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Nehemiah or coming to chapter 8. I know they usually do a pretty thorough review. And so you've heard the review enough. Just kidding. But in all seriousness, chapter 7 was mostly names, right? Captives that returned to Jerusalem. Not that the names are not important and they're not people, but I imagine a lot of that was read past. And we're talking about the gates being watched over, right? Being guarded so that the enemy doesn't find his way in. It's important principle to have in our lives that certain things we just don't allow them in at all. Right?
We don't have to name anything specifically, but as a church reading this these things written for our examples, right? All that happened with the prophets and all of the other ones in the Old Testament is for our examples so that we would learn from them. Take heed to the warnings. There's a lot of things we're going to see that are shadows here that are very clear in the New Testament about what's happening on this specific day. And we can also look back, we'll look back to Ezra. We're going to look at a little bit of Ezekiel 36 because Ezekiel prophesied about this when he was writing some like 150 years previous to what happened here today in Nehemiah.
As Ezra comes to read the law. So, as well, we're going to look, if you're taking any notes here, I will give you some places, some things to write down. So, Nehemiah 8, we're going to have Ezra 3, we're going to have John 7 and Ezekiel 36. There's probably as well as First Thessalonians 4. Okay. All of those have to do with this prophetically. So, would you know, wouldn't you know in a historical book, there's a pattern. And when you're reading the Bible, prophecy is a pattern, and a pattern shows prophecy. So, we look for those things, and we connect the dots, and we see how the Scripture is all connected.
The Scripture doesn't God doesn't inspire words that don't mean something significant and he doesn't he doesn't have any words that don't mean something. So, we're not going to get all of it, but we'll get we'll get more than we had yesterday. How's it? So, let's get to where we're at. So, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, this is sorry, this is Nehemiah 7 verse 73. We'll start just to get it into the context and then we'll keep going. The priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the Nethanim, and all Israel dwell in their cities.
When the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities. Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded Israel. So, I'm going to stop real quick because the there's some things that are significant like why does it mention where they are and what does that have to do with the other things that I was mentioning. So, we have a Water Gate mentioned right and the people as one man. It says all the people gather as one man.
Can anyone think of a place in Acts where there's something similar that is mentioned when the people were all it was in Solomon's porch I believe it was or they were gathered it said in one as one accord that people were all of one accord in one place right in the temple. So that's that's showing us when when that happened, right? When they were all of one mind in one place together, they were all they were all considering the same the weight of what was going on around them like the significance. What am I what am I here for? Like what is the purpose and what is God going to do?
In the book of Acts, we see that the covenant was fulfilled. God poured his spirit out on them. And so that kind of language, it speaks of God's renewing a covenant or entering back into a covenant with people with which they couldn't keep. So that's what's going on here. The language is significant. The seventh month is significant because that is a month of fall feasts. It's also the first day of this month is going to be what's called the day of we would hear it called the day of trumpets or blasting or shouting. It's yum tua. It initially that's what it was called and somehow over time they've changed that to what it just passed they call it almost like the new year now it doesn't make any sense because it's in the seventh month clearly tells us that the seventh month but now they call that Rosh Hashanah which is actually called the head of the year it's so yeah things sometimes
Evolve in the wrong direction over time. It takes away from the significance of the day. But these all of these feasts are mentioned in Leviticus 23. Leviticus 23 is what's most often called like the explanation of the feasts. But feasts is a word that we've just put there. That's not really what those are called. They're called appointed times. So in Leviticus 23, when God says, "These are my feasts," that's our English version, but it doesn't actually say that. It says, "These are my appointed times." So as an appointment, right? There's an appointed time for things with God. There's an appointed time for mourning. There's appointed time for rejoicing.
But those appointments are times that he meets with us. That's the significance of it. And they're not they're they're given to the children of Israel, but they're not necessarily solely for them because they're God's appointed times. What it says. So, Paul said not to let anybody judge you in either keeping a feast he called it, right? Or in not keeping it, a Sabbath and keeping it or not keeping it, a new moon, whether keeping it or not keeping it. Nobody can judge us one way or the other. We can keep them and we can understand more of what happened and why God appointed those times for us during throughout the year.
Or we can just understand as well that those were all a shadow and the substance is Christ. We can keep them or we can we can choose not to. There's no judging in it. But I found personally that they're good to at least acknowledge and recognize in some way that it's a that it was if it's important to God, it should be important to me. And so I do try to do some of that within our home. So there's the pattern., in Ezra 3, which is the first one I told you guys we'd look at, right?
