I am sure all of us are aware of the fact that the book of Nehemiah more or less divides itself into two parts. In the first seven chapters of the book the main con­cern is the rebuilding of the wall of the city of Jerusalem that had been broken down during the days of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon. In the next set of chap­ters beginning with 8:1, the main theme is the work of reformation and all the various areas of reformation that were to take place within that city at that time. That work of rebuilding the wall of the city was met with a great deal of opposition on the part of the enemies of the children of Israel, but in the goodness and by the grace and mercy of the Lord the people had a heart to work and the work came to be completed in due course. The walls were built, the gates were hung upon their hinges once more and all the necessary personnel were appointed for the good governing of the city. The work was finished and the people would come to rejoice to the praise of the Lord.

Be that as it may, however, Nehemiah's calling under the Lord wasn't simply the rebuilding of the walls of the city of Jerusalem: it was the reforming of the people who were going to live within those walls. In chapter 8, then, the whole business of refor­mation begins to dominate. Now, you would have to say that the work of reformation had already begun to one degree or another. That fact is very apparent as you begin to look at the people in Jerusalem as they viewed the Word of God in their midst. At the end of the day any true work of reformation is going to be marked by how the people of God view the Word of God amongst them. In chapter 8 you have an out­standing example of that fact. The spirit of reformation was already abroad, and is very evident as you begin to look at the events that now begin to unfold themselves in this part of the book.

So taking up the first eight verses of the chapter to begin with, let me just give you some of the features that marked out that time in Israel, features that must always be present when it comes to determining any true work of reformation amongst the people of God. For the sake of convenience, I'll give you four words that we can pin on our hearts and on our minds. The words are appetite, attitude, attention and action.

Appetite for the Word of God⤒🔗

First of all then, we have what you might call the people's appetite — their appetite for the Word of the Lord in those Old Testament days. The first verse of the chapter reads:

And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.

They gathered themselves together as 'one man', and as they gathered themselves together as one man it was with one desire in their hearts and minds: that Ezra the servant of the Lord would 'bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel'. Of course, it was not simply that he would bring the book, but that he would read out of the book, preach out of the book and show them the things that God would have them to know out of the book of the Word of the Lord. They wanted to know what the Lord their God had to say to them; and of course they weren't disappointed in any way whatsoever. Verse 8 of the chapter says:

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

They came with this desire, with this appetite for the Word of the Living God; they came with one heart and with one mind to the place called the water gate. Now there is no end of application out of those events in the City of Jerusalem at that time. You see from this point onwards that the children of Israel are going to be known as the people of the Book. From this time onwards the Book, the Word of God, was meant to be central in their lives. It was in their adherence to the Word of God that they would show themselves to be Israelites indeed.

That characteristic mark is something that passes over into the New Testament Scriptures of the Word of God to every true redeemed child of the Living God. You remember the Saviour's own words, 'if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed' (John 8:31). There is nothing that marks out a man or a woman or a young person as being a child of the Living God more than a readiness and a desire to know what the Word of God says, in order to do what the Word of God says to the praise of the Lord's Name. These words in the first epistle to Peter, chapter 2 verses 1-3, are well known, I'm sure,

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Now there is more to that perhaps than meets the eye. Peter isn't simply saying that new Christians are to desire the sincere milk of the Word of God, the 'milky things', as it were, of the Word of God; he is saying that all Christians are to have an appetite for the Word of the Living God all the days of their lives. There is a process in the Epistle to the Hebrews in which the writer speaks about laying aside milky things and progressing onto strong meat; but that is not what Peter is speaking about when he speaks about the sincere 'milk of the word'. What he is speaking about is the milk of the 'mother' — the Word — that gave us spiritual birth in the first place. That is the point; as he says in the previous chapter, we are 'being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever' (chapter 1 verse 23).

If we have spiritual life this day, we were given spiritual birth by the Word of God. This is by the Spirit of God, of course, but you can't separate the Word of God from the Spirit of God. What the Apostle is saying is this: that the Word of God is your mother in the faith. And as a child, a newborn babe, desires the milk of its mother's breast, so every born-again believer in Christ does exactly the same thing. That hunger is to characterise us every day that we live. How do you know a living baby? It cries for its mother's milk. How do you know a living soul? It does exactly the same thing.

