Ezra Reads the Law

Thousands of people pack a city square at first light. On a tall wooden platform, an old scribe unrolls a scroll. The moment it opens, the whole crowd rises to its feet. And then, silence.

Jerusalem's walls stand again, rebuilt in just fifty-two days under Nehemiah. The gates are hung. Families have moved back into the towns. Now it is the seventh month of the year, a month full of holy days in God's law. And the people gather as one, men and women and every child old enough to understand, in the open square before the Water Gate. They ask for one thing. Ezra, bring out the book of the law of Moses.

Ezra was a priest and a scribe, a man who had given his life to studying God's law and teaching it. A wooden platform has been built for this day, and Ezra climbs up, with thirteen leaders standing beside him. He opens the scroll in the sight of all the people, and they all stand. Ezra blesses the Lord, the great God. And the crowd answers with their hands lifted high. Amen. Amen. Then they bow their heads and worship with their faces to the ground.

Then the reading begins. Ezra reads from early morning until midday, and the people listen closely, for hours, standing in the open air. But hearing is not the same as understanding. So a group of Levites moves among the people, helping them. They read from the law clearly, and they explain the meaning, so that everyone understands what is being read. Picture it. A child tugs a sleeve and asks what a word means. A teacher crouches down and explains. All across the square, little groups leaning in, listening, asking.

And as the people understand, something happens. They start to weep. Perhaps they hear how far they have drifted from what God asked. Perhaps they think of the years of exile. All over the square, people are crying. But Nehemiah the governor, Ezra and the Levites stop them. This day is holy to the Lord your God. Don't mourn. Don't weep. Go home and celebrate. Eat rich food and drink sweet drinks, and send some to anyone who has nothing prepared. Don't be sad, “for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” So the people go and celebrate with great joy, because they have understood the words that were read to them.

The next day, the family leaders come back to Ezra to study more. And they discover something written in the law. In this seventh month, God's people are to live in shelters made of branches, to remember how their ancestors lived in the wilderness. So the people head out to the hills and bring back branches of olive, myrtle and palm. They build shelters everywhere. On their rooftops, in their courtyards, in the courts of the temple, in the city squares. Not since the days of Joshua, the Bible says, had they kept the feast like this. For seven days Ezra reads from the book of the law, and there is very great joy.

Why did the people need help to understand? By this time, many Jews had grown up speaking Aramaic, the everyday language of the Persian Empire, while the law was written in Hebrew. Nehemiah himself complains later that some children could not speak the language of Judah. Ancient Jewish tradition, recorded in the Talmud, understood the Levites' explaining here as including translation, the root of the later Aramaic paraphrases called Targums. Other scholars read it simply as explanation.

Ezra Reads the Law. You'll find it in the book of Nehemiah, chapter 8. The people listened, they understood, and the understanding led first to tears, and then to joy. God's word was not meant to stay locked in a scroll. It was meant to be explained, understood and lived. So here's the question to carry with you. When you hear God's word, who helps you understand it, and who could you help?