The people gathered to hear Ezra read from the book of the Law of Moses. He read from early morning until midday so that all could understand. The next day, religious and political leaders studied with Ezra to understand the words of the law. They discovered God's commandment to live in booths during the Festival of the Seventh Month. The people then built booths on their rooftops, courtyards, and in public squares. They rejoiced greatly at fully obeying God's law. Ezra continued reading from the law each day for a week until the eighth day.

1. Nehemiah 8:1-3, 13-18
God’s Word for Week of August 4

2. Call to Worship (Psalm 107, Luke
12)
O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good.
God’s love and warm embrace last forever.
When we cry out in distress, the Lord hears our call.
Praise the Lord who delivers us from sin and death.
Christ calls us to clothe ourselves in righteousness.
Worship the One who wraps us with justice and helps us grow in the
image of our Creator.
Love well, for your heart is where your treasure is.
May our hearts be filled with God’s blessings, divine provisions that
meet our true needs.

3. Invocation
Loving and forgiving God, be present with us now, as we offer
praise and thanksgiving for the abundance we have received
though your grace.
You have gathered us in to be your people.
Like a loving parent, you have sustained our needs— sharing
your love with us, satisfying our thirst, and filling our hunger
with good things.
Help us, Lord, to heed your call, that we might find
deliverance through Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. AMEN

4. Context
The study reviews how God's people responded after learning
about the Feast of Booths. The study's aim is to see how God
worked in the hearts of His people to prepare them for His
new blessings.
The study's application is to realize that God works in similar
ways to bring the blessing of revival to individuals and
communities of faith today.

5. Context
Nehemiah went to Jerusalem in 444 BC. Ezra had been there
13 years at the time of today’s text. Ezra served as a priest,
however, while Nehemiah came as the civil governor to
rebuild the wall and restore Jerusalem as a fortified city.
The opening chapters of the book that bears his name tell
how he came to be sent there, and how he proceeded to
rebuild the wall. Despite fierce opposition, Nehemiah led the
people through this challenging time.

6. Context
In our text, Nehemiah encouraged the people to consider the
day sacred and to eat, give to others in need, and rejoice in
the Lord, their source of strength.
The Festival of Tabernacles was one of three annual feasts
that the ancient Israelites were to celebrate before the Lord
(Exodus 23:14-17; also Deuteronomy 16:16). This festival has
different names, and it’s easy to get confused.

7. Context
At first it was called the “Festival of Ingathering.”
Occurring in late September and early October, the name
points to the final harvest of the season (Exodus 23:16b;
34:22b). Harvest was a cause for celebration, especially if the
harvest was abundant.

8. Context
The designation “Festival of Tabernacles” came later (Leviticus
23:34; Deuteronomy 16:13-16; 31:10; John 7:2). The
“tabernacles” in view are also called “temporary shelters” (or
“booths”); we may think of these as huts or lean-tos.
For seven days, the people were to dwell in these makeshift
structures in a time of rejoicing (Leviticus 23:40;
Deuteronomy 16:14, 15) as the Israelites remembered God’s
provisions during the wilderness wanderings of the exodus.

9. Context
Living in tents was the normal lifestyle of the Israelites during
the wilderness wanderings. Thus the Festival of Tabernacles
recreated that lifestyle for succeeding generations that had
not experienced it.
But some of Nehemiah’s audience in today’s text had
themselves experienced something like that lifestyle during
their four-month trek from Babylon to Palestine—what some
have called “a second exodus.”

10. Context
The events of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah occur during
what is called the Persian period. This period dates from the
rise of Cyrus in 539 BC to the overthrow of the Persian Empire
by Alexander the Great of Greece in the 330s BC.
The Bible records three distinct returns from Babylonian exile
during this period. We date the return of the first group—the
one under Zerubbabel and Joshua (or Jeshua)—to 538 BC.