These old Israelites had that desire, that appetite for the Word, the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded to Israel. It's an ill omen for the new Israel — the Church of the Living God — if we don't have the same kind of appetite for the Word of God that the old Israelites were showing in Nehemiah 8. So it is this appetite that is to be sought when we begin to determine what is, or what is not, a work of reformation — or revival or refreshing, or whatever you might want to call it.

It is not only in Nehemiah 8 that you have this selfsame kind of thing; you have it throughout the Word of God, in the Old Testament and New Testament alike. It is always a good practice to see parallel, equivalent passages in the two Testaments. We have a great need in our day for people to grasp the totality of the Word of God from beginning to end.

Let me give you one New Testament passage that 'echoes' these events of Nehemiah chapter 8. It is in Acts 10, when Peter had been sent for by the Roman centurion Cornelius, to come and preach the gospel to those that would gather in his home — what was the beginning of the work of the gospel among the Gentiles in a very real way. After a bit of rebuke and a bit of persuasion from God, Peter finally got up and went to the house of Cornelius. When he got there, all the household and others had gathered together, and Cornelius related how he came to send for Peter in the first place. Then he said this: 'Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God' (verse 33). What an invitation! Many a pas­tor or preacher would envy that kind of congregation when they come into the pulpit on a Lord's Day morning or evening.

In this passage in Acts, the people were waiting to hear the Word. 'Speak on Peter': that is what they were saying. We are here to hear what God has to say to us through you. Peter does that very thing and he 'speaks on': he speaks the Word of God to those hungry hearts that had gathered in Cornelius's home. You see the scenes and the truth behind the scenes. In the Old Testament and New Testament alike, they are scenes of desire, of appetite: desire for the sincere milk of the Word that we might grow there­by, desire for the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded Israel. The people want to know how they might order their lives to the glory of God out of the Word of the Living God.

That's what we see in those glimmerings of reformation in Israel in those old days. It is something that must characterise any true work of reformation: personally in our own souls, corporately in the churches of Christ. You know the words of David I'm sure well enough; 'More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold' (Psalm 19:10). These people come with an appetite for the Word of the Living God. Note that as one of the things that marked out that day in the city of Jerusalem: there was an appetite for the Word of God.

Then there are two other things that we are told about the people who had now rebuilt the wall of the city: their attitude towards the Word that they asked to be pre­sented to them and their attentiveness on that same Word. Both are absolutely essential for all that lies before them.

Attitude towards the Word of God←⤒🔗

With regards to their attitude, not for one minute did those people ever consider that this Word that was going to be read in their presence was anything other than the Word of the Living God indeed. Look again at their request in Nehemiah 8:1,

And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.

It was the book of the law of Moses, but more importantly it was the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded to Israel. The people didn't have any difficulties in their hearts and minds in discerning between human instruments and divine instrumentality. They knew it was Moses that had given them the Law, but also that God had given Moses the Law in the first place. It was God's Word, the Word which the Lord had commanded to Israel.

It was absolutely crucial that they start out with that attitude, and adopt that atti­tude, right at the outset of this work of reformation. As we'll see in a minute, when they begin to delve into that Word they are going to come upon a couple of surprises. They are going to have to be persuaded that it is the Word of the Living God. It's a wee bit like that time when the mother of Zebedee's children made the request before the Saviour that her two sons might sit one on the right hand and the other on the left in His Kingdom (Matthew 20). But Jesus answered, 'Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?' (verse 22).

'Ye know not what ye ask.' There are times when we ask the Lord to open up the Word to us, but we know not what we ask, and we have to be prepared for what the Lord begins to tell us out of that Word. If we entertain any thoughts that it is anything other than the Word of the Living God then we are only going to obey those parts of the Word that serve our purpose or that suit our thoughts. However, if we have the conviction within our hearts and our souls that this is nothing other than the Word of the Lord God of heaven and earth, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, then that will give us the motivation necessary to do whatever it is that the Lord com­mands us to do. This is the Word of God, ifs the Book of the Law of Moses which the Lord had commanded to Israel. The people of Israel were off to a good start with that attitude that they had stored up in their hearts and souls.

