This chapter both teaches and illustrates a truth which pervades the Book of God, and on which our salvation depends—that grace prevails; the work of Christ, through the blood of Christ, over the work of Satan, sin, and death; the gospel of peace over all the terrors and accusations of the conscience.
It was thus in the story and in the experience of Adam. He ruined himself and retreated from the presence of God, a sinner; but the voice of mercy, revealing the mystery of the bruised and bruising Seed of the woman, followed him into his guilty distance, and drew him back to God in peace and assurance.
The end of all flesh again came before God in the days of Noah. But the ark which God had prescribed, and which faith had adopted, rode above the water floods.
Judgment entered the land of Egypt, having title against every house there, the Israelite's as well as the Egyptian's. But the blood on the lintel, which grace had prescribed and which faith had used, sheltered the house which had thus been let into the secret of God.
The thunders of Sinai made all the host to tremble. Even Moses could not stand before them. He quakes and fears exceedingly. He can no more stand there than the feeblest Israelite. But he is taken above the place of the thunders to the place where Christ is revealed to him in the shadows of good things to come, and there he is with unveiled face.
After this, judgment enters Canaan, as it had afore entered Egypt. But grace again prescribed what faith again used; the scarlet line was now hung out, as the blood had then been sprinkled, and judgment passed by.
It was after this same pattern, in some sort, all through the times of Israel; for during that age. Mosaic or legal or conditional as it was, there were ordinances that bespoke the old truth, the truth that had been taught from the beginning. The temple set aside the sabbath then; that is, the priest did the business of the temple on the sabbath day; in other words, the service of grace prevailed over the demands of law (Matthew 12).
In due season, the gospel comes forth to reveal this great, this earliest truth in all its glory. For this is the gospel in the blood of Jesus. “Grace triumphant reigns.” It reigns, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.
This beautiful eighth of Nehemiah has a vivid illustration of this same truth, which thus, as we see, pervades, and I may add, necessarily pervades, the Book of God.
The law was read, in the presence of the congregation of Israel at Jerusalem, on the first day of the seventh month. That day was the mystic or typical day of revival, the day of the blowing of trumpets, and of the new moon (see Leviticus 23; Psalm 81).
The people, listening to the law on such a day as this, are commanded by those who then sat in Moses' seat, to let their minds be formed by the day, and not by the law. That is, they were told not to mourn, but to be merry. Very right that they should mourn, if they heard the law alone, but hearing it on such a day as the first day of the seventh month, they heard it as in the presence of the grace and quickening and salvation of God, and their place and duty is to have their souls formed by grace. Right, again I say, it is, nay needful, that we should be broken-hearted in the sense of our sin and of our ruin, and under the hearing of the law; but when the healing of God visits us, we are to learn the joy that healing imparts, and have our minds framed accordingly. If the law and the first day of the seventh month come together, as here—if the service of the temple, and the sabbath are in collision—the claim of the law must give place to that of that mystic day, and the sabbath yield to the temple—as we learn from Matthew 12:55Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? (Matthew 12:5).
We may remember our condition as sinners, but we are to enjoy our condition as saved (Ephesians 2:11-1811Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. (Ephesians 2:11‑18)).
Booths were made in the Feast of Tabernacles. But they were only remembrancers, in order to enhance the present joy of the tribes of the Lord, in the cities and villages and land of their possession, telling them, as such booths did, that they had once traversed a wilderness. So again, in the ordinance of the basket of first-fruits: that his father had been a Syrian, ready to perish, was, on the occasion of that ordinance, to be remembered by the Israelite; but his well-filled basket was at that moment in his hand and under his eye, that he might worship in the sense of a present goodly inheritance (see Leviticus 23:33-4333And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 34Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. 35On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. 36Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein. 37These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day: 38Beside the sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the Lord. 39Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. 40And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. 41And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: 43That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 23:33‑43); Deuteronomy 26:1-111And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein; 2That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there. 3And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us. 4And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God. 5And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: 6And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: 7And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labor, and our oppression: 8And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: 9And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. 10And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God: 11And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you. (Deuteronomy 26:1‑11)).
And so here, in this beautiful chapter. The law rightly caused the people to mourn—but, the day on which it was now read to them, being the first day of the seventh month, mourning under the law must give place to joy. Yea, and more than that. It must now form the mind and character of the people.
And blessed it is to see grace forming character (see Titus 2:11-1411For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:11‑14)). We may see it doing so in each of the cases I have noticed.
What, let me ask, formed Adam's character, as we see him and his company in Genesis 4? It was the redemption he had learned. He was there seen as a stranger on the earth, and a worshipper of God.
What formed Noah's character in the ark? The deliverance he was then proving. We do not find him, in the spirit of fear, with an uneasy mind handling the gopher-boards of his house, to prove whether they were keeping the waters out; but we see him opening the windows, to take a look out, in expectation of the new world.
What formed Israel's character in the paschal night of Egypt? They were feeding on the lamb whose blood at that moment was sheltering them. They were doing this in liberty of heart, and not anxiously thinking of the scene outside, whether indeed the angel had passed by their door.
What gave Moses a character, when he was up with God above and beyond the fires of Sinai? He is there, with unveiled face, as at home with the Lord.
What gave Rahab her character after she had hung out the scarlet line? She got as many under the salvation of it, as ever she could, desirous to share her own well-assured and enjoyed blessing.
And what characterizes Nehemiah's congregation here, as soon as they learn the mystery of the first day of the seventh month? They send portions to others, eat the fat and drink the sweet themselves, and learn the lesson of glory, now standing in the salvation of grace.
And I now further ask, What is to give the believer his character, what is to form his mind and his experience? Surely, the consciousness of being quickened and saved and accepted. He is to know himself brought nigh by the blood of Christ; though he may remember that he was a Gentile, a sinner, uncircumcised, far off, without God, without hope, a child of wrath even as others. The joy of the Lord is to be his strength, as it was to be Israel's in the day of Nehemiah 8—a strength that shall deliver from self-seeking and the love of the world in its vanity and covetousness, leading him with largeness of heart, as it did Israel then, to seek to make others as happy as himself, and to wait for the glory, or the heavenly Feast of Tabernacles.
For, as the gospel prevails over the law in the progress of the dispensations of God, so is it to prevail in the heart and conscience of the people of God. Many of us may be feeble, hindered by nature and by Satan, and the good Lord knows how to comfort the feeble and to support the weak, but still we must recognize this which we speak of, to be His way, and recognize it also as what ought to be our way.
God is to be apprehended by us in grace. We are to know Him as love, and find our dwelling in Him, on the title of the sacrifice which He Himself has accomplished in Jesus. The law may have taught us to deal with Him as righteous, and to think of Him as a Judge—and He is all that, it is true; for all glories belong to Him, whether of power or of holiness, of majesty or of truth, and of all beside; but the gospel teaches us to know Him likewise in grace, gives us communion with Him as a Savior, and forms our character accordingly.
J. G. B.