The Promise of Jesus

This morning we're going to continue our look at Nehemiah. In Nehemiah eight, we see the coming together of two great heroes. I don't know if you are a comic book fan or follow the Marvel DC sort of movies that are out at the cinemas these days, but very recently we had the DC side, the DC comics have a blockbuster movie where Batman and Superman come together. And for a huge Batman fan like myself, it was just the greatest thing. Batman and Superman coming together.

And they're some of the most famous superheroes of all time. What we find in Nehemiah eight is something similar. We have Nehemiah, our champion of the past few weeks, a great revolutionary, a man who sought to seek and restore God's kingdom, and he comes together with another great hero by the name of Ezra. Now we haven't dealt with Ezra. We haven't spoken about Ezra very much, but his story is right before the book of Nehemiah, the story of Ezra.

And Ezra had come to Jerusalem ten years roughly before Nehemiah, and he was so serious about the restoration of God's word in God's restored people, God's people that had been brought back from the land of exile. And he was working hard. He was a scribe, a very intelligent man, loved God's word, and was working to make that a part of God's people again. And here in chapter eight, we see them together. Ezra hasn't really been spoken about at all in the story of Nehemiah, and here we see these great heroes together like Superman and Batman, and it's very very exciting.

Let's read the book eight of Nehemiah, and then we'll get started. When the seventh month came, verse one, and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the wall is built, remember, and the families have been called to move in. When this had happened, all the people assembled as one man in the square before the Water gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel. So on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women, and all who were able to understand.

He read it aloud from daybreak till noon, as he faced the square before the Water gate in the presence of the men, women, and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the book of the law. Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion. Beside him, on his right, stood Mattathiah, Shema, Aniah, Uriah, Hilkiah, Maasiah. The trick is just to read them very quickly, and then it sounds like you're reading them right.

And on his left, Pedaiah, Mishael, Melkiah, Hashem, Hashbadanah, Zechariah and Meshalem. Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them and he opened it, and as he opened it, the people all stood up. Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people lifted their hands and responded, amen, amen. Then they bowed down and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

The Levites, Jeshua and Bani, Cherubiah, Jarmin, Aqob, Shabbatai, Hudaiah, Masaiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozebed, Hanan, and Peleaiah instructed people in the law while the people were standing there. They read from the book of the law of God making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read. Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, this day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the law.

Nehemiah said, go and enjoy choice food and sweet drink, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength. The Levites calmed all the people saying, be still, for this is a sacred day, do not grieve. Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.

On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the scribe to give attention to the words of the law. They found written in the law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem. Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles, palms, and shade trees to make booths as it is written. So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves booths on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God, and in the square by the water gate, and the one by the gate of Ephraim. The whole company that had returned from exile built booths and lived in them.

From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this, and their joy was very great. Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read the book of the law of God. They celebrated the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly. So far, our reading. As we reflect on this, there are three things that I think really come out and speak to us that I would like to share with you this morning.

Firstly, that the people we see in Nehemiah eight, the people needed to know God to love God. The people of God needed to know God in order to love God. And we see the theme of Nehemiah again has moved from a physical restoration, a physical rebuild of the walls of Jerusalem to the restoration of the people of God. And this is a dramatic moment in that process of restoration. It's moved to this point where chapter eight paints us a picture of the people hearing the law of God read out for them for the first time in years.

Perhaps for some of them, the first time in their life hearing the law of God being proclaimed. Remember they had come from the exile. They had come from Babylon, from Persia now. We are so lucky to have our own Bibles and people didn't have the word of God with them. And so here they stand, and they hear the law of Moses, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, being read to them on this first day of the month according to verse three.

It is a big deal. It is such a big deal that they've built a massive stage for Ezra to stand on. You know, you can probably imagine some great sound system there and some fantastic microphones, and then some cameras that have perfect angles of him on a big screen TV, and everyone is there. Everyone who can fit into Jerusalem is there listening to the reading of God's word. Why is this important?

Why does Nehemiah and Ezra decide to do this? To get everyone together to read the law of Moses. Why in particular do the people need to hear all of God's laws read aloud to them? Well it's because they didn't know God. Sure they knew of God.

They knew enough about God to know that Jerusalem is a holy city. They knew enough about God's restoration of them. They knew enough about God that he was out there, but they didn't know God. Because in the law of God, we find the character and the nature of this God. We see what is important to God.

When we hear in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers who God is, what he has commanded his people to be like and to do, we see very specifically his heart. The people who had now returned from the exile may have known lots about God. They would have heard the stories of how God had rescued their ancestors from Egypt, the land of slavery, and brought them out with powerful works, with powerful miracles, that he cared for them in the wilderness, that he raised up a king like King David, a great man after God's own heart. They would have heard the story of God's judgment on their people by sending them into the exile. They would have heard the prophets call them back to repentance and faith.

