“Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve” (Nehemiah 8:11).

The people of Jerusalem have completed the wall, a great physical work worthy of celebration. But a work is still needed in their hearts. The temple had already been rebuilt, but perhaps reading of scripture had not been routine for the people are hungry enough for the Word to stand for six hours during Ezra’s reading (8:3) and the Levites’ explanation (8:7-8). 

Do we come to church – be it live or streaming – or to our devotional time with expectation, hungry to hear, to learn, to be challenged, to worship? When God is moving we need to be ready to move with Him.

As Ezra reads the Law God’s word convicts the people. They weep over their sin (11:9b) with a fresh sense of their wrong and of God’s holiness. Their grief is so great, in fact, it is immobilizing them.

Have you felt that way? God convicts you of something, and you can’t move because of the sense of your own failure? It is easy to relive wrong decisions and rehash sins, falling deeper into despair even as you sit before an open Bible. Fall to your knees in grief, yes, but don’t stay there. Look up. We’re never so steeped in sin and regret that God cannot rescue, cannot begin a work of revival in us, cannot turn our grief into joy.

Nehemiah and the Levites urge the people to do just that – to look up, to turn from their “mourning and weeping” (8:9), to be “calm” (8:11), and to “celebrate with great joy” (8:12). And they do! Is this the first revival?

Having rescued the people from captivity, from the taunts of their enemies, and from oppression by their rulers, God is now moving inside, to rescue their hearts. This rescue takes them from the place of sin, grief, and sorrow to the place of love, trust, and rejoicing.  The “joy of the Lord [became] their strength” (8:10). 

Has that progression been true for you? Come to a reading of Scripture with expectation and of God challenging you. Mourn, yes. Repent, yes. But let God finish – let Him rescue you from your grief to delight in Him.