God’s Covenant and Ezra

MEMORY SELECTION: “They read in the Book in the Law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” —Nehemiah 8:8

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Nehemiah 8:3; 9:32-38

WHEN the wall was completed “all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.” (Neh. 8:1) The Israelites had drifted so far away from the observance of the Law that they had even forgotten its terms. “So they read in the Book in the Law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” (vs. 8) Apparently, during the reading Ezra stopped and explained certain portions and probably gave examples, so that the essence, or terms, of the Law were well understood by everyone.

On the second day of reading they discovered that they should be celebrating the festival of booths, and so the people went forth and built booths and celebrated the feast for seven days, and the eighth day was a solemn assembly.

This was a very meaningful celebration for the Jews, for it marked the end of the harvest. It was therefore a time of rejoicing and thanksgiving for all the blessings God had given in the fruitage of all their crops. The Day of Atonement should have been observed just five days earlier. Realizing this, the people were at peace with God. Dwelling in booths together—rich and poor alike—was to make them realize that it was only because of God’s care over them that they had a measure of prosperity. They were to think deeply on this for fear that their hearts might indeed be lifted up and they would forget God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves. Moses stated this: “But you shall (earnestly) remember the Lord your God; for it is He Who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as at this day. And if you forget the Lord your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. Like the nations which the Lord makes perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.”—Deut. 8:18-20 (Amplified Version)

The eighth day was a day of solemn assembly, and the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and with sackclothes and earth upon them. This was the means that the Lord had used to bring them back into harmony with himself under the covenant.

The festival of booths was used by Jesus to illustrate the fulfillment of a part of the typical picture of the festival. Apparently a part of the ritual in Jesus’ day was to pour water from the pool of Siloam upon the altar as an offering of thanksgiving, and Jesus made the spiritual application. He said: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37,38) The text then continues in explanation: “But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”—vs. 39

In the Bible, truth is very often pictured by water, and therefore what Jesus was saying was that those who believed on him through the Word would be filled with the Holy Spirit. This, in a special way, would continue down through the Gospel Age. This too was to be a gift of God. Those so filled with the Spirit are to be a source of life to all the willing and obedient in the kingdom. Jesus, in speaking to the woman at the well, stated: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”—John 4:14

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