From Confusion to Obedience

God turns his people’s confusion into obedience by correcting, restraining, and leading them to walk in God’s ways.

Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese lieutenant, was stationed on Lubang Island in early 1945. He ended up alone on the island. Later the same year, the war ended. Leaflets were dropped, newspapers were left, search parties went out looking for him. But he dismissed all of it as enemy propaganda designed to trick him. He didn’t believe the war was over until March 1974, when his former commanding officer flew to the island and personally relieved him of duty. He was confused. And because he was confused, he fought a war that was over for 29 years. My point is that you can pay a very high price for being confused. But what a blessing it is to be corrected so that you can turn away from the way of confusion. So I’m glad that God gave us Nehemiah 8:9–18 to show us how confusion turns to obedience.

First, let me review where we are in the story of Ezra-Nehemiah and the Bible.

Where the Story Stands

The Old Testament shows us a sad, repeating cycle where God’s people abandon and betray God.

God’s people are under the curse (Adam and Eve banished from the Garden, Israel in slavery in Egypt, Israel in exile in Babylon). God rescues them. God convicts his people so that they seem to repent and have faith. But they abandon God again.

By abandoning God, they show that they don’t actually love him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deut. 6; Mark 12:30) like he deserves. That is the problem of humanity that the Old Testament shows us. Humanity’s problem is that we refuse to love God from our hearts.

God can meet us on the mountain, speak to us audibly, go before us as a pillar of fire, give us a temple to meet him at, provide us with very specific instructions… but humanity doesn’t actually want him. If we did, we wouldn’t abandon him like Israel did over and over.

We prefer to worship gods we make, so that we can control them and act the way we want to. That’s why the cults of old were so grotesque and satisfied the worst human desires. Really, the natural human heart worships itself: its own comfort, its own control, its own wants, its own dreams, and follows God only insofar as he doesn’t contradict our desires.

The entire Old Testament is showing us that humanity has a heart problem. We’re spiritually dead. You can give them back the temple and rebuild Jerusalem, you can re-read the law, you can bring them back from Babylon… but Babylon is still in their hearts.

This is the story we see in Ezra-Nehemiah.

Zerubbabel leads God’s people back to the land to rebuild the temple at Cyrus’s decree. Although the building is opposed, God protects his people and they complete the temple. Ezra returns with more of God’s people at the command of Artaxerxes. He helps the people obey the law and turn from the sin of compromise by intermarriage. Nehemiah returns at the command of Artaxerxes. He rebuilds the wall amidst great opposition. He keeps a sober mind as he fights against God’s enemies. After the wall is rebuilt, he turns his eye to building up the people and populating Jerusalem. That’s the section we are in now. First Nehemiah updated the genealogy of those who returned so he knew who was in the land. Then he and Ezra organize a gathering of all the people. First God moves his people from ignorance to understanding. They gather before God, revere his name, read his word, and teach what the words mean. That brings them to understanding about their sin so that they are convicted. But they’re still confused. They don’t know what God wants them to do. So in Nehemiah 8:9–18 God moves his people from confusion to obedience by correcting, restraining, and leading them.

Correction

After the people come to understanding about their sin in verses 1–8, they are convicted and are ready to mourn and weep (v. 9). That sounds to us like an entirely appropriate reaction, and it is appropriate to mourn and weep over your sin. But you know what Nehemiah and Ezra and the teachers say: “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.”

This should stop us in our tracks for a minute, because we would never imagine spiritual leaders shutting down mourning and weeping over sin. To understand what’s going on here, we’re going to answer three questions.

Why the Leaders Correct the People

Nehemiah, Ezra, and the teachers correct the people and tell them not to mourn and weep because, in this case, mourning and weeping would have added to the people’s sin.

At this time, they are celebrating the Feast of Trumpets, which comes just before the Feast of Booths. In Numbers 10:10 God commands,

On the day of your gladness also, and at your appointed feasts and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I am the Lord your God.

That’s what the leaders mean when they say, “This day is holy to the Lord your God.” They aren’t saying that it’s inappropriate to mourn before God ever. They are saying, “God himself has set this day apart for rejoicing, so that’s what we’re going to do.” By correcting the people, their leaders save them from adding to their sin.

There’s something really astonishing to us here, though. The people had the best of intentions in their mourning and weeping. How does it get any better than mourning over your sin? But the leaders still correct them. Here’s what we see: worshiping God in the way that he says he wants to be worshiped is more important than worshiping God the way that you feel like worshiping him. Even if your heart is “right,” God should be worshiped the way he says he wants to be worshiped. Worship is a matter of the heart, just like Jesus taught us. There’s no true worship that isn’t heartfelt, that doesn’t really mean it. But that doesn’t give us carte blanche to worship any way we want to.

