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Ezra Reads the Law to the People

   Nehemiah 8.1-10

   Good News Translation (GNT)

  1  By the seventh month the people of Israel
   were all settled in their towns. On the first day
   of that month they all assembled in Jerusalem,
   in the square just inside the Water Gate.
   They asked Ezra, the priest and scholar of the
   Law which the Lord had given Israel through
   Moses, to get the book of the Law.
  2  So Ezra brought it to the place where the
   people had gathered - men, women, and the
   children who were old enough to understand.
  3  There in the square by the gate he read the
   Law to them from dawn until noon, and they
   all listened attentively.

  5  As Ezra stood there on the platform high
   above the people, they all kept their eyes
   fixed on him. As soon as he opened the book,
   they all stood up.
  6  Ezra said, "Praise the Lord, the great God!"
   All the people raised their arms in the air and
   answered, "Amen! Amen!"
   They knelt in worship, with their faces to the
   ground.

  8  They gave an oral translation (a) of God's Law
   and explained (b) it so that the people could
   understand it.
  9  When the people heard what the Law
   required, they were so moved that they began
   to cry. So Nehemiah, who was the governor,
   Ezra, the priest and scholar of the Law, and
   the Levites who were explaining the Law told
   all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord
   your God, so you are not to mourn or cry.
10  Now go home and have a feast. Share your
   food and wine with those who don't have
   enough.
   Today is holy to our Lord, so don't be sad.
   The joy that the Lord gives you will make you
   strong."

   Footnotes
   Nehemiah 8:8
   The Law was written in Hebrew, but in
   Babylonia the Jews had adopted Aramaic
   as the language for daily life.
   Because of this a translation was necessary.

   Nehemiah 8:8
   They gave...explained;
   or They read God's Law and then translated it,
   explaining.

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Taken from 'word-on-the-web' supplied by the
Scripture Union

Can't get enough

For nearly two months Nehemiah had been leading the people in the job of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

It had been hard physical work, and they had to complete it under armed guard. All through that time they weren't able to gather safely for worship.

But now the wall was complete. The first thing they wanted to do was to hear God's Word. They couldn't get enough of it. You can almost hear the crowd cheering for more every time Ezra stopped for breath. 'Go on Ezra. tell us about the time when...!'
So Ezra read the Book of the Law to the people from daybreak till noon. They needed to know how the work, that they had done, fitted into God's bigger picture.

This beautiful passage reminds us of a phase in the life of biblical Israel when the entire nation appeared to understand and to desire to practise the Word of the Lord.

It is a narrative full of conflicting emotions: there is awestruck worship, broken-hearted repentance and an ecstatic joy (v 12).

The scene is painted in such vivid colours that it is not difficult to imagine this wonderful occasion, when the clear, loud, public reading and explanation of divine revelation had a transforming impact.

Two factors were vital in this event: First, the people - all of them - wanted to be guided and instructed by the Word of God.

They recognised their ignorance and were eager to hear the revelation entrusted to Moses in a fresh and dynamic way.

Secondly, the message of God was declared in a manner that brought it alive - Ezra could be clearly seen and heard, and the text was carefully explained and applied.

By the end it is clear that the celebration which concludes the story, resulted from the fact that everyone, young and old, 'now understood the words that had been made known to them' (v 12).

There are, surely, profound challenges for today in this text, both for hearers and teachers of the Bible.

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