great joy.

  And so we ask for these blessings in Jesus' name, amen.

  Please be seated.

  Christian singer-songwriter Sandra McCracken writes, "I live in an old house with the charms and the challenges of age," which means there are a few surprises in the construction.

  One of them is the angle of the stairs at the top near the bedrooms. The stairs take a tricky turn. One stair is too short. The other stair is too deep. So when I walk the stairs at night, I grip the handrails on both sides, but my husband has done more.

  He's put lighting on those tricky stairs for my safety.

  And in a similar way, God's light on our path is a demonstration of His love for us.

  I don't know if we often think of the Word of God in that way. If we're not careful, and maybe most people in our society think of this as simply a rule book. "Abay all the rules, you'll be okay with God, He'll be okay with you."

  But what if you actually perceived it as light in the darkness?

  The way we do teach little kids.

  "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

  If what we've really understood is when the stairs in our life have taken some weird angles,

  when our explanations are too short to handle what's going, when our sin is too deep to think that God would still care, that what God has done is shown some light on the stairs so that we would be safe and understand how great is His love for us.

  Strangely enough, in this book of Nehemiah, where the people of God have gone into idolatry, been enslaved, don't even remember what God has said. What God is saying to them is, "Here's how much I care."

  Verse 7 sets up a pattern that not only began in this portion of Scripture, but continues to this very day in our lives. How does God give His people light in the dark? At the end of all those names about the Levites, you simply read at the end of verse 7 that what they did was they helped the people to understand the law. At this time in Israel's history, it's not just an explanation of what to do, but how you are made right with God. What do you do? What is God doing to reconcile Himself to you and you to Him? Yes, there are behaviors, but more than that, here's what you're to understand. And then the pattern is described in verse 8. The Levites read from the book, from the law of God clearly. The first thing they do is they simply make clear to God's people that this is what the Word of God says.

  And then in language, not so clear to us anymore, they made it clear. Actually the wording is they translated it. Isn't it strange to think that here are the people of the Old Testament and they have so turned away from God for two generations been in captivity, they don't remember the Word of God, they don't even remember the language in which it was given. And so Hebrews don't know Hebrew.

  And so it's being translated for them. And for us that becomes important because we are the people of the book, but not one that simply says you have to have archaic language to make this plain. That we're not going to vary the words, and there are religions who do that, right? That their holy books have to be read and maintained in the original language. But even in the Bible itself it says the purpose is that you would know what it says. We worship God with heart and soul and mind. So here's what it says. And if you don't know the words, we'll translate. In a number of us, the church itself, we support translators of the Bible, Wycliffe and others, because we know it's so important that people know what does this say?

  But it's not enough just that you know, bear words. The next thing that the Levites did there in the middle of verse 8, not only did they make the law of God clear, they gave the sense. What does it say? Now what does it mean?

  And the wording there is with insight into what was intended from the beginning. We're not simply saying, "What do I think it means?" That we're expecting someone to be able to explain to God's people what was the intention of God, what was the purpose of the original writers. And we go through that process as well. The last piece is right at the end. This was so that the people understood the reading. What does it say?

  What does it mean?

  And then they made it personal. You can understand what it means to you. It's actually just a little Hebrew word, three letters, B-I-N, bin. They gave the people the words in bins. You know, when I was a kid growing up in the summer times, I was on my grandparents' farm. And as a consequence, working with my granddad out in the field, occasionally I was sent to the tool shed to collect a tool or a part or a hardware piece. And when I would go into the tool shed, things were put in different bins. All the files were in one bin, all the hammers in one bin, all the wrenches in one bin, washers, nails, screws, according to their bins. They were separated out in their bins according to their use.

  And here we're being told that the Levites were actually separating things out for the use of God's people. But we need to be careful. If we just say, "All we're to do on Sunday morning is we're just to make sure that people know what it says and what it means and how to apply it for use," then we're forgetting the totality of the passage. What does it mean to me?

  When the people of God heard how God had given direction and guidance and reconciliation to His people in the law, they wept.

