After the wall and gates of Jerusalem were rebuilt and the people had come together for Ezra the scribe to read the Law to them, they discovered it was time for the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. This was a time to celebrate how the Lord had protected their fathers when they lived in booths, temporary dwellings, in the wilderness during the Exodus. So Nehemiah called for a great celebration in the city, and they observed the feast and read from the book of the Law for 7 days as the feast required. At the end of it, Ezra again stood before the people, and with the help of several men, read and explained the first 5 books of the Bible all morning long. The people again heard and understood just what God had done for them and their nation, recognizing the goodness of God and the sinfulness of humanity.<\/p>\n
The first 5 verses of this chapter are an introduction to one of three of Israel\u2019s great national prayers, found in Ezra 9, here in Nehemiah 9, and Daniel 9. This is the longest prayer recorded in all of the Bible. It contains at least 20 of Israel’s sins, but it didn’t leave them (or us) without hope as it also contains at least 20 facts about God’s greatness and faithfulness. Reading and studying the Scripture, led the people to acknowledge and confess their sins and rededicate, recommit, their lives to God.<\/p>\n
I read about a native of India who was writing to a friend about a great revival they were having in his home village. He wrote, “We are having a great re-bible here.” That is a great way to describe what we all need to regularly be: re-bibled. John Richard Green expresses this same idea in his book A Short History of the English People<\/em>. He begins with these words:<\/p>\n No greater moral change ever passed over a nation than passed over England during the years which parted the middle of the reign of Elizabeth from the meeting of the Long Parliament. England became the people of a book, and that book was the Bible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “LORD, make that true of every nation on the face of the earth, but more than anything make each one of us a ‘people of the book’ this day.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nehemiah 9 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.\u00a0\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0their God\u00a0one\u00a0<\/em>fourth part of the day; and\u00a0another<\/em>fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the\u00a0LORD\u00a0their God. 4<\/sup>\u00a0Then stood up upon the stairs, of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Chenani, and cried with a loud voice unto the\u00a0LORD\u00a0their God.\u00a0\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Pethahiah, said, Stand up\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>bless the\u00a0LORDyour God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0Thou,\u00a0even\u00a0<\/em>thou,\u00a0art\u00a0<\/em>LORD\u00a0alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all\u00a0things\u00a0<\/em>that\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>therein, the seas, and all that\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0Thou\u00a0art\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0LORD\u00a0the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give\u00a0it, I say\u00a0<\/em>, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou\u00a0art\u00a0<\/em>righteous:\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea;\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as\u00a0it is\u00a0<\/em>this day.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:\u00a0\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.\u00a0\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou\u00a0art\u00a0<\/em>a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.\u00a0\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness,\u00a0so that\u00a0<\/em>they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.\u00a022<\/sup>Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide them into corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>.\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would.\u00a0\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a026<\/sup>Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations.\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest\u00a0them\u00a0<\/em>from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.\u00a028<\/sup>\u00a0But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore leftest thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried unto thee, thou heardest\u00a0them\u00a0<\/em>from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies;\u00a0\u00a029<\/sup>\u00a0And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.\u00a0\u00a030<\/sup>\u00a0Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a031<\/sup>Nevertheless for thy great mercies\u2019 sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou\u00a0art\u00a0<\/em>a gracious and merciful God.\u00a032<\/sup>\u00a0Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a033<\/sup>\u00a0Howbeit thou\u00a0art<\/em>just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:\u00a034<\/sup>\u00a0Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them.\u00a035<\/sup>\u00a0For they have not served thee in their kingdom, and in thy great goodness that thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which thou gavest before them, neither turned they from their wicked works.\u00a036<\/sup>\u00a0Behold, we\u00a0are<\/em>servants this day, and\u00a0for\u00a0<\/em>the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>servants in it:\u00a037<\/sup>\u00a0And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>in great distress.\u00a038<\/sup>\u00a0And because of all this we make a sure\u00a0covenant\u00a0<\/em>, and write\u00a0it;\u00a0<\/em>and our princes, Levites,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>priests, seal\u00a0unto it\u00a0<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After the wall and gates of Jerusalem were rebuilt and the people had come together for Ezra the scribe to read the Law to them, they discovered it was time for the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. 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