Go to:

Home Page
Worship
Nurture
Outreach
Ten Thousand Villages,
Sermons
Sermons
Calendar
Committees
Links
Photo Albums,
What's New?
Questions/Comments

The Joy of Rediscovery

Delivered January 25, 2004
by Pastor Werner De Jong

Text: Nehemiah 8:1-12

Main Idea: The people of God live by the Divine Word. In hearing and obeying it there is great consequence.

Purpose: To encourage the listeners that devotion to the Bible as the Word of the faithful Creator will energize, liberate, and fill them with joy. To challenge the listeners to read the Bible with the determination to honour and obey the God who speaks through it.

Introduction: Have you ever lost something valuable and completely forgotten about it, only to find it again much later, to your great surprise and delight? I know for myself there were one or two occasions when I stuffed some twenty dollar bills into my winter coat pocket, too much in a hurry to put them into my wallet, only to forget they were there. The next winter, when I put my hands into my pocket to keep them warm something crinkled, and when I asked, "What's this?," I was very pleasantly surprised by the answer!

Today's Text and its Context: In today's text from Nehemiah we read how the ancient people of Israel had lost and rediscovered something far more valuable than mere money. What they had forgotten about was priceless. It was more valuable than any earthly treasure. For they had forgotten about the Word of the living God. And it wasn't the first time it had happened. Once, when Josiah was King of Judah, the book of the law was found by Hilkiah the high priest in the temple. Apparently it had been gathering dust for many, many years–perhaps decades. When the king opened the book and read the words, he realized he and his people had not been obeying them, so he tore his clothes in repentance, and issued in a religious reform.

      But the reform scarcely outlived Josiah. He died in the Battle of Megiddo at the age of 39. About twenty years after that, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, and carried the Jews away into exile. The book of Nehemiah ties into this event. It recounts the story of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, about 140 years after it had been sacked. The people had suffered through the exile, and a small minority had chosen to return home when they were allowed to do so. And eventually, under Nehemiah's leadership, they set about repairing the broken walls of Jerusalem.

Rediscovering the Word: Our text picks up the action just after the wall was completed. The first thing the people did after the wall was finished was to approach Ezra, the scribe, and ask him to read to them from the Torah, or the book of the law. Why? First of all, they had neglected it again, for far too long. But they had also come to realize the consequences of ignoring God's Word–it had resulted in exile and the destruction of their beloved city. But now that the wall was finished, and Jerusalem rebuilt, they wanted to begin again, they wanted the new era to get off on the right footing, they wanted to reconstitute themselves as a people of the Word. They never again wanted to forget about the Word of the Lord. It was not just enough to have it–it must also be read, and obeyed. For they had learned through many trials that what the Torah said, God said. In his book "God Has Spoken," J.I. Packer makes a good case that the western church has forgotten about the Word of God. It is not that we have physically lost it–there are so many millions of copies today it would be impossible to do so. But we have lost it in a different way. According to Packer, what we have lost is this–the firm conviction that when the Bible speaks, God speaks. He quotes the prophet Amos, who speaks of a famine "of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11). Packer believes that the western church, by and large, is enduring such a famine. He sees a great paradox in this–God's Word is more available to the church now than ever before–not only do we have many translations of the Bible, we also have many excellent commentaries and study guides and a wealth of other Christian literature. But many of the books that have been written are skeptical about the Bible, they cast doubt on its claims, they suggest that the Scriptures are not a fully trustworthy word from God. The claims of some critical scholars that the Bible is merely a human work have eroded the confidence of many Christians. Many times the media portrays the Bible in a similar way, and it is easy to internalize this skepticism, which leads us to neglect God's Word, even as we confess our faith in it.

      The people of Israel had made that mistake once, and they didn't want to make it again. They had learned that in the hearing and obeying of God's Word, there is great consequence. As the people of God today, we regularly need to be reminded of that truth. We are a people who live by the divine word, even as Jesus said, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Mt. 4:4). If Packer is right, we also need to rediscover the Word in our time, to treat the written Word in the same manner we would if we actually heard the voice of God speaking out loud to us.