And Ezra 3, which was I don't know. It's debated how long before Ezra was Nehemiah. So, there's such a big window of time that it could have been that I won't put a finger on it, but it says this in Ezra 3. And when the seventh month had come and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. Look at the same exact wording the same place, the same month. And so it also says in verse 4, they also kept the feast of tabernacles as it is written and offered the daily burnt offerings and the number required by ordinance for each day.
So they began to understand that they had lost something. And then when the word came to them, when when the law was read to them, they started to realize, okay, this law is being read on this day. And it's significant because this day is a day of whatever day it was. But they would read in an order. They had an order for reading the word. And that brought them to different appointments. And it was remembrances. You know, the trumpet would be a reminder of Moses going up to the mountain and the trumpet blasting so loud that it put fear through like penetrated the people.
They wouldn't even approach the mountain. They were afraid and it got it says it got louder and louder and louder and louder. And then if we look ahead, Paul the Apostle in first Thessalonians 4., he shows us I'll just read that. It is a little bit of ahead of my notes, but that's okay. He says that I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. But if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. So, as we get back into Nehemiah, we're going to see that this was a day of rejoicing and they're told not to mourn because when the word was open, the word was open by Ezra. And if Micah was here, he would tell you why he named his son Ezra.
And I'm sure some of you have heard that. Why? Why did he name that? Tells me a lot. Because it means helper. And he sees that too now developing in his son that he likes to help. So but he wanted a reminder of who's the Holy Spirit. He's a helper. So that's what the name Ezra means. It comes from Ezer which is the masculine version. Ezra being a name takes a feminine version. So that's all it means. It means helper. So then we see in Nehemiah the helper comes and gives the word. And usually you'll notice that sometimes when the Holy Spirit is moving and the word is going into people, a natural response is to cry or mourn.
And so there's a direction then given in this day. Let's just read it so it makes sense. And then oh it says, "Now all the people were gathered together as one man in the open square that was in the front of the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women, and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday before the men and women and those who could understand.
And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood which they had made for the purpose. And beside him at his right hand stood Matathiah, Schma, Aniah, Uriah, Hilkaya, and Messiah. And at his left hand Pedaya, Mashael, Males, Hashim, Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Mashulam. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. So now we see that there's all of a sudden there's this reverence, right, for something they never had.
They understood that that they were the people of the law that was their that that was their guide and that was entrusted to them. It was given to them and so they had reverence for it, but they didn't understand it. They didn't know it. They still had reverence for it, right? And that's how we should be too. We should have an understanding that the word isn't just something that is a historical book. It's not necessarily just for prophecy or for teaching us how to worship, but it's living. So, it's it's much more than just a book, right? It's it's called living, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.
It's able to divide between soul and spirit, between bone and marrow. It's able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. So, the word of God is different, right? And we should have a reverence for it, a fear for it even because it searches us out. It shows us what we are and it shows us but it but it gives us hope and direction. So all of this we see like the mercies of God within all of this that he's fulfilling by bringing them back from Babylon from captivity his or wherever they had been many places but he's fulfilling his word and he does it in such a way that when the word actually comes and it falls on a certain day.
It's It's mindblowing to them. I think it has to be. So, we're going to get to another part that'll hit that'll hit us through it. It'll hit home with us. So, hold on. Does anyone have any comments before I keep going? Okay. So yes, they had they had such a reverence that they built this platform, right? So we even have that here today at our church, right? There's platforms built for not for exalting the people that are bringing the word. The understanding is the word is to be exalted. Right? In Psalm 138, let me see if I wrote it down.
Now I'm going to have to turn to it because I didn't write it down. There's some versions of the Bible that might not read it quite this way, but that's just because they're wrong. It says, "I will worship toward your holy temple and praise your name for your loving kindness and your truth. For you have magnified your word above all your name." So the place that God puts his word is above it all. And so how do we look at it, right? How do we how do we fear? Well, how what is our response?
We shouldn't we shouldn't take it for granted that we have access to all of the study tools of the Bible that we have. But even just having a Bible, even just having one, I lost my Bible the other day after my daughter's wedding ceremony. I put it in a case. There was a case that there was a there my son bore the rings and he had this little briefcase that she wanted him to walk up with and like present them all kind of like here's the goods kind of. And when I was cleaning up, I had my Bible and the case was there and I was like, "Oh, it fits right in there and it has a strap to keep it in place."
