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Nehemiah 8:9-18 Joy of the Lord April 29, 2018am

READ Nehemiah 8:9-12 KIDS Joy only comes _______, ________, & ______________.

When was the last time you were happy? I am told that is one of the most popular questions that therapists have begun asking to open

discussions with their patients. In no way, shape or form am I qualified to delve into the human psyche and offer mental help. I am not a

psychologist or counselor, but you do not need a degree to see that our culture is not defined by joy.

It is important to understand at the very beginning that there is a difference between joy and happiness. Someone once wisely noted that

happiness is dependent upon happenings but joy can be experienced despite our situation. Our world is obsessed with happiness. That is why

the entertainment industry does so well. People want a break from life for a momentary shot of amusement, distraction or happiness. We focus on

happiness, but what we truly need is joy, and that cannot be experienced outside of a life with Christ.

If the latest statistics are true (and the one thing that I have learned this week is that they are EVER changing), right now in our congregation,

Corey M. Minter Page of 1 10

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we have a couple dozen people who are dealing with what professionals name Major Depressive Disorder. It surely spans all ages, but most of what

I read this week found that the median age for developing the disorder is 32, and that hits pretty close to home. 1

I think it is important to understand that depression (or I will simplify it down to say that emptiness, lack of meaning or dissatisfaction) is not (of

itself) unspiritual. Some of the godliest people in all the world battle and struggle. It’s really hard to not read Job, the Psalms and Ecclesiastes and

not think that Job, David and Solomon were not violently depressed, yet God used them in their situation to bring us the poetry portions of

Scripture. Some of the most comforting and encouraging verses in all of the Bible come from men in despair.

David was not on the mountaintop when he composed Psalm 23. He was in the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Charles Spurgeon, one of the most noteworthy pastors of the last 2 centuries, was given to great bouts of depression where he would lock

himself in his room for days at a time, only coming out to preach. The solution is not simple or easy, and it really should be dealt with

on a case-by-case scenario. I may not be able to speak to your specific situation this morning, but I would like to give you some general principles

from Nehemiah 8 as to how the children of God experienced joy after a battle of intense depression.

The wall around Jerusalem was finished. They had worked incredibly hard to protect their land and families, and they accomplished the task in

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less than 2 months. The people, still empty (because physical possessions cannot bring you joy), gather into Jerusalem’s courtyard where they beg

Ezra the priest to read Scripture to them. After several centuries of not hearing the Word of God, the whole multitude stood in expectation as Ezra

unraveled the scroll, and they wept when they heard him read. Never before were they more aware that they were not living up to the

expectation that God had set for them. For hours, the whole congregation of Israel was weeping and

mourning, confessing and lamenting their sins before God until Nehemiah finally walked up to the pulpit and said,

10 Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this

day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Imagine that. God’s man, seeing a sinful people mourn over their spiritual state, stepped up and told them to stop crying. “Celebrate!” Why?

Most people would say that Nehemiah was quenching the Spirit. For some reason, many of us have in our minds that being close to God means that

we have to be sombre and serious. Nehemiah called for a celebration because for the first time in a long time, Israel was ready to listen to God.

But that season of joy only came after the people of God understood the Word of God.

1. Joy only comes with an understanding of God’s Word. The picture that we had last week was of Ezra reading the Word of

God, pausing and allowing some of his right hand men to go out into



the congregation of Israel and explain it. There was a large group and small group time around God’s Word. I tend to believe that continued

on after Nehemiah dismissed the congregation for a time of celebration.

12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words

that were declared to them. Often times, we do not have the right perspective of our situation,

and we lack joy because we do not know or understand what God is trying to teach us through that time. By understanding Scripture, the

Jews were able to understand WHY they had been suffering—WHY God had been punishing them.

For the first time in their life, they not only heard the Word of God, but they understood it, too. They did not just hear a boring lecture about

God but a passionate call to a relationship with Him. That is what I want to happen every Sunday here at New Hope Church.

I want us to be biblically literate. Our students have just spent a whole weekend in participating in competitions where they memorized

Scripture, studied little known facts in the Old and New Testaments and worked on knowing their Bibles.

But more than knowing about God and the Bible, I want us to experience a relationship with Him and understand His Word. There

will not be any kind of informational test given at the gates of Heaven. The Lord is not going to say, “Name the twelve disciples. List the 66

books of the Bible. Good job! Enter into the joy of the Lord!”



All of the facts and rote memorizing of Scripture will do you no good if you do not understand from it. Once they got a taste of

understanding God’s Word, they wanted more of it. 13 Now on the second day the heads of the fathers’ houses of all

the people, with the priests and Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe, in order to understand the words of the Law.

The next day…the heads of houses and Levites gathered again for another lesson, another Bible study. This was not coerced or

commanded, but when you get a taste of God, you will always want more. So they met again to “gain insight” from the words of the Law.

They needed this insight..this wisdom because…The Word of God was in a different language.

The Law was written in Hebrew, and the majority of them spoke Aramaic—which was the language of their captors. There was a

definite language barrier, but even for those who had a basic understanding of Hebrew, language evolves. Take for instance,

the first English translation of Scripture by John Wycliffe in 1382: Alle ye that trauelen & ben chargid come to me & I schal

fulfille you. Take ye my yok on you & lerne ye of me for I am mylde and meke in herte; and ye shulen finde rest to youre

soulis for my yok is softe & my charge liyt. Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”



Even still, those who did not grow up in a rural setting before tractors would not completely understand what a yoke was

without some kind of explanation. The Word of God is meant to be taught and applied.

While Scripture can and should be read in your own private life, it is meant to be shared and lived out amongst a community

of other believers. When the men of Israel gathered that second day to hear and

understand the Scripture, they were doing what is most natural and expected of a child of God. They wanted to learn more so

they could go back home and share what they learned. But Nehemiah knew that spiritual understanding and physical

blessing goes hand in hand. 2. Joy only comes when we are serving others.

As part of Nehemiah’s command to stop mourning and begin celebrating, he implemented a day of feasting and giving gifts.

10 Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this

day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

“Do not keep this to yourselves!” While Nehemiah told them to go to their homes and celebrate, he also instructed them to make food and

deliver gifts to those “for whom nothing is prepared.” Nehemiah was trying to remind the Children of Israel of two things:

1. There are people worse off than you.



This group is not the ones who forgot to turn on the crock-pot that morning. The idea here is that they have nothing to prepare.

Basically, “There are those who are worse off than you. Share with them!”

A mentoring pastor once told me that on the days that he felt most-down, most-useless, purposeless, he would make sure to visit

people that he knew were worse off than he physically. I have found it to be true that a quick trip to a children’s hospital usually reminds

me of the many blessings that I have. 2. Blessings are not meant to be hoarded.

That is because of the Principle of the Sponge. I have used it several times before, and I probably will continue using it. The

danger for Christians is to soak up the blessings of God and understanding of His Word. So we soak it all in and sit on the

church’s equivalent of the kitchen counter, not doing anything with it. What once made you full will begin to sour, and if you remain there

not applying to others what you have learned, you will begin to shrivel up and be brittle.

Still, Nehemiah’s command of “Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” may fall a little flat. Understanding Scripture and serving its

blessings to others could merely be head knowledge and a show for others to see. That is why the rest of Nehemiah 8 is so important.

3. Joy only comes when we are obeying Christ. One of the devotional Bible story books that we use with the

girls for family devotions explains that the rules in the Bible are not



meant to be keep us from having fun, but instead God’s laws “show us how life works best.” Many times we fall into a deep despair

because we have forgotten or disobeyed God’s laws that teach us how life was meant to be lived.

We forsake God’s principles of sexuality, and we wonder why that physical relationship is not fulfilling. We neglect a day of restful

worship and wonder why we have so many anxieties. We worship things and get mad at God when they break down or fall apart.

Those laws—the 10 commandments—are for our benefit. On the second day of this revival service when the heads of

houses and Levites met Ezra to teach them more about God’s Word, they found out they had been disobeying God:

14 And they found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should

dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, 15 and that they should announce and proclaim in all their

cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle

branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.”

They had forgotten or forsaken The Feast of the Tabernacles (or Booths), which was a celebration that the Jews were to observe

annually. It was a time when everyone was supposed to leave their houses, build lean-to shanties from branches and live in them for a

week. It was supposed to remind them of how their forefathers who



wandered in the wilderness had to live. It was to remind them of the blessings of the Promised Land—of having a house and the

comforts it afforded. This revelation could not come at a worse time. The wall was

built, sure, but Nehemiah 7:4 reminds us that most of their homes were still in ruin.

They could have reasoned away this command… I can hear it now: We can’t leave Jerusalem now to go to the mountains for all

of the branches. What if our enemies come for us? Maybe we should skip this year’s Feast. There’s still so

much work to be done. If we are going to build any kind of shelter, shouldn’t we

start rebuilding our own houses? I will obey God in the big things, but I am sure this is really

not a big deal. No matter how good your excuse,

there is never a reason for disobedience.16 Then the people went out and brought them and made

themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house, or in their courtyards or the courts of the house of God, and in the open

square of the Water Gate and in the open square of the Gate of Ephraim.

17 So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days

of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had



not done so. And (then…and only then…after they had an understanding of God’s Word, after they had been serving others,

after they were obeying Christ…) there was very great gladness. Imagine. There was very great gladness while they were living in shanties

on top of the shambles of their houses. This joy is independent of circumstance. It is a joy that only the Lord can give, and He wants you to

have it.

18 Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the

eighth day there was a sacred assembly, according to the prescribed manner.


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