Or, The People Who Want to Understand
Scripture: Nehemiah 8:6-8
Date: May 18, 2025
Speaker: Sean Higgins
From God’s Word we know that it’s possible to have knowledge without love (1 Corinthians 13:2), and that’s no good. We also know it’s possible to have zeal without knowledge (Romans 10:2), and that is also no good.
We are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Does that mean that transformation begins and ends in our heads? Of course not. The great commandment is not: Think Correctly about the Lord your God. And also, can we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength by cultivating ignorance? May it never be.
Understanding is an asset. It’s not the end, but we won’t get to the end without it. Understanding is a gift from God. He’s given us so much for sake of increasing our understanding. He gives teachers (Ephesians 4:11), He gives His Spirit (John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:12), He has given His Word.
In Nehemiah 8, the people want to understand the Book. They have a mind to want the Word. They tell Ezra to bring the Book of the Law of Moses. He stands on a platform built for the purpose of reading and explaining the Book so that they can understand. There are some other men who also help the people understand. It’s for men and women and all who can understand.
We will see the fruit of their understanding in the second half of the chapter. Understanding brings conviction of sin and humility, understanding brings joy and fellowship, understanding brings readiness to obey. But it’s understanding that leads the way.
In verses 1-5 we saw that the people requested the reading of the Book, they listened to the reading of the Book, and they honored the reading of the Book. In verses 6-8 we’ll see that the people responded to the reading and that they were helped to understand the reading.
This is all part of their service of worship.
And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. (Nehemiah 8:6 ESV)
As Ezra read he couldn’t help but praise the Lord. This might have been a repeated part throughout the morning; he’d read a section and bless the LORD, the great God and the people would agree. Amen, Amen. Yes! This is it! “So let it be!” During this part of their response they were lifting up their hands. That may seem strange to some of us; the Book people were doing that, can you believe it? Lifting hands here expresses dependence. They acknowledged the giving God as they reached out to Him in dependence.
Then they bowed their heads … with their faces to the ground. Up and then down, they yielded and acknowledged the glorious God in humility and reverence.
This was part of what happens with understanding. Was anyone there just going through the motions, blending in with the group, playing at religious externals? That’s definitely possible. And yet understanding has consequences, including embodied responses.
Verse 7 gives a new set of names, explains more of what was happening, and verse 8 summarizes.
Also [thirteen of] the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. (Nehemiah 8:7-8 ESV)
It’s a different list of names than the 13 in verse 4 and they are in a different location. These men are not standing on the pulpit beside Ezra but out among the people.
There turns out to be a good amount of detail missing from verses 1-8. Here are some of the questions. Were the men in verse 4 additional readers, or show of support? How often did the “Amen, Amen” happen? How were the men named in verse 7 divided up? Was there a cycle of reading, blessing, amen-ing, small group discussing, and then repeat? Verse 3 implies that Ezra read, and that he read all morning. But the reading and explaining in verses 7-8 took place while the people remained in their places, not house to house, so still that morning before they dispersed for a late lunch (verse 12).
The lack of those details actually puts the principle actions up front. Bring the Book, open the Book, read the Book, praise the great God of the Book, explain the Book so that people can understand the Book. The people want to understand, and those who do understand help the others understand.
There a couple meanings for what verse 8 means, ironically. They were “translating to give the sense” (NASB), “making it clear and giving the meaning” (NIV), “explaining…and imparting insight” (NET). They read…clearly, and they gave the sense (ESV). It’s not just that the text was in a different language (though many of the Jews may have been speaking Aramaic and needing help with the Hebrew), but that attention was giving to the meaning of the text. So there would be grammar, history, context. There could have been some questions (not just received from the people, but put to the people), to see what was confusing, what needed more explanation.
The word in ESV, clearly, has the idea of “to make distinct” or “to divide in parts.” It’s observation and analysis, breaking it down to examine in detail. It might be a verse, a paragraph, a bigger chunk that belongs together.
We call this exposition. To exposit means “to put (the meaning of a text or idea) out.” Exegesis is drawing meaning out (interpreting), exposition is taking the meaning and setting it forth in front of others (teaching), laying it out for all to look at. This was Ezra’s life: “Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach” (Ezra 7:10).
We’ve been given more to understand. All they had in 445 BC were the five Books of Moses. In AD 2025 we have 66 Books, and 2400 years more of God’s work. That said, we also have more helps to understand, including complete copies of the Canon. We have portable, printed copies, some of which have little permanent Levites at the bottom of the page giving the sense. Amen, amen!
Helping others to understand more is a project for many. By the time of the New Testament, it appears that local congregations should have a plurality of elders. And if elders are equipping the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12), part of what that includes is equipping more explainers (2 Timothy 2:2). Focus on the few to reach the many. Amen, amen!
We don’t have to do it all on one day. We can travel more easily than those in Nehemiah’s day who were still living “in their towns” (Nehemiah 7:73). We don’t have 5-6 hour services; they weren’t doing that every week either. We have some other parts of our Lord’s Day liturgy (though they all center around God’s Word), and then we have some other meetings for sake of that further explanation and exhortation and encouragement and equipping.
I’ve heard it referred to as the Air War and Ground War. Explaining the Book (read, reprove, exhort, comfort) is one and the same “war,” but there’s a public effort and private effort. Paul himself taught “in public and from house to house” (Acts 20:20). So we open the Book in this larger group setting for sake of understanding, and then we look at it again, with questions and discussions, in our smaller group settings later in the week. Pastors participate, and also, there are other leaders who help spread understanding.
Sometimes I think about this part of the process as driving a dump truck through the front wall of thinking and opening up some space for our L2L leaders to look in to your mental house and see what’s happening. Is there understanding? Is there understanding with resistance? Is there misunderstanding, partial understanding, purposeful misunderstanding, no interest in understanding? Is there hearing of the word, but not doing?
This is the church angle, but this does not replace dads and moms with their kids, it should help dads and moms understand and pass on that understanding.
Let’s Make Understanding Great Again (MUGA). This does not have to be the same as making understanding of Scripture the end-all, as we sometimes talk about truth-tubes. But God revealed His truth in a Book, and by His Spirit that Word accomplishes every purpose for which God sends it. Amen, amen!
To whom much has been given, much is required. But God does not give abundantly to pressure us, and certainly not to paralyze us under heavy gifts. His blessings ABOUND where ‘er He reigns. His blessings ABOUND to you, His beloved, so approve and do great things in His name!
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9–11 ESV)