Or, A Feast of Understanding
Scripture: Nehemiah 8:9-12
Date: May 25, 2025
Speaker: Sean Higgins
When a man understands God, what does he understand about God? What is at the center of the picture? What takes up most of the image? When a man understands the Word of God, what is the pith and marrow of the message? When a man understands all this, what results? How does, how should, he respond?
There are multiple good answers. I am introducing this sermon this way about this paragraph of Scripture because I observe a connection. I want us all to understand, and to understand as clearly and truly and fully as possible. And we don’t want to be simplistic; the Lord is one, but not narrow.
We would not be wrong if we said that our central understanding of God is that He is holy. “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty” (Revelation 4:8, see also Isaiah 6:3). We see in Nehemiah 8:9-12 that God’s holiness is inescapable for those who understand. All the secondary students at ECS have just started reading The Holiness of God, a classic book on the crucial and convicting reality. God’s holiness is His otherness; “He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost foreign to us” (Sproul). We will understand more and praise His holy name forever (Psalm 145:21).
And, what happens to those who understand His holiness and then understand their lack of it, and therefore understand that they have no ground to approach Him on their own? God graciously calls them to understand that His holiness is for their good. He calls them to understand that it is His joy to share His joy so that they can enjoy Him and His gifts and His people.
Beloved, the Lord’s joy is your strength. That includes your joy in the Lord, but it is the Lord’s joy in you first.
This is almost impossible to understand. We, especially the Book-reading, doctrine-driven people, often don’t really understand. We miss God Himself. So did Eve, if not Adam. The serpent deceived Eve into believing that the central truth about God was that He was a killjoy. It was as if God’s main attribute was His determination to prohibit or eliminate joy. She bit on a wrong understanding.
Fast forward to Jesus explaining to His disciples that He came so that His joy would be in them and that their joy would be full (John 15:11). When we abide in the vine, the life of the vine gives life to the branches and through the branches into fruit. That fruit is not unholy, but it is also not unhappy.
Jesus’ joy is your strength, the sap for your obedience that isn’t burdensome but good for you.
In Nehemiah 8, it was the first day of the seventh month, and the people gathered as one in Jerusalem. They told Ezra to bring the Book of the Law of Moses. They listened as he read from a platform for a full morning. They wanted to understand. There were other men among the crowd who helped them to understand. From verses 9-12 we see the first fruit of their understanding.
Ezra and Nehemiah and the Levites prohibit the people from dwelling on their grief. They enjoin/urge the people to remember the Lord’s joy.
And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God, do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. (Nehemiah 8:9 ESV)
In terms of details in the text, Nehemiah and Ezra are mentioned together for the first time. They are both named in the third person, and this convinces certain readers that it couldn’t have been true. A later copyist must have put them together. There really are reasons to doubt anything if you want to.
In terms of the emphasis of the text: the understanding givers say, “Stop your crying.” But, isn’t the peoples’ grief more godly?
The law reveals God’s holiness and His commands for those who would live consecrated lives. The law also reveals the consequences for those who disobey, whose lives were profane. The people had been listening to the law and its meaning for hours. They understood. Wouldn’t it be a holy response to be convicted about their unholy state? Who knows how many new disobediences were revealed to them? To properly honor the holy God why isn’t a grieving admission of unholiness not right?
There is a time for mourning and weeping over our sin. That is an early fruit of understanding. But mourning is not the most mature the fruit will get. Godly grief will get on to gladness. Fasting is not the last meal.
Then he/Ezra said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our LORD. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10)
Because this day is holy it was a day for celebration (Feast of Trumpets) for food and fellowship, not for commiseration, nor a call for more introspection or isolation.
The fat was the more costly parts, the “choice meat.” It wasn’t waste. The sweet (wine) probably meant it hadn’t had all the time to ferment; don’t wait, don’t get the old wine where the yeast has eaten up all the sugars. To send portions was a kind of Perfect Potluck I suppose, because generosity fits with joy. No feasters left behind.
It is the end of verse 10 that requires more meditation. for the joy of the LORD is your strength. In this kind of phrase, “joy of the Lord” could either the Lord as target/object or the Lord as source/subject of joy. If target, it’s a man’s joy toward the Lord. If source, it’s the Lord’s joy in the man. It has to be this latter. The men were full of grief, and Ezra wanted them to understand divine and objective joy.
God’s joy is God’s own. His joy is, it precedes and proceeds. His joy spills over. His sovereign joy is our strength. It is eternal, infallible, and communicable. Sure, joy is His strength, but His joy is also our strength.
If they had not been convicted before the Lord’s law, they weren’t ready for the Lord’s joy. And then if they would not go into His joy, they weren’t truly understanding the Lord’s joy. So properly understood, God’s holiness is not a killjoy, it is a birthjoy, a boostjoy, a fueljoy.
Ezra, who studied and practiced and taught the law, believed that the fruit of understanding was an energy that stands a man upright, an energy that carries a congregation forward. This strength comes from understanding that God delights in Himself and His work. This is the central message of Genesis through Deuteronomy.
I get that the apostle Paul points out the limitations of the law. And at the same time, the psalmist said to delight in the law day and night, that the law was more sweet and desirable than honey. The law is good because it reveals the joy of the Lord. Again, yes, it shows the standards of holiness and the consequences of rebellion. But the primary concern is the joy of the Lord for those who understand.
The Levites hit the tuning fork again.
So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing because they had understood the words that were declared to them. (Nehemiah 8:11-12 ESV)
Repeated phrases and ideas between verses 9-10 and 11-12:
They went off to have a party. They went to feast. The fruit of their understanding was extended joy, embodied joy, and extravagant joy.
What you get when you get understanding is truth, holiness, and joy. Understanding leads to both fasting (9:1) and feasting. Understanding of God’s holiness and God’s Word that is never sweet and strong is wrong.
Against pretense, against gloom, and against biblical blues and blahs. Against grieving that loves to look in the mirror, against grieving that curves in on itself. It’s a serious thing to serve the Lord with joyfulness and gladness of heart (Deuteronomy 28:47).
The Lord’s joy is your strength! We are working for progress and joy in the faith! Amen, amen!
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His joy.
If you do this well, people will think there is something wrong with you. Don’t you see how bad things are?
Ah, but the Lord sees even more. He is not a killjoy, nor can His joy ever die. And the Lord’s joy is your strength.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:24–25 ESV)