Right worship fits itself to what it ought to be feeling, and it’s not driven mostly by passion. Here we see a religious fervor set in among the Israelites. Rather than fan that fervor into a flame, the leaders ask them to totally change directions. They have to put out the flame of passion and restrain themselves.

Of course psalm-singing, which Andy preached on last week, is one obvious example. Refusing to sing the Psalms isn’t acceptable, even if you have a heart full of praise while you’re singing something else instead. This matters because it’s so antithetical to the way we naturally think as modern individualists. We believe “it’s the thought that counts.” But our thoughts are just not that important. Even our best thoughts, like the people of Israel weeping over sin, are subject to correction if they aren’t in line with what God has commanded.

My point is this: we must be so ready and open for correction that we are willing for even our best intentions to be corrected and set on the path that God has prescribed. We can’t assume that because it feels right to us, it is right. That would be leaning on our own understanding. God commands us to instead acknowledge him in all our ways, which means that the moment we are corrected, we change course and go in the way that God is showing us.

The reason God’s leaders correct the people is to save them from increasing their sin.

Why Their Correction Surprises Us

We think that it’s unimaginable that someone would say, “Now isn’t the time to be grieved about your sin. You should be happy instead.” I mean, really imagine the church gathering where people are struck by their sin and the pastors say, “Stop weeping and mourning about your sin. It’s not time for that right now.”

Why do we think this is so unimaginable? Even inappropriate? Because we have somehow internalized that “real spirituality” is serious and somber and even a little bit sad all the time. Maybe that sounds like an overstatement to you. Well, which of the following two reactions sounds more spiritual to you: tearing your clothing and lying in sackcloth and ashes, or eating fat food, drinking sweet wine, dancing, and singing? Why does the sackcloth sound more spiritual to us?

I suspect the reason is a little bit different for each of us, but I think many of us probably have in common that we do not yet believe that God is as good of a Father as he actually is. He likes giving good gifts. He likes to see us rejoice. He likes to see us play. He likes to see a smile. He likes to see us laugh. He likes to see us eat and drink. That’s why he even commands it!

Think about how radical this is. It would have been wrong for the people to continue mourning their sin instead of feasting and rejoicing. God wants feasting and rejoicing so badly that he commands it, and it overrides the desire to mourn and weep before him.

This is what Nehemiah is getting at when he says, “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” That construction, “joy of the Lord,” could mean your joy, which you have in the Lord. Or it could mean the Lord’s joy, which he has in his people. There’s not enough in the syntax of the passage to determine which way it’s supposed to go for sure. But I don’t actually think it matters too much, because both are gloriously true. They are not supposed to grieve because they are upheld and strengthened by their joy in God, who takes joy to rescue and redeem them.

Let’s just apply this to one area of life together: what do we do when we have sinned? Some of us are tempted to morbid introspection. We’re tempted to pout and grieve and beat ourselves up when we’ve sinned. We even feel kind of spiritual for it. After all, we care more about our sin than those people. But pouting and scowling is not what God tells us to do about our sin. It’s not holy or impressive, because it’s not God’s way. We’re not supposed to sit and wallow in our sorrow. We are supposed to receive God’s forgiveness and then believe we are forgiven. No amount of sackcloth and ashes will set us right with God. But Jesus will set us right with God, and if he has, we can stop pouting like we’re on the outs with God because of our sin. If you haven’t repented, you are on the outs with God. Repent. But if you have confessed your sin, then receive forgiveness. God has separated you from the penalty of your sin as far as the east is from the west. He has removed your guilt and shame. So believe that he has removed your guilt and shame instead of trying to wallow in it.

Wallowing in the self-pity of introspective guilt is what it looks like to not believe you are forgiven. Turn from the sin of unbelief and instead, believe! Don’t deceive yourself into thinking you’re especially spiritual because sin is such a big deal to you. If you want to be spiritual, deal with it God’s way. Confess, repent, trust, and obey.

Not only does God smile upon our normal day-in, day-out eating and drinking. He sometimes commands his people to make a big deal and have a feast, to pull out all the stops in order to celebrate. We understand this intuitively when it comes to other earthly celebrations like birthdays. We pull out all the stops. We’ve got special desserts and special traditions and candles and parties.

We do the same thing with baby showers and bridal showers, and it’s good, it’s right. We demonstrate our gladness in God by slicing into sweet cakes and laying out beautiful fruit trays, uncorking the best wine, grilling up the expensive steaks. Not only is it not wrong; it’s right, it’s good, it’s what you must do.

