4. Sorrow over sin (v. 9). The result of this anticipatory prayer, the reading of the Law of God and the explanation of the law was revival. And the first evidence that revival was truly on the way was grief over sin. It was intense grief, though the story does not dwell upon it. It says only that “the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law,” undoubtedly because they had been convicted by it. This grief must have been intense because Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites who were instructing the people had to interrupt the reading and exposition of the law to deal with it, urging the people to rejoice instead.
The people did what they were told, of course. They went away to eat and drink, to provide for others who had little and “to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them” (v. 12). But they were never the same people again.
Did they sin again? Of course.
Twelve years after this Nehemiah returned to find many sins and a need for renewal again. The people of God always need renewal. Still it was different. These days left a mark on the nation that lasted down to and even beyond the time of Jesus Christ.
For one thing, they became a people of God’s book. The events I described took place on the first day of the seventh month. The feast urged on the people by their leaders was that night. But the very next morning, “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” (v. 13). In other words, Ezra was asked to give daily Bible readings (cf. v. 18), or, as we might say, the heads of the families determined to engage in regular and systematic Bible study.
Second, the life of the people began to revolve around the holy days which God had prescribed for worship.
What the remaining verses of the chapter describe is a rediscovery by the people of the instructions for celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. It was a harvest festival much like our Thanksgiving. But it was to be done in a way that would remind the people of the days of their wandering in the wilderness. It was a seven day feast, beginning on the fifteenth of the month. At this point they still had two weeks to prepare for it. They were to gather sticks and make temporary shelters for themselves outside of or on the roofs of their homes. These would remind them that they were wanderers in the desert for forty years and that God had brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey. When they celebrated the feast they were to remember that it was God who had provided for them and blessed them abundantly.
Somewhere in this time of preparation the people must also have observed the Day of Atonement, with its emphasis upon sorrow for sin. It came on the tenth of the month. It is not mentioned, probably because the emphasis at this point was so much on gratitude to God and rejoicing.
And why not? Nehemiah had told them to rejoice, saying, “The joy of the LORD is your strength.” It was indeed their strength. For theirs was a happy God, and they were a happy people.
We should be a joyful people too. Indeed, we are frequently told to rejoice. If we do not, it is because we do not love the Word of God as these people did or because we do not obey it.