Nehemiah 8:1-8: Treasuring the Word of God

Nehemiah 8:1-8: Treasuring the Word of God

Please turn with me in your Bible to Nehemiah 8. If you’re using one of the Story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 323. We’ve been going through the book of Nehemiah passage by passage, and this morning we come to Nehemiah 8:1-8. And before we get to the passage, I want you to imagine something. Imagine what it would be like to be a Christian but not have any access to a Bible. Imagine wanting to learn about Jesus and grow in your knowledge of God but not being able to do that because there was no Bible available for you to read. That was the situation for 99% of English Christians in the early 1500’s. In fact, reading the Bible in English was actually a capital offense—meaning that you would be killed if you were caught doing it. And the reason for that is the religious leaders of the day in England didn’t want “regular” people to be able to interpret the Bible for themselves—because if people gained the ability to interpret the Bible for themselves, the leaders knew they would lose their power and control over the people. So they only wanted the Bible to be available in Latin, the language of scholars. As long as the Bible was only available in Latin, nobody except the scholarly religious leaders would be able to understand it and tell everybody else what it did and didn’t teach. So the government made a law that if you were caught translating the Bible into English, you’d be killed. But a man named William Tyndale dared to defy this law and bravely attempted an English translation. Not surprisingly, he was persecuted and found it necessary to relocate to Germany and work on his English translation there. Yet even in Germany, his life was still in danger since the English authorities had discovered what he was doing—despite his best attempts to be secretive—and had sent agents to harass him and have him arrested. But Tyndale managed to complete his translation and actually translated the Bible not from Latin but from the original languages the Bible had been written in—Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament. Then, he used the printing press to print a bunch of these new English Bibles and have them smuggled into England. Naturally, of course, the English authorizes were furious and did everything they could to keep these Bibles from getting into people’s hands, seizing and burning as many as they could. Yet many of the Bibles did get distributed and for the first time, thousands of people were able to read the Bible in their own language. However, the English authorities did finally manage to have Tyndale arrested, and in August of 1536, he was formally condemned as a heretic and delivered over for punishment. So they took him out to the town square and gave him one last chance to change his ways. And when he refused, they tied him to a stake, strangled him, and then burned his lifeless body right there in the town square. Interestingly, right before he died, Tyndale is said to have prayed loudly so that everyone could hear him, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” That was his prayer. And would you know it, but within four years, that’s exactly what happened, and the king himself permitted the Bible to be printed and read in the English language. 

And whenever I think about the story of William Tyndale, I’m reminded of how precious the Bible is. It’s so precious that it would be worth doing what Tyndale did and giving your life so that people could read it. And yet, here in twenty-first century America, it’s incredibly easy for us to take the Bible for granted. Nowadays, we have the Bible at our fingertips wherever we go. It’s available not only in print form but on hundreds if not thousands of apps. Not only that, there are literally dozens of translations of the Bible now available in the English language as well as more study tools than we know what to do with. Yet it seems as though the more access we have to the Bible, the easier it is for us to take the Bible for granted. It seems as though the more convenient studying the Bible becomes, the less we’re inclined to actually do it. So in a twist of tragic irony, we end up being in a place that’s not all that different from the people in England before William Tyndale—only our access to the Bible is hindered not by corrupt church authorities but by the unrelenting barrage of distractions and forms of entertainment that so often pull us away from any serious engagement with the scriptures. We need a revival. 

And that revival is exactly what we see in Nehemiah 8. If you’ve been with us as we’ve gone through the book of Nehemiah, you probably remember that so far the book has been focused on Nehemiah leading the Israelites to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. And last week, in chapter 6, we saw that project finally completed. So you might expect the book to end right there. You might expect chapter 6 to say that the wall was finished and everyone lived happily ever after. But the book continues for nine more chapters—because now that the walls have been rebuilt, God’s people need to be rebuilt. And chapter 7 sets the stage for that by listing the people and families who were in Jerusalem. And then, we come to chapter 8, where we see a picture of the kind of revival among God’s people I believe is so desperately needed today. Nehemiah 8:1-8:

1 And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. 2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. 3 And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. 4 And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. 5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. 6 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. 7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. 8 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. So here in this passage, we see the Israelites treasuring the Word of God. That’s the main idea of the passage: the Israelites rightly treasured the Word of God. They regarded God’s Word as a priceless treasure and couldn’t get enough of it. And there are three ways they treasured God’s Word. Number one, the Israelites looked to God’s Word. Number two, the Israelites longed for God’s Word. And number three, the Israelites listened to God’s Word.