  They were grieved. We have not followed the law of God. We have not followed the God who did this. We have experienced great destruction to our families. We have experienced great hurt to our land. Our children don't know the Word. Oh, Lord, what have we done? And they wept.

  And then the Levites say, "But God is still talking to you. He is still getting the Word. Here it is for you. Let us tell you what it means. Let's translate it so that you can use it." And it's God saying, "Not only are you to have conviction for your sin, but be convinced of my abiding care for you. And therefore, say the Levites, don't just mourn.

  Rejoice." And they had fat of the meat and sweetness of the wine and sent portions to people who weren't there as if to say, "We've received this feast from God of His Word again," which is not just following the rules.

  But here, application is a transition of heart as well, that we understand that what we get from the Word of God is not just a check-off list of behaviors, but what God is hoping for our hearts as well, the attitudes that are to result. If we are not careful, we can treat the Bible the way married couples might at times approach marriage counseling, where one says to the other, "Just give me the list.

  Just tell me what's going to make you happy. Just tell me what I got to do. Just give me the list."

  And the other person is thinking, "I don't want list management.

  I want your heart.

  I want to know your love."

  If we are not careful, we can begin to read the Bible as a list in such a way that what we actually want is we are wanting compliments for how well we're doing instead of conviction to our hearts. "This is what a holy God requires. What have we done?" Or we want applause.

  "Look, I performed well, God."

  Instead of saying, "God, how desperately I need You, and how great is the grace that keeps talking to me and has prepared all along for that Messiah to come that we would need so desperately because You have not, we have not, as Your people kept Your law." We are not looking at this word simply as a list to check off, but as something that is speaking to us deeply about the attitudes of our hearts as well as the actions of our lives. Because it's back to school Sunday, I want to speak with some honesty to our young people about how easy it is, particularly when you're growing up in a church environment, to begin to look at the Bible as just the list that keeps you on the safe side of God and family. I'll just do these things to be okay, but if all the Bible is, is just a checklist, I must tell you neither the pastor nor the church has very much to do. I mean, just week after week, we'll remind you of the list.

  And it's pretty straightforward. I mean, most of us can repeat it in some form or not. Here's the list. Don't do drugs.

  Don't sleep around.

  Don't cuss in polite company.

  Don't stop going to church when you go to school.

  Don't cheat on exams. Don't bully anybody. And don't let anybody make you ashamed of your roots. Got the list? All right, you got the list. We're done.

  What's the problem?

  Every single one of our young people have friends who know the list and are living far from it.

  Or they know the list and are living in church this way and living among their peers that way.

  Because what they ultimately have taken as the message from the church is that what the Bible is about is living the list for the public approval of nice people. And that'll make me okay. As long as I am seen to obey the list, then I'm okay.

  I think of the strange, insightful words of Paul Visscher, the creator of Veggie Tales. Do you remember Veggie Tales?

  He wrote this. He spent ten years trying to convince kids to behave Christianly without Christ.

  Here's the list.

  Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't steal. Be nice to other people. Here's the list.

  I think of the words of Dean and Sarah, the Christian coach and pastor, who has dedicated himself to working in his ministry what he calls "unsaved Christian kids."

  What would that mean? He says, "These are the young people raised in traditional Christian homes who know the Bible verses and the stories. They can recite the Lord's Prayer and they actually take pride in being Christians as opposed to foreigners in their country.

  But they basically think that being a Christian is about maintaining traditional morals in the sight of other people.

  And they spend much of their lives looking over their shoulders to see if their parents or their Savior is too upset."

  What we're doing is we're trying to stay on the safe side to do those things that keep us in the good graces of God and family.

  But what God is saying here is, "Look how great is my love for you," so that our hearts are grieved by our disobedience that grieves Him and hurts others. And then we rejoice to know a God who keeps pursuing even a sinful people's life. He keeps showing you the safe and good path. I'll come right after you. I'll tell you again. You walk away from me. I'm not going to walk away from you. You rebel against me. I'm going to send a Savior for you. And it's that God who's after the hearts of young people who is teaching something not foreign to the list, but the list is incapable of teaching them that heart of God. I think of the example that the whole world has right now of Leah Cherubu, the Nigerian 16-year-old who was abducted in Nigeria from a girl's school with scores of other girls. She's the only one who has not been released by Boko Haram. Why?