We all know that sometimes the precepts of the Word are difficult, but if we are able to follow those precepts they are going to be a blessing. That lovely old hymn says

The Lord is King!
Who then shall dare
Resist His will, distrust His care,
Or murmur at His wise decrees
or doubt his royal promises?¹

Whether they be precepts or promises, if we have settled that this is nothing other than the Word of God, if that is the attitude of our hearts and our souls, then we will enjoy the promises and we will undertake the precepts. It was so essential that this fact be established right at the commencement of this work when God was going to reform that people.

Attentiveness to the Word of God←⤒🔗

Then, of course, it is that attitude — that this is indeed the Word of God — that accounts for their attentiveness, their attention, being paid to the Word. In verses 2 and 3 we read that,

Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.

That doesn't need any enlargement for any of us. The very essence of reformation in a soul is that that soul is attentive to the Word of the Living God. Very simply, the Word comes to be pronounced in their hearing and they incline their ears, or are going to incline their ears to that Word. It is reciprocation. It is always the preaching of the Word of God or the reading of the Word of God on the one hand and the hearing and attentiveness to the Word of God on the other.

You will probably know that there are what you might call two famines men­tioned in the Scriptures. One of them has to do with the preaching of the Word of God and the other one has to do with the hearing of the Word of God. In 1 Samuel, when Samuel was still only a young boy, the state of things in Israel had come to a very low ebb, and it says that 'the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision' (3:1). It doesn't mean that the Word was precious in the sense that it was valuable. It was precious in the sense that it was rare. You hardly ever came across the true preaching of the Word; there was no open vision; there was no open declaration of the Word of the Living God. There was a famine of the preach­ing of the Word.

In the book of Amos we read about the famine of the hearing of the Word of God. 'Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD' (8:11). Sometimes you can have the one, sometimes you can have the other. Sometimes it is the lack of preaching that is uppermost, sometimes it is the lack of true hearing that is uppermost. But in Nehemiah's time in Israel neither was the case: there was both an endeavour to preach the Word of God and a willingness to hear the Word of God. That combination is of the very essence of any true reform­ing work in the people of God.

The word 'attentive' comes in verse 3 of Nehemiah 8, and literally means that their ears were inclined towards the Word. There is a sense in which God's ear is attentive to us.

I waited for the Lord my God,
and patiently did bear;
At length to me he did incline
my voice and cry to hear.²

The implication is absolutely clear: if God directs His ear to hear what we have to say, surely we have to direct our ears to hear what God has to say. We are always under obligation to be attentive to the Word of the Living God.

You know how it is with our children sometimes? You want to speak to them sincerely, you want to give them some good piece of advice or some good directive. But one of the great barriers is not being able to get their ear, not being able to get their attention. Are you listening to me? Are you listening to me? How often does the Lord our God have to say to each and every one of us, 'Are you listening to Me? Are you listening to Me?'

In that ongoing work that had now begun in Jerusalem, one of the features was their attention, their attentiveness. Their ears were towards the Word that they desired to be brought to them.

That great exponent of the human heart, John Bunyan, has got it just right when it comes to the business of the ear. If you have ever read The Holy War, you'll know that the book is about the city of Mansoul. Mansoul was once ruled over by the great King El Shaddai, but then along came the evil prince Diabolus, the devil, and took control of Mansoul. But then there came a point when El Shaddai was going to bring his Mansoul back once again and so he sent Prince Emmanuel, His Son. The first place that Prince Emmanuel began to launch His attack was at one of the gates of the city called Eargate. As that assault began, Diabolus, the devil, had already taken precau­tions with regard to Eargate because, as Bunyan says, it was at that gate that he himself first made an entrance into the city. 'Yea, hath God said...? Ye shall not sure­ly die' (Genesis 3:1, 4).

I heard recently about a preacher over in Northern Ireland who announced that 'tonight I am going to bring you a word from the devil. And the word from the devil is this. Ye shall not surely die'. That is the devil's text, and there right at the beginning, in John Bunyan's words, it was through Eargate that the devil made his entrance into Mansoul. There were precautions; it says the gate was to have double guards, double bolts and double locks and bars. Then comes the masterstroke. The keeper of Eargate was an old gentleman called Mr. Prejudice and he had sixty deaf men who were to do his bidding. That is a good picture of the ear: double guards, double bolts, and dou­ble locks and bars. Old Mr. Prejudice and his sixty deaf men under him were the keepers of the gate.

