Bible In One Year Day 277 (Nehemiah 9, Esther 15, 6-7, Proverbs 21: 9-12)

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Day 277:  Such a Time as This 

Agape Bible Study 
Nehemiah 9 

Chapter 9: The Ceremony of Expiation and Review of the History Israel's Collective Sins in a Covenant Renewal Ceremony

Nehemiah 6:15 ~ The wall was finished within fifty-two days, on the twenty-fifth of Elul.
It was early in the month of Nisan (March) in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes in 2:1 when Nehemiah presented his petition to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the city's walls to Persian King Artaxerxes. His trip to probably took not more than three or four months since he traveled with a small group by horseback, which would mean he arrived in Jerusalem after the change of the Persian year in the twenty-first year of King Artaxerxes I (still 445 BC by our modern calendar). The Persian new year began on the spring equinox in March 20^th/21^st. The month of Elul when Nehemiah finished the wall is the sixth month in the liturgical calendar with the end of the month equating to our September. Therefore, it was in the early fall of the twenty-first year of King Artaxerxes's reign when Nehemiah's workers completed the wall four days before the end of the month (Elul had 29 days).

Nehemiah 9:1-5 ~ The Assembly of the People Confesses Their Sins

The question is, "which month"? Is it still the historical review and the last day of the national assembly on Tishri the 22^nd (Neh 8:18)? No; that is unlikely. It is more likely that the narrative has returned to Nehemiah's time. His workers completed the walls on the 25^th of Elul just four days before the end of the month of 29 days and the beginning of the seventh month of Tishri. Then, he had to direct his attention to the rebuilding of the city's gate systems that probably took at least three weeks, which brings us to the 24th of Tishri.

During the time of threats from their neighboring provinces, the people of Jerusalem were unable to celebrate the annual festivals without a wall and gates to protect them. At the time the walls were completed the gates were not in place soon enough to allow for the celebration of the festivals of Trumpets on the 1^st of Tishri, Atonement on the 10^th or Shelters on the 15^th to the twenty-first, with the sacred assembly on the 22^nd. Therefore, when the walls and gates finally made Jerusalem secure, Nehemiah was then able to bring the many necessary animal sacrifices into the city and to proclaim a national assembly for repentance, communal atonement, and covenant renewal on the 24^th of Tishri. His assembly of national repentance and covenant renewal recalls similar ceremonies held by Davidic kings Hezekiah and Josiah (2 Kng 23:1-3; 2 Chron 29:5-10; 34:29-33). Notice that there is no mention of Ezra in the narrative, affirming Josephus' account that he was dead by the time of Nehemiah's mission.

Mourning rituals were commonly held in association with penitence to express being like the dead (dead in their sins). Therefore, the people performed rituals of fasting from food, wearing sackcloth like the shrouds of the dead, and putting earth on their heads as if they were buried. The people did not fast during the joyous annual feasts like they did during penitential ceremonies (see Neh 8:10-12).

Separation from foreigners refers to divorcing pagan wives that took place in Ezra Chapters 9-10 to preserve the covenant peoples' religious identity. The exiles viewed their return to the Promised Land as a re-conquest of the land promised to Abraham and his descendants, and, as in the first conquest, it was necessary to drive out all pagan influence (Dt 7:1-6; Judg 3:5-6). Foreigners could not own the land, but they could live in it so long as they kept the Law (Num 15:15). Foreigners could even attend the religious festivals but could not worship within the inner courts of the Temple or eat the sacred meals unless they converted, and the males underwent the covenant ritual of circumcision (Ex 12:43-51; Dt 16:14).

Nehemiah 9:5b-15 ~ Confessing the Sins of the Exodus Generation

In verses 5-37, the Levites summon the people to "Stand up and bless Yahweh, your God" (9:5a). Therefore, it is necessary that the assembly's prayer begins by addressing God with "Blessed are you, Yahweh our God," as it does in verse 5b. The prayer has a dual dimension: gratitude to God for His blessings and a petition for forgiveness, which should always be present in our prayers on this side of salvation history.

The theme of the prayer is a historical review of Israel apostasy from their covenant with Yahweh throughout their generations. However, the prayer also recounts God's divine blessings (9:6-15) which continued despite the covenant people's repeated acts of disobedience to God's commandments (9:16-25), and rebellions despite divine intervention (9:26-31). The prayer concludes with an appeal for deliverance from the domination of foreigners, a reference to the Persians (9:32-37), with the plea, count as no small thing this misery which has befallen us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, and all your people from the times of the Assyrian kings to the present day (9:32).

The historical review in 9:7-15:

• Verse 9:7 recalls Abraham's divine call and Yahweh's promises to him (Gen 11:31-12:3).
• Verse 8 recounts God's covenant with Abraham and His promise concerning the land of Canaan (Gen Chapter 15).
• Verses 9-12 list the events of the Egyptian liberation and the exodus out of Egypt, including the ten plagues (Ex Chpt. 5-13), the parting of the Sea of Reeds and the destruction of Pharaoh's army (Ex Chpt. 14), and the visible presence of God in the pillar of cloud and fire (Ex 3:7; 13:21; 14:10, 21-23; Dt 4:34).
• Verses 13-14 recall the Theophany at Mt. Sinai, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the other articles of the Law (Ex Chpts. 19-23).
• Verse 15 mentions the miracles of the manna and the water from a rock (Ex 16:4; 17:6; Num 20:6-13).

