Skip to main content

Nehemiah 8

 [Nehemiah] EIGHT: Revival_ 

Nehemiah 8 

This chapter of Nehemiah reveals something about real repentance, contrition, and weeping... but also celebration and joy! 

 

[Discussion starters] People are often classified as either optimistic or pessimistic. Which of these two do you feel best describes you? 

How much is celebration a part of your own regular Christian life? 

 

[Read Nehemiah 8] 

 

The number seven was important to the Jews. 
The seventh month is no exception... it is one month that contains multiple feasts and festivals, as well as the Day of Atonement. 
If you were an editor of the bible, given the themes and feel of this chapter, what title or name would you have given this chapter of Nehemiah? 

 

 

If you were Nehemiah, and given what’s gone on in the previous chapters, what would make you want to meet with all the other people who had built the wall? 

 

 

In verses 2-3, what were the qualifications of those who attended? 

 

 

What statements reveal the reverence and seriousness of the people as they hear the Word of God (verses 3-12)? 

 

 

 

 

 

How did the religious leaders help the people understand what the law was saying to them? 

 

In verses 9-12, Nehemiah and all the leaders try to encourage the people to celebrate after the revival and repentance they have gone through. Why do you think the people are weeping? 
Why do the religious leaders want them to celebrate? 

 

 

Why do you think that God put so many feasts and celebration days within the Old Testament calendar? 

 

In our modern Christian church setting, what are the comparisons that we have to these feast and celebrations today? 

 

Compare your own ability and willingness to celebrate with your ability and willingness to repent. Does one or the other come more naturally and easily to you? 
Why do you think this is the case? 

 

In verse 13, who assembles on the second day? 
Why do you think they assemble? 

 

We are told in verses 12 and 17 that the people had great joy. 
What was the reason for this? 

 

How have you seen Christians show the great joy that they have from obeying God’s Word? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

{SEVEN CHURCHES} #1

  The Lord Who Speaks_   Revelation 1:9-20   We  don’t  tend to get many letters these days. We get emails, text messages,  WhatsApp  and other electronic messages, but rarely  a handwritten, pen-and-paper letter.    I tend to save any good ones I get... notes from when Leah was little. Letters that encourage or bless me.   I’ll keep them in my  bedside  drawer or  tucked  into books on our shelves. Then I get to read them again and feel loved and blessed by their words. ..     [Discussion starter]    Tell the group about a significant letter you have received and why it meant so much to you.     Revelation 2-3 records seven letters written by Jesus to seven churches.   It must have been a thrill for an early church congregation to receive a letter from the apostles Paul, Peter, or James... but here were letters from Jesus himself . And we all get to read everyone else’s ma...
Post a Comment
Read more

{SEVEN CHURCHES} #3

  {SEVEN LETTERS}    The Attractiveness of Suffering_   Revelation 2:8-11     In the year AD 177 persecution broke out against the Christians living in what is today the French city of Lyon. Christianity had raised the suspicions and hatred of the Roman  bureaucrats who governed the city. The vicious persecution that raged, touched Christians at every level of society. After the persecuti on subsided, church father Irenaeus, arranged for a letter to be written to Christians in other parts of the Roman Empire describing the faithfulness of the  martyrs...   We  can’t  even begin to put into words, much less describe in detail, the  magnitude  of the persecution here: how the pagans raged so terribly against the saints, and how the ble ssed martyrs endured so patiently... To begin with, they nobly endured all the abuse the whole mob collectively piled on: screaming  at them, punching them, dragging them through the stre...
Post a Comment
Read more

PARABLE: the rich man and Lazarus

  {PARABLE} the rich man and Lazarus_   Luke 16:19-31   Have you ever heard someone say that religion is just  a ‘crutch’ or just a source of comfort for the weak?   Have you ever heard someone say that religious people pay no attention to those who are hungry or suffering?   Christianity doesn’t teach passive suffering in the face of injustice and oppression. Jesus calls us to serve those who are in need.     [Discussion starter] Have you ever been asked for money by someone homeless?   How did you react?     The final parable in this study reminds us that suffering in this life can be replaced by bliss in the next ...     [Read Luke 16:19-31]     In verses 19-21, how does the parable reveal the rich man’s lack of concern for Lazarus?       How would you account for the rich man’s indifference towards Lazarus?       What are some of the ways that you have heard people explain why ...
Post a Comment
Read more