There’s a story that Pastor Andy told me while I was in seminary. D. A. Carson is counseling a couple, and they come to understand why complementarianism is crucial, that a man must lead his wife. They said something like, “You know, we see it in Scripture, but we don’t like it yet.” Carson replied something like, “Well, you’re halfway there. It’s not enough to see it. You need to learn to love it.” The same thing is true about this truth. It’s not enough to see that rejoicing with food and drink and dancing and music is acceptable sometimes, but that it’s appropriate, right, commanded. We must learn to love it. It’s one of the reasons I’m very excited it will be a part of our conference. We come together to consider how Christ is the king of our homes. It’s only fitting that we also dance and rejoice that Christ is King of our homes.

Overall, don’t be surprised that God requires rejoicing. Don’t be surprised that he sets aside days specifically for celebrating. That’s the kind of God he is. Take this passage as a warning not to try to be more spiritual than God is. Don’t add to your sinfulness by avoiding celebrating and rejoicing and exalting with gratitude in your heart for what God has done, as though he would rather his children always be sad and serious and somber. The Apostle Paul was right when he said, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice.”

Why Correction Remedies Confusion

Notice, though, that the people would have gone their own way, left to their own devices. This is the glory of being corrected. Although you are going the wrong way, you can be shown the right way and course-correct. You are not stuck eternally on the wrong path. You can repent and change your ways, but in order to repent and change your ways you will need to be corrected, which, of course, brothers and sisters, requires humility.

We need to be those who, when confronted with our own failings, do not strike a defensive know-it-all posture as though we are above correction and the world should conform to us. Rather we should conform ourselves to be like Christ, and the way you discover how you need to conform yourself to be like Christ is to be corrected by God’s word.

This is one of the reasons why our church has made it a priority to proclaim God’s word. We want to be constantly corrected by it.

The first means that God uses to move his people from confusion to obedience is correction. The leaders correct the people so that they don’t add to their sin by ignoring God’s command to rejoice. We’re surprised that God is that serious about his commands to rejoice because God’s lavish goodness hasn’t sunk in quite yet. So, even now, let your heart be corrected so that you don’t try to be more spiritual than God. Learn to love what God loves, and that includes delighted rejoicing.

Restraint

The second means that God uses to move his people from confusion to obedience is restraint. The people restrain their feelings and re-route them to go the way God commands.

Verses 11–12 say, “So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, ‘Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.’ And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.” It’s hard for us to imagine, living in our hyper-emotional age, that a group of people could actually be corrected by the truth. But they heard the truth from the Levites. They understood it, and so they changed their hearts and minds based on what they understood. Rather than give in to the religious fervor and give themselves over to their passions, the leaders command the people to get control of themselves, to restrain themselves, to do what God asks them to do rather than what they feel like doing.

Pastor Andy has been teaching us about what it means to worship God in the most fitting way we know how. We follow a version of the regulative principle that says that Scripture must warrant everything that we do. In other words, worshiping God is not a buffet-it-your-way situation. We just obey God and we do exactly what he says, and that’s true of our passions and our affections as well. In this case the people were taught, they were corrected, and based on their new understanding in their mind they changed the feelings of their heart, so that rather than continuing in the fervor of grief they went to rejoice.

God told them how they were to come before him. They were to come before him rejoicing, and so the leaders say, “No, no, no, no, no. Put the weeping away. Now is the time for rejoicing. That’s what this day is set apart for.” The people obey because they understand that if they instead gave in to their passions and did what they wanted to and wept and mourned, they would be adding to their disobedience.

We just looked at the correction and change of perspective that this requires of us. We need to abandon the notion that God is suspicious of rejoicing—like the White Witch who’s angry at feasting and enjoyment. That’s not God. But there’s another great challenge for us in this passage.

Consider the amount of restraint, of discipline, of self-control God is asking for and enabling for his people. God’s people are not supposed to be blown to and fro by their moods or their attitudes. If it’s true in how we come to worship God, how much more true is it in the rest of life?

The people of God, in this case, had such strong feelings that they were weeping, and God still expected them to get control of their feelings, redirect them, and go from weeping to rejoicing. Brothers and sisters, your mood ought not govern you.

When a kitchen’s really hot and you still need to make dinner, your mood ought not control you. When your toddlers just won’t sit still, your mood ought not control you. We instead must have self-control and restrain ourselves so that we rightly worship God as the gathered people of God and as the scattered people of God.

