Revival’s Pathway

Nehemiah 8

The borders of Jerusalem were established, property was accurately distributed, and roles were properly assigned when the calendar flipped to the 7th month of the year. By this season, the people would begin to harvest the crops they had been diligently tending in their fields over the previous months. Life would finally be feeling more settled, and the future, more secure. Revival is planted.

And they’re hungry for more. 

So they gather together - men, women, and anyone else who could understand - and ask to hear the Law given by God to their ancestors long ago. For hours they listen to the reading and its interpretation, as the Word works through their very beings. The Word calls their attention, so they stand in honor; it moves through their extremities to raise their hands in agreement; it humbles their posture to bow face-down in worship; and it convicts their hearts to weep tears of joy and of sorrow. Revival convicts.

They realize how faithful their God had been and how far they had wavered from His Words. But what Nehemiah wants them to understand is that God’s goodness is greater than their wrongs; his joy is stronger than their grief, so on the heels of mourning, should be dancing. Revival includes repentance, but from repentance springs contagious joy worth sharing. 

The next day, the leaders are back for even more. 

This time, they want more than understanding; they want to study or “turn their mind to” (Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon) the Word. What they discover upon further investigation is that God had instituted a celebration called the Feast of Tents (booths, tabernacles) when the entire nation would camp out for a week. During the time of harvest, they were told to construct shelters made of branches and essentially re-enact Israel’s historic campout in the barren wilderness when God led them out of Egypt (Leviticus 23:33-40). Families would spend a week in a tent while they were harvesting abundant crops, and future generations would know that when life feels settled and secure, it is only because of God. But for centuries, Israel had neglected this tradition.

If you’ve ever set up a tent, you know how awkward it can be; imagine setting up one made of branches. I consider camping out to be inconvenient on vacation, but imagine camping out during a busy work season at home. Obedience will require the belief that God’s ways are truly better, even if they seem cumbersome or the timing seems off.

The people of Nehemiah’s day make this discovery in the very month designated for this celebration, and they immediately spring into action, collecting olive, myrtle, and palm branches to construct tents for each household. They would do what the Word said, because when revival runs its full course, it doesn’t culminate in joyful parties; revival culminates in obedience.

Boundaries Spark Revival

Nehemiah 7

Jerusalem, as a particular place within certain parameters, has been physically defined by its new walls and gates. Boundary lines are set in stone, clearly establishing the city limits. 

We can easily overlook the importance of place today, at a time when working remotely, shopping online, and socializing through a screen removes the need for a place. But out of all the destinations on the map of the world, Jerusalem had been God’s hand-picked place where He would meet in-person with His people. It was meant to be the epi-center for accurate and passionate worship of the only God and King, and from the burning light of this city on a hill, worship could catch like wildfire, crossing cultures and spreading from one kingdom to the next until the whole earth was consumed.

When that didn’t happen in this place, God allowed its destruction. 

For Nehemiah, rebuilding Jerusalem wasn’t driven by nostalgia, but by conviction: perhaps this time, this place could be what it was always intended to be in the world. That would require, not just defining the city itself, but also defining the people inside, beginning with their leadership. 

Nehemiah places the charge of Jerusalem on two men: Hananiah who rises above the rest as a “faithful and God-fearing man” and Hanani, his brother. We met Hanani back in the first chapter of the book (1:2), where he made the journey to Susa and shared with Nehemiah his concern for the city. Government in a city that bridged heaven and earth, could only be properly carried out by those who felt that burden and lived with qualities like “faithful and God-fearing.” Now Nehemiah hands the two of them the reins. 

Nehemiah then senses God moving him to organize the people according to genealogical records.  Looking back through documentation from returnees to Jerusalem, about 100 years earlier, the people fall into 5 categories: 

Men of the people of Israel  

Priests

Levites

Temple servants

Sons of Solomon’s servants

God “put it into” his heart to trace the people’s ancestry back to their roots, but today, these records are the verses I typically skip. Why is this list of names important enough to record, not once, but twice (Ezra 2)? 

Through the people’s ancestry, came particular rights and responsibilities: specific land had been given out according to ancestry; the calling to oversee temple worship had been delegated according to lineage; the Messiah would come through one ancestral line. 

At the rebirth of this city, the people would define themselves, first and foremost, the way God did, as they looked back to their forefathers. They would be given land, or a temple position, not because they arrived first or raised their hand the highest. They would be allotted a place according to God’s plan, not their own.  

This was a place with boundaries. These were a people with boundaries. And when God is the One who sets them, they’re the kind of boundaries that will move the people to worship, just as they moved the Psalmist to worship, exclaiming, “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a beautiful inheritance.” Psalm 16:6