So, I put it in there and I chucked it in my van. And the next day, I was like, I can't find my Bible anywhere. I was talking to a guy at the reception and he said, we were talking about different things we pray for and how God answers them. And he said, "You know what? I found that God really helps me with when I lose something." and he's brought me and he gave me these examples of these things, items that his family lost and they were way far away and he somehow drove all the way there a couple times, little things. And he got out of his vehicle within a few steps, there's the item.
Months later, one of the items was a ring. Months later, he found it. And so, of course, I remembered that and I was like, "Lord, where's my Bible? Help me., I need it. And I was randomly in the morning cleaning out my van, which is kind of rare for me. Every now and then I'll declutter it, but I was cleaning it out and digging through stuff and then all of a sudden I got a glimpse of that case and it clicked in my brain and I was like, "Oh, thank you." because he because the guy that told me that he reminded me that too.
He said, "In remember when you find the thing that you're looking for that the Lord showed you where it was to thank him." And so there's a lesson for us all. Oh, it's kind of like a parable. Reminds us of something, right? Something valuable lost, right? That you would search the whole house and clean out and sweep out everything until you find that one coin that's missing or a sheep that's lost, right? Somebody would leave a shepherd would leave all the flock to go find one. It's kind of like those things. Where were we? People said, "Okay, okay, so we got through those names. Ezra verse 5.
And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. Then all the people answered, "Amen. Amen." While lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Okay, I have to I have to divert now to John 7 real quick because
There was a significant thing there with the priest bringing the word at the water gate and when he did it and then what it brings us to next. So, in John 7, let's see., it's another parallel passage of a Water Gate., and it says, I'm not going to read tons of it. I'm going to read verse two, and then I'm going to go to verse 37 and 39, and I'll explain it. It says in verse two, "Now the Jews feast of tabernacles was at hand." So following in Nehemiah 8, we first have the day of trumpets and then like two weeks later, you have we're going to get there in about four more verses or so.
Oh, no. On verse 13., and a couple weeks later, you have the feast of tabernacles. So, you have these things going on, right? At the Water Gate, the word is is opened and the people's response is emotional, but it's deep. And so John John tells us that Jesus did this during the feast of tabernacles. It says on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified and so many people believed on him.
They were seeing what was going on. So what's happening in the feast of tabernacles? What developed there was from the time of Ezra and Nehemiah throughout history there was in Leviticus there's a wine libation a w a libation is a drink offering so there's a drink offering poured out but over history they began to pour out water so historically we can read in a lot of places we'll find out that that there was this massive pouring of water during the feast of tabernacles. And they would bring water from the pool of Saleom, which you read about in the Gospels, and they would bring it up through the Water Gate to the temple, and they would dump it out, and torrent would come from the temple, and it would flow down.
And so Jesus stands up at the last day of this feast and he announces that he's the living water that they need because they were just doing something a little bit ritualistic. It wasn't even commanded. There was a drink offering to go with to go with the sacrifices, but it wasn't water. It was wine. And that might have been spelled out somewhere else in Leviticus. Can't remember where right now, but so Jesus stands up and this it I think the water gate is actually a different water gate because there's one there's a water gate for the city and then there's another water gate that they called that went up into the temple area.
But he's the gate. That's the significance. He's the gate that you have to get through to get the real water that you need, the living water, the Holy Spirit. And so this is going on a pattern. You see it in Nehemiah, you see it in Ezra, and you see it in the prophets as well. So a actually I think Isaiah also talks about you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And so there's quite a few mentions of this type of this connection of to life from water living water right. You have to be born of water and the spirit. Okay.
So, a lot of connections, but show what I'm just trying to make everyone see is that there's a there's a lot of things that connect in Scripture that paint a bigger picture of sometimes even the future like this. This day would be Nehemiah would go back to Moses and then it would go forward to what Paul called the day of the Lord and then the feast of tabernacles goes back to Egypt being delivered I should say to the desert because the feast of tabernacles was there to remind them that They dwelt in tents that they lived in tents that they were delivered.
Remember they complained about it too. They said, "Oh, we used to have houses and we used to have what was it? All the food that they were crying about, right? Because they were in the desert and they ate the same thing for some amount of years that got something can't say I would have done any better, but that's what happened." And so the Lord instituted that as a reminder. Those are reminders. All of the all of the things that you would do as a feast or an appointed time, it's supposed to do something. Especially, it's mentioned in the Passover, which is also in Leviticus 23.
It says, "So that your children will ask you, right? It's so that you can pass it on to your family. The next generation will ask you, why do we do these things? What is the significance? It tells you in the Scripture that they will ask those questions. That's how much God knows children and men and what the curiosity will bring. Why do we do these things? So that you'll remember you were delivered. Why do we get baptized? So that we'll remember. It's a it's an ordinance. It's a an altar of sorts. A pillar of our faith. Let's go back. Where were we?
7 8 chapter 8 verse 7 also Yeshua, Bonnie, Sherebaya, Jamine, Akub, Shebati, Hajah, Messiah, Khalita, Zariah, Jose, Hanan, and the Levites helped the people to understand the law. And the people stood in their place. So they didn't quite get it yet. You know, they had to be told. There was always someone there to help them along the way. God is very faithful in that. So they read distinctly from the book in the law of God and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. So some of them probably didn't understand the language that the law was written in. And so they gave that interpretation as well as like what does that mean?
And Nehemiah who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord your God, do not mourn nor weep." And then it says, "For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law." So then they were telling them, "We are reading this on a day, a significant day that is holy to the Lord, and there's to be no mourning." Then they 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. They're not sorrowful. That right there is worth stopping and thinking about, right? The joy of the Lord is your strength. H yeah, sometimes just hearing the word does a thing inside of us, right? It convicts us at times. But I think because what this day is to the Lord as a picture of what will be a picture of being taken to heaven, right? And there's going to be the same thing happening, right? So the emotion was captured in Scripture to show us again that this is another picture of a full a full a culmination a fulfillment like how would you say it?
Well the completion the completion of this prophecy. This is a prophecy. All of the feasts are prophetic, right? Jesus tabernacled amongst us. It says, and it says that God will forever tabernacle amongst his people., so what's happening is a picture of heaven, right? People are called up by the blowing of trumpets and they weep and God wipes away their tears and there's no more crying. It's just like you look back and you see the same thing in this in this that there's there's response that is regretful I would think over some things like what happened Where have we been? How do we let ourselves get this way?
Or you get to heaven and you weep for something else. And this is not a day for that. So there'll be there'll be a time for that. But your tears should be shed here, right before then. They should be shed in the harvest, right? They should be shed in labor for your loved ones. Should be shed in prayer. And there'll be a time when that will be no more when God will take away the tears. He doesn't want you to get to heaven and have all of this regret. So now work while there's daylight, right? Because there'll be a time when there's no more light and we can't work.
But I'm going on about stuff. Here we but this day is holy to the Lord. Says, "So for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law, so he sent them away and he told them, "Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, "Be still, for the day is holy. Do not be grieved." 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. 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.
So now we have the representatives, right? Everybody send a representative because someone has to bring the understanding to the house. But you can't have everybody there. Sometimes right kind of shows a responsibility to the head of the house. Make sure the head of the house has enough understanding or if you're in any role of authority over family. Put yourself in a place where you can hear the law of God, the word of God and gain understanding because it's now it's your job to convey that. So it says they found written in the law which the Lord had commanded Moses by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month.
The same thing in Ezra, right? 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 boots as it is written." Sir,
Let's see. Ezekiel 36. I have a note of this. I want to look at there's something else to God prophesied to the mountains of Israel. I don't think I've wrote it down. And he prophesied to the land of Israel that it would bring forth these things to the people that the that the land wouldn't have to be barren because it said he said that the land endured it put up with their sinfulness. It endured their rebellion. That the land itself was grieved by it. But he prophesied to the land that it would bring forth branches and fruit to give to his people.
So Ezekiel 36:24-28 he's he's speaking to the people here though says for I will take you from among the nations gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them.
Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people and I will be your God. So here's Ezekiel like 150 or so years before telling of this where God would cleanse them. And that's what this is the tool that God uses, his word, right? We're washed by the word. We're renewed by the word. And so as believers, it's our place to do that with one another as well, to speak the word to one another or at least in principle, right? To guide one another, to counsel one another, to comfort each other, to remind one another of God's promises, and to to take it to take it seriously.