Development of the Written Word: Historically speaking, Nehemiah 8 is a very important text, for it marks an important step in the development of the Bible This is one of the first instances where we see the clear conviction that the will of God is preserved in a body of literature. Today we take that idea for granted–Christians have the Bible, Muslims have the Koran and Jews have their writings. But as James Newsome writes, that idea "was found nowhere else in the ancient world outside Israel....the idea of a divinely inspired anthology of literature that purports to declare the universal will of God is found nowhere outside ancient Israel, and it is not even found firmly rooted in Israel until the very late stages of antiquity, that is, from about 400 BC" (James Newsome, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year C, Third Sunday after Epiphany).

      The Jews had the law of Moses given at Sinai, which is probably what Josiah found in the temple, but throughout most of the pages of the Old Testament they had no canon, no body of literature grouped together. It wasn't until the return from exile that the Jewish people developed the firm conviction that God spoke in various books, or scrolls, of literature, and then they began the process of collecting them together.

      It may well have been the event described in Nehemiah 8, which occurred around 450 BC, that gave great impetus to the development of the Old Testament. To quote James Newsome again, in Nehemiah 8 "we are looking in on one of those critical moments in the history of God's dealing with Israel and all humankind, a moment when the Spirit speaks through the words on the page, and in so doing, touches and changes human hearts" (p. 113). After this event, religious services which focussed on the reading and interpretation of scripture began to develop; before this the people had no such regular meetings. By the time the New Testament opens we see synagogues everywhere, and central to the synagogue service was the weekly reading of the word, followed by comments on it. On one occasion Jesus himself stood up in the synagogue and read from the scroll of Isaiah. We read that account earlier from Luke 4. This tradition of reading and interpreting was maintained by the church, so that we can even say that the very thing we are doing now has its roots far back in this event of Nehemiah 8. That may not inspire you, but for a preacher, it is intriguing to know the origins of your vocation! But perhaps it should interest all of us, for the ministry of the Word is one of the central elements of the Christian worship service.

Reverence for the Word: If we return to our text, we see that this development began with a new found reverence for the written word. After the people approached Ezra to read for them, he had a wooden platform made just for the occasion, on which he stood, so that everyone could see and hear him. ( I can now relate to that, because on Friday I spoke from an elevated pulpit for the first time, at the Anglican Church! It was only a foot or two off the ground, but it was fun.) At any rate, when Ezra opened the book, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, and the people answered, "Amen, Amen," while lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord, with their faces to the ground, for they knew that with the reading of God's Word, they were on holy ground.

      Their reverence for God's Word challenges us today. Perhaps we have become too familiar with it. It may be that we have such easy access to the Word that we take it for granted. In an age of cable, satellite, and the internet, we have 24-hour access to various authors, speakers and preachers. And again, some of these people have a low view of the Bible. It may be that many of us therefore need to rediscover the reverent faith that when the Bible speaks, the living God speaks.

      Such a truth places a serious obligation on all who teach the Bible. The apostle Peter once wrote, "Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God" (1 Peter 4:11). In all likelihood, he is specifically addressing ministers or teachers with those words. His sober advice is that we must not trifle with the word of God; rather those who speak God's words, including various teachers and preachers and Sunday School teachers, must remember that they do so as one speaking the very words of God. That places an outstanding responsibility on us not to speak our own mind from the pulpit, or the classroom, but to interpret God's word as faithfully and accurately as possible. But note that this also places a serious obligation on the listener; for when a preacher is faithful to pass on God's word, then the congregation is not only hearing the words of a human, but the very words of God. This again is why those who heard Ezra read and interpret the Scripture approached the entire event with holy reverence.

God's Word Energizes and Liberates: Let's move on. It is of more than passing interest that after the Word was read and heard with reverence, it energized and liberated the people. This wasn't the immediate result–at first the people began to mourn and weep. But after some encouragement from their leaders, their sorrow turned to joy. The leaders said to them, "This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not be sad." In other words, God has set this day aside. God is doing a new thing. God has not abandoned you. So do not be sad, but rejoice, eat the fat, and drink sweet wine, and share the abundance of your bounty with others.

      The people took this advice to heart, and did just that. They went on their way to eat and drink and share with others, and to make great rejoicing. What was the reason for their joy? Verse 12 spells it out in black and white: "because they had understood the words that were declared to them." Not only did they hear the Word of their Creator God, but they understood it. Now they could obey him. They were completely overjoyed at rediscovering the word of the Lord. And it was just as their leaders had said to them, "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (v. 10).

