Deeper Commentary
Nehemiah 8:1 All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded to Israel-
Note the names Nehemiah uses for the community. "All the people" are "the assembly" [LXX ekklesia], which is further defined in :17 as "All the assembly of those who had come again out of the captivity". The preceding Nehemiah 7 has shown how Nehemiah sought to define the "people" according to those written in records of those who had returned from Babylon (Neh. 7:6) and could prove their genealogy. All seems well and good if we read this quickly. But we must perceive what's going on. The "people" are being defined as the golah Jews, to the exclusion of all the others. "As one man" shows their unity- behind the wrong walls they had built of separation from their brethren, and their redefinition of "Israel" as solely they who had returned from Persia. So often this is done. It's all cosy behind the walls, but the walls are built in the wrong places... to the exclusion of God's people. The difficulty of life together is leapfrogged by this wrong drawing of walls, and thereby real spiritual development is lost.
This is the first we hear of Ezra since we read of him at the time of his return from Babylon in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I (Ezra 7:7) in 458 BC, and Nehemiah arrived in the same king’s twentieth year (Neh. 2:1) in 445. Ezra's work over those 13 years isn't recorded. In that time, Jerusalem had gone from a populated city (Ezra 1:1) to a depopulated city with broken down walls (Neh. 7:4; 11:1-3; 13:10-13). Possibly Ezra had returned to Babylon in that period; or perhaps he had a ministry which, like that of so many, produced little fruit. Yet still he kept on, for he reappears in Neh. 8:1 to read the law to the people.
The LXX correctly connects this with the end of Neh. 7, "in the seventh month". This was the time of the feast of trumpets (Lev. 23:24,25). But they were unaware of this feast (:14), so it seems they likely gathered together at the annual new moon festival which would have been at that time- and then discovered that actually, they were intended to be keeping the feast of booths. Perhaps the idea was that God's word was as living waters, hence it was read from "before the water gate", which was at the eastern entrance to the temple (see on :3), into which Ezekiel had prophesied the glory of Yahweh could return- if they were faithful. This is the same "broad place" near the temple of Ezra 10:9, where the Nethinim (the temple servants) lived (Neh. 3:26). However, the restoration prophets had explained that the old covenant had been broken, and Israel's only hope was to accept the new covenant offered in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. And yet they all hankered to keep the old covenant, "the book of the law of Moses", rather than accepting the implications of their actions.
We wonder why Ezra only now appears on the scene in Nehemiah, and has
not been mentioned earlier as working with Nehemiah. He may have returned
to Babylon in that period; or perhaps his own commitment to the cause had
faltered. This calling of Ezra to read the law is presented as a new and
unusual move, as if he had not been in the habit of doing this previously.
See on :14.
Nehemiah 8:2 Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men
and women, and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of
the seventh month- In those days, religion was largely a hobby for
adult men. We note that Israel's God sought relationship with both men and
women as well as children old enough to understand (cp. Neh. 10:28), and
so both men and women were to hear the law. This is repeated in :3.
But "the assembly" refers to those referenced in Neh. 7- the golah
Jews who had returned from exile, and who were defining themselves as the
true Israel. So whilst the presence of women and young people is
commendable, what is so wrong is the exclusion of all the other Jews, the
so called people of the land. Ezra had forced anyone married to them to
divorce them, and now Nehemiah goes along with this attitude. The law was
to be read every seven years to all people in Israel, including the
foreigner who lived with them. It's all very well being 'inclusive' of
women and children, but if the boundary lines around the 'inclusive'
community are wrongly drawn, then it all becomes quite meaningless. This
is, again, so true to observation of human and spiritual communities.
Although the first day of the seventh month was the day of the Feast of Trumpets (Lev. 23:23-25; Num. 29:1-6), there is no reference to the people keeping it. And yet they will go on to make decisions made about divorce and marriage which were based on hyper legalistic, quirky interpretations of God's law that were sold to them by their elders. When they apparently were themselves ignorant of the basics; they apparently didn’t even know about the Feast of Tabernacles.
Nehemiah 8:3 He read therein before the broad place- "Before" means
therefore 'to the east' of it; see on :1.
That was before the water gate from early morning until noon, in the presence of the men and the women, and of those who could understand. The ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law- "All the people" included both men and women; see on :2. We note the commendable desire to hear the actual text of God's word for itself, when it is a human tendency to shy away from that and to prefer listening to someone else's interpretation of it without the text itself.