That is what the ear is like by nature. But again, we can be thankful that at this point in Israel's reformation that was beginning to take place, that wasn't the case. When they gathered themselves together as one man to hear the Word of the Lord, they were attentive unto the Word of the Lord. You see, it all hangs together: their appetite for the Word was healthy, their attitude to the Word was right, and so their attentiveness on the Word was absolutely assured.

Action on the Word of God←⤒🔗

Then comes the action. You have appetite, attitude, attentiveness and then you have action in verses 5 and 6 of the chapter. 'And 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: and Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and wor­shipped the Lord with their faces to the ground'.

Ifs not hard to visualise these scenes. Ezra opens up the Book, stands above the people, blesses the people and the great God. And all the people answer, Amen, Amen. They lifted up their hands, and they bowed their heads, and they worshipped the Lord their God. 'Stand up, and bless the Lord, Ye people of His choice'.³ That's the kind of thing that was happening at that time. They stand up and then they bow down. There is no contradiction in that. You see, we stand up in the presence of the Word of God and we bow down in the presence of the Word of God. It's that which we seek for our blessing and it's that which we submit to, to the praise and honour of the Lord. Ezra blessed all the people and blessed the God of that Word, and they respond­ed with their Amen, Amen.

Somebody has drawn a good contrast between the dedication of the temple in the days of Solomon. There, there were trumpeters and cymbals and glory and beauty, natural and supernatural, to overwhelm the worshippers. Here with Ezra, however, all you had was a man standing on a wooden pulpit with a Book in his hand. But it was the Book of God. That was the whole point. When the Book of God was brought into the midst of the people they reacted in the way that was befitting to having the Book of God in their midst.

The word 'amen' either gives weight to what is being said, or is a response to what has been said. It is as when the Saviour said 'verily, verily': amen, amen, so be it; or when we are responding and saying in our hearts and souls, 'so be it' to all the prom­ises of God in Christ. It's a great word. It is as the Psalmist David by the Holy Spirit of God brings the first part of the Book of Psalms to a conclusion with that lovely 72^nd Psalm, 'And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen' (verse 19). 'So be it!' We also see it when Paul prays in Ephesians 3, 'Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen' (verses 20, 21).

These people standing beside the water gate want to hear the Word of the Lord. They have got an appetite for it, and an attitude towards it, that it is the Word of the Living God. No wonder then that they are attentive to it and act toward it as they ought. When men and women begin to respond like that to the Word of God, you can fairly say there is a work of reformation afoot in that person or people.

'Touching and Glancing' on the Word of God: the First Day←⤒🔗

Now that was only the 'first day'; that was just the beginnings of the first day. You follow on into the chapters and you get the next day, and the day after, and so on right through this part of the Book of Nehemiah. It's a work of reformation that is going on. Let me just give you at least a few glimmerings or a few gleanings (as Isaac Watts would talk about 'touching and glancing', so we just touch and glance on some of the things that now follow on).

That first day concluded with the celebration of one of Israel's great feasts, the feast of trumpets; and in the feast of trumpets you have the real beginnings of Israel's determination to walk in the light of the Word. They did not just desire to hear it, but to walk in the light of it. If you look in verses 9 and 10,

And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

Now there are awfully strong implications in that. The people, in that sense, have been hewn asunder by the Word of the Lord because the Word of the Lord very often does that to us, especially when the Lord is working a work of reforming grace. All the people wept, it says, when they heard the words of the Law. But in step Nehemiah, Ezra and the others and they tell them not to weep but in essence to 'eat and drink and be merry'. Now, why were they told to do that? It was because the Word of God required them to do that. It was the feast of trumpets, and the feast of trumpets was to be marked out by rejoicing in the nation of Israel: they were to be rejoicing and giv­ing thanks to the Lord God of heaven and earth. You see the implications and the ongoing application of that! Those people at that point didn't really feel much like rejoicing. But their feelings had to become subservient to the Word of God. This is the feast of trumpets. It's a holy day. On this holy day you are not to mourn and you are not to weep. You are to rejoice. But I feel like weeping. It doesn't matter. You are to rejoice.

