Yesterday we saw that as the Israelites got to know God’s Word better, they felt his presence more. They learned about the things that were important to him, like the festivals he asked them to observe. They started with Rosh Hashanna. Then, in today’s reading they re-discovered the Festival of Tabernacles and the Day of Atonement.

Sukkot, the Festival of Tabernacles

There were three times each year that the men of Israel were to appear before God in Jerusalem: Passover in the spring, the Feast of Tabernacles after the late summer harvest, and the Day of Atonement in the middle of autumn. As the Israelites gathered around Ezra to study the Law in Jerusalem they read about these important festivals and realized that the Feast of Tabernacles was just around the corner.

God commanded this festival as a yearly reminder to the Israelites about the long sojourn their people had in the wilderness after they left Egypt. During those forty years they lived in tents and sometimes had to pack up and move from place to place. Through it all, the Lord provided everything they needed.

When the returned exiles learned about the Festival of Tabernacles, they went out into the countryside and cut branches from different kinds of trees to make temporary shelters to live in for a week. Those who had homes in Jerusalem built their Sukkahs, or shelters on their roofs and in their courtyards. Out of town visitors built shelters in the courtyards of the temple or in the squares near the city gates. They all pitched in and had such a great celebration that nothing like it had been seen since the days of Joshua.

“Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.” Nehemiah 8:18

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

Very soon after they completed the week of the Festival of Tabernacles, it was time for the Day of Atonement. The people gathered again, but this time they dressed in sackcloth and put dust on their heads. They stood together confessing their sins and the sins of their ancestors.

The Levites read from the Book of the Law for a quarter of the day and the second quarter they devoted to confessing sin and worshiping God. When that was done the Levites shouted to the people to “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.” Nehemiah 9:5

The weeks of reading and discussing the Book of God’s Law suddenly bore great fruit in the peoples’ praises. With the Levites leading them, they prayed a long corporate prayer that recounted their history from Abraham to the present times.

In the prayer they not only recited the greatness of God, but also their own failings as a people. There were so many times that God would have been justified to destroy them completely for their rebellion, but he didn’t.

“In your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.” Nehemiah 9:31

The prayer ended with the observation that while the Israelites were back in the land God promised to them, they no longer owned it. They were the subjects of the Persian Empire and had to pay tribute to it.

“They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.” Nehemiah 9:37

But Persia couldn’t control whom the Israelites worshiped so they decided to renew their commitment to God.

A New Covenant

Now that they were so familiar with the Word and what God asked of them again, the Israelites decided to make a new covenant with him. Reading the Law had revealed some areas of national sin and they vowed to change their ways.

They began with deciding not to intermarry with other nations anymore. A girl always became part of the family of her groom, so the Israelites vowed not to give their daughters to foreigners, and not to bring home foreign daughters as wives for their sons. This immediately set up a defense against pagan practices and foreign gods cropping up among them.

The next parts of their new covenant had to do with worship and supporting the temple. They promised to keep the Sabbath each week and to give the land a Sabbath rest every seven years. They would also follow the Law and forgive debts in the seventh year.

They reinstated the temple tax and tithes to support the Levites and priests. Besides that they pledged to bring wood for the altar and the first fruits of their crops, grain fields, and orchards so the priests would always have food.

The firstborn sons in their families would be presented to the Lord, along with the first born of their cattle, flocks and herds..

Consciences Sharpened by the Word

The Israelites’ new ways of thinking came directly from exposure to God’s Word. The Lord sent Ezra and Nehemiah at exactly the right time to catch his peoples’ attention. And Ezra was prepared to read the Book of the Law as many times as it took to help the people know what it said.

The Levites who met with individual people to answer their question and explain the Law to them. This was a great model of how to disciple an entire congregation, and the end result was a whole nation that was in love with God again and eager to please him.

The up and down story of Israel in the Old Testament finally had its happy ending. The people were still going to slip up from time to time, but for now they were at peace with God and once again living in the Promised Land.

And now they could sincerely say to the Lord, “We will not neglect the house of our God.” Nehemiah 10:39