11. Context
The second return, under Ezra, is dated to 458 BC, some 80
years.
Our final four studies of the Rebuilding take us to the time of
the third return, the one of 445 BC. Nehemiah led this return.
The Bible does not mention anyone other than Nehemiah
himself in this group but others undoubtedly came with him.

12. Context
When the altar was completed in 536 B.C. the people then
celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles (Ezra 3:4) but here the joy
and involvement was much greater.
Ezra read the Law during the Feast of Tabernacles because
Moses had indicated that this was to be done every seven
years (Deut. 31:10-13).

13. Nehemiah 8:1
All the people gathered together into the square before the
Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the
Law of Moses, which the LORD had given to Israel.

14. Nehemiah 8:1
Ezra, who had set his heart to study, to obey, and to teach the
Law of Moses, fulfilled his heart’s desire in a magnificent way
when he had the opportunity to read and explained the law
of God to everyone in Jerusalem at a gathering of all the
people.
The Bible in this passage and other passages affirms that the
Lord was the One who had given the law to Israel and not
Moses by himself.

15. Nehemiah 8:2
Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the
assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with
understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh
month.

16. Nehemiah 8:2
Ezra read and interpreted the law of God based on decades of
his study and obedience to the law of God.
The Holy Spirit used Ezra’s years of faithfulness and obedient
study to help and inspire him to teach men, women, and
children with the ability to reason, understand, and learn how
to apply the law of God in their family, community life, and
spiritual life

17. Nehemiah 8:3
He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from
early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and
the women and those who could understand; and the ears of
all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

18. Nehemiah 8:3
The Bible emphasizes the importance of our human, God-
given reason. God has said, “Let us reason together.” A biblical
faith involves understanding truths that can be taught and
obeyed in this life.
The Bible does not encourage a blind faith; nor does the Bible
teach that people should “just believe.” One reason God gave
us the Bible was to help us learn how to reason and
understand God, our world, reality, other people, and
ourselves in ways that will bless and make truly happy God,
others, and ourselves.

19. Nehemiah 8:13
On the second day the heads of ancestral houses of all the
people, with the priests and the Levites, came together to the
scribe Ezra in order to study the words of the law.

20. Nehemiah 8:13
Everyone, from the highest political and religious leaders to
men, women, and children of the general population were
expected to study, understand, and obey the law of God.
The law of God was given by God for people to obey, and as
with any true law there are consequences that follow from
obedience and there are consequences that follow from
disobedience.

21. Nehemiah 8:14
And they found it written in the law, which the LORD had
commanded by Moses, that the people of Israel should live in
booths during the festival of the seventh month

22. Nehemiah 8:14
It seems that even though this festival may have been
celebrated in the past that the part about living in booths had
been forgotten.
In the Law of Moses, the Lord commanded the people to live
in booths to remind them of their historical heritage. After
God had freed them from slavery in Egypt, they had sinned
and rebelled against God; therefore, God punished them and
they wandered in the wilderness until the rebellious
generation had died. During their wilderness wandering they
had lived in booths made from the branches of nearby trees.

23. Nehemiah 8:15
and that they should publish and proclaim in all their towns
and in Jerusalem as follows, "Go out to the hills and bring
branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy
trees to make booths, as it is written."

24. Nehemiah 8:15
The people who heard the law read and interpreted by Ezra
began to obey the law of God as soon as they understood
what the law meant; furthermore, their obedience helped
them come to understand the law better and better. Then,
throughout all Judah and in all of the towns around
Jerusalem, they began to teach others the law of God and
encouraged them to obey God very specifically.
They learned to obey God as the law had been written rather
than try to find ways to “legally” avoid obeying God’s law—as
the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ day tried to do with some
of their rules and regulations.

25. Nehemiah 8:16
So the people went out and brought them, and made booths
for themselves, each on the roofs of their houses, and in their
courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the
square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of
Ephraim.

