#DailyDevotion The Joy Of Jesus Is Our Strength In This New Age
#Feastsofbooths #Sukkot

September 22

Neh 7:1–4; 8:1–18

Neh 8:8-10  They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.  (9)  And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and 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 or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.  (10)  Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

It was the beginning of the Israelite civil New Year when this all came to pass, i.e. the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Ezra and the priest were reading the book of the Law, the Torah, most likely Exodus or Deuteronomy or it could have been the whole of the first five books of the Bible beginning with Genesis. We see in verse 8 that they not only read it but they also gave sermons on it as it says, “they gave the sense.”

As they read it and gave the sense of the Law the people wept. No doubt as in the time of Hezekiah and Josiah, they wept because they knew they had not been keeping the Law as the Lord had provided the Israelites through the prophet Moses. While normally this would be a good response of contrite hearts Nehemiah commands them not to weep, for it was the New Year, a day holy to the Lord.

No, instead of weeping they were to be rejoicing. The exile was over. The discipline the Lord had brought upon his people for turning away from Him was over. Their forefathers and their fathers had past away. They were a new generation who were taught in exile why they were in exile and were taught the ways of the Lord in Babylon. Now they were beginning to follow all the ways of the Lord beginning with a festival. Grieving was over. The joy of the Lord would be their strength and carry them through. They would celebrate with fat and sweet wine and be generous to all who were not ready for the Lord their God was a generous, merciful and kind God. They were called to be likewise as they celebrated the Feast of Booths in which they remembered their forefathers who lived in booths while they were in the wilderness.

Now on another Feast of Booths Jesus proclaimed, Joh 8:34-36  “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. (35)  The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. (36)  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus during this feast had revealed he and the Father were One. He was the Son of God, the Messiah promised in the Book of the Law. All of us have been slaves to sin. We have not done what the Lord had called us to do nor could we. But Jesus came to set us free. He freed us by being lifted up on the tree of the cross. There as our atoning sacrifice we won for us freedom from slavery to sin, death and the power of the devil. Now he gives us his Holy Spirit that we may fear, love and trust in God above all things. Now we may begin to fulfill the Royal Law to love our neighbor as ourselves. We no longer need a special feast day to remember our traveling through the wilderness. Indeed, as long as we are in this world we are strangers here and are traveling through the wilderness of this world until Jesus returns and establishes his kingdom here on a new earth and heavens. The doors of his kingdom shall always be open then because there will no more threats from those who would cause us harm. There will be peace and joy in his kingdom even as now we can live his peace and his joy as our hearts have been stilled by his promise of his word.

Heavenly Father, grant us that we may live in the strength of the joy of Jesus who has stilled our hearts with his promise of peace won and the assurance of a new heavens and a new earth in his righteousness. Amen.