This is the opposite of following your heart. Instead of following their heart, they need to learn to follow what is right.

This, remember, is what it means to be sober-minded, and it’s one of the things Nehemiah has been such an incredible example to us of. He’s been sober-minded in the face of trials from the enemies without and within. The result of his sober-mindedness, of his emotional self-control, of his ability to rein in his feelings, has been that he’s effectively led this people to re-establish the city. Now we see that God doesn’t just ask that of leaders. He asks that of all his people. We need to be able to rein in our feelings, to control our moods, to change our attitudes, so that when we have the wrong attitude before him we receive correction. We then restrain ourselves, our feelings, and instead go the way that God lays out for us.

Talk about easily applicable.

Kids, when you get in a bad mood and nothing seems quite right or like it’s going your way, God expects you, and he will help you, to change your attitude. Rather than being discontent and grouchy, you can turn to being sweet and a delight to be with. Moms, when your kids have sinned and disobeyed a lot and it’s made you frustrated, but now you’ve forgiven them and it’s time to move on, you can turn from that underlying anger. With God’s help, replace it with joy. Gentlemen, when you’re at work and you’re just not in the mood to work your hardest, with God’s help you can turn away from a lazy attitude and replace it with discipline and ambition. Everyone, when you arrive for our worship service and you don’t feel like singing, praising, or listening to God’s word, you can, with God’s help, replace that irreverent attitude with the fear of God.

One great gift and command that God is giving his people is that they have self-control, that we possess ourselves, that we are sober-minded. And that’s exactly what God’s people do in this passage. In verse 12, having understood the words that have been declared to them, they go and obey. They go to eat and drink and send portions to the people who don’t have anything ready, so that they can make great rejoicing. They don’t persist in the way that seemed right to them. God gives them agile hearts so that they can go from weeping to rejoicing at his command.

The first means that God uses to move his people from confusion to obedience is correction. The second means God uses is restraint. Rather than give in to the fervor of their passions, they exercise restraint—self-control—and change their hearts based on the truth that is explained to them.

Godly Leaders

The third means that God uses to bring his people from confusion to obedience is their appointed leaders.

After the people understand they shouldn’t give in to weeping, the heads of houses gather with Ezra in order to study the words of the law more deeply so that they know what they should do. In other words, the people who ought to be leading stood up, took responsibility, and led. They studied the book of the law until they understood what they were supposed to be doing.

Ezra gathers the leaders, the heads of the houses, together to instruct them and show them from the Bible what it was they ought to do. Notice that Ezra doesn’t just tell them. They find it written in the law of the Lord (v. 14). He opens it up and shows them exactly what to do. They’re supposed to dwell in booths and feast. Now all the people whose job it is to ensure this happens are gathered to learn that they need to proclaim and publish it in all of their towns.

It’s not a coincidence that the means by which Ezra and Nehemiah accomplish bringing the people to obedience is through the heads of houses. This is the way God plans to work in the world. Israel had a more complicated structure about who heads of houses were than we do, but the basic structure still stands. God works in the world through covenant heads.

In fact, it’s by working through covenant headship that you and I are saved. We are counted in our covenant head—Christ—so that his work in righteousness is counted as our righteousness. God provides for us the blessings of Christ, who represents us before God, just as before we were under the curse of Adam, who had been our covenant head and representative. God still plans to lead the world through covenant heads, including covenant heads under Christ. That especially means God plans to work in households through husbands, because they are the head of their households. It’s through husbands that families are changed so that they obey God and walk in his ways.

Ezra, the high priest, the covenant head of the people, gathered the other covenant heads and he showed them, “This is what God’s word says.” So they did it as they brought that to their households. That’s what we need to be able to do. It’s why at our church we make it our focus to train and equip men. It’s one of the reasons that Pastor Andy decided to teach these theology classes coming up in the first place. It’s why the pastors make themselves available starting at 9:00 every Sunday morning. It’s why we make it a priority to be with you on Wednesday nights. It’s why we’ve made it a priority to meet with you in your house and understand what’s going on and keep up on what’s going on in your vocation and family life. The truth is that when you win the men, you win their families.

The heads of houses here in Nehemiah 8 do exactly what they should. After reading in the book of the law what they ought to do, they proclaim it to the people and make sure that it happens. You’ll see in verse 17 that the ESV says, “all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so.” That makes it sound like the people of Israel hadn’t ever celebrated the Feast of Booths since the conquest of Joshua, but we know that’s not true, because in Ezra 3 they celebrated the Feast of Booths. The ESV is leaving ambiguous what the form of the Hebrew leaves ambiguous. The CSB says that they had never celebrated like this since the days of Joshua, which I believe accurately captures the meaning. It’s saying that these heads of households, after they understood what was supposed to happen, led the people in a celebration of the Feast of Booths that was second only to the days of Joshua, when they had just left Egypt.