I think a lot of times if we joke about that or take we kind of jokingly take things out of context to make light of a serious situation. We lose the importance of what God can do within us as a body to heal or to correct or to warn sometimes even discipline somebody in a in a loving way, not in a way of abuse, but in a way to help people understand that just like they did that we have a we have a lifegiving source within the word but we're to fear it. We're to fear it as well as what Peter say like babes we're to desire the pure milk of the word right like as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word we shouldn't just fear and we shouldn't just reverence and we shouldn't just you know exalt but we should desire the word for what it does for us.
It does it does more it's done more for me just reading through this chapter to make sure I could cover some of the things there. It's done more for me in a couple days than it I probably allow myself to do the majority of the time. So, let that be an encouragement to you as well that if that's not what you do all the time, God will still speak to you because he's faithful to that. He'll still speak when you desire his word and open it up and you have not just the purpose of bringing it to others, but just sometimes I want to understand.
I don't want to be without understanding in some of these things. God is faithful. And some of these things to me are reminders and some of them were like, "Oh, the Lord just spoke to me." And some of them I read about somewhere else. It just multitude of resources that we have. And God's spirit is is the major the most important resource because he bring if you don't put it in your mind mind there's no way he can bring it to remembrance is there if you don't read the word how will he remind you of the words that you never read right so we have a responsibility But that responsibility comes with great reward.
So be encouraging that. Okay. They found it written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in booze during the feast of the seventh month. And that they should announce and proclaim it in all their cities and in Jerusalem saying go out to the mountain and bring olive branches branches of oil trees. I read this. Myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees to make boots as it is written. Stop before I finish. But this day is the middle of the feast of tabernacles today. So here we are reading this word and we're Friday started the feast of tabernacles.
So significant right that God has kept these things and people he's kept the people to keep these things for thousands of years not just like the 4th of July right 3500 years people have kept this And here we are finding ourselves in this word looking back at all of the places that it was kept. From the children of Israel, from Moses giving them that, God giving them that to Ezra 150 years later to Nehemiah to Jesus and now to us. And then if you look in Zechariah 14:14, this feast of tabernacles will be kept during the millennial, the millennial reign of Christ. And it says in the end of Zechariah that if any nation doesn't send somebody to keep this feast, then that nation will receive no rain.
And it says if Egypt doesn't send somebody because Egypt doesn't get rain, they receive all of their water from the Nile River, then there's another plague that they'll get. I can't remember what it is, but it's in Zechariah 14. And so, is this time of year significant? Is it significant that God brought us as a small group to understand this on this day? I don't know. When I when I was looking at all this, I already knew what time of year it was and I was like, "Yeah, here we are in the feast and then oh, we're going to read about that in Nehemiah 8 and it's going to be in the middle of that."
And it's it's kind of interesting, right, that the spirit is is bringing. So I would think as I think as I consider that that perhaps he wants to give you guys that gift. I have sort of done something like the feast of tabernacles, but not quite like exactly. I mean, built a you're supposed to go out and get branches, beautiful branches, it says, and build a booth attached to your house and then stay in there for a week. So sometimes in Wisconsin that's a test and a half, but like this time of year it's pretty cool. Could do it. You go pitch a tent and just remember that that was to be a reminder that you were once captives.
We weren't in Egypt, but we were in Egypt. Yes. The Elix, if anyone knows them, they will on Sunday be doing a whole thing on the feast of tabernacles and bringing Jesus and how that all relates together on Sunday afternoon. So where's that? It's on 21. If you guys are interested, I can send you the invite. Yeah. So the Elix, but they're going to Okay. We're going to give an understanding of tabernacles. Here's what I would say not related to that, but about that's I'm going to get that information. But
Jesus came to tabernacle amongst us, right? My mind as an evangelist is to do the same that I see Jesus do. To recognize that if he left heaven to be with us and to do all that he did for us, then it's not too much for me to go and tabernacle amongst or dwell with, you could say like the people that don't know God. And so that's just my personal way of trying to honor tabernacles. God will be with us. Listen. So we're verse 16. Then the people went out and brought them and made themselves boos 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 in the open square of the gate of Ephraim.
So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made boots and sat under the boots. For since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day, the children of Israel had not done so, and there was very great gladness. So if anyone was paying like legal attention to that would look like a contradiction because it said in Ezra 3 that they kept the feast, right? But then here it says that they hadn't kept it since the time of Joshua. So what's the deal? The Bible never contradicts itself. That's the deal. They hadn't kept it like so. Okay. So that would be a simple explanation.
