Today, I am reading and commenting on Nehemiah 7-8.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

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I was tempted to just copy and paste what I wrote on this passage last year because I really like what I wrote last year.  After I read the passage I decided to not to do that.  When the people answerable to Nehemiah gathered  on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the scribe read from the Book of the Law.  As I understand the passage, Ezra read a passage from the Law and several Levites stood at various points repeating what Ezra had just read so that those further away could understand what he said.  Then before Ezra read the next part, he explained what he had just read.  They continued this until Ezra completed the reading of the Law.  The passage tells us that the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.  This reminds me of the way Josiah reacted when the Book of the Law was read to him. That suggests to me that the people in this account felt that they and their forebears had sinned because they had not properly kept the Law of God up until now.  However, Nehemiah and Ezra, and the others who were teaching the people, told them not to  mourn because the day was a day for feasting and rejoicing to praise God.  The people listened to those instructions and put aside their grief for their sins.  They feasted on what they had brought for feasting and shared with those who had not adequately prepared for the feast.

On the second day of the month, the leaders of the people gathered with Ezra in order to do a more detailed study of the Law.  I am not sure if this gathering on the second day was pre-planned or if it was a response to what the people heard on the first day.  In either case, it was a good idea.  The leaders of the people discussed the implications of the Law and came up with a plan for how they should study the Book of the Law.  Then for the rest of the seven days of the festival, Ezra read from the Book of the Law each day.  There was value in them hearing the same thing day after day.  In the same way, there is value for us in reading God’s word each day.  This passage encourages me in re-reading the Bible each year, with a Bible passage for each day.  I want to encourage you to do the same.  I want to encourage you to read it, but if that is too much you can listen to my recording of the passage, or someone else reading passages.  And don’t just listen to someone reading passages you like.  Find an audiobook or video series which reads through the Bible in a year.  I have learned a lot by doing these blogs, and since I have been doing the video recording of reading the passages it has opened up even more to me.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.