  Because she is the only one who will not deny her faith.

  You and I know in the reality of the world the probable abuse and assaults that have come her way.

  And yet you recognize there is something in her that says, "I am not about following a list. I am about loving my Savior who gave His all for me." And being His witness in a broken world, to be one who speaks of a love that is greater than this temporal existence that I may have to live. This is love not just of looking over your shoulder. This is love looking heavenward and saying how great and wondrous is the divine God who has saved me. And I want to walk with Him and I want to serve Him. And I will give myself for Him if needed because of how great His love has been for me. What's going to do that is not just having the list, but seeing the provision that is indicated by it. We have trouble putting ourselves again in the place of these Israelites who are now coming out of 70 years of captive slavery in Babylon and going back into the Promised Land that they got back in the time of Moses. I mean, the Promised Land had flourished, the land flowing with milk and honey. The temple under Solomon was the largest, most extravagant building of the ancient world. With David, the kingdom had expanded its boundaries. They by knowledge and wealth and learning and the beauty of the kingdom had more than any other nation of the world. And now these people, this remnant from Babylon is going back into the Promised Land. And what do they see?

  If you can think of photographs of destroyed Syrian cities, if you can think of Washington, Illinois, the neighborhoods after the tornado, if you can think of St. Louis neighborhoods after the floods, the absolute devastation is what they are walking back into. And they know it's not just the devastation of the buildings. Their leaders have been tortured and dismembered. Their families have been broken apart. Their women have put in harems as toys. The men have been enslaved. The families are fractured. And they walk back into the Promised Land and they see the devastation. And they recognize the cause is not the enemy, it is their own idolatry.

  They must say to themselves, "What have we done?"

  And you take the people of God, even in this moment, the people who walk back into families who have been destroyed by neglect, by abuse, by idolatry, by adultery, and they say to themselves, "What have I done to walk away from God in this way when He was giving me such a good and safe path, a light in the darkness?"

  You recognize that the people of God who are experiencing just those emotions, God is saying,

  "My word is a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path.

  I have not forgotten.

  My word hasn't gone away. Here it is again.

  To lead you in the path that is good and safe and blessed.

  The people are wondering, "Does God care anymore?" And here He comes giving His voice. It is truly light in darkness.

  But if you perceive it in the historical moment, it is love among the ruins.

  My family ruined. My city ruined. All this ruined. And here is God saying, "But here is my love in the midst of the ruin."

  And when we are facing temptation or tragedy, darkness of any sort, we need to remember that light is revealing a heart, not just a checklist.

  Because of what it's doing for us, how does the darkness come? It can come through tragedy. You and I know that. This week Kathy and I got word from a family that we've known for many years of the passing away of their adult special needs daughter.

  All the time we've known them.

  Sherri has not spoken.

  She communicates by lots of frowns, occasional smiles and grunts.

  But if it's a church service like this, Sherri would be sitting down front and she would be riding furiously.

  You think you're preaching the greatest sermon ever because she's just riding furiously.

  But at the end of the message, what she's done is she's just repeated one phrase over and over again on every piece of paper. And it just says, "God is love. God is love. God is love. God is love." And you can be the recipient of that at the end of the service. And you know you're the most important person in the world to her right at that moment. God is love.

  And despite the sweetness of that, you know there's a certain darkness of these parents who have raised this special needs daughter all their lives. And now they're lost of her. But Kathy, when she texted me this week, she said, "Now Sherri is able for the first time in her life to speak clearly and to praise the Savior more fully and beautifully than we can even imagine."

  Do you see the light?

  As we recognize that in her eternal destiny there's not pain or tears and there's no night there. And she's fully whole. And in the darkness of the moment we're still hearing, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." And it's not just a tragedy that we're able to understand in the darkness of the moment, but we know that there's huge confusion even in our culture this day. My news feed now almost daily fills up with the latest stories about the normalization of sexuality that's freed from marriage and family and gender. So we learn that Mattel says Barbie is in favor of LGBT relationships as are Bert and Ernie.

