Nehemiah built the wall as recorded in Nehemiah 1 – 6, but Nehemiah has 13 chapters! What else is there to do?

Nothing gets a local church more excited than a building program! “Our present building can’t hold all the people! We need a new sanctuary and a capital fund campaign to support it!” And there is great enthusiasm. But along the way, we often forget to build something even more important than a new sanctuary: the people! Europe is filled with great cathedrals…empty.

What good is a new wall protecting Jerusalem if the people inside aren’t following God? Nehemiah chapters 8 and 9 record important “discipling” meetings conducted by Ezra the Priest

By the time the seventh month arrived, the People of Israel were settled in their towns. Then all the people gathered as one person in the town square in front of the Water Gate and asked the scholar Ezra to bring the Book of The Revelation of Moses that GOD had commanded for Israel. So Ezra the priest brought The Revelation to the congregation, which was made up of both men and women—everyone capable of understanding. It was the first day of the seventh month. He read it facing the town square at the Water Gate from early dawn until noon in the hearing of the men and women, all who could understand it. And all the people listened—they were all ears—to the Book of The Revelation. The scholar Ezra stood on a wooden platform constructed for the occasion…Ezra opened the book. Every eye was on him (he was standing on the raised platform) and as he opened the book everyone stood. Then Ezra praised GOD, the great God, and all the people responded, “Oh Yes! Yes!” with hands raised high. And then they fell to their knees in worship of GOD, their faces to the ground…[13 men] explained The Revelation while people stood, listening respectfully. They translated the Book of The Revelation of God so the people could understand it and then explained the reading. (Nehemiah 8.1 – 8, MSG)

Then Nehemiah and Ezra encouraged the people to celebrate and share bounty with the poor:

Nehemiah the governor, along with Ezra the priest and scholar and the Levites who were teaching the people, said to all the people, “This day is holy to GOD, your God. Don’t weep and carry on…Go home and prepare a feast, holiday food and drink; and share it with those who don’t have anything: This day is holy to God. Don’t feel bad. The joy of GOD is your strength!” …So the people went off to feast, eating and drinking and including the poor in a great celebration. Now they got it; they understood the reading that had been given to them. (Nehemiah 8.9 – 12, MSG)

Chapter 8 ends with the people celebrating the Feast of Booths (Leviticus 23.33 – 36):

The entire congregation that had come back from exile made booths and lived in them. The People of Israel hadn’t done this from the time of Joshua son of Nun until that very day—a terrific day! Great joy! Ezra read from the Book of The Revelation of God each day, from the first to the last day—they celebrated the feast for seven days. On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly in accordance with the decree. (Nehemiah 8.17, 18, MSG)

Let’s spend one more day on this. Chapter 9 is another solemn assembly too good to skip over. After a special post tomorrow, I’ll come back to Nehemiah.

But the lesson for today is clear: the real building is the people.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3.16, ESV)

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2.19 – 22, ESV)