As we have continued through Nehemiah in our current teaching series at Zebulon, we have come to Chapter 8. Chapter 8 is a huge turning point in the story of what God was doing through Nehemiah in the lives of the people in Jerusalem. As the chapter opens, there's a big assembly of the people in the shadow of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. As the people gathered the presence of the Temple would have been unavoidable. Then the priest & scribe Ezra climbs up on a platform & unrolls the scrolls of the Law & reads...& reads...& reads. Six hours into this, Nehemiah & the other leaders have to calm the people down because as Ezra has read God's Word, the people have been deeply convicted of their sin & lack of faith because their history had been one of great spiritual victory followed by massive failure. That cycle spanned hundreds of years & dozens of generations. Does that feel kind of familiar? However, Nehemiah's message isn't one that focuses on the people's sins. Instead, Nehemiah encourages the people to celebrate because of God's faithfulness. They send the people home with instructions to celebrate & throw a party in their homes in response to God's goodness & faithfulness to His people.
The next day something else amazing happens. The men come back. After 6 hours of Bible study, the men come back for more, & as they continue to listen to God's Word, they learn that there is a festival to be celebrated that they knew nothing about, & it was supposed to be celebrated that very month! What happens next demonstrates that these people were really in the process of being changed & transformed. They discovered that their lives were not in alignment with God's Word, so they went out & did something about it. They brought their lives, their families, their society into alignment with God's will in God's word. They celebrated that festival like it hadn't been celebrated in generations. Israel's history had been a story of taking a step forward spiritually only to take two back. If these people wanted to break that cycle, they knew they had to be different, so they made sure their lives were surrendered to God, even if it seemed strange, even if it was inconvenient. There's a powerful spiritual truth on display in the lives of those Israelites in Nehemiah 8.
"Surrender To God Is Reflected In Submission To God's Word."
Christians often talk about being fully surrendered to God. One of our classic hymns is called "I Surrender All." However, what we say & what we sing is often very far from where we live. So how can we know if we're surrendered? How can we recognize whether or not we're really surrendering our lives to our Heavenly Father? The answer is found in this question: When was the last time God's Word changed your mind, your behavior, & your life? If you can't point to a time where your will came into conflict with God's will revealed in His Word, there's a good chance you're not spending much time in God's word. If you've encountered those places but you haven't changed your mind & behavior to submit to God's will in His Word, then you aren't surrendered to your Heavenly Father. You're still a slave to your will & your desires. Instead of talking about surrender, let's all begin to take a look at whether or not we're really submitted to God's Word.
Where are you out of alignment? Are you so far out of alignment that you're not even reading God's Word, much less submitting to it? How can you start bringing your life & your family into alignment with God's Word? The longer you stay out of alignment, the further you will drift off the path that God would have you follow.
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