Reading Alone

Read Nehemiah 7:73b-8:12

After fifty-two days of urgently working together, the people had rebuilt Jerusalem's walls. The Biblical scholar Hannah Harrington puts the date at October 8, 445 B.C. It's now Tishri, the hinge of the agricultural year, after the grapes and olives are harvested but before the fields need to be planted in anticipation of the winter rains. Even as they're starting to feel more secure, they're still hungry for God. Since they didn't have a Bible app on their phones, they couldn't read it alone. Instead of struggling to make sense of a scroll, a group of farmers, shepherds, stonecutters, and potters gathered together so Ezra and the Levites could explain it to them. God gave them trusted teachers so they could understand it and loving families and friends so they would know how to live it. God's words gathered them together, giving them a shared identity as his people. I've often dutifully completed my Bible reading plan for the day without the slightest emotional response. But at the Festival of Trumpets, a wooden platform is constructed to elevate the scroll so everyone can see it. They start with worship, raising their hands high, and then pressing their faces to the ground. Ezra and a team of teachers select what to read from the scroll, then work hard to make its meaning clear to anyone who can understand it. They aren't completing a task but solemnly coming before God. As the day progresses, their weeping is a sign of wholehearted repentance. So, their leaders comfort them: this is a holy day. God is pleased with you, so there's no need to keep mourning. The people take their leaders' encouragement to heart and start to rejoice. It's a feast day, with the first press of olive oil, the sweetness of new wine, and plenty to share with the poor. The city fills with the scent of freshly-baked bread and the laughter of friends at a feast. Nearly five centuries later, on the desert road that runs down from Jerusalem to Gaza, a court official from Ethiopia rides home in his chariot. He's just worshiped at the temple and is now reading a scroll of Isaiah aloud by himself. But the words don't make sense to him. So, the Holy Spirit sends Philip to go to him. The man invites Philip into his chariot, reads out loud the passage he's puzzling over, and asks for an explanation. Philip tells him about Jesus, and the man asks to get baptized. Immediately, the Spirit carries Philip away to preach the gospel elsewhere, and the man continues down the road, rejoicing in what God has done for him.