I’ve sometimes been in church settings or conference settings where someone holds up a very small, thin, measly little book and says, “Now here’s a man-sized book,” and everyone kind of laughs. I was talking with a pastor recently whose congregation has men in it who say they love the idea of biblical patriarchy and leading their households, and they also complain about reading or listening to a book instead of a podcast or article. This anti-intellectualism simply isn’t compatible. Being the head of your house means that you must know the way to lead your family. It does not mean you need to be an academic. It does not mean you need to read every book in existence. It does not mean you need to be an expert on every topic. But it does mean that you need to be able to share with your family where to go according to the book of the law, like Ezra did for the heads of houses. Husbands and fathers, if you don’t already, consider it your job to proclaim to your household how it is they ought to glorify God in all of life. It’s our job to instruct them how to be living sacrifices, how to give themselves to the service of God in everyday life.

And this especially means pointing them to believe and trust in the King of kings in every circumstance. A key part of the Feast of Booths became a certain water offering. It’s on that day that Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” And when he did, he was talking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.

Heads of houses, this is the most important news for you to proclaim to your families and to everyone you have influence over. Go to the thirsty, and invite them to come to Jesus to drink. Teach them to receive the body and blood of our Lord, broken and poured out for them. Teach them to rejoice, because the joy of the Lord is their strength. Teach them to confess their sins and get right with God. Teach them to be correctable. Imitate your good shepherd and lead them beside streams of living water.

Through correction, restraint, and the leaders God appointed, God brings about obedience.

They Just Obey

After receiving God’s grace in correction, restraint, and godly leadership, the people obey. Verses 17–18 are wonderfully matter-of-fact about it. They just do it. They just obey. Let’s learn from this simplicity. It seems so complicated to get a people who don’t understand the feast and how to keep it or what to do. But it’s not complicated. Just show them what God wants and ask them to obey.

Don’t make obedience complicated. David Mathis tells us that we receive the gift of effort by doing. Just do it. Beware the temptation to think and plan and dream about obeying and never to just start. This week I finished a short little book called Sir Knight of the Splendid Way. It’s in the same allegorical style as Pilgrim’s Progress. I’d recommend it to you, especially to you men.

At one point Sir Constant, the story’s main character, comes to a city called Dangerous. In the city he doesn’t find lewd women or stacks of money or many of the other things we know are often dangerous. He finds a city full of peace and rest. Those who stay fall victim to a spell, and so they dream of great and noble deeds, but they don’t know that they’re dreaming. They forget they’re only dreaming, and so their hours and years fly by.

He meets Sir Ardent, who gazes into the horizon, dreaming of himself coming to the great city with shouts of joy and acclamation. He comes in. Everybody’s impressed by all the great deeds that he’s done. Sir Constant needs to tell him, “There is no city, there is no knight. Dry and barren is the plain, barren are thy dreams. There is no glory for thee, for thou art but a foolish dreamer with rusted arms. Awake, and come with me.” Don’t allow yourself merely to dream, to plan, to try for obedience. Simply trust and obey.

Nehemiah 8 gives us a picture of how God’s people move from ignorance about their sin to understanding, and then from confusion to obedience. To move his people from ignorance to understanding, God starts by gathering them together. He works with people as covenantal groups. They are able to receive God’s word because they revere God, and they show it by their actions and their words. They read God’s word and so are ruled by him. And they teach what the words mean so that the people understand. But although they understand that they have sinned according to God’s law, they are confused about what to do. They want to mourn and weep on a day God has set apart for rejoicing. So to move his people from confusion to obedience, God corrects them through the teaching of his word. He gives his people grace to restrain themselves, and rather than follow their heart, they follow what is right. Then he works through the appointed leaders to show the people how to obey, and then the people obey.

The common denominator in moving away from ignorance and confusion is God’s word. God’s word is what teaches us so that we gain understanding, and God’s word is what corrects us so that we follow what is right. So keep gathering with God’s people to receive his word, and be humble enough to change as it shows you the right way to go.

Just like the story of the whole Bible teaches us, our only hope is for God to give us new hearts. And in the new covenant he has. We don’t have to descend into a cycle of sin and rebellion. We can joyfully obey our God because he has made us new. So let’s walk in that new way, abandoning our confusion, being corrected by God’s word, restraining our passions, and being led by those God gives us. Amen.