Application: In the same way, the Word of God has the potential to energize and liberate us today, to cause us to celebrate, to encourage us to share, and to fill us with joy. The Word of God can certainly lead us into the joy of the Lord today even as it did then. But if God's word is to play such a role in our lives, then three things are needed. All of them are outlined in our text.

      First of all, like the Israelites, we need to approach the Bible in faith, with the confidence that what it says, God says. I won't belabour that point, we've already spoken about it. But it is critical–if we are seduced by the voices of the more skeptical biblical critics, it will be almost impossible to meet God in his Word. As it is written in Hebrews: "without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."

      Secondly, again like the Israelites in Nehemiah, we not only need to believe the Bible is God's word for us, we also need to understand it. The joy of the returned exiles was rooted in their understanding of the words and will of God. Faith combined with understanding brought and end to the famine of hearing the Word of the Lord; their new found joy was therefore very much like the joy of those who finally see the rains begin to fall after a season of famine. Now they can eat again, now they are presented with food to nourish their inner beings.

      But the text tells us that this food may have to be prepared in the right way. The Word of God was read, but it was also interpreted. We read in verse 8 how the Levites helped Ezra out: "So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the meaning." In order to digest this marvellous feast of divine bread, the bread of the word, the people needed not only to hear it read, but to have it explained to them, to have it broken down and prepared in such a way that they could taste it. Even from their vantage point, the book of the law was very old, hundreds of years old, and it needed to be interpreted for them in their own time and place and situation.

      The same holds true for us. The Bible is an ancient book, and parts of it are difficult to understand. Therefore the church has always benefited from the presence of gifted teachers in her midst. The New Testament, in fact, recognizes the gift of teaching as a spiritual gift, a gift from God to his people, in order to help them better hear his voice. This is why it is not only important to read the Bible on our own, but it is just as important, if not more so, to have it read and explained in the context of community life. God has given to the church Sunday School teachers, youth group leaders, pastors and other teachers to help us better hear and understand his word for us in our time. One of our Anabaptist distinctives in fact is the teaching that the congregation of believers is the best place to understand and interpret Scripture.

      So then, if the Word of God is to energize us, and lead us into "the joy of the Lord," we need to understand it. But that is not all. Nehemiah chapter 8 also suggests that the hearing and understanding of the word must also be accompanied by a desire to obey it. That is the third necessity if God's word is to transform us. Verse 3 of our text says that "the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law." Clearly implied here is the fact that they were attentive because they wanted to obey. They weren't satisfied simply to have the words go in one ear and out the other. They wanted to catch every word in order that they might honour God.

      This raises as important principle. The Bible only brings joy if we approach it with a firm desire to obey the One whose voice we hear in it. It is very possible to approach the Bible with a motive other than obedience. It is altogether possible to read the Bible in a detached sort of way, perhaps only to appreciate it for its historical content, or its literary beauty, or simply because we think that reading the Bible is what a good Christian is supposed to do. But if we don't read with a sincere desire to discover and obey God's will, and to conform our lives to Jesus, the living Word, then we can't expect to find life and delight in it. J.I. Packer puts it this way: "Much devotion in our churches today is hazy, anxious, and joyless, simply because people have not been taught, or do not dare, to slot their faith into Holy Scripture and venture their lives upon its ‘precious and exceeding promises' (2 Peter 1:4) as the sure words of a faithful Creator" (Packer, God Has Spoken).

      But that is precisely what the Bible is, the sure words of our living God who loves us. Those who have the courage to obey all that they can understand, and who seek further understanding for further obedience, will find their lives energized and liberated by the Spirit of God. The simple chorus of the well-known hymn expresses it all very well: "trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."

Conclusion: In conclusion, if the Word of God has lost its joy for us, my prayer is that we may be like those who reach deep into our pockets and discover something that crinkles. May we rediscover the joy of rustling the pages of the book, of placing our faith in it as God's sure word for us, of happily understanding it in the community of believers, and of seeking to obey it with all of our hearts. Amen.

Return to the top of this document.