Responding to God's Word

God's People Worship
Worshiping in Jerusalem Again
(Nehemiah)

Festival of Booths

Nehemiah 8:13-18

The Message

^13-15 On the second day of the month the family heads of all the people, the priests, and the Levites gathered around Ezra the scholar to get a deeper understanding of the words of The Revelation. They found written in The Revelation that God commanded through Moses that the People of Israel are to live in booths during the festival of the seventh month. So they published this decree and had it posted in all their cities and in Jerusalem: “Go into the hills and collect olive branches, pine branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and any other leafy branches to make booths, as it is written.”

^16-17 So the people went out, brought in branches, and made themselves booths on their roofs, courtyards, the courtyards of The Temple of God, the Water Gate plaza, and the Ephraim Gate plaza. 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!

¹⁸ 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.

For Reflection

Have you ever attended a revival?  Many churches conduct them regularly with their own congregations.  I imagine that the festival of booths was very much like that, a combining the intellectual responses with the emotional responses.  Many times we reject emotional responses to our faith because it is deemed unseemly to respond emotionally. When one denies emotional responses to the love of God, he or she misses the point. Love is emotional. Love is a counter-intuitive compassionate response to justice.  There are as many tools for problem-solving in the emotional tool box as in the rational one.  Discover love and learn how to respond effectively.

Pray

that you will learn to respond in emotional ways that will extend compassionate justice.  Pray that you will find in your emotions a new dimension of God's gift.