They would have heard all these stories but they would not have known this God. And so Israel decides to spend literally days reading and teaching the law of God to them. From the break of day till noon on that first day, standing in this heat, no, probably worse, and being spoken to and what we see is this amazing picture of people soaking it in. They can't get enough of it. It is like parched soil and rain falling onto it.

It just sinks in. They are like sponges. They soak it up. And we see that as they hear it, they start weeping, first line says. They are moved so deeply because they realise now who this God is.

They realise how far they have fallen short of this God and broken fellowship with this God. They mourn for their sin. Sin that they knew about, but probably more sin that they didn't even realise was sin. And in the reading of the law, they see the holiness of this God, and the goodness of this God to care for them so much in bringing them back to this promised land. And it moves them deeply.

Friends, the people in this story of Nehemiah needed to know God. And I'm reminded this morning that we have that same need. We need to know this God. And so the first thing I want to challenge us and remind us of to question ourselves is do we really understand the holiness and the perfection of this God? Or do we assume a lot of things?

And do you know what God requires of you in everything that you do? Or do we listen with one ear? Do we look at our faith or our life with one eye? Not willing to scratch beneath the surface and hear really what God says about every aspect of my life. Do we weep and mourn for our sin?

Are we broken when we know that we have broken fellowship with this God? Do we feel that his word is like fresh rain falling on parched soil? God's law is not something to be skipped over lightly so that we can get to the good stuff. We can get to that, the nice things we need to hear. Nehemiah eight reminds us that God's law is the good stuff.

His law is perfect, reviving the soul. His law is right, giving joy to the heart, Psalm 19 says. Do you want to know God? Then you must know his law. You must see his character and his nature in it.

Hear Him when He says love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. When He says look at your heart and think about it when you are to give to someone in need, don't do it with trumpet sound or publicity but quietly in secret. For it is better to give than to receive. Listen to Him when He says that anyone who says to someone else, you're an idiot, has caused and committed murder in their heart. These are the laws that God gave us.

These are the words that came from the lips of our God in Jesus Christ. How do we feel about that? The people of Nehemiah needed to know God in order that they may love God. And we need to know God in order to truly love God. We need to know His word and His law in order to truly love this God.

The second thing we see flows from this. The people of Nehemiah needed to respond honestly to this knowledge, and we also need to respond honestly. We see that as they hear this, they are moved so deeply, they are overcome with a knowledge that they've been doing it wrong for so long. They respond by saying, amen, amen, doubly. This is true.

All these things are true. They have cut us to the heart. This is right, they yell. And they raise their arms and they praise God for His mercy and His goodness and His love, and even these harsh realities that they've come to know. They bow before God and they put their faces low to the ground in humility before this God.

This is a spontaneous response to the reading of God's word. This is not something orchestrated. This is not something that's part of any sort of institutionalised church service with a set liturgy of now you can stand, now you can sit, now we sing a song or anything. This is a response from the heart. They instinctively start weeping because they've come closer to God and they feel their unworthiness of Him.

But what does Nehemiah say in verse 10? He says, get up. Go and enjoy the best food, the sweetest drink. This day is sacred to our Lord, so do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength. The people of God responded honestly.

They responded without inhibition. Their worship of God was a whole body experience. Arms and legs were thrown in. Proclaiming the majesty of God, demonstrating that He is great, that He is worthy, that I am not. That I surrender myself to His perfect love, that these postures represent what's going on in my heart.

We might ask the question, is what's happening here a command for us to do the same. To worship God in the same way in a posture that is similar to this as a response to God? Maybe it's not. I wouldn't go as far to say that. It's probably more descriptive than prescriptive.

But it is also probably a challenge to us that our hearts must be moved with such deep emotion and response to God's mercy. So the question is, were you reverently worshipping God this morning with heartfelt conviction? Or were you standing there with hands in pockets, moving your jaw like a cow regurgitating its old grass? Now there's just words and sound coming from your mouth. But you have the same empty stare as one of those cows.

And if you were not able to honestly worship God this morning with conviction, for conviction that could move people like this even physically, for all that He is, for all that He's done for you, you should ask yourself very honestly, why not? Why have I not worshipped God honestly in response to knowing who He is? The people respond to God with their entire mind, their entire soul, and therefore their entire bodies. They worship God with everything they have and they are broken. They are shattered by the beauty and the majesty of God and His goodness.

And so they naturally start crying. They start mourning. But Nehemiah stops it. He says, this is not a pity party. This is a sacred day.

This is special. This is beautiful. Get up and rejoice. This is joyful. Why?

Why? Of course it is sad because people have realised their inadequacy and their brokenness. Verse 12 says, why? It says because now they understood the words that had been made known to them. Nehemiah says, the joy of the Lord is your strength.

This is not some clichéd Christian poster. I remember at my old church, this was in the bathroom stall for years and years and years, a little postcard thing with a the joy of the Lord is your strength. It's not this, you know, nice little pity saying. It's in a really hard, messy context here. This is what it's saying.

This is hard hitting stuff. This joy is the joy from knowing how broken and sinful you are and despite that, God loves you. Despite not having an idea who this God is, guys, despite not having been able to know God's law and therefore have repented of all the things that you've done wrong, God has brought you back from that land here. Already before you were completely good with Him and right with Him, God brought you back. This realisation, this joy is your strength.

Here is the remnant of God's people back in the promised land, in the capital, after having severely disobeyed and rejected God. And they say to one another, and they realise with one another how merciful God is, how good God is, how kind God is. The joy of this Lord is my strength. This is the knowledge of God fully. And that He knows you fully with everything that you are and yet He loves you completely.

But then there's this third response out of all of this, and it just flows so naturally together. And orchestrated, so perfectly by God. Because this is after all the work's been done, they realise it's the seventh month and they decide to read the word of God. And they realise that as they're reading this, oh, there's actually a festival commanded in this law that should be happening right now. It's called the Festival of Booths. No one has been celebrating it since Joshua, the son of Nun, hundreds of years before.

The time that Israel entered the promised land for the first time. There's a festival called the Feast of Booths that needs to be happening. Ah, funny that. What a coincidence. Well, maybe we should honour this now.

So the idea with the Festival of Booths is they have to go out and cut off branches and make shelters for them and for a week basically camp out. For a week they must sleep rough. It's funny that, you know, for us camping would be such a great this is a sacrifice for them by the way. This is a hard thing. For us camping is a luxury, like it's great.

We're looking forward to a camping trip. An ancient Israelite, I'm sure would never ever have thought that people going to sleep in a tent is part of a holiday. What is the feast of booths? Why do they celebrate it? Well in Leviticus 23, which they must have read, God gives Moses instructions that on the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, is to be a festival.

Sleeping outside, flimsy branch huts. But also on this first day and on the seventh day of this week, they are to have a special day of rest set apart from all the other days. On the seventh day, which is known as Hoshana Rabbah, the great day. On this day traditionally, there is a special ceremony called the water drawing ceremony, which represented the goodness and the provision of God. And this is what this festival was about.

It is thanking God for His grace and His goodness in providing and asking for God to continue to do that. Now on this day, a whole parade of worshippers and musicians would have been led by the priest to go to the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem where you might remember Jesus healed the blind man with the clay that was on his face, on his eyes. In this special ceremony during the festival of booths, the priest would have two golden pitches. One filled with wine, and one filled with water from the pool. As the musicians continued to play, a choir of Israelites would have chanted Psalm 118, and you might remember one of the famous lines, say, this is the day that the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it. The whole procession heads back through the water gate to the temple. A trumpet sounds and the priest enters the temple area and he approaches the altar where the sacrifices were made. And he brings these two pitches and on the altar are two silver basins. And he pours the wine into one of the basins as a drink offering to the Lord and water from the Pool of Siloam into the other.

The ceremony is to thank God for His bounty, to thank God for His goodness and His provision, and to ask Him for rain for the crops in the coming year. Now we know today we take water for granted, but this was a big deal. The Middle East is not a place overflowing with water. Water was often scarce, so the people are very aware of their dependence of God for the rains. And this is the idea of being out, sleeping outside of home.

They need God to give good weather when they're staying in those branch huts. But this is the very reason why the Bible also often talks about water and equating it with life. Water equals life. And this is the very reason that Jesus, hundreds of years later would stand up. Amazingly in John seven, on this very festival.

Hundreds of years after Nehemiah first celebrated this again and he stood up on this very day and he said in John seven, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. This morning I want to tell you that in Nehemiah eight we see Jesus. We see the promise of Jesus pointing to the Messiah. During this very festival, Jesus said that as the rain would fall to nourish the crops, the rain that you are praying for in this festival, so will the Holy Spirit fall upon those who will identify themselves with me in my death and in my resurrection.

It is the spirit that will produce life. It is the spirit that will bring refreshment in us, causing us to grow in grace and faith. It would be His Spirit that would allow us to commune, to have fellowship with Emmanuel, God with us. And so Jesus promised to give living water according to John seven, after He says this, prompts this backlash of people saying, this is ridiculous. And there's a debate during this festival because people start realising that He's claiming to be bigger than this festival itself.

He's claiming that He is the fulfilment, the perfection of this festival. But it goes on. There's a second symbol that Jesus picks up on. A symbol that Nehemiah and the people of Israel probably would have celebrated or witnessed in this moment as well. Jesus reminds His critics of that powerful and prophetic claim by using an image that would have been very fresh and very real in that moment, and that is the image of light.

And we've already touched on that this morning, the image of light. You see this week long celebration, the festival of the tabernacles or the booths, whatever you call it, in that moment, in that time, that week, the temple would have been gloriously illuminated. According to the Mishnah, which is part of the oral tradition of the ancient rabbis, gigantic lampstands stood within the temple courts. Each of these four golden candelabras is said to have been 20 metres tall. I want it like three, four times taller than this building.

Each of these lampstands had four branches and at the top of every branch there is a large bowl. Now four men would have been asked to have carried up litres of oil to pour into these bowls and they would have been lit in the temple courts. Now imagine 16 beautiful giant fires blazing towards the sky from these lamps. And remember that the temple in Jerusalem was at the highest point of the city, on the mount, Mount Zion. So this luminescent glow would have been seen by everyone in the city, and even those outside of the city.

In addition to the light, the musicians and the Levites would have played their harps, would have played their lyres and their cymbals and their trumpets with a joyful music to the Lord. What a glorious celebration it would have been. And so although our text doesn't mention this explicitly, whether it happened in Nehemiah's days or something similar happened, the light, the light was to remind the people of God's glory, represented by fire and light, the consuming fire of His glory that had once filled the temple, that they longed for again. The lampstands were used to remind people how close Israel once walked with God before they had disobeyed Him. Before the original temple was destroyed and His glory left.

But in John eight, after having declared Himself to be the living water of the feast, Jesus teaches the people still at the temple courts, still in the week of the festival of booths, perhaps even standing next to some of those magnificent lampstands. In John eight verse 12, Jesus says, I am the light of the world. Whoever would follow me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. And so we see that in the person of Jesus, God's glory has once again come to the temple. And maybe just for a moment, because ironically the religious leaders, they pick up on this immediately again and say that he's claiming something he's claiming something astounding.

This is this can't be true. This must be heresy. This must be blasphemy. And they start plotting to kill Him. But it's true that Jesus doesn't simply offer the light of God's glory to the temple anymore.

Jesus says that whoever would choose to follow Him, that they will have this light of God's glory. The glory of God, He says, is seen in the salvation of mankind. And the apostle John refers to this in His magnificent introduction to His gospel. When in John one verse 14, which is a summary of the story of the gospel of John, he says, the word of God became flesh and He made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory.

We have seen the glory of the one and only who came from the Father full of grace and truth. You see, the feast of booths, or the Feast of Tabernacles, whatever you call it, was existed because during this time, people made little booths, little structures outside their homes to live rough, to experience a dependency on God. These tabernacles, these little dwelling places were created to reach out to God, to connect to God. People had to sleep in dependency and rough situations to reach out to touch the glory of God. But John one fourteen says, it is God's glory that came to us.

And I get goosebumps this morning, but do you know the word that John uses here in verse 14? When He says, God made His dwelling among us. Do you know what word He uses? He uses the word tabernacle. He could have used so many different Greek words for house or dwelling or whatever, but He uses the Hebraic tabernacle.

In other words, Emmanuel, God with us, tabernacled with us. It is not us who once a year might try to imperfectly reach out to a God in this festival, the reality is God penetratingly came and reached us. Hallelujah. The feast of booths in Nehemiah is a ceremony to come closer to God, but in Jesus, we see that God came close to the world. That He loved the world, and that He eventually would give His son up for it.

In Nehemiah, we see that people needed to reach out to God, but in Jesus we see that God reached out to us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this truth once again. Beautifully painted, carefully orchestrated, majestically woven with that golden thread of Your grace all throughout it. How majestic it is to see a people so moved and broken, realising Your holiness, realising Your expectation, realising Your invitation to act and live and behave like the creator who's created us.

And yet, that moment where they realised they couldn't, they hadn't, And that it's not a moment of mourning or grief. It is a moment of joy. It is a moment of celebration of feasting with the best wine, the sweetest drink, the richest food. For the joy of the Lord is our strength. We thank you that this joy means that You knew us fully, and You are the God of light that sees everything, and yet You loved us completely.

We thank you for Your grace. We thank you for the strength to have changed lives and to continue continually pursue changed lives. Lord, You are worthy of all that. You are worthy of all that and more. Father, when we will not rest, thank you that we may celebrate this morning as well the remembrance of the Lord's Supper, the celebration that we have.

Remembering, tasting, and seeing that the Lord is good, that this is a joyful moment. And we pray that we may experience that this morning. Amen.