The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
The wall is built in fifty-two days: against opposition, mockery, conspiracy, and internal conflict over economic injustice. When the wall is finished the surrounding nations perceive that the work was accomplished by God. Then Ezra brings out the Torah.
All the people gather as one man into the street before the Water Gate. Ezra stands on a wooden platform above the people. He opens the book and all the people stand. He blesses the LORD. All the people answer: Amen, Amen, lifting their hands. They bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground. Then the Levites help the people understand the law: they read from the book, clearly, and gave the sense, so that the people understood what was read.
And the people weep. When they hear the words of the law they weep, because they hear the gap between what the covenant called them to be and what their history has been. The response is genuine: real hearing produces real grief at real failure.
And Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites say: do not weep. This day is holy to the LORD your God. Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drink, send portions to those who have nothing, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. Chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem.
The pastoral instruction is precise. The weeping is appropriate. But weeping is not where covenant life is meant to live permanently. The God who has kept his covenant through exile and return and the reading of the word is not served by his people remaining in grief. The joy of what he is and what he has done is the ground of the community's standing. Thread 1 is in the word being read, the God who cannot stop reaching is reaching through the Torah as it is read aloud to a gathered people. Thread 2 is the corporate hearing: the whole community, men, women, all who could understand, standing together before the word. Thread 4 is the genuine weeping and the genuine choice to celebrate instead.
The joy of the LORD is your strength: the most counter-intuitive pastoral word in the restoration period; the people weep when they hear the law read, and they are told not to weep but to celebrate; the God who brought them home is not served by their grief.
כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם (ki chedvat YHWH hi ma'uzzekem): for the joy of the LORD is your strength: chedvat (joy, gladness, from chedvah; a warm, interior joy; not the outward shout of hallelujah but the deep settled gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what he has done); ma'uzzekem (your stronghold, your refuge, your place of strength, from oz, strength, stronghold; the joy of YHWH is not merely a pleasant feeling but the structural ground of the community's capacity to stand) · וְהָאֳזְנַיִם כָּל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (ve-haoznayim kol ha-am el sefer ha-Torah): and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law: haoznayim (the ears were, the dual of ozen, ear; the ears as the instrument of the hearing chain; all the people's ears directed toward the Torah being read; the Shema's shema Yisrael is the command to hear; here the whole community is practicing the commanded hearing in the most corporate form possible)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Deuteronomy 6:4 · Psalm 119:11 · 2 Corinthians 7:10