26. Nehemiah 8:16
The people did what the law of God taught as Ezra
interpreted the law and commanded people to obey the law
of God. They did not all go to Jerusalem, but wherever they
lived they obeyed God and did what a true celebration
required of them.
Their flat roofs could hold booths and those with different
housing built their booths in the public square. Those visiting
in Jerusalem built booths even in the temple courts.

27. Nehemiah 8:17
And all the assembly of those who had returned from the
captivity made booths and lived in them; for from the days of
Jeshua son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not
done so. And there was very great rejoicing.

28. Nehemiah 8:17
Even though they had previously celebrated the feast, they
had not fully obeyed God by building booths. God wants
complete obedience, not partial obedience.
They experienced great joy when they fully obeyed God to
the fullest of their understanding. They had been taught the
law of God, had understood the law of God, had obeyed the
law of God, had taught others to obey the law of God, and
consequently they rejoiced greatly in their hearts and with
others around them.

29. Nehemiah 8:18
And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read
from the book of the law of God. They kept the festival seven
days; and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly,
according to the ordinance.

30. Nehemiah 8:18
The people met day by day to learn more of the “book of the
law of God,” and the time of Ezra marks the true beginning of
God’s people becoming “the people of the book” or “the
people of the Bible.”
By the time of Jesus, the correct interpretation of the Hebrew
Scriptures had become of vital importance and Jesus gave the
correct interpretation of the Scriptures – much as Ezra had
done almost 500 years earlier – for Jesus’ teaching led the
people to true obedience to God.
As with Ezra, the people knew that Jesus both obeyed and
taught the Law of God. Jesus was not a hypocrite, and He
taught with the authority of one who obeyed God.

31. Conclusion
The people wept when they heard and understood God’s
Word (8:9), because they realized how much they had sinned
against God.
But the fact is, the more the light of God’s holy Word shines
into our hearts, the more we will see areas where we do not
conform to His righteousness.
Spiritual renewal always involves repentance.

32. Conclusion
Ezra and Nehemiah reminded the people to send portions
from the part of the sacrifices that they could eat to those
who had nothing (8:10).
God’s Word should produce compassion in our hearts for the
needy.
His salvation is “to purify for Himself a people for His own
possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:14).

33. Conclusion
As the people camped in the temporary shelters, they
reflected back on God’s faithful dealings with the nation, in
spite of their sins. And so they were filled with gratitude and
love toward God for His gracious dealings with them.
The reading, study, and preaching of God’s Word should
produce in all of us a heart of worship as we reflect on His
abundant mercies toward us.

34. Lessons
People of all classes and ranks should give careful attention to
God's Word (Neh. 8:13)
Only God can reveal truth; man can only discover and
disseminate it (Neh. 8:14; Deut. 29:29)
If the Word is not proclaimed, it cannot be received and
obeyed (Neh. 8:15; Rom. 10:17)

35. Lessons
The best evidence that we believe God's Word is our full
obedience to it (Neh. 8:16)
Obeying God always brings joy— if not now, then later (Neh.
8:17;Luke 6:20-23; Rev. 19:7)
Daily encounters with God's Word can both guide and guard
us (Neh.8:18)

36. Benediction (Colossians 3;
Matthew 12)
Gracious God, in our wanderings and selfish desires: we have
forsaken fellowship with our families, our friends, and our
neighbors; we have neglected our communion with you,
choosing worldly pleasures and desires over truth, justice,
and righteousness.
In a world of plenty, we have hoarded our earthly blessings,
rather than storing up our heavenly treasures.
Free us from such bondage, that we may truly reveal the
presence of Christ in our lives. Amen.

37. Blessing (Colossians 3)
If we have been raised with Christ Jesus, let us set our minds
on heavenly things, not on the things that are on earth.
The old self is gone.
Let us revel in the Spirit that strips away the trappings of
death, and dresses us in garments that are new.
As new creations in God, we are separated and divided no
longer.
Christ is all and in all!