  And virtually every commercial it seems now, whether it's for new cars or deodorant, has the few-second vignette of the inclusive couple so that we are made willing to accept.

  And we are normalizing what we as a culture have never believed was best for people and what God's Word is showing a different light about.

  Even agency, even Christian adoption agencies are being required to keep their licenses,

  to send children to same-sex couple relationships. Even though our best research says children raised in such relationships will experience significant emotional and sexual difficulties down the road.

  But against those studies, are the other studies that are saying the opposite as the science itself gets politicized to serve the moment.

  How do parents respond? What do we do? What are we supposed to do?

  Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

  For those of you who are parents right now in the library, in the church, is a booklet anchoring your child, anchoring your child in God's truth in a gender-confused age.

  And more and more it seems we need such things. Some of you learned this week that I've been asked to chair a committee of our denomination on how we will answer some of the gender, transgender, homosexual, gay issues of our day. I must tell you, I expect criticism, assault, and difficulty.

  But God's Word is a light in the darkness.

  It is the path that He intends for His people. And we walk the path believing that God intends good.

  Some of the darkness of the moment is not confusion. It is real temptation.

  I honestly do not know if the temptation of today's young people is any worse than previous generations. When we say the word temptation, the minds of so many people kind of run to the exposed bodies on the Internet that bombard young people like no previous generation, is that worse than a previous generation that saw bodies piled up due to bombs and experience the challenge to faith of that?

  Or how do we deal with the rising generation whose greatest concern seems to be that there will be bodies piled up at their schools or concerts or Walmart?

  Why is it happening so much right now?

  Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian author who has done a lot of social study research and is basically concluding, gaining some traction for his conclusions, that what is happening is just as mob psychology takes over at times and people as the numbers in the mob grow see an action they would never have thought about, never considered, but an action that is horrendous lowers the threshold of the consideration of the next action. What would not have been thought about, what would not have been considered suddenly becomes comprehensible. Think about it, maybe even accessible.

  He is contending that social media is now the international mob and that the riot mentality takes over because it simply becomes normal.

  He writes, "The riot now engulfs lonely boys who were once content to play with chemistry sets when they were ostracized from their peers.

  The problem is not that there's an endless supply of deeply disturbed young people who are willing to consider horrific acts, it's worse than that. It's that young men no longer need to be deeply disturbed to contemplate horrific acts.

  It's normalized."

  Theologian Cornelius Plantinga says, "The predictable truth is that people living sorry lives hate their lives and they hate the most intimate reminders of their sorry lives, their schools and students they perceive to have excluded or bullied them.

  The perception of being alone and cut out and without hope and in darkness is not just that of young people. While right now it's the mass shootings in the schools and in the concerts in Walmart that are getting our attention, it's not the greatest manifestation of the loneliness and the isolation that's actually destroying more people." Plantinga again, "The perception of being alone in a sorry world is what is driving far more destructive behavior. A more normal manifestation of the problem is the unprecedented rate of opioid addiction

  and alcohol and suicide."

  After all, do you know this?

  The greatest amount of gun violence in this nation is not the mass shootings nor is it street violence. Of the 40,000 gun deaths in the United States annually, the vast majority are older men taking their own lives.

  As their health is gone, their spouses are gone and their loneliness is increasing. And in the middle of that darkness they see nothing but what if they could hear, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

  When I am afraid, feel I have lost my way.

  There you are right beside me.

  When will I fear?

  As long as you are near, please be with me to the end."

  And what God is saying from the first page to the last is, "I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Here is my word. You feel lost, you feel alone, you feel turned away, you feel as though you have turned away, but I am there for you."

  And so that we would know it, the Scriptures are giving us a focus and a feast as part of the plan, the focus. If we went through this chapter more carefully and into the next, you'll find that this pattern of say what the Word says, say what it means, tell them what it means to them, that becomes the pattern of weekly observance in the church. Set aside a day and set aside your hearts for this purpose. Focus on God's Word. One of my favorite books of the moment is "The Man Who Lied to His Computer."

