Or, Very Great Joy According to the Rule
Scripture: Nehemiah 8:13-18
Date: June 1, 2025
Speaker: Sean Higgins
This whole chapter has been about the centrality of Scripture to the life of God’s people. In the days of Ezra and Nehemiah a new wave of Israelites had returned to their homeland. They’d built a wall together. And now the cultural reformation continues as they focus on the Book.
The people told Ezra to bring the Book. He opened it and read it and gave the sense so that people could understand it. When they did understand, they wept, certainly because they realized the standard of God’s holiness that they had not met. But Ezra tells them to stop grieving because “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Then most of the people returned home and shared the fat portions and sweet wine and made great rejoicing.
In the last paragraph of Nehemiah 8 we see that those who heard the Word also were eager to do it. They came across instructions about the Feast of Booths, and they understood that they needed to obey the Book.
It is hard enough to understand the tax requirements, and it is not enough to understand the letter from the IRS. Pay up. It is hard enough to understand the instructions for putting together a bookshelf, but, if you want to use it, understanding should enable building. Attach the pieces. So with God’s Word: it is hard enough to understand (in some places), and it is not enough to understand without obedience. There is milk and there is meat, but it is not enough to leave the food on the plate. Eat up. Obey the Book.
The “first day” (8:2) included all the people, the second day is a smaller Bible study.
On the second day the heads of fathers houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the Law. (Nehemiah 8:13 ESV)
The whole congregation had gathered and now it’s only a select group, especially those who would be responsible to spread the message and meaning. Most of the people went home, “all the people went their way” (verse 12), back to their towns away from the city. Those who remained, who represented, went back in order to study the Book. They wanted to understand more.
And they found it written in the Law that the LORD had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and in Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.” (Nehemiah 8:14-15)
The Feast of Booths, also called the Feast of Tabernacles, was a seven day memorial to start on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. Since the Bible study was on the second day, this gave time for sending the message out to the towns and give them time to prepare. We’ll talk about the purpose of this feast in a moment.
Missing from the record is the Day of Atonement, to be observed on the tenth day of the seventh month. It’s an argument from silence, but it does point out again that the emphasis here is not on the priestly/blood work but on the preaching/Book work (though of course we learn what blood is good for in the Bible).
For all the disruption there had been for most of them over the last three to six months, they obeyed yet another change to their schedule.
So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. (Nehemiah 8:16 ESV)
The booths were temporary tents. It would have been an unmistakable sight, sort of like tents popped up all around the city on roofs (which were usually flat), or in their yards, or even in the shared spaces; family camping in the square. (See Leviticus 23:39–43 for the rules.)
And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, for from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. (Nehemiah 8:17 ESV)
Just as the people had a mind to work, so they have a mind to camp in this ceremonial fashion. All the assembly did it.
The Feast of Booths was an annual reminder of the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. God delivered His people from their captivity in Egypt, and now He had delivered them from captivity in Babylon. This is a second exodus, and so this Tabernacle time had double reasons for remembering God’s kindness.
The statement that they hadn’t done it since the days of Joshua requires a little more attention, mostly because Israel had participated in the Booths Feast in King Solomon’s day (2 Chronicles 8:13), King Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 31:3), and King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:18). Even after the first return with Zerubabbel (Ezra 3:4). One reasonable explanation is that the Feast had been a remembrance of God’s harvest blessings but not a remembrance of the exodus, provision more than deliverance.
It may also have been different because of their collective joy. And there was very great rejoicing. Will you have greater rejoicing through obedience that causes disruption or through disobedience to maintain order?
And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the rule. (Nehemiah 8:18 ESV)
It was a week-long event, a seven day family camp. They had to stop their other work, they fellowshipped, and they heard the Book read every day (see Deuteronomy 31:12-13).
Then on the eighth day they had a solemn assembly, which could be understood as sort of a final or “closing ceremony.” It was all according to the rule.
The beauty of this chapter has at least a few deep colors.
Theology understood is for our joy. Obedience in light of that understanding is further joy. The Book, the understanding, the joy and obedience, is for all. Really, it’s for all, including moms who get to show off that the joy of the Lord is their strength while helping little souls understand the Lord and His Word.
You might be great in theology and poor in joy. Let the clutch out of your theology, it’s not done yet. You might be often joyful and weak in theology. Let the roots of your joy go deeper. Those roots will be especially helpful when hard winds blow.
Adjust your days to the Book for your blessing. Obey the Book.
These are God-given and good and exhausting days. To be fruitful you must do two things.
One: you must go to bed at a reasonable time; the Lord gives His beloved sleep.
Two: you must take time to remember the Lord’s joy. The Lord gives His beloved STRENGTH according to His joy.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13 ESV)