The historical review begins with a reminder God's call to Abram to come out of the city of Ur and into Canaan. 9:8 ~ Finding his heart was faithful to you, you made a covenant with him, to give the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites to him and his descendants. The Abrahamic covenant included God's promise to give his descendants the land of Canaan.²

Nehemiah 9:16-21 ~ The Ancestors' Arrogance and Ingratitude

The Hebrew word hesed has the unique meaning of faithful, covenant love and appears twice in the confession of repentance (i.e., 9:17, 32).

Verses 16-21 contain a confession of the covenant people's sins during the Exodus journey and wilderness years. The prayer recounts a list of when they were persistent in resisting Yahweh's commands despite God's continuing acts of mercy:

• Verse 17a recalls the Israelites' ingratitude for God saving them from Egyptian slavery and vengeance. It also refers to the accusation they made that God took them out of Egypt to destroy them and their request to return to slavery where they had plenty to eat (Ex 16:1-3).
• Verses 17b-20 praise God for His mercy, forgiveness, and faithful covenant love [hesed] despite their sins; even when they made the image of the golden calf and worshipped it (Ex 32:4, 14).

In 18b-21, the prayer lists the ways God continued to care for the Israelites despite their sins:

1. He led them on their journey with a physical manifestation of His presence in the pillar of cloud and fire (Ex 13:21-22; 33:9-10; Num 12:5; 14:14; Dt 31:15).
2. He blessed Moses and the elders with His spirit to instruct them (Ex 33:9-11; Num 11:17).
3. Yahweh fed them with bread from Heaven that they called "manna" (Ex 16:4-36; Josh 5:12) and gave them water from a rock to quench their thirst (Ex 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13).
4. God saw to their physical and material needs for the forty years in the wilderness: their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen (Dt 2:7; 8:4).

Nehemiah 9:22-25 ~ The Continuing Review of Israel's History up to the Conquest of Canaan

Verse 22 recounts the territory God gave the Israelites in the conquest of Canaan, including the lands of the Ammonites on the east side of the Jordan River (Num 21:32-35; Dt 2:24-3:11).

Verse 23 acknowledges that God kept the promises from His covenant with Abraham for land and many descendants (Gen 12:1-3; 15:4-6, 18-21; 22:17), and verses 24-25 summarize Israel's successful conquest of Canaan in the Book of Joshua.

Nehemiah 9:26-37 ~ The Historical Review from the Assyrian and Babylonian Conquests to the Return from Exile

The historical review continues with the people's confession that after Yahweh kept His promise to give the Israelites a land of their own and His continued protection and blessings as long as they were obedient to His commands and prohibitions (Lev 26:1-13; Dt 28:1-14), the Israelites again became disobedient and rebellious. They murdered God's prophets and committed monstrous acts of impiety (verse 26). In response to their sins, Yahweh withdrew His blessings and protection, and they suffered at the hands of their enemies (verse 27a). When the people repented and turned back to their covenant relationship with God, He heard their pleas, took them back as His covenant people and rescued them from their enemies (verse 28b). These failures in obedience followed by judgment and repentance became a continuing cycle until the day of the covenant renewal in the time of Nehemiah (verses 29-31).

Queen Esther 

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 277 The Jewish People and the Old Testament Canon

CHALLENGE: “Scripture says that the Jews were ‘entrusted with the oracles of God’ (Rom. 3:2), so we should look to them for the Old Testament canon. They reject the deuterocanonicals, and so should we.”

DEFENSE: There are multiple problems with this argument.

First, not all Jewish people have the same canon. Falashas (Ethiopian Jews) have a canon including deuterocanonical books. It was rabbinic Jews that Protestants were familiar with in the 1500s, and their canon that the Reformers borrowed.

Second, as we cover elsewhere (see Day 255), there were multiple canonical traditions in the first century. The Pharisee tradition, which gave rise to the canon used by rabbinic Judaism, was only one tradition.

Third, first-century Christians did not use the Pharisee canonical tradition. They used the Septuagint tradition, which they passed on to the early Church (see Day 273).

Fourth, the Pharisee canonical tradition continued to be debated after the split with Christianity. According to now outdated scholarship, the Pharisee/rabbinical canon was settled around A.D. 90 at the “Council of Jamnia” (“Jabneh,” “Yavneh”). However, there was no such council. Christians held councils to settle issues; Jews did not. This “council” was actually a Jewish school set up in Yavneh after the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, and it did not settle the canon of Scripture.

The so-called Council of Jamnia was more in the nature of a school or an academy that sat in Jamnia between the years 75 and 117. There is no evidence of a decision drawing up a list of books. It seems that the canon of the Jewish Scriptures was not definitively fixed before the end of the second century. Scholarly discussion on the status of certain books continued into the third century (Pontifical Biblical Commission, “The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures,” fn. 33).

Although the Jewish people were “entrusted with the oracles of God,” they had not reached a conclusion in Jesus’ day on what books counted as Scripture, and Christians should look to the decision of the Church on this matter—not that of a particular Jewish school, whose canon only solidified later in the Christian age.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist