NEHEMIAH 8: 1-8
ARTAXERXES
Here’s how we pronounce it: “our tax irks ease.”
Artaxerxes was a goodish kind of king. Remember, he is Esther’s stepson, which means that as queen she continued to be a major influence in his life and on Persian policies concerning the people of Israel. It shows. Through Esther’s influence, the Persian people continued to honor the God of Israel, even referring to him as the “God of Heaven.” Notice the expanded view here: the former habit of believing that each country, city, or village had its own god, we now have the God of Heaven, who is the one God over and above all. Here we have the start of monotheism in Persia, which will become the permanent standard.
MATH PROBLEMS
As an eighth-grader, I never disliked algebra—in fact, I kind of enjoyed it. I liked thinking of the problems as a kind of game or puzzle to be solved and as long as I obeyed the rules taught by the teacher, I could ace every test. That’s the think about math and numbers: there’s no room for opinion; they just work a certain way whether you like it or not.
Mr. Stribley was a great teacher as well. Thick glasses, bushy moustache, short-sleeve shirt with a wide, 70s necktie—he looked about as you’d expect a jr. high math teacher to look. He would spend the class standing at an overhead projector working problems on transparencies with a grease pencil. Organized, clear, mechanical—he was the best algebra teacher I ever had.
We had weekly quizzes every Friday, and I was always on top of the ball. Monday mornings we’d get our quizzes returned and I was used to seeing 100% in red at the top, but one Monday morning my quiz was handed back to me and I had failed: 20%! I went into an adolescent conniption. Honestly, I felt that I had totally aced the test! I had worked through every problem thoughtfully and conscientiously. As it turned out, I had made no errors in sums or factors, but as Mr. Stribley reviewed the problems, it seems I had made a processing flaw—wrongly multiplying around the parentheses—and so 8 out of 10 of my answers were wrong. Still, I couldn’t quite admit defeat.
I had worked hard in the class and worked diligently, logically, on the problems in question. It felt so unjust that I should have failed the quiz. Ispoke up with the unmitigated audacity to declare: “I think my answers should be right anyway!” Mr. Stribley looked at me with a blank gaze and then chortled with amusement. “Sorry, Noel, you’re just wrong!”
Eventually I admitted the problem. That’s the thing about algebra—and all math—if you make a mistake in the equation, you have to go all the way back to the point of the error and then rework your way forward. There’s no shortcutting things, and it makes no difference whether or not you “feel” you’re right. The algebraic equations have one answer and one only, and though I wished that my answers could have been graded as correct anyway, that’s just not reality. Wanting math to work differently doesn’t make it work differently.
Question: What if I had been unwilling to submit to my teacher’s correction? What if I had dug in my heels and insisted that my processes, while different from the textbook’s, were nonetheless correct and worthy of full credit? What if I dragged my parents in and (imagining they were rich) threatened the school system with legal suits for suppressing me and my creativity? It seems to me a truly healthy school would absolutely side with Mr. Stribley against me. Should the whole discipline of algebra be sacrificed in order to appease my wounded vanity? No.
GETTING IT RIGHT
Mr. Stribley is like all the prophets. They were the standard-bearers, for they bore the Word of God to the people. They brought truth with a capital T, and they were often hated for it. Why? Well, the people, who had intermarried with pagans, felt like their answers should be counted as true even though they were idolatrous.
With Ezra and Nehemiah, we have a kind of restoration. The temple is rebuilt (albeit short of its former glory) and though the people have lined their homes with cedar, the defensive wall around the temple still looks like mouthful of broken teeth. Under Nehemiah’s encouragement and Ezra’s call to righteousness, the people prayerfully apply themselves and we do see Jerusalem reestablished.
Notice: we won’t hear again about Israel’s issues with idolatry. These re-settlers really do get their act together. With idolatry off the table, Judaism settles down into a new normal, which consists of several elements designed to protect and defend their faith:
Defending the Faith
- 1.Establishing the temple sacrifices
- 2.Prayer and praise to The Lord only
- 3.Reading the Torah
- 4.Observing the festivals
(Pesach, Pentecost, Succoth, Yom Kippur)
- 5.Avoiding intermarriage
- 6.Awaiting God’s Messiah
With the restoration came a new way of worship that went along with the temple sacrifices. This new way of worship would shape the synagogue forever, as well as Christian worship in the New Testament.
A WAY TO WORSHIP
1. The people GATHERED
They gather, but it’s never about themselves nor their own ideas. They are gathered (passive tense) by The Lord because he is the one who gathered them out of slavery in Egypt as well as gathering them out of exile in Jerusalem.
When we gather in worship today, we too remember that we do not gather as an idea of our own; rather, we are gathered by the Holy Spirit and drawn together to worship The Lord. This is why I won’t used what are called “Prayers of Invocation,” because it can suggest calling upon God in order to make him become present. This is what pagan worship looks like. They seek to “round up” God by their sincerity or intensity. Remember the prophets of Ba’al on Mount Carmel who went into conniptions and cut themselves, thinking the sight of their own blood might convince Ba’al to show up. That’s pagan. Some brother and sister charismatics fall to this error—albeit unknowingly—calling upon God to “come down.” If they have a sufficiently gratifying personal experience during the event, they’ll say, “Oh yeah—God showed up!”
The problem with this is that it reduces God to the kind of presence that must be coaxed and lured into making an appearance. It is incantation, and we don’t do that. When we gather, we acknowledge that God is always here, ever present, and everywhere. We don’t ask God to be present, for his promise to us is that he is present already. Rather, we call our collective attention to the fact of his presence. We awaken to him, not he to us!
2. Scripture is brought out
The Law—Torah—is brought out before the people. It is not a secret document for the religious elite, but God’s word to the whole people. This is the same spirit that moved the Protestant Reformation, for the Scriptures were now freed from their sole control by the priestly class and translated into common languages. The printing press meant again that the Scriptures were for the people, not the elites, and now we all have the Scriptures—probably several translations—in each of our homes.
3. Men and women together
This one surprised me. I had forgotten about it. This was unusual and quite progressive in the ancient world—that men and women should worship together. It continues today, and though there are still many denominations who disallow women from being ordained, you’d be hard-pressed to find Christians anywhere who would divide men and women for worship.
4. Kids sent to Children’s church
Their worship wasn’t to be just a day in the park—a carnival or free-for-all social affair—it was worship and it was rigorous. Imagine listening to someone reading from Leviticus for four hours. This was a high calling. If they made it clear that “only those who are capable of understanding are allowed to attend,” who would want to be left out? It was a challenge to come, to listen, and to understand what may have been hard to understand.
That high bar is set before us today. Theology used to be called “the king of sciences” or fields of study. We shouldn’t expect our experience in church to be simply easy and coddling, but also challenging and rigorous as well.
5. High wooden platform
Before the days of headset mikes and sound amplification systems, public speakers had to be pretty loud, pretty articulate, and needed a good line between their mouths and the hearers ears. Hence the platform. The pulpit in churches has only one purpose: acoustics. The term comes from the front bowsprit of boats. The pulpit was a place to extend and drop the anchor and/or tie off the mainsail. The symbolic value of a pulpit suggests the Word of God being our anchor, as well as remembering that Jesus—at least once—preached to the people from a boat.
6. People stood to hear the reading
The people stood before the Word of God on their own two feet. This is continued in the church with standing for the reading of the Gospel. It is a sign of respect and reverence, as opposed to slouching back in an easy chair with your legs crossed and sipping a latté.
7. Praise of God
This is the ideal antidote to idolatry in every age. When we are done hearing and learning Scripture, when we are done serving God’s mission on Earth, the praise of God will remain. Brothers and sisters, of all worship items, the praise of God is the most indispensable. When we’ve been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.
There is no such thing as too much praising of God.
8. Raised hands: “Amen, Amen!”
Remember the “Amen” song? It’s an earworm for sure. The Boomer version is the Beatles’ “Let it Be,” which means the same thing. When we pray “amen,” we are saying, “Lord, let it be!” As for the double amen, Jesus uses it often. When Jesus says, “amen, amen,” it is translated into English as “truly.” Every time you hear Jesus begin a saying with “Truly,” or “Truly I tell you,” it is “amen, amen” in the original language. Let it be, let it be!
9. People lay Prostrate
During a scripture reading in Dallas, Texas, twice I heard the beloved elder of our church pronounce it “prostate.” “And the people fell prostate before the Lord…” Once was dismissible; twice was too much. I, and a few others, were seized by church giggles.
Laying prostrate: Muslims pray this way, and it shows utter respect and reverence. Catholics kneel in church. We so-called Mainline Protestants have pretty much given up on bodily expressions altogether, which is a shame.
All research proves that we hear better and comprehend better when our bodies are at work. Presbyterian scholar Marva Dawn believes we should put the kneelers back in, return to crossing ourselves, raise our hands in praise, and learn how to deaf-sign all of our songs. Doing so would help us internalize the Word.
That may not be our style, but it is time we reawaken our awareness that what we do with our bodies can and does affect our psychology, our attitudes, and yes, our souls.
You wanna raise your hands during praise? By all means do so!
10. Reading, interpreting, understanding.
Nehemiah’s Session, gathered on the platform with him, were not there just for symbolic value. The text says they helped the people in reading, interpreting, and understanding of Scripture. This continues today. We need our small groups, lifegroups, home groups, and Bible studies to help us digest and embody the will of God as we discover it in Scripture.
The hearing of the Word remains central to how people come to salvation in Christ. Hearing, interpreting, and understanding—are why the sermon stands at the center of our worship. We too are like the people gathered in Nehemiah’s time. We gather together to hear God’s Word and prepare for the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. That work is expressed through a variety of gifts—some for outreach, some for nurture, some for care—but all for the growth of the Body of Christ. Let’s be clear: the work belongs to the Holy Spirit, and our role is make ourselves supple, pliable, malleable in his hands, for that is the path to obedience.
OUR PATH TODAY
The Christian life and call is one of growing into Christlikeness. That means humility is superior to pride—we serve rather than conquer. It also means that doing God’s will in God’s way and time is superior to the sound and fury of our own ambitions.
Be clear: this doesn’t mean that we sit back and wait for something to happen; it means that we pursue the mission of the Church with diligence, but we do so never forgetting that we are flawed and often blind in sin. We seek what we see in Christ: a humble obedience. We are to become less that he become more, and we pray every day, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,” and leave our outcomes in his hands. That is faithfulness; that is the faith. May God always and ever be drawing us into alignment with his will as we go on our way praying and praising him! †