Day #271

Sermon - Audio
Nehemiah 8-10 - Audio
Nehemiah 8-10 - Reading

Daily Insights - Please Comment

Nehemiah 8-10

Nehemiah 8 – When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem, he found more than just broken walls, he found broken lives. In response, Nehemiah gathers the people together to hear Ezra read God’s law. The people repent and promise to change their lives by obeying God’s words.

8:7 The Levites presumably moved among the crowd, ensuring that all could understand what was being read. Such interpretation was one of their special tasks. In order to facilitate this teaching, the law may have been read in manageable sections. This kind of understanding is primarily spiritual, though there could also have been problems with basic concepts and even language.

8:12 These are important themes of worship in Deuteronomy, where worship was associated with God’s rich gifts and the privilege of sharing them.

Nehemiah 9:1-31 The Israelites set aside a day of penance. The congregation first spent time reading the Scripture, then spent another quarter of the day worshiping God. The result was a beautiful prayer and a mosaic of their past. The ninth chapters of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel are devoted to confessions of national sin and to prayers for God’s grace.

9:6: Their praise honored God’s grace and power in creation.

9:7-8 Their praise honored God’s grace and power in his covenant with Abraham

9:9-11 Their praise honored God’s grace and power in Egypt and the Red Sea.

9:12-21 Their praise honored God’s grace and power in the desert and at Sinai

9:22-25 Their praise honored God’s grace and power at the conquest of Canaan.

9:26-28 Their praise honored God’s grace and power through the judges and through the prophets and kings (v29-31).

Nehemiah 9:32-37 The present great distress was in no way the fault of Israel’s faithful God. He had upheld his side of the covenant bargain impeccable, having been indisputably and unwaveringly just. While the people acknowledged total responsibility for the accumulated disasters, they petition God to now do what he had done in the past, see their distress and come to their aid.

Nehemiah 9:38-10:29 lists the leaders who renewed the covenant. The rest of the people who renewed the covenant swore the general oath of obedience to its stipulations.

Nehemiah 10:30-39 gives the particular pledges to obedience.