Nehemiah 8:4 Ezra the scribe stood on a pulpit of wood, which
they had
made for the purpose- Literally, "for the word". This confirms the
observation made on :1 that this was not a regular occurrence; it was a
special reading of the law. And they had not been taught the law as they
should have been, for they were unaware of the feast of booths (:14).
And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam- "The parallel passage in 1 Esdras gives seven on the right hand, inserting an Azariah between Anaiah and Uriah, but six only on the left, omitting the last name Meshullam". This would mean that if 1 Esdras is correct about only six on the left, we have a total of twelve; surely appropriate for the 12 tribes of Israel. Although mostly only those of Judah and Benjamin were present, it was God's prophetic intention that the repentant remnants of both Israel and Judah, along with converted Gentiles, would unite as a new, multiethnic people of God in the land. This didn't come about, but it was the prophetic potential. We note too that the High Priest is absent here. He was perhaps spiritually corrupted by intermarriage with the Samaritans.
These are the names of Levites found later in Nehemiah (Neh. 9:5; 10:9-14). We note that it was Levites, not priests, who read and interpreted the law (:7). It was the priests' duty to interpret the law, the Levites did the practical work of the sanctuary (Lev. 10:11). And there is a glaring lack of reference to the High Priest being present. It seems this was foisted on the people by Ezra and Nehemiah, and the repentance was done in their name according to an agreed script which was read out. Later we will read of Nehemiah denouncing the High Priest and his family for marrying the wrong women. Even now at this point we can see that there were tensions. Nehemiah was getting an agreement apparently agreed to separate from marriages to the Jewish "people of the land". The priesthood was indeed corrupt at this time, as Malachi shows. But it seems to me that Nehemiah had decided to get rid of the High Priestly family and so he unilaterally sets up a gathering that would confirm Ezra’s wrongful exclusion of people on the basis of their marriages. He gets this signed up to. And then, later, uses it as a basis for excluding the High Priestly family who were intermarried with the local ruling class. Because... he wanted, or felt he needed, all the power.
Nehemiah 8:5 Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; for he
was above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up-
We note their respect of God's word. The Jews typically sat to hear and
stood up to pray. But here they stand to hear the word of God. We wonder
from where this great interest in God's word and respect for it came from;
for it was on their initiative that the scrolls were called for (:1).
Perhaps Ezra and Nehemiah had urged them to desire this. Or maybe this was
all the movement of God's Spirit. Or maybe they realized that the time of
the feast of trumpets (see on :1) ought to be the time of reading God's
word together. But it seems to me that
they were exalting the law of Moses because they wanted to argue that the
golah Jews were now the only true Israel, and they were re-entering the
old covenant which was centered on the Mosaic law. They failed to accept
Zechariah's teaching that the covenant had been broken; and Jeremiah and
Ezekiel had offered a new covenant, not based on the Mosaic law. But they
weren't interested in that. Instead of reading the law they should've been
reading the prophetic criticism of them through Isaiah, Zechariah, Haggai,
Malachi... It was this de-emphasis of the prophets compared to the Torah
which continued into the Lord's time and is seen in Judaism today. And it
led to them misunderstanding Messiah.
Nehemiah 8:6 Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great God. All the people answered,
Amen, Amen, with the lifting up of their hands. They bowed their heads,
and worshipped Yahweh with their faces to the ground- Ezra may have
been praising God for their interest in His word which had suddenly
appeared (see on :5). Their worshipping with faces to the ground recalls
the scene at the inauguration of Solomon's temple (2 Chron. 7:3). On one
hand we must allow that they may have been totally sincere; but the
nationalistic desire to replicate past glory was surely also there, and as
with all worship, God alone knows the motivations of every heart.
Nehemiah 8:7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai,
Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah and the Levites
caused the people to understand the law; and the people stayed in their
place- Probably what is in view is the names of Levitical families,
rather than individual Levites (cp. Neh. 9:4,5; 10:10-13; 12:8).
Four of these names are found in the list of Levites in Neh. 9:5, and
seven in the list of Levites in Neh. 10:9-14. I have noted earlier the
tension between priests and Levites, and how few Levites there were
relative to the priests amongst those who returned. The idea seems to be
that there were few willing to do the work of humble service, without
possessing land, which the Levites were called to. The fact they are
presented here as teaching the people the law, when this was the job of
the priests, is another indication that the priesthood had failed in their
duty of teaching the law; see on :14.
Nehemiah 8:8 They read in the book, in the law of God, with interpretation;
and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading-
LXX "And
they read in the book of the law of God, and Ezra taught, and instructed
them distinctly in the knowledge of the Lord, and the people understood the
law in the reading". As noted on :7, it was Levites and not priests who were
explaining the law. The priesthood had failed pathetically, and thus
precluded the possibilities envisioned in the restoration prophets;
because they wouldn't even read them, let alone believe them and share the
message with the people. Possibly this giving the sense was
because some of the younger ones didn't fluently understand Hebrew any
more, so it was more a question of translation into contemporary language,
than exposition. However, the result all the same was that the people wept
and then repented by separating from wives who were considered "the
peoples of the land" (Neh. 10:28,30). I have argued on Ezra 10 that this
was not right. And Ezra concludes his memoir haunted by the fact there
were kids involved in all this family breakup... And yet here, he does it
again. And Nehemiah fails to learn any lesson. He who first came to Judah
because he was so heartbroken at the abuse of those Jews who had remained
after the captivity. And now they are being spiritually abused. On one
hand, we can argue for the power of God's word, eliciting tears and
practical repentance as the people heard the word read and explained to
them on those September mornings in the twentieth year of the reign of
Artaxerxes. On the other hand, we have here a classic example of false
guilt and spiritual abuse of those ignorant of God's word, telling them
they are guilty and breaking up families in a way God's law never asked
for. It was this practice of making the interpretation of the scribes
equal to God's word which led to the halachah, and the Lord's crucifixion.
Remember we are at this point at the end of Old Testament history. The
Gospel records will pick up the story, and show where all this ultimately
led to. From this passage in Neh. 8 began the Jewish idea of an
‘Oral Torah’, their interpretations as opposed to the written Torah we
have in the Bible. This oral Torah was handed down by word of mouth until
it was codified in 200 A.D in the Mishnah, and completely codified in 500
A.D in the Gemara. The Mishnah and Gemara is what constitutes the text of
the Talmud.
Nehemiah 8:9 Nehemiah, who was the governor- Nehemiah himself only uses
the less significant word pechah about himself (Neh. 5:14,15,18).
He had a commendable humility.
And Ezra the priest, the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to Yahweh your God. Don’t mourn, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law- As noted on :1, this was the time of the feast of trumpets (Lev. 23:24,25). But they were unaware of this feast (:14), so it seems they likely gathered together at the annual new moon festival which would have been at that time- and then discovered that actually, they were intended to be keeping the feast of booths. This is the force of "This day is holy to Yahweh"- it was His feast, and not the new moon festival.
The reason why man should not keep weeping for his sins is because he has been forgiven, by God's grace. But the reason given here and in :11 is that they shouldn't be weeping on a feast day, a holy day. Clearly, religion was squashing personal spirituality. God's word had pierced their souls and led them to weep in contrition. And the religious leaders tell them there should be no tears on a feast day!
We read in Neh. 7:73 that the people were all settled in their cities at the start of the seventh month. But surely they should have all been at Jerusalem before the sanctuary, or at least their men. There is no record of the Feast of Trumpets being kept [on the first day of the seventh month], nor the Day of Atonement on the tenth day. We wonder why this is. The only "sin" it seems they wanted to 'repent' of was the supposed sin of intermarriage with the Jews who had remained in the land after the exile, whom they considered so second class as not to be the true Israel. Their weeping in Neh. 8:9 may have been genuine, but they were quickly told not to weep but to rejoice- as if to say "This is not the Day of Atonement now, it's the Feast of Tabernacles when we are to be joyful!".
Nehemiah 8:10 Then he said to them, Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the
sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day
is holy to our Lord. Don’t be grieved; for the joy of Yahweh is your
strength- These gifts to the poor must be connected with the
fact it was the Jewish "people of the land" who were poor; the very group
who were abused by the wealthy Jerusalem golah Jews in Neh. 5. This was
surely an attempt from Nehemiah to unite the community. It ultimately
failed, with the Samaritans developing as a totally separate community,
with Sanballat founding the Yahweh sanctuary at Mount Gerizim. Nehemiah in
his memoirs, like many men, looks back at his efforts to unite people...
and has to recognize it largely failed.
Isaiah had repeatedly prophesied that Judah would come with joy to Zion
(e.g. Is. 51:11), and would continue there with an everlasting joy. But the
records give little indication that they were joyful; Neh. 8:9,10 shows
Nehemiah encouraging them to be joyful, because “the joy of the Lord is
your strength”. They didn’t want to have all joy and peace through
believing; and so the Kingdom of joy didn’t come. They didn’t live the
Kingdom life of joy, and so they didn’t possess or experience the Kingdom.
