9

When I came down at 6 the next morning, Nehemiah was waiting for me. But he did let me get my coffee.

I yawned. “Okay, one more time. Why were they crying?”

Nehemiah shook his head. “That’s not the right question. The better question is, ‘Why did I tell them to stop?'”

I shrugged. I didn’t care which question, as long as I heard the story. “I’ll play along,” I said. “Why did you tell them to stop grieving?”

“Get comfortable,” he said. “There are four reasons, but they aren’t exactly bullet points. You are going to have to think.”

Nehemiah started: “The first reason is the most simple. The first day of the seventh month was a day of feasting, not grieving. There were other times to mourn, to repent, to lament. This day was specified by God through Moses as a day to feast and not to work. God doesn’t review our sins merely to make us sad, he forgives our sins to restore our relationship.”

“What about the Day of Atonement?” I said. “It’s one of those days of repenting. But I notice that you don’t mention it at all in your discussion of what happened during this month.”

Nehemiah was silent.

“I know that some people say that it could have happened up at the temple and not been recorded in this narrative. Others say that you couldn’t be expected to do everything at the beginning of the nation building. But what do you say?”

Nehemiah was silent.

“Okay,” I said, giving up. “Go ahead and tell your story the way you want to.”

“This day was specified by God through Moses as a day to feast and not to work,” Nehemiah said again. “It was important for the people to understand that God wants us to obey his commands to celebrate just as much as his commands to repent. I mentioned God’s holiness as a reason to celebrate. I talked about being strengthened by the joy of the Lord. I wanted the people to have a quick and delightful opportunity to obey God.”

“That makes sense,” I said. “So what are more complicated reasons you told them not to grieve?”

Nehemiah took a sip from his mug. “The second reason was that we were living out the completion of the story Moses had told. The text says that Ezra read the Book of the Law of Moses.”

“That’s a lot of reading,” I said. “You know that there are several suggestions of what that meant. Did Ezra read the whole five books of Moses, the Pentateuch? You had five hours for reading. It’s possible to read that much. Did he read some compilation of the law that he or someone else had assembled? I’m not sure which of those scholars is right. And you don’t seem to be telling. But what makes the most sense to me is that the people heard at the very least the book of Deuteronomy, Moses’ last words to the people.”

Nehemiah shrugged. “Deuteronomy starts with a gathering of Jews, too. They are standing on the edge of the Promised Land. Before he dies, Moses wants to review what matters, to give the people he’s been leading for forty years a clear picture of who they are as a people chosen by God. So Moses reviewed their history together, and generations later Ezra read it to us and the Levites explained it. Think through all the things that were in that story:

• Moses reminded them that 40 years before God sent them to take possession of the land he had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.^[1]
• Moses reminded them that there were so many people needing direction that he had appointed leaders to help him.^[2]
• When they got near the land, they sent spies who brought fear into their hearts, enough fear that the people disobeyed God.^[3]
• So they wandered for forty years.^[4]
• Near the end of the wandering, they came near Esau’s descendants, the Edomites. They came near Lot’s descendants, the Moabites and Ammonites. And God reminded them that though these weren’t chosen people, they were relatives of the promise and so he took care of them.^[5]
• Moses tells them that because of his sin, he can’t enter the Promised Land.”^[6]

I interrupted: “So in the first few chapters of Deuteronomy, they learn that God is fiercely protective of his own and committed to helping them learn to obey.”

“Right,” Nehemiah answered. “It is a simple review of a difficult time they shared. Then Moses turns to the future.

• Moses talks about learning the Law through daily review and teaching and the way God gave the Law and the way God didn’t destroy them because he chose them and loves them.
• Then Moses reviews the Law, the Ten Commandments and more.^[7]
• Moses tells them that the Law is close to them, in their mouths and in their hearts.^[8]
• Moses tells them, “these are not just idle words for you, these are your life.”^[9]
• And Moses in very clear words gives them specific warnings: if God’s people obey him, he will care for them, but if they disobey, they will feel the pain of feeling abandoned by God (though he won’t abandon them). And if they repent, he will restore them.”^[10]

I leaned forward. “So when the people listened to Ezra read Deuteronomy, they heard  a review of the first exodus and arrival at the Promised Land. When they were grieving, they had just heard Moses’ words:

Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it.^[11]

Nehemiah just nodded.

I looked right at him. “I’m beginning to understand the tears. The thoughtful ones would have realized that because they had just been brought back from the farthest land, it was clear that God told the truth about working with his people. Apparently, God was willing to sacrifice his city for the sake of getting the attention of his people.  But I also understand why you told them to celebrate. Moses had been proved right.

“And now, this idea of the farthest land.  Symbolically, Babylon was the ‘farthest land’ for the Israelites. Right? Because as you traveled from Susa to Jerusalem, you retraced at least some of the steps of Abram.”

Nehemiah nodded again. “That’s the third part of this story. The story of Abram started in Ur, in what you call Iraq, between Baghdad and Kuwait. God took him to Canaan, where he was promised the land. Then God took his family to Egypt, where they grew to be a nation. Then God rescued them and fulfilled his promise to Abraham, giving them the Promised Land. And then we spent a thousand years obeying and disobeying and obeying and disobeying until it was clear that we couldn’t live as God’s people. So we were taken to exile. Some of us went as far as Susa, which was east of Ur, further from Jerusalem than where Abram had started.^[12]

“When we heard Ezra read from Deuteronomy that disobedience meant being scattered, we knew that God was serious. In the century and a half before this day, we had gone, as a people, back to where we were when Abraham was first called. It was like a factory reset button. Everything went back to before there was an Israel.”

“Except it wasn’t,” I said. “It wasn’t a reset. God hadn’t forgotten. Your four-month prayer in chapter one was taken straight from this story in Deuteronomy. You repented and you reminded God that even if your people were scattered, God would bring you back.”

Nehemiah smiled, as big a smile as I had ever seen. “Exactly,” he said. “This day was a complete answer to my prayer for a return. More than favor with the king, more than safe travel, more than a speedy rebuilding or deliverance from enemies, this moment answered my appeals to God. Standing as God’s people, listening to God’s promise of restoration to the city that we had just helped rebuild, I was overjoyed and humbled.  This day was a specific answer to our specific prayer based on Moses’s specific telling of God’s specific promise. This was clear evidence that God answered our persistent prayer from months before.”

Finally, I understood. I understood the deep grieving. But this was a new year, a new day, a new opportunity. God made this a feast day. Repentance doesn’t mean continued groveling. It means living in freedom. And so they feasted. All of them at the celebration and even people who hadn’t come. On this day, everyone had the opportunity to celebrate things being rebuilt.

I thanked Nehemiah for his patience with me. I don’t think he heard me. He was still smiling, looking over my shoulder at a celebration I could only imagine.