April 30th, 2018

The Return of Rejoicing

“Then on the second day of the month, the leaders of all the families went to meet with Ezra, the priests, and the Levites. They all gathered around Ezra the teacher to study the words of the law.   They studied and found these commands in the law. The Lord gave this command to the people through Moses: In the seventh month of the year, the Israelites must go to Jerusalem to celebrate a special festival. They must live in temporary shelters. And the people are supposed to go through all of their towns and Jerusalem and say this: “Go out into the hill country and get branches from different kinds of olive trees. Get branches from myrtle trees, palm trees, and shade trees. Use the branches to make temporary shelters. Do what the law says.”   So the people went out and got tree branches. Then they built temporary shelters for themselves. They built shelters on their own roofs and in their own yards. And they built shelters in the Temple yard, in the open place near the Water Gate, and near Ephraim Gate.  The whole group that had come back from captivity built shelters. They lived in the shelters they had built. Since the days of Joshua son of Nun up until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated the Festival of Shelters like this. Everyone was very happy!  Neh. 8:13-17

This passage is a powerful illustration of: returning, rebuilding, and rejoicing.  The Israelites had been in exile and now were returning to their homeland.  Their assignment was to rebuild the wall around their beloved city of Jerusalem.  This project was led by Nehemiah, the cup-bearer who had been given permission to return to the city.

Miraculously the wall was re-built in 52 days, despite hardships, opposition, and resistance.  At the completion of the project, the people gathered together and Ezra joined them in the reading of the law.  As the law was being read, the Feast of Tabernacles was re-discovered.  It had been years since the feasts had been celebrated or even recognized.  Now there was a sense of jubilation among the crowd.  The feast was celebrated according to Levitical law and there was very great gladness among the people.  Israel celebrated God’s deliverance from captivity and rejoiced in the wondrous work of the Lord.  He brought them out of exile back to their homeland and completed the restoration of their city walls.  He made possible what was considered to be impossible.  What God did for Israel in the time of Nehemiah, He can do for us today!