The Israelites Looked to God’s Word

So first, the Israelites looked to God’s Word. Once the walls were completed, verse 1 records that “all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.” So after the wall was completed, the Israelites recognized that this was a defining moment for the city of Jerusalem. In many ways, it was a new beginning for their city. So they immediately turned their attention not to what the nations around them were doing or to what the so-called “experts” recommended in order to build a great city but rather to the scriptures. They looked to God’s Word for instruction on how to move forward and wanted that to be their foundation. They were only interested in answering the question, “What does the Bible say?” That’s the question they were asking. 

And I believe that’s the right question not only for them to ask but also for us to ask. “What does the Bible say?” I think a lot of people—even many who claim to be Christians—often try to base their lives on a variety of other things. They frequently base their lives on whatever ideas are currently popular in society or what their friends are into or maybe some self-help advice they read in a book. Or maybe there’s an author or teacher they really like, so they base their lives on whatever that person says. Or honestly, I think a lot of people just base their lives on whatever inspirational quotes they happen to come across on Facebook. But this passage here in Nehemiah 8 challenges us to base our lives on the Word of God. I love what Jesus says in his prayer to the Father in John 17:17. He prays, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Think about that: “your word is truth.” Notice he doesn’t say, “Your word is true.” It’s stronger than that. He says, “Your word is truth,” meaning that it’s the ultimate standard for truth—the standard by which all other potential truths and claims to truth are judged. There’s no truth more foundational than the truth of the Word of God. So that’s what we should look to for guidance. 

And we should look to it for guidance not only as individuals but also as a church. As we think about the kind of church we want Redeeming Grace to be and how we want this church to operate, our primary focus shouldn’t be on Fortune 500 companies to see what they’re doing and how they build successful organizations. Neither should our focus be on marketing firms to see what tactics they’re employing as they try to elicit responses from people. And our focus definitely shouldn’t be on public opinion surveys that tell us about the desires and preferences non-Christians have so that we can then base our church on those desires and preferences. Rather, our focus should be on the words God’s spoken and the instructions he’s given in the Bible. Because it’s not about having a “successful organization” or a employing a slick marketing strategy or being popular. It’s about glorifying God by the way we operate this church. And in order to glorify God, we need to build this church on the Bible. I don’t care if that means our church ends up being 10,000 people or just 10 people. The most important thing is that we’re thoroughly faithful to God’s Word. And honestly, I’m saying all this because I’m convinced many churches have compromised in some of these areas and have gotten way too wrapped up in some of the things I’ve mentioned. So let’s be extra careful that our church is faithful to the Bible not only in our official stated beliefs but also in our methods and our values and our priorities. You know, the most important thing about any building you construct is the foundation, right? If something’s off with the foundation, the whole building is going to be compromised. It’s going to have issues. So let’s make sure we’re building every aspect of this church on the foundation of the Word of God.  

The Israelites Longed for God’s Word

Then secondly, not only did the Israelites look to God’s Word, they also longed for it. That’s the second point: the Israelites longed for God’s Word. Look at how hungry they were to hear what God had to say. For starters, notice that it was actually the people rather than the leaders who took the initiative to have the Word of God read. Again, verse 1: “And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.” So they were hungry for it. And I love how it says that they “gathered as one man.” There wasn’t even any debate about what they should do or anybody who stayed home because they weren’t that interested in hearing from the scriptures. Everybody came together and “gathered as one man” in a spirit of complete harmony. And according to verse 3, Ezra read from the scriptures “from early morning until midday.” So their worship service went on for about 6 hours. And I don’t think anyone was checking their watches or thinking about what they were going to do later in the day. They just wanted to hear more of the Word of God. And notice that this gathering went on for 6 hours even with the kids there. The text says that Ezra read from the Bible “from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand.” That means they apparently had a separate place for the very young children, but if they thought a child was of the age where he or she could to some degree understand what the scriptures were saying, they included that child in this gathering. And it still went on for 6 hours. So these people had a deep longing for the Word of God. They weren’t just going through the motions or engaging in empty rituals because they thought those rituals were obligatory. They had an insatiable appetite for the Bible.

And that’s probably one of the key measurements for anybody’s spiritual health: how great is your appetite for the Bible? When I worked as a hospice chaplain, I gained a good bit of knowledge about what happens physically to someone as they near the end of their life. I learned that as a person approaches the end of life, their body just begins to shut down. And as their body shuts down, they don’t want or need very much food. And even if someone’s not approaching the end of their life, we understand that not having an appetite is usually a sign that a person’s not healthy in some way. They’re sick. Something’s wrong. Healthy people have an appetite. And it’s the same way spiritually. If you’re spiritually healthy, you should have an appetite for the Word of God. In fact, I would say that the healthier you are, the greater your appetite should be. And if you don’t have any appetite for God’s Word, that’s honestly alarming to me since it may indicate that you’re not even saved—that you’ve never experienced true conversation. Because true conversion involves a fundamental change in your desires and longings and appetites, and one of those desires is a desire for the Bible. So if you’re a healthy Christian, you should have a deep longing for the Word of God. As Job says in Job 23:12, “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.” In other words, “I’d rather read the Bible than eat food.” So how great is your appetite and how deep is your longing for God’s Word?

