Nehemiah 8
What a chapter! It’s vital because it’s recalling two major things God is constantly calling his people to do, both of the old covenant through Abraham and the new covenant through Jesus. He calls us to hear his word and remember his character. We see that being played out in this chapter. The wall is complete and now it is time to rebuild God’s people. Remember, they have been in exile for a long time, and through the reading of the Law they are weeping and mourning. They are being lead to repentance through the reading of God’s law, his word, the thing David says in Psalm 1, “but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.” This law is breathing life back into God’s people and it’s reminding them of who God is. God is rebuilding his people to be the image bearers and worshippers of Him they were called to be. This should be us daily. The Bible is God’s word that we should hear and it should lead us to moments of repentance and to believing in the gospel again and again. Because it’s speaking God's living breath into our forgetful bodies.
THEN, get this, as they read God’s Law they read about the festival of booths which is that exact time. And they rejoice and celebrate that very festival. They remember how God provided them as they sojourned through the wilderness and how he did it again from exile back into the promised land. They remember God’s faithfulness in the wilderness that leads them to recognize God’s same provision which leads to God’s people to worship.
God loves for us to know his word and remember it. When in times of inevitable doubt, God calls us to remember his faithfulness because it’s as true today as it was yesterday. God provided Israel the promised land, through exile and back again to the promised land. His word declares it and in our human flesh and we forget it. Why?
Where are you stuck in your daily communion with God? Where are you going through the motions?
Spend time actually sitting in his presence. Interact with his word. Let it wash over you. Then cling to it so you can remember what it says in times of lies flooding you into drawing in unbelief. Trials will come, but in them let us cling to the breath of God for life.