When the Word of God comes, very often in a very striking way it has to overrule our feelings. When the Word of God is able to overrule our feelings, the work of reformation is going on in our souls. 'Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice' (Philippians 4:4). The circumstances might be pretty grim, and you may say 'I can't rejoice in these circumstances'; but you rejoice in the Lord in the midst of the circumstances. We are not asked to rejoice in the circumstances, but to rejoice in the Lord in the midst of them. Dear Mr. Spurgeon in his own usual way, when he comments on those words of the Apostle, says, 'I never yet read a portion of Scripture that says, groan in the Lord always, and again I say groan'.⁴ These people are to do what the Word of God tells them to do; and they do it.

But of course there is a great rationale behind their being called to do that very thing: verse 10, 'Then he said ... Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength'. There's nothing that will help us to press on at difficult times like the joy of the Lord in our hearts. When God commands us to do something, whatever it is, it is ultimately for our spiritual good. So ends the first day. They have only begun. But in the very beginnings, surely there are all the true marks of reforming grace.

'Touching and Glancing' on the Word of God: the Next Days←⤒🔗

Now again just to touch a wee bit more, when we come to the second day and the third day and the fourth day, it's more of the same. In verse 13 we read, 'And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the law'. That's a tremendous word for any believer, but especially for anyone who is engaged in the ministry of the Word of God or the preaching of the Word of God to others. You see, here were these men. They had just spent the whole of that previ­ous day opening up and declaring and reading and preaching the Word of God. So they must know it all. No they don't! And on the second day they are back to the Word of God to understand the Word of God, and not just for themselves, of course. They want to investigate the Word of God for themselves but also for the good of others as well.

The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from His Word. When we think we know it all, we only show how little we really know. There are those things we know, and we must know them unto everlasting life: but to adopt the attitude that 'I don't need to investigate this Word further' —that's spiritual death creeping into the soul.

In the text of the Authorised Version that I'm using, it says 'they were gathered together ... even to understand the words of the law' (verse 13). But there's a reading in the margin. It says, 'to understand … or, that they might instruct in the words of the law'. So in fact if you put the two things together you probably get the fulness of why those leaders had met together on the second day. It was in order to understand the Word of God for themselves in order that they might instruct others in that Word also. It wasn't an academic pursuit. It was study with purpose.

You may know what is said about Ezra in the book of Ezra: 'For Ezra had pre­pared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments' (Ezra 7.10). That was their intention. They were investigating the Word so that they might instruct others in the Word so that together they might implement the Word. This is proof perfect that it was a reforming spirit that was abroad at that time.

When they begin to investigate the Word, they are in for a great surprise. The great surprise is this: they were to celebrate the feast of tabernacles or the feast of booths by dwelling in booths; for years and years they had been observing the feast of booths but without any booths. An amazing thing: nobody had ever stopped and said, 'why do we call this the feast of booths? Why do we call it the feast of tabernacles?' For years, since the days of Joshua (as it says in verse 17), they hadn't built any booths at the feast of booths. The feast was to remember how their fathers had wandered in the wilderness for all of those years and had never built houses, but had lived in booths. Every year at the feast of tabernacles, they were to go and break down branches and bring them, and build tabernacles or booths of the branches to remember how their fathers had wandered in the wilderness and how God had sustained them and brought them into the land of Canaan. But here was the feast of booths and they hadn't built any booths. If you want an equivalent for us today, if you want to transfer it into Christianity, it's like having the breaking of bread without any bread!

But to their credit, once they began to see that they were lacking in that part of the Word of God, they began to put it right. That's reformation. And let me say, my dear friends, that's a word that each and every one of us needs to understand with regards to true reformation. Reformation isn't simply something that is historical or historic. It's something that's biblical from beginning to end. Where anything clashes with the Word of God and we are shown where we miss the mark with regards to the Word of God, we'd better put it right if we want to enjoy a time of reformation in our souls.

Conclusion to this Study of the Word of God←⤒🔗

So they come with an appetite, they come with an attitude, they are attentive, they act aright, they investigate, they implement: that's reform. As we look around us with regards to so many things, and with regards to so many claims in our day, especially with regards to the work of reformation or refreshing or revival or whatever you might call it, we simply assess any claim along those lines by asking: How central is the Word of God in that work? Is it precious in the sight of God's people? Is it sought after? Is it believed in? Is it performed regardless of anything else? When all of that is in the work, then God is in the work. By the grace of God and His enabling, may each and every one of us be determined to seek after the Lord our God! He has shown Himself in His Word, and has shown us what He requires from us. By His grace, may we endeavour to do all of that! Amen.