  You know what He was saying to his computer? I can pay attention to you and the TV and the phone and the video game all at the same time.

  And what we're actually discovering by the research into multitasking is that multitasking diminishes your intellectual ability to do regular tasks like multitasking.

  So we focus.

  I mean, one of the things that we have provided as a church is this time, what does God's Word say? How is He caring for His people? What's the direction and what's the Savior doing? We give daily now, do you know, these devotions that can be sent to you. Just come apart for five minutes of your day and get a little light on the path before you head down the path. What does God's Word say to you? You can, it's in your bulletin, you can sign up again this week. If you're like me, you may get out of your schedule in summer.

  So now we get back into regular schedules.

  Where's the light for the path? And then we begin to feast.

  You know, when are you hungriest for God's Word?

  When you're reading God's Word, it's like chocolate. You know, the more you eat, the more you want more.

  And when we begin to say, "Here's God's blessing. Here's His heart. Here's His direction. I'm confused. I'm hurting." And here is God saying, "My Word.

  It's a light for your path." Here it is. Here's God saying, "I'm with you. I'm going to be with you. I'm going to show you the way." And when that happens, our hearts begin to say, "Oh, that's who God is. That's what He wants." And we're strengthened with an understanding that though we've known devastation, though we've made me wander from the path, here's God saying, "But I'm still with you."

  And that brings joy to our hearts. And in this beautiful passage of Scripture there at the end of verse 10, we're simply told, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

  It's as though the Bible, the Word of God we are being told is like meat and drink to God's people. Hear a feast on this. Here's a feast for you. And once you've taken in the nutrients of God's Word, if it's not the checklist to keep you on His safe side, but it's God saying, "Here's goodness. Here's sweetness. Here's the wonder of knowing my care for you that our hearts begin to swell with." Look how good a God. Look how wondrous is His love for me. And the joy of the Lord becomes our strength for whatever we are called to face.

  I've told you before of a friend of mine who just after leaving seminary was asked to be a youth group leader and wanted to let young people know the Bible's not just a checklist, it's God's heart for you. And the way he did that was, one of the youth meetings, he invited the kids down to the basement of one of the parents' homes and put chairs in a circle in the perimeter, put Bible verses in each of the chairs, and a chair in the middle.

  Here's what we're going to do, he said, we're going to blindfold one of you and we're going to put you in that center chair.

  You say what your concerns are, what you're worried about, and we'll have the people who are on the perimeter with their Bible verses answer you with the Word of God as though God Himself is speaking to you.

  Now I must tell you, the kids thought this was totally nuts.

  But one new girl said, "I'll sit in the middle chair."

  They put the blindfold on, her first words.

  "I am so miserable.

  I don't know if I can stand my life anymore."

  And one of the kids, as everybody else was embarrassed and looking down, looked at their Bible verse. And to this young woman who had just said, "I'm so miserable, I don't know if I can stand my life anymore," read, "But God is faithful.

  He will not let you be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation provide a way of escape so that you can stand up under it." She responded with anger, "No one cares about me."

  Someone else read, "But I have loved you with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness I have called you." And finally she spoke with the greatest vehemence, "You do not understand. My parents kicked me out last night and they said, "Never come back."

  And someone else read, "But I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you."

  They took the blindfold off, she was crying, and had a question, "Why doesn't God really talk to me that way?"

  What did the youth leader say?

  He just did.

  That was his word to you, his very word.

  "Thy word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path." Praise God, when you know it, it is joy to your heart. And the joy of the Lord is our strength. Father, so give us the strength of a heart for God because you have shown your heart to us. Reveal in the word not only the good path, but the good heart that gave it, that we who've wandered from the path or wonder what it is might turn to the God who loved us enough to send Jesus for us. God bless you, follow you, love you, strengthen by you. We walk in the path of our Savior. Thank you for Him. In Jesus' name, amen.