Today, let's
look at reconstruction. Reconstruction
happens after a time of destruction, defeat, imprisonment, capture, and
such. Reconstruction happens when things
have been torn down and it is time to start over again. The reconstruction I want us to look at this
morning is the reconstruction for those of Jerusalem during the time of Ezra
and Nehemiah.
Let me
briefly set the stage for what is happening.
God's people had been in bondage.
Jerusalem had been defeated and destroyed. They are looking for redemption and
reconstruction. Nehemiah has been called
out of a place of prominence and called to help his people rebuild the walls of
Jerusalem. It was a tremendous feat
which most did not think possible. However,
Nehemiah was a mighty man of God and what God had called him to do, he was
going to do. He understood the power of
God. He was not without opposition. At some point, I want to go back and look at
what Nehemiah encountered as he sought to do God's will.
Today, I
want to look at what happened once the walls were rebuilt. We will look at this
in steps…we will call the steps of reconstruction. I think this has so much to teach us as His
people in our lives, our churches and our world when it comes to
reconstruction. The first step is
reading and implementing the Word (in this case, the Torah).
Nehemiah
7:73-8:3
As we begin
to look, the people are gathered together for worship. This was no ordinary worship, this was
worship unto God as he has provided restoration to His people. They are gathered and notice that the
scriptures are read that morning. What
reverence do you think they might have had this day?
Nehemiah
8:5-6
Notice, they
are not only reverent but thankful and excited to hear the Word of the
Lord. The crowd was large so there were
people disbursed throughout the crowd to help people to hear and understand
what was being read…it was that important.
They wanted people to get it.
Nehemiah
8:9-12
The people
are weeping over the reading of the scripture.
They could be weeping because of what the Word is telling them and where
they have so far strayed or they could be because this is such a pivotal moment
for them and to just hear the Word is that important.
Nehemiah
8:13-18
This is
where the Word is implemented for the people.
They are reading the Torah. They
are beginning to understand it. It was
not enough to just read and understand…they now needed to put it into
practice. They did so with the festival
of the booths. They learned from what we
know as Leviticus.
This
accounts for what we will refer to as step 1 of the reconstruction.
Why is this
important? There are couple of lessons
from this that I want us to make note of…
First, they
were eager to hear the Word of God. It
was something they were looking forward to.
It was not an obligation. They
were getting to hear from God. That was
important to them and should be important to us.
Imagine what
might happen if we looked at the Word of God the same way. We open our Bibles and read for many
reasons…many of them not the best of reasons.
But the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two edged
sword. God has much to say and one of
the ways He has chosen to communicate with us is through the Bible. Do you look at it as God's way of
communication with you?
Second, they
heard the Word and understood it. This
meant that they took the time to understand it.
They put in the effort to really find out what the Word was telling
them.
Third, when
they realized what the Word of God was saying, they put it into action. How many times do we hear the Word, learn the
Word, understand the Word, but walk away and act the same? It is obvious by how we act that we don't
always put God's Word into action.
If we want
to reconstruct our lives, our homes, our churches, our nation, our world, we
begin with the Word of God…listening, understanding, and obeying. Do you want real reconstruction today?