The Israelites Listened to God’s Word

Then finally, our third point this morning is that the Israelites not only looked to God Word and longed for God’s Word, they also listened to God’s Word. As we’ve already read in verse 3, Ezra read from the scriptures from early morning until midday. And the end of the verse states that “the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.” You see, one of the best ways to worship God is simply listening to him. It’s similar in some ways to marriage. Something I’ve been learning more and more lately is that many times, my wife just wants me to listen to her. That’s a good lesson every husband needs to learn. Stop trying to fix everything, and just listen. Listening is one of the best gifts you can give to your wife. I’m pretty sure she’d rather have you listen to her for 10 minutes than go out and spend $50 on flowers for her. And in a similar way, one of the ways we worship God is simply by listening to him. Listening in itself, I believe, is an act of love and worship to God. 

By the way, that’s the reason why we gather together on Sunday mornings and listen to the Word of God being preached in the form of a monologue—where one person proclaims God’s Word with authority and everybody else just listens. Of course, there is value in dialogue and we do encourage people to discuss the Bible at other times, but we also need to have a time where we cease sharing our own thoughts and ideas and opinions and instead just sit down and humble ourselves and listen to God’s Word as it’s proclaimed. There’s a reason this time is a monologue. So feel free to say “amen” every now and then—I do appreciate a good “amen”—but realize this time right now is primarily a time for us to listen and thereby demonstrate our humility and submission before God. 

And I would recommend doing whatever you can to listen profitably so that this time is as beneficial for you as it can possibly be. So here’s a brief list of ways you can do that. It all begins with preparing for the sermon. Usually, we think of preparing for the sermon as something only the pastor has to do, but there are also ways everybody should prepare. So number one, prepare yourself physically. That includes things like going to bed at a decent hour on Saturday evening and eating a good breakfast on Sunday morning. Then number two, prepare yourself spiritually. For example, try to pray before you come to church and ask God to open your heart to the things you’ll hear and speak to you and change you. And then when you come to church, come with a spirit of expectation—expecting God to answer those prayers you prayed and to do something in your life. Then listening tip number three, during the sermon, take some notes. Not only will you be able to refer to those notes later on, but the act of taking notes itself will help you. Even if you never look at those notes again, you’ll get more out of the sermon because taking notes forces you to actively process the things you hear instead of just listening passively. That’s why, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, we provide space in the bulletin for you to take some notes. Then finally, number four, apply the sermon to your life. That means making practical changes to your habits, attitudes, conversations, and decisions. You may also find it helpful to discuss some of these things with others and get their input on ways you can change. So those are just a few simple things you can do to make sure you actually benefit from the time you spend here listening to the Bible. 

And as for me, my job is to make sure it’s actually the Word of God I’m preaching during our time together. Verse 8 of our text records how the teachers “read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” That’s a great description of what preaching should be: reading the Bible clearly and then helping people understand what you just read. That’s what I should be doing. Not getting up here and just trying to entertain you with jokes or  tell inspirational stories that don’t have any apparent relevance or babble on and on about my own ideas. Rather, God’s given me a sacred calling to preach his Word to you, and I dare not deviate from that assignment. 

Conclusion

So as we look at Israel here in Nehemiah 8, my prayer is that we would come to treasure the Bible the way they treasured the Bible. Like I said before, it’s really easy to take the Bible for granted since we have it at our fingertips pretty much all the time. But let’s remind ourselves of how precious the Bible is and how blessed we are to have a copy in our hands and available in our language. And the reason the Bible’s so precious is because of what it reveals. The Bible reveals the way we can be rescued from our sins and brought into a relationship with God. You see, the Bible teaches that you and I and everyone else in the world have deviated from God’s instructions and violated his laws. The biblical term for that is sin, and our sin deserves God’s eternal punishment. That’s what justice requires. However, in his great love for us, God determined to rescue us from this terrifying predicament by sending his own Son Jesus to this earth. And the reason Jesus came was so he could die on the cross and thereby pay for our sins. God’s wrath fell on Jesus so it wouldn’t have fall on us. He was our substitute. And then, Jesus resurrected from the dead to complete his saving work and now stands ready to save anyone who will come to him. That involves turning away from our sins and directing our trust toward Jesus alone as our only hope of rescue. And if you’ll do that, you’ll experience the joy having your sins wiped away and coming into an all-satisfying relationship with God. That’s why the Bible such a priceless treasure. It shows us the way to God. That’s why John Wesley so famously wrote: “I want to know one thing, the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way; for this end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. Give me that book! At any price give me the Book of God!” May that be your heart and my heart this morning. Let’s pray.