Fish the Right

Day 178 · Part 10: The Return

Ezra Reads the Law

Neh 8–10 · 95 verses

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In the Story

In context

On the first day of the seventh month all the people gather at the water gate, and Ezra reads the book of the law of Moses “from early morning until midday,” standing on a wooden pulpit, while the Levites give the sense, “so that they understood the reading” (Nehemiah 8:1–8). When the people weep, they are told, “Don’t be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength” (8:9–10).

Reading on, they find the command to live in shelters in the seventh month, and live in them as Israel had not done “since the days of Joshua the son of Nun” (8:14–17; Leviticus 23:42). Later, fasting in sackcloth, they confess their sins, and the Levites pray through Israel’s story, from Abram to the wilderness: “forty years you sustained them in the wilderness. They lacked nothing” (Nehemiah 9:1–21).

“We are servants today,” the prayer ends, under foreign kings in their own land, and the people make “a sure covenant” in writing, sealed by their leaders: to keep God’s law, keep the Sabbath, and care for the house of their God (9:36–10:39).

A word of hope
Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s covenant is sure, making wise the simple. Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes.

Psalms 19:7–8 · The people wept, then celebrated “because they had understood the words”; the psalm says the Lord’s precepts “are right, rejoicing the heart.”

For families

When Ezra read the law, “both men and women, and all who could hear with understanding” listened (Nehemiah 8:2–3). Then families built shelters of branches, “everyone on the roof of his house,” and lived in them for the feast (8:15–17).

Families built shelters of branches for the feast. Have you ever built a fort, a tent or a shelter with your family?

In the Bible

World English Bible, as published by eBible.org (public domain).

Nehemiah 8

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Nehemiah 9

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Nehemiah 10

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A hymn for today

How Firm a Foundation · words by “K” in John Rippon’s Selection of Hymns

Organ and orchestra: an introduction, then each of the 7 verses. Tap a verse’s number to start there.
  1. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!What more can He say than to you He hath said,You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
  2. In every condition, in sickness, in health,In poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth,At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,As thy days may demand shall thy strength ever be.
  3. Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed,For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
  4. When through the deep waters I call thee to go,The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
  5. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;The flame shall not hurt thee; I only designThy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
  6. E'en down to old age all My people shall proveMy sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
  7. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,I will not, I will not desert to his foes;That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,I'll never, no never, no never forsake.