The lowness of their petty concerns deprived them of it. They were
intended to send portions to the Gentiles and the poor (Dt. 16:14),
recalling the spirit of Purim and the great salvation worked for them
through Esther. The idea was that they would bring the Gentiles into
covenant relationship with Yahweh; but as Nehemiah finally has to lament,
they actually did the very opposite. Like Hezekiah, instead of doing this,
they adopted their ways, and married their women.
Or we could note that sending portions to the
poor was a conscious imitation of Purim, a feast originating in the exile
community, where the gifts had been given to those within the exiled
community. We get the hint that this was all done solely within their
community, whom they were defining as the one true Israel.
Nehemiah 8:11 So the Levites stilled all the people saying, Hold your
peace, for the day is holy; neither be grieved- The idea is that the
new moon feast they thought they were celebrating was indeed to be a holy
day to Yahweh, and they were permitted to celebrate that- even though they
were doing so some days earlier than written in the law (see on :15). I
have several times lamented that Ezra, Nehemiah and the people seemed
unaware of the restoration prophets; but they were unaware even of the
most basic principles of the law of Moses concerning the feast. It is a
picture of really pathetic ignorance, due to the failure of the priesthood
to teach them God's word.
Nehemiah 8:12 All the people went their way to eat and to drink, and to send
portions, and to make great joy, because they had understood the words that
were declared to them- The intention was that portions be sent to the
surrounding Gentiles (Dt. 16:14). Seeing the Samaritans had been so
bitterly opposed to them, this would have been an act of great grace; if
in fact they obeyed it by sending to the Gentiles too. We wonder which
"words" they understood that they so rejoiced. Perhaps it was the
assurance of the passages in the law of Moses which speak of Israel always
being able to repent and to accept God's grace.
However, we can assume too quickly that the sorrow of the people
was because they realized they had sinned, and their joy was because they
realized they were forgiven. This memoir of Nehemiah is I suggest highly
choreographed by him. It gives the impression all Israel as one man were
present (:1) and all did what he records as being done. There was no
confession of sin nor statement of forgiveness. Their joy wasn't because
of forgiveness. Instead I suggest Nehemiah is saying that they wept
because they didn't understand (:9) and rejoiced when they did. Painting
this picture gives power to the Levites and religious leaders. They are
presented as vital for the people to have understanding of God, and the
source of their joy. And understanding is elevated as supreme. What should
they have done? Taught them the new covenant, so they need not ask each
other for teaching but instead God would write His law on their hearts
through the Spirit.
Nehemiah 8:13 On the second day were gathered together the heads of
fathers’ households of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, to
Ezra the scribe, even to give attention to the words of the law- The
priests were intended to teach the law; and yet realizing their ignorance
even of basic commandments about the feast, they come to Ezra asking him
to read and explain more to them. We can now better understand Malachi's
deep criticism of the priesthood at this time.
Nehemiah 8:14 They found written in the law-
They had not been
instructed about keeping the feast of tabernacles- a tacit reflection of
how little Bible teaching they had received and the utter failure of the
priesthood, and raising the question discussed on :1 as to where Ezra was
all this time. Ezra 3:4 records that they had kept the feast of
tabernacles when Ezra first arrived, but it seems that had been forgotten
about; or at least, the command to dwell in booths had not been taught to
them: "They kept the feast of tents, as it is written, and offered the
daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty
of every day required". So much for Ezra the zealous scribe of God's law.
Nehemiah is right at the end of Old Testament history, and the next we
will read of the scribes, his spiritual descendants, will be in the
Gospels.
The golah Jews were keeping the feast of Tabernacles as if they alone were the true Israel, excluding those they though ethnically impure. But the restored kingdom was intended to feature Gentiles keeping the feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16).
The attention to living in booths was to obey Lev. 23:42 "all that
are homeborn in Israel shall dwell in booths". This was specifically
something to be done by those born in the land. But now we have all the
golah community keeping this, as if to make the point that they (born in
Persia, :17) were now the true, born in the land Israel.
