And Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law; and the people [stood] in their place.
In Nehemiah 8 a whole nation stands outdoors to hear the book of the Law read aloud. Verse 7 names thirteen Levites whose work was not to read it but to make the people understand it — so why did a crowd gathered for God's book still need help?
Where this chapter falls in the book matters.
Chapter 6 gives the completion of the wall. Chapter 7 gives what was provided for keeping the city safe, and the counting of the people by family line. In chapter 8 we have the setting up of the authority of the word of God. This order teaches us much. The walls might be built, and the people gathered and set in order. But nothing could keep them in the place they had been brought into except obedience to the Word.
The same writer applies this directly to the church: once people are gathered, teachers and pastors carry the responsibility "to assert the Lord's supremacy in the authority of the written Word, to feed the flock of God with suited nourishment."
There was a reason the people could not follow the book on their own.
Remember that the people had lived a long time in Babylon. Many of them, shaped by their surroundings, had taken on Babylonian habits and ways, and even the Babylonian language. So the sacred language, the language of their fathers, had dropped out of use, and many had forgotten it... First, we learn that becoming like the world leads people to forget the word of God and not know it. Second, the true work of the teacher is to give the sense of the Scriptures, to explain what they mean, and to bring the hearers to grasp their meaning.
These men once carried the sacred vessels. Now they served the Word, and the care they took is the lesson.
The Levites, who were no longer responsible to carry the sacred vessels (1 Chr. 23:26), take up the work of servants of the Word by making the people understand the law. See with what care they do it. They read clearly, and that matters. How often we see the Lord's workers read the Word in a low voice, or too fast, or carelessly. Then they hurry on to speak from themselves, as if hearing the word of God mattered less than hearing their own word. Here it is the opposite. First they bring the people into direct contact with the law. Then they give its meaning. Last, they make sure the people understand it. Here the Levites act like school teachers. That is all the more striking because children take part in this teaching, and we should never forget it. A good teacher does not rest until all his students have understood what he wants to explain to them.
Reading the Word badly does real harm.
It is a very serious matter if the Word of God is read and a wrong impression given from it; all true ministry enhances the value of the Scriptures in the ears of those who listen.
Ezra read aloud, and others helped the people take it in. The same need lasts today.
Many men are named here who could help the people understand what Ezra was reading... In the Church of God today many find the Word of God hard to understand. They think in different terms from those Scripture uses. They need the help of teachers who know the truth of God well.
Teaching the law changed the teachers too.
The Levites play a valuable role in all this. They had taught the people (Neh. 8:8). Then, after they had faithfully done their service, they gained insight into the details of the law (Neh. 8:13), and so entered into a more exact understanding of things already revealed... Their faithfulness and their fellowship with God make them fit to speak in public for the whole assembly, when sin has to be confessed.
- The order. Walls and family registers could not hold the people. Only obedience to the Word could.
- The loss. Babylon's habits and language left God's own people unable to follow God's own book. Growing like the world ends in not knowing Scripture.
- The task. A teacher's whole work is to give the sense, explain the meaning, and bring the hearers to grasp it.
- The method. Read clearly. Put people in direct contact with the text before you add your own words. Do not stop until even the children have understood.
- The outcome. Those who taught faithfully came to know the law more exactly themselves, and became fit to speak for the whole assembly before God.
And they read in the law of God distinctly out of the book, and gave the sense, and caused [them] to understand the reading.
After the wall went up, the returned exiles gathered as one body and called for the book of the law. This verse shows how they handled that reading: not just recited, but explained until the hearers took it in.
One writer explains why plain reading was not enough for these hearers, and draws two lessons from it:
Remember that the people had lived a long time in Babylon. Many of them, influenced by their surroundings, had adopted Babylonian habits and ways, and even the Babylonian language. The sacred language, the language of their fathers, had fallen out of use and in many cases had been forgotten... So they had to read the law distinctly, or with an interpretation, give the sense, and make the people understand the reading. All this is most instructive, in two ways. First, we learn that becoming like the world leads to forgetfulness and ignorance of the word of God. Second, the true function of the teacher is to give the sense of the Scriptures, to explain what they mean, and to make their hearers understand.
The verse moves through three actions, each with its own reason. One writer takes them one at a time and links them to later instruction about speaking in the Christian assembly:
First, they read the book distinctly. The words of that one precious book had to reach the ears of the people clearly. The people held no copies in their hands, so they could not check any mumbled or unclear reading. Second, they gave the sense. Over a thousand years the language may have changed, and many may have spoken Aramaic and known little of ancient Hebrew. Third, they made certain that the hearers really did understand the reading. This verse points forward to the instructions in 1 Corinthians 14 about speaking in the Christian assembly. Anyone who gives thanks, or prays, or ministers the word must make sure he himself knows what he is saying. He must also say it in a way his hearers understand.
The order matters. The people met the text itself before anyone explained it, and one writer sees a common failure here among the Lord's workers:
They read distinctly; this is not unimportant. How often we see the Lord's workers read the Word in a low voice, too fast, or without care. Then they hurry on to speak their own words, as though hearing the word of God mattered less than hearing them. Here they did the opposite. First they brought the people into direct contact with the law. Then they gave its meaning. Last of all, they made the people understand it.
That puts real weight on the explanation itself. Ministry can misrepresent the very book it reads:
It is a very serious matter to read the Word of God and give a wrong impression from it. All true ministry increases the value of the Scriptures in the ears of those who listen.
The reading left nobody out. Men, women and children old enough to follow all heard it, and the scene was one of worship:
Ezra read the law "in the presence of the men and the women, and of those that could understand" (who might be quite young in years). Ezra read on a raised platform, with elders standing on either side. The people stood up at the opened book. Ezra blessed Jehovah, and they answered Amen, Amen with lifted hands, bowing in worship to the ground. And there was earnest service of priests and Levites to explain all that was heard... It was no empty superstitious ceremony.
Explaining was not the end of it. What followed shows what happens when the word lands on hearts and consciences:
In Nehemiah 8 two things come out — a deepening love for the Word of God, and intelligence in it... The word had great power that day on the hearts and consciences of the people. And what followed this real heart-searching? Blessing, of course... At verse 12 we read of great joy, "because they had understood the words that were declared to them." They wept, for they knew how weak they were. But joy filled their hearts, because God was their strength.
- Cause. Life in Babylon cost the people their own language and their grip on Scripture. Drifting toward the world ends in ignorance of God's word.
- Method. Read clearly, give the sense, then check the hearers grasped it. Three steps, in that order — and the text comes before the speaker's own words.
- Duty. The teacher's job is to explain what Scripture means. Careless handling leaves a wrong impression of the book itself.
- Reach. Men, women and children old enough to follow all stood and worshipped. The teaching was for everyone there.
- Result. Understanding cut deep enough to bring tears. Then it turned to joy, because they had understood the words declared to them.
And Nehemiah, that is, the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that explained to the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to Jehovah your God mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.
The law had just been read aloud and explained, and the whole crowd broke down in tears. Their leaders — Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the scribe, and the teaching Levites — stopped the weeping at once. Why would sorrow over God's word ever be the wrong response?
The tears were real. One writer points out which comes first when the word takes hold: the conscience, then the heart.
In the rest of the chapter we see what happens at once when the word gains its authority over the people. As always, it reaches the conscience and stirs the heart. But the work in the conscience comes first: "all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law" (9). As they listen to the word, conscience tells them how far they have departed from its commands.
Another writer says their tears were exactly right.
Verse 9 shows the first effect of this reading on the people – they were moved to tears. And well they might be. No one can face the demands of God's holy law without a sense of condemnation entering the conscience.
They had the law in exile too. One writer says their restored position is what made it cut home.
I do not say that no one in Babylon and Assyria read the law of the Lord. But everything was so far out of its proper course, and so opposed by circumstances that suited it so little, that in such a state the mind always glides over the word. The word does not make the same impression. The truths of Scripture do not reach the heart. When you are in a true position all becomes clear, according to the goodness and sovereignty of God. So, we find, it was here, and not before, that the law of God gets its full place.
The unusual title attached to Nehemiah's name is not a religious office but a civil one, borrowed from the empire that had held them captive.
Persian title given to Nehemiah... In Ezra 2:63 and Neh. 7:65, 70, the same title doubtless refers to Zerubbabel. In the margin it reads 'governor.'
The day itself decided the matter. It was the first day of the seventh month, the feast of trumpets, and its meaning ruled out mourning.
This special day, the first day of the seventh month, called for a holy gathering and a blowing of trumpets, as the rule about it required. It was the symbol of a time of revival after a long season of death and barrenness (see Lev. 23:23-25)... And at this the people wept — rightly so, for this is what the application of the law to a sinner does: convict him... But their teachers, on this occasion, at once restrain their tears, because that day was "holy to the Lord."
The tears came from what the people had learned about themselves. The joy came from what they learned about God.
They wept, for they knew how weak they were; but joy filled their hearts because God was their strength. It is well to feel our weakness, and to acknowledge it; but what cause for joy when we learn the strength of the Lord is ours! The joy of the Lord must be that which sustains us. Then we have strength that stands outside all our circumstances, and despite them.
That joy was not meant to stop with them. One writer points out the order in it.
They were therefore to be joyful on this day in communion with the mind of their God. But joy cannot be held in. It must overflow, and so they were to pass it on to others... This order is instructive — communion with the heart of God, and then communion with their brothers.
Commentators differ over the leaders' move. One writer questions how fast deep conviction gave way to celebration.
But we have wondered whether this switch was really of God — the people's emotions moving from conviction and sorrow to eating and drinking and making 'great mirth', because they had understood. Conviction of conscience is hard to reach, so repentance is shallow all too often. It is true, of course, that 'the joy of the Lord' gives strength.
- Understanding — the tears came only after the people heard the law explained; the word reaches the conscience before it stirs the heart.
- Position — in exile the mind glided over the same law; back in a true position before God, it reached their hearts.
- Timing — the day was the feast of trumpets, a symbol of revival after long barrenness. Mourning did not fit it.
- Exchange — they wept over their weakness; they rejoiced when they learned that the Lord's strength was theirs.
- Overflow — joy like that cannot stay in: communion with the heart of God first, then passing it on to others.