It's it looks like from a techn a technical point of view somebody who is trying to be a Bible critic, right? Would point most people don't catch that anyways. But you'd be surprised when you're talking to people about why they don't believe the Bible and they'll come up with something like this. And you have to try to recall this. Where did I hear about that? Well, there's a lot of things like that. So, study. Study to show yourself approved. So, we're not ashamed. Because there's little things like that they do kind of catch you offguard. But my presupposition and I do have a presuppos presupposition is that the Bible is never wrong.
But there is some linguistic there's some translational difficulties things that they might not make sense in English and it would look like a contradiction or there's there's just different issues with bringing one language to another one perfectly. It can't it can't happen perfectly. So it pays to use the tools we have the lexicon or the concordance and get a grasp of some of those things that seem like difficulties. They're not that difficult, but there is some barriers or some hurdles to jump over. Let's also day by day this the last verse. From the first day until the last day he read 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.
So again, we come to the eighth day. There's a feast with an eighth day. That would be like a always when you see an eighth day, it's like a new beginning. So Jesus rose on the first day of the week, right? That would be considered the eighth day. The Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, it has the same thing has has an eighth day. That's a high it's a high day. And that's the tabernacles when Jesus went and proclaimed, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me." That was on the eighth day of the feast. There's always a culmination, but it's a the eighth day is a new beginning in the Bible.
It's a pattern in the Bible. It's just a side note, but there was a sacred assembly. So, God had God had prescribed that for a lot of reasons. Well, there's always a purpose. God doesn't do things by just chance. And then we find out later that he meant something by it. It's all within the word. I think it's a proverb that says it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but it is the duty of kings to search it out. So, it's our duty as a nation of kings and priests. It's our duty to search matters out that are somewhat buried or hidden.
Oh, and we're never disappointed. I'm never disappointed when I search the word of God. I'm like, I'm like, how was all of this there? Oh, there's just such depth into what what's been given to us that I think our entire lives and I've heard people say that too, but it becomes more real. Like if you give your entire life to studying the Bible, you still won't find out all of the things within it and the treasure in there because it is eternal, right? Its source is eternal. So how can you search out eternity? Well, that's why we have forever. That's why we have all eternity to do so because we'll need it.
We'll need it to search out the things. Okay. Well, I didn't get a lot of comments, but I have Where's our time? Does anyone have a time? Let's see. I don't know. I don't know what time we end in the first place., oh, usually eight. So, I have five more minutes. I have one more thing. In that case from first John,
The helper. This has to do with the helper. First John, he says this, "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth." Who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. He who acknowledges the son has the father also. And he says, "Therefore, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning."
If you heard from the beginning, if what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you will also abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he has promised us, eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you. But as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and just as taught you, you will abide in. That is, I think, what God was showing us with Ezra.
Ezra the helper is a very good picture of an anointing that will be with you. A helper is what Jesus called the spirit that would come and be with us that would stay with us and he had to go away to send the helper. He had so that anointing will keep us from many things but more importantly it will teach us many things that others can't I can't I could be a teacher but I can't teach you what God can teach you because I don't know anything about your life beyond here very little I should say but God knows every detail And so that anointing needs to be our own each one his own our own.
So then that we've come together we are as one man right then we operate as one man we have the same mind one accord and then we then we are more effective as a group as a body more effective we need to be more effective do we why not why wouldn't we want to be more effective right so that's where we're Let's pray. Father God, we just bless your name, Lord. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the spirit that teaches us through it and that will faithfully remind us, Lord, when we need to know where we're going. Will remind us where we've been and that we can trust you, Lord, that you've that you've taken us through many difficulties just as you have shown your people throughout all history, Lord, that you know the way, Lord.
You are that way. And so we pray you just guide us, God. Guide us in to all truth. Guide us in a direction of serving you and serving one another and serving this community and beyond. Lord, as as others are representing all of the work that you've put into us, Lord, all over the world. We pray that you would show them, Lord. Show them today what's of vital importance, Lord, before them. Show them the souls of those before them, Lord. That they would have deep concern that moves them. That they would have a love that that just compels them, God, to open their mouths and to make your ways known.
We thank you, Lord, for all you do, Lord, for blessing our children with faithful teachers and those who watch over them so that we can be together and learn. And let us do our part, Lord, as as we have been instructed in your word, Lord. Let us be faithful to you, Lord. Help us God in Jesus name.