How that Yahweh had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month- Keeping the feast of the seventh month was required in the restored Kingdom: Ez. 45:25: “In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he [the prince] do the like in the feast of the seven days, according to the sin offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the meat offering, and according to the oil”. Zech. 7:5 criticized the Jews for keeping this feast only externally, but not “unto me”. Hag. 2:1 records how on the 21st day of the 7th month- i.e. once the seven day feast that began on the 15th had finished- Haggai was sent to rebuke “the prince”, Zerubbabel, for being so slack in fulfilling Ezekiel’s vision. Even by the time of Neh. 8:14-17, it was so that the feast of the 7th month had not been kept by Judah since the time of Joshua. They subconsciously switched off to Ezekiel’s words; just as we can all do. They reasoned that “the time” of which he spoke hadn’t come- even though the temple had miraculously been enabled to be rebuilt, for no human benefit at all to Cyrus (Isaiah 45:13 “not for price nor reward”). They felt that all the prophecies were “marvellous” in the sense of something incapable of concrete fulfilment in their experience (Zech. 8:6). This is why Hag. 1:2 rebuked them for saying “the time is not come…that the Lord’s house should be built”. They didn’t want the prophecy to be fulfilled, because it would mean ‘going up’ from their ceiled houses- both in Babylon and in the farmsteads they had built in Judah- to build the temple.
Nehemiah 8:15 and that they should publish and proclaim in all their
cities, and in Jerusalem saying, Go out to the mountain, and get olive
branches, and branches of wild olive, and myrtle branches, and palm
branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written-
It was not written in the law that Jerusalem must be where these
things were done! Lev. 23:1,4 tell the Israelites to ‘proclaim the set
feasts of the Lord’. But they insert their interpretation- that the
proclamation should be in "all their cities and in Jerusalem". Likewise
they took myrtle and palm branches "as it is written". But consider
Lev. 23:40: "And you shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly
trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of
the brook". So their "quotation" isn't at all precise, the only common
words between text and interpretation are ‘palm’ and ‘thick trees’ . They
added "wild olive" [cypress / pine trees] as if those were words they were
quoting from the law. They were doing what so many do, confusing God's
word with its interpretation, making the interpretation as inspired as the
original word of God. So many groups do this with the writings of their
founders. This way of thinking led to the Rabbinic commentaries becoming
seen as God's actual word. Again, we turn the page to the New Testament
and see how Ezra and Nehemiah’s examples led to the legalism of first
century Judaism, and the Lord's crucifixion.
The commandment about the feast of tabernacles was that it should be kept on the 15th day of the 7th month (Lev. 23:34). It seems that they were permitted to keep the feast a few days earlier, seeing they were all gathered together and were eager to keep it (see on :11). The trees mentioned were those which were to blossom in the restored Kingdom (Is. 41:19; 55:13). And God has caused them to grow; all the preconditions were set up for the people to repent and reestablish His Kingdom on earth in Judah. But such huge potential was wasted by them.
Nehemiah 8:16 So the people went out, and brought them, and made themselves
booths, each one on the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the
courts of God’s house- Perhaps the idea was that they had 13 days to
prepare. Verse 13 may refer to the 2nd day of the 7th month, and the feast
was to begin on the 15th, according to the law. But I suggested above that
they were permitted to keep the feast immediately.
And in the broad place of the water gate, and in the
broad place of the gate of Ephraim- Ez. 48:31-34 envisaged the 12 gates of Jerusalem being named after the
12 tribes of Israel. But it seems no accident that twelve separate gates
of the city are mentioned in the restoration record- but they weren't
renamed after the tribes of Israel. Here are the names of the city gates
in Nehemiah: valley (Neh. 3:13); horse (Neh. 3:28); east (Neh. 3:29);
Miphkad (Neh. 3:31); water (Neh. 8:16); dung (Neh. 12:31); fountain (Neh.
12:37); Ephraim, old, fish, sheep and prison gates (Neh. 12:39). No wonder
some wept when the rebuilt temple was finally dedicated- the pattern of
Ezekiel's vision hadn't been followed, even on such basic matters as the
names of the twelve gates of Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 8:17 All the assembly of those who had come again out of the
captivity-
So often we read in this chapter of "all the people". But the
idea is here made specific, that "all the people" were all the community
who had returned from exile. And they were being defined as "the children
of Israel". Jer. 31:8 uses the same word for "congregation " in describing
how it would include God's people gathered not only from "the north
country" but from all parts of the earth. But the golah community wanted
to define themselves exclusively as the "congregation ".
The LXX uses
ekklesia for "congregation". Clearly the church of the Lord Jesus
must likewise be perceived as indivisible. Yet denominationalism has
divided it into exclusive congregations, all claiming to be the one true
body and church of the Lord.
Time and again, Jeremiah had prophesied how Yahweh would bring again His people and the vessels of the temple back to the land (Jer. 28:3,4,6; 30:3,18; 31:23); and this all had a fulfilment in the return from captivity under Ezra and Nehemiah. It was then that in some sense Yahweh ‘brought again Zion’ (Is. 52:8). The very same word used by Joel [translated “bring again”] is to be found in the references to Judah’s return at the restoration (Ezra 2:1; 6:21; Neh. 7:6; 8:17). The same word is to be found in Ezekiel 38:8 and 39:27, where again, the invasion is to happen once Judah had been ‘brought again’ from captivity. Judah returned, and yet they didn’t rebuild the temple as they were commanded. Therefore the invasion didn’t come, and therefore the Kingdom wasn’t then established. As if knowing this, Hos. 6:11 had prophesied [otherwise strangely] that Judah would reap their punishment, when they returned from captivity. They returned [s.w. ‘bring again’], but not to the Most High (Hos. 7:16). Joel 3, however, speaks from the perspective that Judah would be ‘brought again’ from Babylon under Ezra; and then Joel 3:2 “I will also gather all nations...and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land”.
Made booths, and lived in the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day the children of Israel had not done so. There was very great gladness- See on Ezra 3:4. They had kept the feast of tabernacles, but not in this way, to this extent. And they had apparently forgotten all about the feast since the time of Ezra 3:4, which presumably they kept in a ritualistic sense, as we can keep the breaking of bread meeting- and then forgot all about it. We see here the paucity of Israel's attention to God's law, and the failure of the priesthood in their intended teaching ministry- which Malachi condemned so strongly at this time.
Nehemiah 8:18 Also day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read
in the book of the law of God. They kept the feast seven days; and on the
eighth day was a solemn assembly, according to the ordinance- Hos. 12:9
had prophesied that keeping this feast was to be a feature of the restored
Kingdom when the exiles returned. Their ignorance of it therefore reflects
how the restoration prophets had just not been taken seriously. It's
hard to be sure, but we could logically assume that that event was at the
same time as the events of Neh. 5, when Nehemiah urged them to release
their wrongly enslaved brethren and stop demanding usury from them. Such a
public reading of the law was surely to fulfil the command of
Dt.
31:10-12, to do so every seventh jubilee year- when there should anyway
have been a release: "At the end of every seven years, in the set time of
the year of release, in the feast of tents, when all Israel has come to
appear before Yahweh your God in the place which He shall choose, you
shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the
people, men, women and the little ones and your foreigner who is within
your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear Yahweh your
God". We note that the reading of the law was to be for the foreigner as
well, in the hope he would also come into covenant relationship with
"Yahweh your God". And so the release of debts should have been clear to
Israel anyway. Tragically, the people heard the law- and were conned into
thinking that they had to therefore separate from Gentiles.
The emphasis upon reading and accepting the law of Moses may appear commendable. But the prophets had made it clear that the old covenant had been broken, and the returned exiles were offered a new covenant. Likewise the words of the prophets, especially Isaiah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, were given by God to guide the exiles and lead them to repentance. But these weren't read. It's the omission of reading these prophets which is significant. The law of Moses was presented as the defining document between God and the exiles, now redefining themselves as the one true Israel. His criticisms of them and appeals for their repentance were quietly ignored. And Ezra and Nehemiah surely bear responsibility for this. They were limiting God's word to His people as being simply the law of Moses- not the prophets. Hence we keep reading “the book, the law of God” (Neh. 8:8,18; 9:3 “the book of the law of Yahweh their God”). The words of the prophets, so critical of them, were ignored. They 'sold' relationship with God as simply trying to keep the law of Moses- and that law as interpreted to them by the scribes / priestly class, including the extra laws they proclaim in order to obey the Divine law. Which resulted in the situation in the first century, leading to the crucifixion of their own Messiah and their ignoring all the prophecies about Him. The synagogue readings were of the Law, with some smaller sections from the prophets read afterwards only as illustration of the Mosaic law. But the emphasis was upon the Mosaic Law. This began here in Nehemiah. All God's other words to them, especially the offer of the new covenant, were ignored. So we have here the huge significance of what is omitted... which was the prophets. The pulpit built for Ezra to read the law from is significant in this- the law of Moses was being elevated above the people. And we see this sort of thing happening all the time, in essence. Parts of the Bible are elevated and interpreted to God's people, whilst ignoring so much else.
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